A Fun Winter Break

This past weekend, Connor, Claire, and I went to visit some friends during our Winter Break.  We had such a great time!  Here are some pics of our fun trip:

Our friends' little boy had to go to the doctor one day (boo), so the kids and I set out to get some lunch.  We ended up at Dairy Queen.  Ha!   I love Dairy Queen, but the ones I've eaten at before offer a  variety of foods on the menu.  This DQ?  Hot dogs.  That's it.  Well, you could get chili dogs too, but that was it...hot dogs and chili dogs.  It was fun though, and yes, those are PALM TREES in the background because our sweet friends live 5 miles from here:

We went out to play and watch the sunset and I must say that I was very impressed with my new camera. 

Look at this "trying to grow up on me" boy.  I love him so much, and I'm so proud of the young man he is.

This picture is so cute to me...I love the way M is following Claire into the sunset.   

This picture is one of my favorites.  Claire was spinning in her twirly skirt and she just looked so free and happy.  I love that girl!



Our sweet friends...I love them so dearly.

...and THIS is what we went to see...

How's that for His fingerprints?

Keep checking,

Kellie



It's THAT Day Again.

Valentine's Day.  Not my favorite day.  I do, however, LOVE that my two kiddos think it's a cool day.  Here are my sweet Valentines:

I woke up this early this morning to make a special breakfast for my Valentines.  I made pink pancakes with bacon.  I gave them their Valentine treats, iTunes cards, a note from dad and me, and a rose for each of them!  Ha!  Connor was less than thrilled about getting a flower.  One of his friends told me this evening at church basketball practice that he said I went overboard this morning with the rose. :)  At least it was orange, and not pink!  Anyway, it was a fun morning with my sweeties, even though I ended up being 2 minutes late for school.  So worth it!

The sweetest thing for the day was my sweet Connor, using his money to buy my favorite chocolate candy for me.  He was so thoughtful to know my favorite, and so precious that he wanted to buy it with his own money.  That, and the "early" Valentine's Day bear from Claire, are my favorite Valentine's Day gifts EVER!  I'm so proud of  those two kiddos, and so grateful and blessed that God gave them to me for our earthly stay.  If God had let me pick any two kids to be my son and daughter, I definitely would have picked these two.  I love them so much!

Hubby brought home a bottle of my favorite perfume.  Thanks, dear!  Now, I smell pretty!

Claire also got a special treat today, having her name announced over the school intercom for her accomplishments in a reading program.  She even gets to spend the week with the program's mascot, T.J. sitting on her desk.

Here is a picture of Claire and T.J.

On a different note, Sunday was so beautiful outside, and we were surprised with a visit from my mom.  Here are a few pics from her short visit.  Connor and Claire enjoyed playing outside with their Nana.

What a fun day!  COVERED with His fingerprints.  Now, that's a real love story.

Keep Checking!
Kellie

Silly Songs and Valentines

The entire first grade showed off their musical talents tonight.  This past 6 weeks has been 1st Grade's turn to have music class, and tonight was their night to show their stuff.  Claire even had a line to say all by herself!  It was really hard to hear her saying it, but I heard it, and she was great!  She practiced and practiced the line..."Wow! What a beautiful day to hit the slopes!"  All of the first graders did a great job!  They were so cute!

I snapped this pic of Claire while we were waiting for her to go with her class.



Claire and her sweet friend.

Connor occupied his time by drawing on the back of the program.

On a completely different subject, Valentine's Day is almost here!  Last Friday night, Claire and I spent some time making something special for her class.  Claire LOVES Valentine's Day, and she LOVES any kind of art and any kind of craft.  She was so excited to see this kit to make her each of her classmates a personalized Valentine.

It's been a busy day that has His fingerprints all over it.  I'm blessed, thankful, and exhausted.  Nighty night!

Keep checking for fingerprints,

Kellie

A Sweet Surprise from a Very Sweet Girl... and a little more catch up.

I walked into my office at school the other day, and this is what was on my desk...

Such a sweet surprise.  That afternoon, when hubby got home, he told me that Claire wanted to buy a bear for me. The bear was $3.00, so she had asked her dad for money to buy it.  The sweetest part is that she didn't want the whole $3.  She already had $2 and she just wanted $1 from her dad so she could buy the bear.  How sweet is it that she insisted on using her own money to buy me something special?  Wow, what an incredible little girl!  I'm so blessed that God is allowing me to be the mommy of two precious souls during my earthly life.  

I also gave Claire a surprise.  She has been asking for this surprise, and I really haven't thought much about it until last week.  Anyway, she feels like a big girl everytime she uses this...

She looks like she's in pain here, but she's actually just squinting because the air was blowing in her face.  So cute.  :)

In the midst of all of this c-c-cold weather, last weekend, we had a beautiful reminder of what's to come so we enjoyed some outside play without freezing!  Connor's friend Matt spent the night the night before, and they enjoyed some home b-ball before they had to play a church-league game.

The weather was so beautiful the entire weekend.  This weekend, the weather is so cold.  We did have a little sunshine and blue sky peek through  thick clouds today.   I'm thankful for even that little bit considering the week of nasty, cold, rainy weather we've had.  Just more of His fingerprints.

Keep checking!

Kellie





Catching Up...

The kids are at Nana's.  The husband is playing Black Ops on XBOX, and I'm watching reruns of NCIS (one of my very favorite shows ever).  Not much happening here.  I thought I would catch up a little.

We've been so busy since Christmas.  I never even posted actual Christmas Day photos.  Here are a few of Christmas Day, and the day after...

I love this picture.  They were so cute Christmas morning.  Such a sweet memory of them peeking over the foot of the bed.  I love those kiddos.  :)

 We LOVE everything AUBURN in this house, so it came as no surprise that one of their favorite gifts were Connor's Auburn "Cam" jersey, and Claire's Auburn PJ's.  WAR EAGLE!

Another favorite of both of them were their iPod Touches.  They were so excited.  Santa confused them by wrapping in a bundle with a battery charger and the package for the protective covers.  They were so funny trying to figure out why Santa gave them Duracell battery chargers.  Ha! 

 Two grateful, happy kiddos!  They also got an Xbox with Kinect that was a huge hit!  It was such a fun morning.

Jonah also got a gift!

 He loved it, and that rawhide candy cane was GONE in no time!

After we had a while to play, we headed over to my mom's for our annual Christmas night family dinner.  On the way there, it started snowing pretty hard! By the time we got there, this was the view of their creek from their back deck. So pretty.

A few of the children even got outside to build a quick snowman. 

When we got back home, our house looked like this...

It was our first white Christmas EVER!  I have never seen snow on Christmas day.  It made the day so much more special.  God gave us such a beautiful reminder of His presence on this very holy day of His precious son's birth.  Praise Jesus for these fingerprints!

As far as our "busyness" since Christmas, THIS is where we've spent every Saturday...

We only have a couple more weeks and it will be over.  We will finally have our Saturdays back.  It's been fun, though.  I have been so proud Connor, Claire, and both teams!

Well, that's catching up.  I have a couple more things I would like to blog, but this one is loooong enough.  Hopefully, none of my two readers (if that many) are snoring by now.

Until next blog, keep checking for fingerprints!

Kellie