Christmas 2008

Uncle Johnny reads the Christmas story.

Hannah got her camel for Christmas! YIPPEE!


To have the joy of a child! The magic of Christmas!

Aprons for all the girls!



Tyia Lynn and Celia


Boys will be boys!


Christmas at Papaw. The girls like to have fun and be silly!

Happy Birthday Jesus!



The best part of making cookies is the sampling!

Well another Christmas has come and gone. We made it to Louisville this year. Laura was a little doubtful with the ice storm that hit a few days before we were due to leave but I forgot this is Fort Wayne and not Louisville. They are used to this kind of stuff. We arrived in Louisville on Sunday and stayed until Friday. Our time consisted of an annual cookie making extravaganza with Grammy Faye, a birthday party for Jesus (thanks Melissa), Christmas with lots of family (6 times opening presents) and lots and lots of food. What a whirlwind.

We are so thankful for family and friends. We love you all! It was so good to get to spend time with you. We are so incredibly blessed. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! May God Bless all of you this coming year.

Thanks for a memorable Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Chris, Laura, Madison, Max and Buttercup

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

This is so funny. Some friends of ours had this on their blog and I thought I would have to copy! Merry Christmas!

Winter Wonderland

Well this morning we woke up to a beautiful display from God. We had an ice storm last night that hit Fort Wayne.

Thanksgiving: Turkey Bowl, FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, Family, Bunco, Turkey Trivia and FUN!

Talk about one activity packed week. On Tuesday night my sister showed up with her clan. She arrived early to help me prepare the Thanksgiving feast that we have each year. As suspected she watched, I should say, supervised as I prepared the feast. I should give her more credit, she entertained the kids. I think she definitely got the better job. Love you Lisa!!!! So Wednesday was a day filled with pie making and other prep. Thursday, Chris' dad and and his clan arrived along with Laura's mom and her husband Terry. The total count was 15 which is down from years past. The day started with the first annual turkey bowl (football game). We had fun preparing our appetites while throwing around the pigskin. Then time came for the feast. Lets just say there was definitely no shortage of food. Considering we ate leftovers for almost a week. I do not want turkey for awhile. Then came the turkey trivia. My sister, Lisa won since she got up early and read about most of the answers in the newspaper that morning. She received the coveted turkey trivia trophy. Which she left here. Ok, maybe it is not all that coveted. The rest of the day was lazy. My sister and I had to prepare for our 4:30am departure for the Black Friday madness. We still have no idea why we participate other than we laugh so hard that we literally almost pee our pants. No real steals to note.
On Saturday, Chris' sister Tyia arrived. We had a great visit. It always is good to see them. We were tuckered out by the time they arrived so they got us in lazy mode. We enjoyed a layed back visit. Next time we will show them the happening town of Fort Wayne. By Monday morning at 9:00am, all our house guest were gone. The whirlwind was over and I was already wanting them all to be back again. It was so good to spend time with family. We love you all. Hope you can come back soon. Thanks for making Thanksgiving memorable and fun!

Wicked

Well my weekend away with Chris was great. We started out going to a seminar put on by Lifesong. The are an amazing organization that is an adoption advocate. We were so humbled by some of the people we met there. They are doing so many great things. There website is www.lifesongfororphans.org . We continue to have a heart to encourage people to adopt.
From our seminar on the west side of Chicago we headed to downtown Chicago. We stayed in a hotel just two or three blocks away from Michigan Avenue. It overlooked the lake and navy pier. We walked up and down Michigan Ave. looking at all the shops and people. We did not make any purchases, especially at a tax rate of 10.25%. We really enjoyed admiring the architecture of the old buildings downtown. Then once we had walked enough to work up a good hunger we headed to Giordono's pizza (yum,yum,yum). The 1 hour wait for lunch was worth it. Then we headed back to our hotel to prepare for our night at the theater. As we walked back to the hotel we experienced snow, wind and COLD!!! Can you tell that I am from the south? We also just missed the gay rights rally headed down Michigan Ave. as we arrived at our hotel. We could see the sea of marchers as they headed up the street.
We left our hotel to head toward the Oriental/Ford Theater. We hailed a taxi that proved to be an experience in its self. It was only less than a mile to the theater but we ran 1 red light and cut off one car and were approached by a road raged individual. Well worth the less than $10 ride.
The theater was beautiful and ornate. The show was amazing. The music was phenomenal. What a memorable night.
The next day we both decided that we really missed the kiddos. We took our time getting ready and heading home. We did decide that we love to visit the big city but we no longer desire to live there.
We were excited to see the kids and we really appreciated Mimi coming to watch them for us.
I must say that our 13th Anniversary will always be a fond memory. Did I happen to mention that I have the best husband around?

All she wants for Christmas is .....

Today Madison lost her second front tooth. The most adorable thing in the world is to ask her to pronounce something that begins with the letter S. She is so excited. She keeps sticking her tongue through it saying how funny it feels. Her first front tooth was so eventful. It took her two weeks to pull the thing out. We had to work with her and convince her that it was not going to be excruciatingly painful. Well this one was a different story. We got up this morning in a rush for Mommy to get to bible study. So, I told her that I would help her get dressed. She was wearing the snug PJ's that always have the warning attached about being flammable. That concerns me. Anyway, back to the tooth. So, I proceeded to pull her top off and she said, " Mommy you got my tooth." Of course I thought she meant that I just hit her tooth. When I looked she was holding it in her hand. Wow, that made for an interesting morning. Needless to say, I was late to bible study.

Tomorrow Chris and I leave for Chicago. We are officially celebrating our anniversary (13th) this weekend. He is such a great husband. He surprised me with tickets to Wicked at the Ford Theater. I can not wait. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas. Me, my hubbie and Chicago for the weekend. Sorry, I know that I am making people jealous so I will stop. Did I happen to mention CHICAGO? I am sure I will post all about it next week. By the way, thanks Mom for coming to watch the kids.

Ever been to a Halloween wedding?

We went back to Louisville this weekend to attend a wedding for Chris's cousin, Anthony. The irony of this wedding was that it was on Halloween. Not only was it on halloween but it was also a costume wedding. So, we thought that we would join in the fun. We did a family theme. We dressed as characters from Peter Pan. Chris - Captain Hook, Laura - Wendy, Madison - Tinker Bell and Max - Peter Pan. It was a lot of fun to dress up as a family.

While in town we visited a lot of family. We also attended our nephew DJ's 10th birthday party. He is starting to make us feel old.

We enjoyed our trip to Louisville. Laura's friend Angie was gracious enough to host us. We really enjoyed spending time with her and her family.

The Great Pumkins

Well yesterday we were wondering what you do on a cold, fall night when you have no heat. Friday evening our heat went on the fritz. The motor started howling at us and went ka poof. The furnace repair man finally showed up at around 5:00pm on Monday (yes, that is 3 days). He informed us that indeed the motor had lived its last day. Unfortunately, they did not have a motor they could install yesterday. So, to make a long story short. We finally have heat, today.

Back to the original story. Last night we decided to have family pumpkin carving night. It at least took our minds off our frozen extremities for a little while. Madison designed her entire pumpkin while Max gave Daddy specific orders. We enjoyed the crisp fall night with some family fun.

Fun on the Farm

My Cuties

I took the kids out this morning to snap some pictues at a spot that I have been thinking about for several weeks. It is a beautiful farm only about a mile from the house. It sets next to the YMCA where we work out. It is such a beautiful piece of land and I love to snap pictures. Madison loved it, but I had to really work with Max. The photobucket include some of the photos that I took.

My Little Pumpkins

This weekend we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. I must say that I was very sceptical since we had always gone to Hubers Orchard when we lived in Louisville. I had visited Huber's as a kid and loved to passed that tradition onto my children. So, I had heard that there was a local farm where they had a fall fantasy land for the kids and pumpkins. We thought, why not, and loaded up the kids. I must say the 15 minute drive was much better than the 35 to 40 to Huber's. When we arrived the parking lot was loaded with pumpkins. We proceeded to investigate since it was our first visit. We did pay the addmission to enter fantasy land which proved to be so much fun for Madison and Max. There was a corn teepee, playsets, a hay mountain, petting zoo, zip line, train rides, giant swing, hay obstacle course, pig races, turkey races, hayrides and a corn maze. The farm was very pretty. The 30 Ft pumpkin made out of haybales was pretty neat.

Once we enjoyed all the festivities we picked out our pumpkins and visited the market. The kids were worn out by the time we left. I must say that it was a very fun experience. I also must admit that I think I liked it better than Huber's. Wow, did I really say that!