Catching Up!

First of all, happy belated 13th birthday to Leigha!!!

We had a really fun day today! We went to the mall so the kids could do a little last minute Christmas shopping. There were tons of great sales and really nice things in their little budgets. They've been saving their money for a while now. They did such a good job choosing their presents carefully and were so thoughtful of each other:)

We had a ball singing Christmas songs, making fun of the really bad ones and laughing sooooo hard!

A janitor walked by pushing a cart and humming Christmas songs on her kazoo. I thought it was so cute and festive to hear Christmas songs in the mall! Steve said "Mom my friend and I donated to that to her on Saturday!"

On Saturday Steve volunteered for Camp Good Days and Special Times selling kazoos, key chains, pens and suckers. Apparently he and friend gave it to the janitor. It was really neat to see how giving someone a small bit of joy can turn around and spread joy to others!

On that note, I'm extremely behind on my Christmas time table, and I don't care! I'm not stressing, or worrying, or getting upset. I am simply going with the flow, enjoying the simpleness of it all, and having a great time with my family!

Since I will be busy the next few days- as we all will be- sooo

Merry Christmas to all the ones we love!!!!

(btw- their kindness to each other has worn off and they are now throwing card board at each other :D )

Me and My Baby

Some Pictures!

Leigha auditioned for all county band Saturday, had a dance class, a dance show and we had a church dinner! Very busy but a fun day too! Here she is stretching before her show.

She was an angel in the song 'Santa Baby' (her halo is crooked!)

They had a book donation for children.

Hope you had a grest weekend!

Christmas Past

Just a few Christmas pictures -I'll be sharing more this week!

New and Improved Garland!!

Just in case you were wondering what it looked like!

Joey reading the little ones Christmas stories.
My lamp table... I love these little ceramic houses!

The house is decorated for Christmas ... well most of the house.

My daughter eating the cookies I made!

The manger scene we inherited when Grandma and Grandpa moved.

Peeking into the living room from the kitchen.

Ecclesiastes

This morning my devotions lead me to Ecclesiastes. It's been a while since I've read this book, but it really jumped out at me. I've decided that I'm going to read through it in great depth until I'm finished with it.

One of the themes is searching.

Solomon had every earthly possession he could have ever wanted- wealth, power, wives, food, clothing...

Yet he was still empty inside.

Through his searching he found that life without God was meaningless and fruitless. He found that no matter how many things we have, we always want more.

So true.

We pray, 'Lord if only I had ____ I would never ask for anything else, it'll be the answer to my prayers, solve all my problems!' And yet, if and when that prayer is answered, we find we need something else.

I'm not implying that we shouldn't go to the Lord with our needs and prayer requests because that's what He wants us to do. We do have certain physical needs. It's also okay to enjoy the Lord's blessings without feeling guilty. As parents, we provide for our children and would feel awful if they felt guilty for enjoying gifts we've given them.

But there will always be something that our flesh desires. The more we try to get, the more we realize how little we have.

"All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." Ecclesiastes 1:8

Sshh!! Don't Tell the Big Kids!

Yesterday I got everything done early so I called Kay and we did a little Christmas shopping! In the back seat all the way there he was singing 'I love my mommy! I'm the baby I'm the baby I'm the baby...' He was soo good!

Peace At Last, Peace At Last, Thank God Almighty! I Have Peace At Last!!

Last night the kids voices seemed so high pitched and shrill. They weren't doing anything wrong, there are just a lot of them. So Jerry looked at me and said- you want these? And in his hands were these beautiful yellow colored ear plugs!

I put them in and I honestly could tolerate anything!

Jer spilled his milk, no problem honey, just clean it up. (Umm Little Jer that is)

The kids were arguing, I just looked at them and smiled. Awww... aren't they adorable and calling each other suck kind names?

Jer said to me "do you hear water running, I think it's the boiler?"

"No Honey, I can hear nothing!"

And it was the boiler leaking all over the basement floor. No biggie!

So moms or dads out there- give it a whirl! You'll love the results! * :D * (that's me smiling with a ding sound)

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Thanksgiving was filled with lots and lots of food, fun and family time! Aunt Joyce, Uncle John, Johnny, Bob, his mom Lucille, and his son TR all came over for dinner!Uncle John at the "mature table". Aunt Joyce doesn't think the kids will ever let him leave!

The table setting....

On Saturday my parents, Kay, Nick, Jason and Jamie came over for our annual Chrisstmas cookie bake!

One of the kids bent this cookie cutter- but it's kind of the way I felt that day!! :)

Joey got creative with his cookies!

Mootchie baking, the cookie cutter is peeking out from behind the bowl....

Jason will looking suave in his penguin apron! Actually it's one of the kids but he was a good sport! Mom is in the background baking away!

My dad- ready to eat and relax :)

This is just a picture of Joe's card tower he built!