Merry Christmas to all!

Well, only a few more days till Christmas. It's been such a busy week... I looked at my last blog entry & realized, whoa.. that was a few days ago & seems like I just posted that last night. All the wrapping, cooking, baking, shopping, washing, packing... and pretty much anything else that ends with -ing... has got me tired & ready for a break. I love Christmas, but all the preparation can wear you out. I read a devotion today that marked this Bible verse as the focus:
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11(NIV)
She talked about focusing on the word "today"...what is our reason for celebrating this season? It's Jesus of course... but concentrate on how you can celebrate Him today, not worry about all that you still have left to do in the coming days. Praise Him by singing carols while you wrap your gifts; praise him while you bake your goodies as if you were preparing them to take to the stable He was born in; praise Him while you are buying those last minute items and standing in the long lines at Wal-Mart by smiling and greeting someone around you with a Merry Christmas (that last one is one I came up with... from experience).

It's so easy to get wrapped up in all the hustle & bustle of it all and believe me, I have. But every time I read something that brings me back to the real focus of this season, it makes me so thankful that the tiny baby was born in a place so humble. The least I can give to him is the glory He deserves... in all that I do.

We are heading out of town tomorrow, so I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Making Memories with Mom & other stuff

Today was the Kindergartners "Making Memories with Mom" day... we made gingerbread houses. It's a lot of fun and our house turned out pretty cute. Here's some pictures from our day...
This is Carter with his best buds, Weston & Hunter


Working on our house


The finished product

I had the van checked out yesterday & fortunately the damage wasn't too steep & only the bumper cover needs to be replaced. I can't take it until Jan. 2, so it's a little embarrassing to drive around a van with a big dent in the front, but at least it's drivable, so we don't have to worry about all the holiday travel issues.

On the other hand, I must say when it rains, it POURS. Our heat has been doing strange things for a few days. We had problems all summer long with the AC and they never could figure out what was wrong with it. So on Sunday night, as freezing at it was, I was up at 1:15 am trying... praying... to get it to come on. It was 63 degrees in the house & one of the coldest nights we've had all season. I was worried about my babies freezing all night. I messed with it about 30 min & finally, the Lord answered my prayer and it came on. So, I called first thing Monday morning. The guy came & was here for about 2 hours and he ended up replacing the motor. A very steep bill later, he thinks it's fixed... including the AC problems too.

Soooooo.... it's been an interesting few days, but thankfully, the Lord is taking care of us & things could be much worse. I keep reminding myself of that.

A CRAZY Weekend

We had a very eventful weekend... some good, some bad. It started off bad. We went to Forest City on Friday night to let the kids see the Christmas lights downtown. They were pretty. When we got home, I needed to go to Wal-Mart, so we got the kids ready for bed, I put Kensley down and headed out the door about 8:30. (For other moms reading this, you know how much easier it is to go to the store without kids...can I get an amen!) Anyway, on my way to Wally World, I ran into the back of someone in my van. That's the bad part. I am so upset with myself. I don't think it's really bad (still drivable), but I've got a big dent and tear in my front bumper. The guy was pulling out onto 74 or so I thought and he stopped for some reason and I ran into him. BIG bummer. It didn't hurt his car bad, just looks like someone took a round ball or their fist and punched it into his back bumper. Still issues to deal with.... insurance, body shop to get the van fixed, it's Christmas, all the stuff we'll need to haul back & forth, I'll have 3 kids crammed in the back of a car...thankfully, my parents have an extra car and they were gracious enough to let us borrow it while I get the van fixed.

Anyways, onto the rest of the weekend. Corby was super busy with Y stuff and he's so glad his weekend is over. My parents came down for Saturday and Sunday. We had a fun weekend with them and I am so thankful for their help. Today was the busiest day. We had a special combined service for our church at Shelby High School auditorium. We normally have 3 services, so we put them all into one. Corby was a second-rate mall Santa to start off the program (very funny) and he also had a part in a skit during the service. I sing on the praise team and we sang some very good songs. It was a full house and a GREAT service!

This afternoon was the Shelby Christmas parade, so me & Mom took the boys and FROZE our buns off. We only stayed about an hour it was so cold. The KIDS church had their Christmas program at church tonight and Chandler was in it. After the program we had our church-wide Christmas party with lots of yummy food and a hilarious skit to the song My Favorite Things (from The Sound of Music). The pastor dressed up like a woman and sang the song while a bunch of the leaders and deacons of the church dressed up like the things "she" was singing about...for example, girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes... 2 men dressed up like girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes... brown paper packages tied up with strings was a man in a brown box that looked like a package with strings tied around it... (read all the lyrics here and just imagine a bunch of men dressed in these costumes). It was a great way to end the night and I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Here's a few pics of the kids. They looked so cute today in their Christmas colors.

Kensley is still not walking on her own without a lot of coaxing, but I did get a shot of her walking by herself.

But she LOVES to stroll her babies around in her walker. Santa is bringing her a baby doll stroller for Christmas... she'll love that!