Christmas Eve 2010

What a great day I had with my family!  I made a short trip to Walmart, the kids and I visited a family friend to give them a little gift, made lunch, baked cookies for Santa, opened gifts, played with said gifts, decorated the cookies for Santa, played with gifts more, hubby made dinner, read some Christmas books, kids took their baths, played with gifts yet a little more, and now are in bed.  WHEW!  Here are some pics of our fun day.  The pics were taken, btw, with my Christmas gift...my new Nikon D3100!  YAY!   I have some other pics that I'll add later that were taken with the old camera before we exchanged gifts.

Claire read the Christmas books to us tonight. 

I have a short clip that I wanted to post, but I'm having problems with the uploader, so maybe I can post it another time. 

 Connor and hubby started putting together a K'nex roller coaster set. 

 Big project and will have to be completed tomorrow! 

  

Our yearly visitors from the North Pole...Worley and Tallulah.  They were exceptionally good this year.  Connor and Claire will be sad to see them go, but they had fun during their visit. 

Connor and Claire made sure they left cookies for Worley and Tallulah too.  They didn't want them to be hungry on their journey back to the North Pole. 

Claire loves this snowman.  

 He's soft and mushy, and is made with white shiny thread that makes him sparkle like snow.

    

At bedtime,  Claire fell right to sleep, Connor, on the other hand,  might even still be awake.  He just let me take the pic of him "faking sleep". 

This pic was taken with only the Christmas tree lights and the light from the fireplace. 

 I can't believe this camera!  LOVING IT! 

Well, it's time to jump in bed, cover up my head, 'cause Santa Claus comes tonight! 

Merry Christmas! 

Checking for fingerprints,

Kellie

Drab to Fab!

I have been changing some things in our bedroom for a while.  It's taken me a while to find what I want and I'm still not there yet.  I did, however, have an idea for some old faux fresca plaques that I bought from Kirkland's about 10 years ago.  Here is a before picture:

Ugh.  10 years ago, these were pretty in my bathroom.   In 2010?  Not so much.  So, I picked up some scrapbooking paper from Hobby Lobby that coordinates with the colors in the quilt on my bed.  I cut them into different sizes of squares and rectagles, and they ARE NOT perfectly straight! :) 

Then, I played with them for a while to get them arranged on the plaques just like I wanted them.  I took a picture of them before I permanently adhered them to the plaque so I wouldn't forget how I had them arranged.  Then, I used spray adhesive on each piece of paper and stuck them onto the plaque.  I planned to Mod Podge them, and even started applying it with a foam brush until my paper started buckling and wrinkling, so I immediately stopped.  Oh well, Mod Podge is not my friend.  :(

Anyway, I love the way they turned out!  Here is the after picture:

The pic looks a little blurry.  Sorry about that.

I wanted to incorporate the most important element in a marriage into the plaques, so I found this pretty paper and added a section to one of the plaques.  Of course, that most important element is to keep God at the center of a marriage.  A husband's and wife's personal relationship with JESUS is part of His perfect plan for marriage.

With that relationship with Jesus, comes the ultimate gift of LOVE...

I'm so loving my new deco in my pretty bedroom.  I'll post pics of the entire bedroom when it's complete.  :)

Keep checking for fingerprints,

Kellie

A Baby Changes Everything - Faith Hill

This movie is amazing...this song...breathtaking.

Precious Promise

Enjoy this beautiful reminder of our most precious gift.

Christmastime is here!

I can't believe it's already the Christmas season of 2010!  The years are passing at what seems like lightning speed now.  Wow. Stop.  Breathe.

How amazing that we are privilieged to celebrate the birth of our precious Savior!  My heart breaks for those who do not know Him.  My heart is hopeful that God might use me to tell them His beautiful story.  My prayer is that we keep our focus on His purpose of this Holy season as we hurry from place to place.  Let us fill our hearts and minds with His bread, even as we indulge in all of those yummy holiday treats.

With that truth being said...

December has been busy for us so far. We just put out our Christmas decorations last weekend.   Hubby and I haven't even had our annual Christmas shopping date.  I have done some online shopping though, and most of the "hard to figure out" gifts are in route to my doorstep.  Nice. I would still like to have some time away with just my hubby.  We haven't been on a date in a while.  Looking forward to a fun-filled break from the hustle and bustle.  Our family does not have a lot of Christmas gatherings or church functions to attend, so I actually do get to rest once school is out for Christmas Break.  :) Maybe hubby and I will find time to get away for at least dinner and a movie.   ;-)

I'll be back soon!

Checking for fingerprints,
Kellie

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Pictures...Take 2

We had a great Thanksgiving with family!  I love being with my family.  :)  After Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, two friends and I left to go shopping at 10:30 p.m.  Yes, that says P.M.!  I had never done the shop all night til you drop on Black Friday thing!  Well, I have now, and I have NOTHING to show for it!  I didn't get any Christmas shopping done!  The crowds were just mobs of people.  I had seen it before on TV, but NEVER understood the intensity of it until I saw it with my own eyes!  People were camped out, tailgating, and sleeping on cots in front of various stores!  Cans and cans of RED BULL lined the sidewalk into one store where people had been drinking the SUPER CAFFIENE drink to stay awake!  It was unreal.  Anyway, I can mark that task off of my bucket list, and I think I'm over it.  No need to re-visit that scenario again.  :)  I came home and did a lot of online shopping, and now I'm almost finished!  :)  Online Christmas shopping is the way to go! 

After church this morning, I took some pictures of the kids.  They turned out ok, but I sooooo wish I had a nice camera and some snazzy software to create some incredible images.  Anyway, I am grateful that I have what I have, and can at least preserve some images to remember what my children looked like on this day. :)

 I love Claire's hair and her sweet face in this pic, and Connor looks like such a handsome  "tween"ager. 

My mom made this cute jumper for Claire.  I'm so blessed to have a mother that is talented in so many areas!  My mom rocks!  I love her so much!

Well, hopefully I'll get some Christmas decorations up soon.  I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to do it.  When I do, I'll post some pics.  I did let the kids put their little trees in their rooms last night.  I let them decorate them however they wanted.  I'll post pics of those when I post the other Christmas pics!

  Until then, keep checking for fingerprints!

Kellie

Two elves, a dog, and a Christmas wish...

Whew!  We had a busy weekend.  It has flown by and now tomorrow is back to work for another productive week.  Anyway, Eddie and I spent Saturday cleaning out the kids' old toys.  We've been planning it for months and I've been gung-ho about getting rid of the clutter...until it came down to the sorting and decision making of what stays and what goes.  I was surprised at the emotion I felt when we would talk about different memories with the toys.  I know my memories are not held in the physical toy, but I felt like I was giving their "toddlerhood".  I know the "give aways" will make some preicous child as happy as each toy made my babies when they played, but my eyes are stinging right now just thinking about how much time has passed and how little I have left with mine. I know they are still young, (11 & 7), but I look back at how quickly these last 11 years have gone by, and I can't imagine that in not much more time than that, Eddie and I will be empy nesters.  Shudder.  Each day is a gift, and lately I'm finding myself considering this thought more when I tell them to be quieter, and I get aggravated at the "play stuff" that doesn't get put back where it belongs.  Even though I know I have to be consistent and hope they are learning from my guidance, that little voice inside tells me "you won't have them to make noise much longer"...and "you won't have to clean up their "play stuff" much longer".  The parenthood years are such a sweet, treasured gift, and I look back and realize that I don't think I've enjoyed it enough. There are lots of things in my life for which I wish I could have a "do-over", but if I really could choose one, it definitely be to stay home with my babies, and soak in every moment.  Wow.  Not sure where that came from, but I'm glad I shared it.  Now, on to the real reason I started this post:  What was it?  Oh, yea...
Worley and Tallulah are back.  Mom and Dad were not quite ready for these two silly elves, but here they are.  Last year, Connor and Claire didn't have much time to enjoy having their elf friends visit from the North Pole, so I'm hoping for fun-filled holidays, without a lot of elf mischief!  However, my children know the rule...they are responsible for cleaning up any mess Worley and Tallulah make or they will have to go back to the North Pole.  Yep, I guess I'm a tough mommy.  They've been pretty good so far.  This morning, I woke to find this scene:

That's my breakfast room table and an opened box of clothes I ordered for Claire.  Worley put on the brown dress and Tallulah put on the plaid tunic.  Connor and Claire thought they were hilarious.  They thought the funniest part was that Worley (a boy elf) put on the dress.  Ha!

After an awesome church service,  Claire went to her end of season soccer party with her dad, and Connor went with me to the church to do some painting.  When we got home, Claire and I walked around to find some leaves that we could "wax".  I got the idea from "Clover Lane" blog and want to try it.  I didn't have a disposable pan, so we didn't get to try it today, but we got some pretty leaves.

 LEAVES?  Did someone say leaves?    Check out these pics of how pretty the leaves are here right now:

Jonah even walked with us in the woods behind our house to help us find leaves.

Now, for the Christmas wish...

Two front teeth, of course. 

Checking for fingerprints,

Kellie

SEC West Champs!!

I believe in Auburn and LOVE IT! LOVE MY TIGERS!! They just beat Georgia,  and that makes AUBURN the SEC West Champs!  WOW!  We've come a long way since last year, baby!

WAR EAGLE!!

Auburn Tiger Walk Video

Fall Pictures...Take One

The kids and I went out in the back yard this afternoon to try and snap some cute pics with the beautiful leaves.  Well, all of the batteries for my camera were dead(not a good camera anyway, but certainly not without batteries).  I found one set that had a teeny bit of juice so out we went.    I altered these images with Picasa and I know NOTHING about doing such a thing, so I winged it.  I don't know what they will look like once they are posted on here.  I did get a few that are cute, but these are my favorites.  I can already tell the first one has too much light on Connor's face.  Back to the drawing board...

Keep checking for fingerprints,
Kellie

Oopsey Daisy: Jelly Bean Cake {yum!}

I wanted to blog this just so I would remember it later on. SOOO pretty and looks so yummy! Plus, you could decorate the top with lots of cool, yummy stuff.

Oopsey Daisy: Jelly Bean Cake {yum!}: "This is such a fun spring recipe! We made this yesterday for Easter dessert, but it is a fun one to do all spring long!! Just mix up a reg..."

Another cute fall snack

I just can't resist sharing these adorable treat ideas!

Oopsey Daisy: Turkey Favors: "One of my favorite things about Oopsey Daisy is sharing some of my favorite childhood memories with you. Every Thanksgiving morning, usuall..."

Oopsey Daisy: Fall Tree Snack

Oopsey Daisy: Fall Tree Snack: "I'm going to be short and sweet today! I just wanted to share one of the snacks we created during our 'L is for leaves' Mommy School unit. ..."

I'm smiling because it happened. :)

Yes, fall break is over, and while I'm sad it's over, I'm filled with such JOY that it happened.  I love the weather. I love that it's during Halloween, and I love that it comes at the perfect time for teachers and students to get re-charged to finish out the 3rd 6 weeks before Christmas break.   We went to WDW last fall break, and of course, I loved it.  This year, though, was even more special because we were blessed to visit our very special friends, the Latta's during our break.  These sweet friends moved away (VERY close to the beach, I might add) to serve the Lord in Children's ministry.  God is using them in a mighty way at their new church, and I feel so happy and blessed every time we get to visit their church. 

While we were visiting this time, we did a lot of visiting, some blogging, some shopping, some eating, and even stuck our toes in the sand at the beach for just a few minutes.  :)  My favorite part, though, was attending the "Heavenly Harvest" festival at FBC Foley.  Shane did an amazing job coordinating this event, and there ended up being approximately 400 people there!  What an awesome ministry!  There were games, two jumpy/bouncy thingys, yummy snacks, a hay ride, and a dunking booth (in which the "dunkee" allowed Matthew to purposely push the BIG RED BUTTON just so Matt could see him fall in...what a great sport!)   Here is a collage of pics of the kids at the festival:

Notice Connor is only in one pic and is not in costume.  He was going to dress up as a soldier, but decided not to because he didn't have boots.  He thought tennis shoes would look dumb, so he opted out of dressing up.  Makes me sad. :(  However, I did get to accompany an explorer (like Diego), and a butterfly fairy (who turned into a butterfly when her fairy tutu dress got too uncomfortable).  It was a fun night, and the weather was PERFECT!  I loved our visit and I love the Latta's!  I can't wait to go visit again!

I thought I would attach some other pics from the last few weeks,  since I'm not very good at blogging consistently.   The pics are not in order...sorry!

Our whole crew going on the hay ride/scavenger hunt to the pumpkin patch. 

Claire and me. I love her so much!  Connor opts out of pics with mom most of the time...especially when he has a friend with him. 

 This was the nice horse.  I was so proud of Claire for being brave and going back to pet the other horse.  I was so afraid that she would forever be afraid of horses!

Candy corn face painting.  :)

Heading home...just couldn't resist this shot from the back. 

Connor and D

Grinding corn.

Claire and her favorite guy.  :)

Claire and Connor love all things jumpy/bouncy.

This is her booboo face.  :(  Not bad for being hit in the face by a horse's mouth, being knocked about 4 feet in the air, and landing on your back.  She's a tough cookie.

After we got home, she wanted to climb in her favorite tree.  :)

Last week, we had a book hat parade at school.  Students decorated a hat to describe their favorite books.  Claire's favorite book (at that time) was My Big Pink Book of Everything, and that's how we decorated her hat.  :)

the back of the hat...

Whew!  I know that was a lot to take in, but I'm glad to be caught up!  :)   For our last day of fall break today, we slept late, woke up and had "brunch", VOTED, shopped for groceries, cleaned (a little), Connor had a soccer game (which Claire and I did not go to this time), cooked chicken and dumplings, and updated my blog.  Hmmm...I thought my day was pretty unproductive until I wrote it all down.  Looking forward to a work/professional day tomorrow at school.  Then, Thursday, the kiddos come back and we'll all be re-charged and ready to take on the rest of 2010! 

Keep checking for fingerprints,

Kellie

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  Romans 15:13

Fun Fall Day with Friends!

I love fall! I love Halloween! I love my sweet friends, the Latta's (even though they cheer for "that other team" LOL)! We're getting ready to enjoy a fun day with them here in Foley, just 5 minutes from the beautiful Gulf Coast! It makes my heart so happy to be here! Looking forward to a great day and I'll post pics later. Oh, and one last thing...WAR EAGLE!!!

3 Pumpkins and a Grumpy Horse

We went to a pumpkin patch today.  Connor's friend Daniel with us, since the pumpkin patch isn't as much fun without a friend when you're 11.  Claire was happy just to be with her family, although that probably won't last very much longer.  These pics were taken with my iPhone so the quality isn't the best!  I didn't have my card reader to use the ones on the camera.

Check out these 3 cool kids with their pumpkins and the cool scarecrow!

3 SILLY PUMPKINHEADS!

The mandatory tractor picture.  Claire was ready to take the hayride back to the main area by this time.

Looks like we had a totally fun, not-a-care-in-the-world kind of day, doesn't it?  Well, these pictures were taken AFTER  we met the REALLY grumpy horse. When we took the hayride to the actual patch to pick our pumpkins, we decided to visit the horses, bunnies, goat, and calf in the petting zoo first.  We approached the first horse and he gently stuck his head out to let us pat his nose.  Claire and I went on to the next horse and as she stepped up on the little bench to look over, (about 4 feet where the horse was standing), he turned his head toward her, bared his teeth, hit her in the face, and knocked her about 4 feet away from where she was standing.  She landed flat on her back.  She has a little scratch across the bridge of her nose, slight scratches on her eyelid, and she'll have a bruise on her brow bone.  It scared her so bad, and terrified me!  We watched for any signs of a concussion, and so far she's been fine.  Still, I really would feel better to have her checked out by our doc, just to be sure there isn't some small injury that we cannot see.  I mean, it's not like she just fell.  She was struck by a horse for crying out loud!  I'm seriously thinking of taking her to the doc tomorrow even though she's shown no signs of anything.  She ate fine, played fine, no nausea or vomiting,  no dizziness, no double vision.  Still not something I want to play around with though.

 So, that was our experience at the pumpkin patch today. I do want to add that they removed "Stormy", the grumpy horse from the "petting" stable and put him in the pasture.   Scary for me and Claire at first, but still fun.  She even went back to the stables to pet "Scooter", the horse that was so gentle and happy to see us the first time  .Please pray a prayer of thanks for taking care of her today, and pray prayers of continued healing and no hidden injuries that we cannot see.  I really think she's fine, but a mommy never stops thinking like a mommy, and above all, we want to protect our babies.  Today was just another example of our precious Savior's fingerprints all over our lives.  Thank you, my sweet Jesus.

Keep checking for fingerprints,

Kellie

The other reason Sept. is my favorite month...

My big boy is 11 now.  Wow, I just can't believe it.  He's just growing up waaaaay to fast. 

He had a fun birthday weekend.  He had a football game Saturday morning, followed by having some of his best friends over to hang out, and eat cake and pizza!   Unfortunately that game will be his last, since we just can't fit that AND soccer into our schedules and give them both 100%.  He was afraid to let it go because he said he didn't want to be a quitter.  I explained to him that sometimes you have to let something go (especially if it's unproductive to give something that you really love your 100%.)    I told him that he could continue to play if he REALLY wanted to and thought he could give both soccer and football his 100%. I think he knew there was just no way to do it all since soccer and football practices are already conflicting.   Anyway, he loves soccer and will have a great time, because he of his love for it.

I'll have to post some birthday party pics later from Connor's and Claire's parties.  I really don't want to go upstairs right now and get the pics from our PC to put on here.  Lazy, I know, but it's late, I'm tired, and work calls me to return in the morning.  I stayed home today with the remnants of a yucky tummy virus that began early Saturday morning.  UGH...still not feeling 100% like me, but hoping by the morning I will. 

Until next post...keep checking for fingerprints!

Kellie