Runners Take your mark....

Zane, Kaylee and David ran in our local Bridgefest. It's a 5K(that's 3 miles) race that started a few years back when a new bridge was made that connected our city to the adjoining city. It is sponsored by our YMCA and they use the event to raise money to give free memberships to underprivlidged families. The race takes place across the bridge and back. I'm so proud of all of them, they not only finished; they ran in 30 degree weather.

Old Hat.....New Hat

Mrs. Hardey goes to visit our Granny a few times a month. She helped us crochet a lot of baby hats to send to the feed the children project. Then the other day she and I were talking on the phone and she told me about her knitting machine. How cool a machine that does a lot of the work for you. Then a few weeks later she surprised all the kids with new winter caps. Hopefully we will get some more cold weather to wear them.

Baby X THREE!!

I got to visit with my friend Jessica and her beautiful new BABIES!!!! What a blessing she and her husband Frank have received. In her right arm is Matthew and in her left arm is Jordyn and Nathan. 2 boys and one girl....She made it all the way to 36 weeks. The boys were 5 lbs and the girl was a little over 4lbs. And I thought Zane was big at 10lbs.

Adoption Weekend

We took a road trip North last weekend. Friday night we stayed in Rockwall, TX. Saturday morning we attended and spoke at an America World Adoption Seminar. (They are the agency we used) We have been considering doing volunteer work for our agency and we went to see how the seminars are done. It was an neat experience. We were one of 4 families there that got to speak to prospective adoptive parents. Of the 4 familes that spoke all but one of them had 4 children. It was fun to share stories and compare experiences with them. The seminar was held at Lake Pointe church. Lake Pointe is an awesome church. The kids especially love it because there was an indoor playground similar to the one at the mall. There was also a tunnel room like at McDonald's and in between the escalators in the main building there is a huge slide. So the parents can ride down the escalators and the kids get to slide down. I can see me standing there on Sunday mornings having to let everyone go down 4 - 5 times.
After the seminar we drove to our Friends Rachel and David Rose's house to spend the night. Rachel and I grew up in church together and graduated together. Her husband David has just accepted his first Senior Pastor position in Winnsboro, TX. We had never heard him preach so we got to attend church with them Sunday morning. We knew the weekend was God-ordained because David preached on family. That we as Christians must raise godly children and be fruitful and multiply. If that means bearing children or ADOPTING. Before the sermon he even sang the song by Steven Curtis Chapman, "When Love takes you in" We didn't know David could sing.... Apparently he is a man of many talents. I even saw him sweeping after lunch.....I'm not sure which impressed me more the sweeping or the singing.....We had a great weekend and the kids played really well together. Kaylee and their daughter Hallie who are both six were inseprable.

Out with the old... In with the New

Several weeks ago Paw Paw got in a little mishap... OK a big mishap. He's really not sure what happened except that 2 cars made a sandwich out of him as he attempted to turn left. We are grateful that the airbags deployed and he wasn't banged up to bad. But even though he wasn't personally injured to much, we can't say the same for the old 1994 Dodge Ram.

But this week a new era begins for the New 2007 GMC pickup. We're happy that he chose a RED truck again. So, hopefully people can see him coming. Let's just hope he can see THEM coming.....

Family Pictures

Pictures from our family photo shoot before Christmas. The prints weren't back in time for the Christmas card but I thought they came out nicely so I will share them here.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

We couldn't let Elmo come to town without trying to get a glimpse of the lovable red monster. The kids have been excited for weeks about "seeing Elmo on the stage." However, as we were going down the list of all the characters that would also be on the stage Mia froze up at the thought of Cookie Monster. For some reason she thinks Monsters are bad? Hmmm? We did our best to explain that he only eats cookies. You could see a look of relief on her face when she saw him on the stage only concerned with his cookies.

We had very good seats and plenty of room for singing and dancing...

There was a very sick little girl in a bed /wheelchair near the front of the stage. I was very touched that EVERY character that went by stopped and shook her hand. Some lingered longer than others. Ernie is a good man

"La la la la la, sing, sing a song, Sing it loud, the whole day long....." apparently Mia wasn't the only one singing and enjoying herself.

During the intermission this man walked into the arena with about 200 Elmo balloons. Of course he came in from the far back and stood front and center. Zane, David and I debated on the price of the balloons. After a long discussion we sent Zane to find out the real amount. TEN BUCKS for an Elmo balloon....The Sesame Street people are no dummies!!! Needless to say, We left without any balloons.

Let it be known....At Zane's request no photos were taken of him at this event.

Happy Birthday Paw Paw

Yesterday was Paw Paw's Birthday. After the morning service at church we decided to make a SURPRISE run to wish Paw Paw Happy Birthday in person. We think he has had a rough few weeks with the wreck of his Big RED truck, and we wanted to try to cheer him up. The kids were so excited about getting to surprise him. Zane even mapped out the best place to park and which door to go through without being detected. The funny thing is that we were almost detected at Wal-Mart when we stopped to buy a cake. After we went in we found out that Paw Paw had just arrived back home from the same Wal-Mart. Everyone was very surprised and we spent a relaxing afternoon together before making the drive back home last night.

100th Day of School

Today was the 100th Day of School. All the Kindergarten students were to dress as 100 year old people. I think Kaylee made a sophsticated looking Granny.

Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

I have never been so happy as I was today to see the Sun. I think it has been a full month since we have had any extended period of sunshine. We spent most of the morning outside today. I could just feel the Vitamin D coursing through my veins. I've always thought I could live somewhere like Alaska where it's dark a lot of the time but after today I've changed my mind.

Hoppin' Over for Kaylee's party

Kaylee celebrated her 6th birthday at home with a Frog party. The mascot of her Kindergarten class is "frogs" So she wanted a frog party this year. We had Frog cake, ate on green plates, drank green koolaid and made stuffed frogs.
Nana made Kaylee's frog cake. Don't ask Nana how much she paid for the frog cake pan which apparently now is a hot item on Ebay. Although Nana does plan to put the pan back up for auction soon, before the prices start falling. (I'll give you an hint we could have bought 3 cakes at Sams for the price of the pan.)

Stuffing frogs and getting them ready to be dressed. Each person had their own bag of "fluff" that had to be re-inserted back into the frog. Someone commented it looked like a mini-sweatshop. Not true, but it did resemble one.

The gift that left me speechless. Yes, I was speechless, I know most of you can't imagine that. Here's how it went..... (to the best of my recollection)

(Kaylee opening the present) "MOM, it's something you don't LIKE"

Me - (Oh No! What could it be?)

Kaylee - "It's a BRATZ doll"

Me - (Quick, Sheri, think of something to say) (NOTHING, I've got Nothing)

(Sheri, quick the mom who bought the present is sitting right over there)

( Still, I've got Nothing) (Great! Now too much time has passed) (Maybe I can smooth it over later) (Yea, Probably Not..... OK Smile and look amused)

(Note to self: time to go over gift opening etiquitte with Kaylee Lesson #147 If you already have the present you act like you like it anyway, Add on to the lesson, If you know Mommy doesn't approve of the toy act like MOMMY will like it anyway)

You Never Let Go!

The song Says "Oh No, you never let go through the calm and through the storm, Oh No, you never let go, in every High and every Low, Oh No you never let go,Lord you never let go of Me"

Well, After hearing the song a few times on the radio Mia changed the "Me" to "Mia" I'm sure Matt Redman,the original artist, has never heard his song like this before. I think we like the way Mia made it personal for her own life. Isn't that what we're suppose to do anyway?

****COOL UPDATE**** I got an email from Matt Redman the artist,he saw Mia on the blog and here is what his email said:
"that's cool! She's an inspiring worshipper!
matt"

Oh NO! a South Paw

It's Official we have a Lefty in the family. We noticed Mia preferred her left hand from the beginning but now that she's writing and coloring we're pretty confident she's going to be a Lefty. I'm not sure how I'll teach her to do things, but we'll figure it out. I guess eventually we'll have to buy her the coffee mug that says, " Only left handed people are in their right mind"

New Year

We welcomed in 2007 in a very low-key fashion. The kids did some sparklers, bottle rockets and roman candles in the backyard. Then we went inside for a few rounds of CLUE and Spiderman UNO. Uno is Trent's favorite game and one of the few he can play without assitance. Zane's friend Taylor came over and we had a nice time all the way until.....ten o'clock when it was time for bed. Sparkler Fun!

Draw Two

Mia's preparing for a Texas Hold 'em championship.

Hello.... anybody there?

Sunday night Kaylee had a low grade fever so we decided to let her stay home from school. But by Monday morning at 9 am the fever was gone and she didn't appear to have any other symptoms. So, she and I spent some girl time together doing normal Mommy errands. Trent and Mia had pre-school so it was just the two of us. We went to Sam's and I was trying to figure out something on my cell phone,while waiting for our big pretzel to cook, and we discovered all the different ring tones. She had a great time playing all the songs all over Sam's Club. Then, she was the offical phone carrier all day long. After a long morning of errands we got back home, about 5 hours later. I went to our home phone to check the messages and I had 5 messages. They went something like this.
"Hi Mom, This is Kaylee, I love you."
" Hi Mom, I'm just sitting in the car, talk to you later."
" Hi Mom, I love you lots, call me back."
"Hi Mom, I'm going to lunch with my friends, bye, I love you."
"Hi Mom, I'll be home soon, I love you."

I did not even hear her make all these calls. I asked her how she knew to call and she said "well I know the phone number and I had a phone" (Geesh! she must think I'm clueless)
Wonder if she'll call me that much when she's a teenager and I want her to check in every once in a while?

It seemed like a good idea

I read a tip in a magazine about making big sacks for Santa to put toys in on Christmas Eve. Santa has not in the past wrapped the presents just carefully arranged them under the tree in little clusters belonging to each person. But with 4 children and a limited amount of tree space I thought this was a grand idea. So, this year I purchased 4 different types of material and we cut names out of felt and put them on each person's "loot sack." In my excitement, I failed to think about Christmas morning pictures as evidenced below.... However Trent's sack did do a nice job of covering his little motorized Hummer.

14 years ago today...

14 years ago today David and I said "I DO" Who knew it would lead us where we are today. Since Christmas ended for the year, I really have quit thinking about the 12 days of Christmas but my friend Gayla did this on her anniversary and I totally stole the idea.(See Davis family on right) It was a personal challenge to try to remember all the numbers.

14 years
13 doctors
12 months spent in braces
11 days spent hospitalized (Family combo)
10 Pets owned
9 occupations
8 local Wal-Marts
7 countries visited
6 vehicles owned
5 lawnmowers
4 children
3 homes owned
2 severe sunburns
1 happy life

Humm...Humm... Hummer

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

12 hands to serve HIM

So many times at Christmas we focus on the incredible GIFT God gave to us by sending his son Jesus. While this is the correct focus to have, our pastor challenged us today to try to figure out what gift we can give back to God. Nothing earthly will suffice, He only wants each of us to trust in Him and to live in a relationship with Him daily.
To wrap up my 12 days of Christmas I can conclude that "every good and perfect gift comes from above." Including my children, my husband, my family and my friends. SO.... my "true Love" must be Jesus.
Merry Christmas!

On the 11th day of Christmas

My true love gave to me....

11 Peanutbutter Blossoms (wonder where the 12th one went? hmmm)

do you see a pattern here with the peanutbutter?