christmas eve

this year we took a new approach to christmas.  we felt like we've way overdone christmas in years past and while we put a great deal of focus on what it's truly about, we felt our actions weren't necessarily following our beliefs.  so, we decided pretty early on that we were going to adopt a new tradition.  we take no credit for this, a sweet friend told me about it, i read about it from another blog and combined the two into our newest tradition.  we told the kids we were going to do five gifts this year:  something you want, something you need, something to play with, something to read, and something to give away.  on christmas eve when they opened the advent calendar, we had a note in there that told them they would be receiving their first gift for christmas and that it would be the gift they gave away.  we gave them each some money and they looked through the world vision catalog and the samaritan's purse catalog that we had received in october and began searching for the perfect gifts.  i should rewind and say that last year, we did this as a family and used some money the kids had saved to purchase gifts as a family.  but, we pretty much had the final say.  so this year, i think they enjoyed being able to spend the money the way they wanted.  it was so much fun watching them pick gifts that really represented their true personality.

luke was the first to pick his gifts.  he's a boy who knows what he wants and makes quick, confident decisions.  he chose to provide fruit trees and to feed a hungry baby for a week.  anna took a while longer to pick something.  and she had been pouring through the catalogs for several weeks.  she eventually landed on clothing and shoes for children in need and two rabbits.  two rabbits will multiply into 52 rabbits by the end of the year (i assume they work out the male/female aspect of all that.)  and sam decided on a share of a dairy trio that provides three families with a goat, a cow, and a sheep for milk and wool.   he had a little bit of extra money left and decided to provide a stuffed lamb that plays jesus loves me.  i normally am a "no more stuffed animals mom," but who can resist that.  plus it wasn't going to be added to our collection.  :)  and if any of you know sam, you know that the stuffed animal fits him perfectly.  that boy LOVES stuffed animals!

i know they loved giving and we hope that this will be a tradition they carry on in their families someday.  we ended the evening with the worship service at our church and dinner at our house with gram and pops.  here are a few pictures for us to  remember the wonderful day!

a family picture of us all dressed up for church

games with gram and pops

and snuggled all on one air mattress (another tradition) ~ note the stuffed animal bucket in the background all belonging to sam

christmas fun

we love celebrating the birth of our savior!  it's a really special time in our house!  the first couple of weeks of december always seem a bit crazy with school projects ending, piano recitals, and the list goes on.  but as soon as thanksgiving is over, we cherish the month ahead.  every year the kids look forward to our advent calendar.  this is a calendar i bought at target several years ago.  however, they've caught on to the tradition of a piece of candy for each day and sometimes a fun surprise activity.  this year was no different.  on december 1st, the kids opened these fun suckers for their first surprise.

we decorated cookies, made gingerbread houses, visited santa, opened christmas pj's, looked at christmas lights in new jammies, got hot chocolate at starbucks. and most importantly, ended each night reading from behold the lamb of god by russ ramsey.  it was a little over our kids' heads, but i know they will get a little more out of it each year.  here are some pictures to recap.

new christmas jammies

visiting santa in downtown fort worth

our gingerbread village

christmas cookie fun

the finished product

piano recital

luke and anna both had their piano recitals on the same day.  luke started taking piano lessons one year ago and this marked his second recital.  anna started this fall and had her first recital this month.  they both did great.  their teacher mrs. lamb is precious and is always bragging about their talent.  another thing they inherited from allan.  i married up, people.  :)  here are some pictures and a video of their performances.  this first picture melted my heart.  i love how they are holding hands.

right before the performance.

anna

 

luke

their sweet teacher mrs. lamb

wouldn't be complete without a picture of sweet sam who sits through lessons each week and a recital without complaint.

spelling bee

so right before thanksgiving, the kids' school has a class spelling bee.  each class receives a list of words to practice, and they have a class contest with a winner and runner up.  this year, luke and anna each won first place in their grade.  luke also won the second grade class spelling bee last year.  i hear spelling is hereditary and let me just let y'all know, it didn't come from my genes.  the reason i know this is because i just had to look up how to spell "hereditary," and i have no less than three spelling errors in each of my blog posts.  also, i have to look up the word restaurant each time i spell it.  :)  they did however inherit this from their amazing dad.  he won three spelling bees in his life, like really won his school spelling bee.  anyway, back to luke and anna, they would be competing in the school spelling bee for 1st through 8th graders.  we got the list of words less than one week before the school spelling bee.  here's a picture of the stage where their chairs were.

anna was so nervous, like i thought she might break into tears at any minute nervous.  luke was probably nervous, but it didn't show.  they each made it through several rounds and both ended up tying for third place with each other and a sixth grader.  they were in the top five until anna missed the word "chorus" and luke missed the next word "quarrel" right after anna.  then, the sixth grader missed the next word.  so basically, the three of them tied for third place.  we were so amazed!  they did fantastic and we were extremely proud of them.  the last two standing were a fourth and sixth grader. i think the sixth grader won.  here's a picture of them at the end, probably relieved it was over!

great job luke and anna! and for the record, i just did spell check and not a single misspelled word.  maybe i do get to take a little credit.  no, probably not.

thanksgiving

we hosted thanksgiving this year and always enjoy having the family all in one place.  this year it was my side of the family.  unfortunately, my brother todd and his sweet wife jennifer couldn't be here.  we missed y'all!  i am not sure i got many pictures of the day because i spent a good portion of it napping.  which also brings me to thank my sweet hubby for doing the dishes and carving the remainder of the turkey so we had some awesome leftovers.  here's a picture of the table.

and here's the  only other picture i have showing any food on the island.

whiskey glazed carrots, sweet potato souffle, green bean bundles, dressing, turkey, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, green salad, and rolls.  all yummy!

the rest of the family played a game my dad created, but apparently "it wasn't fair."  all in all a fantastic thanksgiving!  

garage sale

this blogging thing is way tougher than i thought.  so, the garage sale was a HUGE success!  we had so much stuff and i'll let this picture below prove just that.

it was truly amazing how much stuff people donated.  we sold quite a bit and donated the rest to goodwill that afternoon.  my one rule for the garage sale was that it wouldn't be coming back into my garage at the end of the day.  :)  we were overwhelmed with the donations we received.  and so much of it was "big ticket items."  we had a leather couch, a sectional, a table and chairs, a super nice jogging stroller, and so much more.  thank you to those of you who donated.  and a  big thanks to allan's parent's and my great friend sarah lowry!  you guys were troopers!  we made $1250 which covered our home study that was on december 17.  crazy, right?  we've never made that much at a garage sale EVER!  this is how allan and i ended the day.  

again, a huge thank you to all of our family and friends!  we couldn't have done it without you!

one of those months....

it's been a long time since i posted.  it's just kind of been one of those months.  i'm not even sure where it all started, but i do know that our a/c had to be replaced, we need some foundation work on the house, we've had sinus infections, one kid down with strep, another down with strep, mom down with strep, dad with stomach bug, and first child down with strep again.  in the midst of all of that, we are planning a massive garage sale on saturday in hopes to raise some money to offset the cost of the adoption.  we have received so much from friends and family and are so grateful!  it's sorted, priced, and signs are made.  we are expecting more to come in tonight and tomorrow night.  saturday will be an exhausting day, but we cannot wait for it!

there are so many other things that i won't bore anyone with here, because the important thing is that during all of these "trials" we feel like we've been going through, it's nice to know we have a God to cling to.  this morning i opened my bible and read:

"The Lord your God is with you, 

he is mighty to save.  

He will take great delight in you, 

he will quiet you with his love, 

he will rejoice over you with singing."  

Zephaniah 3:17

we have absolutely no doubt that satan is trying to attack us for our obedience to God's call to adopt.  we will cling to the hope of our Savior.  we know HE will carry us through these trials.  this verse is all about being content in HIS love for us and how much HE loves us and desires to be with each one of us.