Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

 I'm writing this a bit early because I'll be toiling away at work. I'm not making any new year resolutions, I try every year and fail miserably.  I do have a few goals that I am going to set for myself....wink wink.

1. Not to feel guilty if I fall behind in achieving one of my...ahem...goals.

2. Mr D and I want to sell our house.

3. I would like to become more limber, like those yoga peeps.

4. I'm going to recycle more. This gal at work literally has like one bag of trash a week for her entire family. The main reason for setting this goal is so that I don't feel so guilty when we visit the zoo.

5. I'm going to be a better friend and call/text/visit more often with the fabulous gals in my life that I don't get enough time with.

6. I'm going to do a better job at reading and memorizing scripture.

Any one have any awesome goals for 2012?

If you do I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

 

A Social Network Christmas

This video played at our Christmas Eve service. Thought I'd share with you all even though it's getting close to the New Year. I really enjoyed it and hope you do too.

One Down.....Three To Go

Christmas Day has come and gone, but we are still feeling the holiday spirit around here.  We have had our family Christmas here. Mr D did a great job on my gifts and I actually surprised him with one. Peanut told him the rest of the gifts he was getting the week before, sister can't keep a secret.

On Christmas Eve night we went to service at The Creek and Dr. Gary was on fire. I don't think Christmas will be the same in my heart again and for that I am thankful. His message was definitely on the top of my favorite gifts I received this year.  

Thought I would share with you some pics from our celebrations. Christmas night was spent with my mother's clan. Couldn't ask for better company to end the day with. We still have a few more to do. Christmas with my Grandma will be tonight and later this week with my folks. Then new years day with Mr. D's mom and brothers.

And to boot.....It's snowing and looking like a winter wonderland here.

My Christmas Wishes

 I wish that finding time to just sit back and enjoy your family or little ones is part of your day. I wish that you will pick up your Bible and read Luke 2:1-20. Read the post here on how to have a Christmas family worship at home. I know that my Christmas will be super busy. I'll be working 24 hours this weekend, but I'll be taking time to be thankful for being able bodied and employed. So however you will be spending your holiday, remember what it's all about and have a very Merry Blessed Christmas!

Today I...

put the pillow over my head when the hubs was being so seriously annoying giving me time updates every 30 seconds that I needed to get out of bed or I'd be late getting our buddy to school (we actually ended up being 8 minutes early, so there).

let peanut eat Christmas cookies for breakfast (see above, Momma was a tired pup).

ran errands after school drop off. I wore Mr. D's clothes and a massive amount of bobby pins to keep the rat's nest in check; peanut wore a Christmas nightgown, halloween pants, and her twinkle toes.

sang happy songs in my head that school was over today, tried not to sing them out loud. I don't want my kids to have some kind of crazy thought that school isn't as fun as being home and sleeping in. I know it's a stretch, but I want them to be successful so that they put me in a nice nursing home when the time comes.

was late picking my little man up from school because I sat here and played with fonts.

let the kids have free reign decorating the yummy cookies we made yesterday. Then spent an hour scraping icing off most of my kitchen.

laid on the bed with peanut and the pooche while we talked to Mr. D during the middle of the day.

thanked Jesus. We have a showing on the house tomorrow.

stopped working on this post in order to clean like a lunatic in preparation for tomorrow.

 

Christmas. "Out of the Box"

I wanted to share with you a video from our church, The Creek.

We are celebrating Christmas "out of the box" this year!

The video describes how to can have your Christmas worship

at home, and visit the site to learn how you can be out of the box too!

The Creek: Christmas Day Worship Video 2011 from Indian Creek Christian Church on Vimeo.

God. He made me.

Actual conversation that took place tonight.

Me: (in the shower)

Daughter: "Mommy!"

Me: "Yes?"

Daughter: garbled excitement, hard to hear through the door and shower water

Me: "What did you say, I can't hear you"

Daughter: "I'm a protector of feathers"

Me: "Is that what your name means?"

Daughter: "I do it all the time"

Me: "OK"

later...

Me: "So you are a protector of feathers?"

Daughter: "yes"

Me: "Where did you get that from?"

Daughter: "God. He made me."

It is what it is....

Yes I am aware the picture sucks, don't know if it's my phone or just the way things are working for me today.

Yep. That is exactly what you think it is. A stack of broken down boxes.  We are unpacking! No. We are not unpacking in our new house. It seems an unfortunate chain reaction of events means we will be staying here in our home for a while longer. I have been weighing our options for a week now and I decided tonight that we should just unpack. I don't think I'll pack again until we close on this house and have, and I mean have to leave. Surely with the months of packing, searching through boxes and unpacking boxes I should be able to accomplish this task somewhat easily. Amazingly enough I feel pretty serene about the whole situation. I know that the Lord moves us to improve quality of life and that wherever we are going will be exactly where he wants us to be and I keep praying that he will continue to work in his awesome ways.

a little of this a little of that

This post is mostly a random update on my weekend. Work was amazingly decent. Not too busy not too slow. Just right to keep me awake and no drama so that was nice. Sunday was spent with the fam. We had another Family Fusion service, love love those. If you are a local family you should definitely check it out.

After the briefest of naps, during which I had the most amazing dream, we were off to Christmas programs at Southport Presbyterian Christian School. The dream was one of those dreams that you wish you could just live in. I don't remember much of the details except the clothes were amazing and I was having a super good time. Anyhoo the kids did a great job during their performance. Yes this year they both actually sang. I cried, just like every other year. I don't think the hubs gets it, but I can't really hold back those proud momma tears. To add a huge glob of butter cream icing on the whole cake of sweetness.....drum roll please. Wyatt wore a tie.  Huge accomplishment thanks to a massive amount of thickly applied guilt and an awesome kindergarten teacher. I will try and post pics sometime this week.

Lastly I went and bought my Christmas present last night. According to Fed-Ex it should be here on Wednesday. The question is whether or not I have Trav wrap the box empty.

Source: coach.com via Beth on Pinterest

Isn't she purty? Not sure what her name will be yet.

 

As for today, it's been pretty good so far. Ava Elise had blood work done. No puking this time. And hopefully we will hear something about our house. We have had to move it back to active status after a chain reaction of events that has caused more delay and irritation. 

Hope you all have a great start to your week too.

Photo Personality

I borrowed this from Kim. I didn't have the patience to put it all in a cute little collage, but I gave it the old college try (teeheehee).

{1} my name

{2} my favorite food

{3} my favorite color

{4} my celebrity crush

{5} my favorite movie

{6} my dream vacation

{7} my favorite drink

{8} currently reading

{9} my favorite holiday

All questions answered using the first three pages of Flickr search results.

Visit Kim here:

Germany? Really?

So today has been super fun. Already today, I've listened to two stories, helped 13 four year olds make the cutest little gingerbread boys and girls, and played bingo. When I got home I sat down....four hours with four year olds can definitely wear a girl out. So I thought... I'll post about my fun times with Ava Elise at school and I find on my dashboard this.....

Pageviews by Countries

United States 493 Germany 7 Russia 2 Brazil 1 Japan 1 Who the heck is reading my blog in Germany? I'd love to know and what about the rest of these folks. That's just craziness. I'm baffled and probably will be for days. Oh well, no matter where you are when you read this I hope you enjoy it.

 

Prayers for Zander's Family

Hold your children close. They aren't ours to keep, but only on loan from the Lord. Today little Zander would have been four weeks old.  My heart breaks for my family, people I love so dear are hurting. I have faith that even though sometimes we can't put into words what it is we need to say, God hears and understands us. He knows the pain of our hearts and he provides us with a peace that no one can provide.

"⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7

Praying for peace and comfort for Andy, Dana, and thier families.  

Zander's Obituary

A Big deal

Posting late from last Thursday.

We had a super exciting experience tonight. Maybe nothing much out of the ordinary for most folks but it was big stuff around here. We went out to dinner. Yes, a real family night out at a restaurant.  We went out to celebrate Wyatt's "book it". Originally the plan was for me to take Wyatt to pizza hut. But by 3 in the afternoon I said "Screw it. We are all going to Pizza King". I didn't want to leave Ava Elise out, while Wyatt and I enjoyed pizza. I made her a gluten free cheese less pizza (not as bad as you think), and we headed to dinner. It was wonderful, the pic is not so great. But, it shows how happy we were. Ava hasn't stopped talking about being able to go out to eat. It's been so long since the four of us went out together. Feeling blessed that Ava Elise was able to enjoy time out in a restaurant and her own food. Some times it really is the little things that make the biggest moments!

Circle of Lights

A short post with pics to start the holiday season.

Dad, Mom, Kevin and I
The first time in forever that the four of us have been together on Thanksgiving.

 

The kiddos decorating Great-Grandma's tree with Dianne 

The Circle of Lights....A long tradition for me. Although it's changed many times over the years, we don't ice skate afterwords anymore and the bars are off limits, we still have a blast. Last year we took our first carriage ride and this year Aunt Jan and our cousin Dianne joined us. 

I'm so full

Black Friday?  Not this year. I decided that since the hubs has to work today the kiddos and I would stay in our PJ's as long a possible.  Check.

 I'm still feeling super full. Not just from the 19 pounds of turkey along with enough stuffing to feed around 20 people, but full with a feeling that is anything but black. Yesterday was a feast of food and a feast of love. I would definitely say this was my favorite Thanksgiving yet. It was a day spent with lots of little things. We showed our family the new house, even though it's empty and technically not ours yet. We finished a puzzle that Wyatt and I have been working on for days. We lit candles and sang for my Dad's 61st birthday. I got to see my brother and it's been months since that happened. I got to see how happy it made my Dad that my brother actually came. I watched Trent and Wyatt look through toys books like they were both six. I spent time with just "the girls" shopping in the late afternoon. (Deep down I do not like the idea of supporting a store that believes we can't just take a day to be thankful for what we already have, but I went anyways.) I ate ooey gooey pumpkin cake, cauliflower salad, green bean casserole and homemade dressing, foods that I swear I could eat everyday and never get tired of.

Today is shaping up to be just as good. Wyatt and I started another puzzle as soon as we got up this morning. I actually got the coffee maker to make me a cup of coffee (I swear the stupid thing hates me).  The kids and I are going to get dressed and go to Grandma's house and help decorate the tree. We will sit down and write our letters to Santa. This evening and we will take them downtown to drop in the mailbox and watch the tree lighting. I think the only thing that would make me feel sappier in the holiday spirit would be a little snow.

Hope you all had a Thanksgiving that was full with really good "little things" and maybe even a few "big moments".

Zander

Things have been super crazy around here lately. Will fill in the blanks another day, but I wanted to share with everyone our new miracle. When I say new I mean a new addition to the big family I posted about here. My cousin Andy and his beautiful fiancee Dana welcomed a bundle of joy a week ago this past Monday. I know you're thinking 'Geeze, isn't your family used to people having babies....like all the time.' Well this baby is kinda special.
I wont dive into all the crazy details, by no means am I an expert. During the middle of the Dana's pregnancy she was told that her baby has trisomy 18. Trisomy 18 is a genetic disorder. These kids can have a multitude of problems and half don't survive the first week of life.  Well today Zander Jackson Carter is 10 days old. Last week when I went up to see the little guy the doctors were saying they couldn't find anything on the little booger that wasn't normal.
Praise God was all I could do. Well that and cry. He is so super cute and tiny. What a miracle. I can't wait to hold him, and don't think I wont elbow my mom to be able to hold him first. OK I'm kidding she could totally knock me out. This tiny little baby is proof positive that God answers prayers, for that I'm thankful.

I may have packed my patience

So here we are in the middle of October, all settled into our school routine We are enjoying fall festivities like the pumpkin patch and apple orchard.  Getting our Halloween costumes ready and wearing them everyday....because when you are four or six you can do that.

OK so most of the above is true....we've done all of these things, but on top of all of the "fun stuff". We have sold our house and bought a new one. Stress? Oh heavens no. In my organized household we pack like this....

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Beth on Pinterest

Aright then now back to reality....My house is chaos. I have crap everywhere, except where it needs to be. I have packed almost everything anticipating that we will be closing in less than a week.....then BAM "Oh I'm sorry but your closing is being pushed back almost three weeks".

My kitchen is running on the bare essentials. I have packed most of the toys only leaving things that are usually stored in totes. I cleaned out my closet thinking I only needed about 10 days worth of clothes and boxed up the rest.

Well then....enough of my complaining, because really it's not all that bad and actually kind of fun. I'm  definitely being shown I don't need as much as I have and that is making me thankful for all that I do have. I have felt unbelievably blessed that this whole process has gone as smooth as it has. I'm still leaning on the Lord to lead me along this path, and if I can find where I packed my patience I will do my best to use it.

Things I learned this week

1. Even though your work schedule may always be the same, you should still check it. You may randomly be put on a day you didn't expect to work. This day may also be a holiday.

2. If you turn off the air conditioner because the triple digit heat suddenly drops 40 degrees do not assume your entire family is sick with fever. It's just that your house has become stuffy without any airflow.

3. Do not put your house on the market just to see if someone will buy it.....they will.

4. If you decided that you should "Pledge" your kitchen cabinets, be careful.  The pledge may accumulate on the floor making it an amusement park of sock footed fun. Your dog may or may not enjoy this.

5. People at work may assume you are smarter than you actually are. You may be asked to participate in something they think you are qualified for. Do NOT tell them about above mentioned #1-4.

Labor?

Happy Labor Day Y'all! I'm spending this cold, cloudy Labor Day, attempting to feel productive. This year our Labor Day has actually been spent laboring....gasp! Travis and I did a quick changing of the guards this morning after I got off of work and before he left for work. Thank Jesus for wonderful neighbors who watched my monsters so that I could sleep. The Spotts are the best.

So while everyone is enjoying fishing, camping, cooking out. We are having just another normal day hanging out at home, playing dress up, racing cars, and general make believe. And now I sit here listening to the my kids play with dear friends and type on the computer with background music by Pandora. I'm only slightly wishing I were somewhere else with a solo cup of wine in hand. Instead of feeling sorry for myself. I thought I would look back on some of the fun from the summer. Enjoy!