Christmas Overview

Nathan and Kelly and kids

Ronnie's parent's and sister Jen and kids


David and Kathy, Meg and Chris and us

Us getting ready to have communion

Well, a lot has happened since I last blogged...we had a great Christmas in Virginia and then in Indy. We had some fun times with our families and made some good memories. It was nice to get back home though and sleep in my own bed and be back to a somewhat normal life! I put a ton of pictures in my family album, so if you'd like to see some of our Christmas festivities....enjoy! Here's a few pics of family...Hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Christmas Vacation....

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon for our LONG drive to Virginia! We decided to split up the trip by driving some after Ronnie gets off work tomorrow and spending the night somewhere and driving the rest on Friday.

I've been making oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies this afternoon for our board members and their wives. Tonight is our FUEL Christmas party. Thank goodness it didn't get canceled because it took forever to decorate the room! We're having chicken strips from Chick-Fil-A!! We got an awesome deal - buy one tray get another free so we get 4 trays for the price of 2!!!

Tonight I have to finish any laundry we have and get packed up tomorrow to leave. I probably won't be able to blog again for a while, so I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!!!

Christmas program

The boy's toddler class sang three songs yesterday in church service. Their favorite of course was "Jingle Bells." And they both got to be little lambs in the manger scene. Aren't they adorable???

Early Christmas

This morning we had Christmas with the boys early b/c we leave on Friday morning for VA and couldn't do it any other day this week before we left. Josiah woke up this morning and asked, "Is Santa here?" It was raining outside so he thought the noise was reindeer on the roof. So cute! They were so excited to find presents unde the tree this morning and their reactions when they opened thier Christmas presents were priceless. I've never seen them so excited before!! After all the presents were opened we had one left and it was their big surprise...a wii. Josiah says, "We must've had a lot of money to pay for that!" We had been telling him that the wii was too much money and we couldn't get one. It was hilarious! What thrills me the most is their excitement when they open each present! Josiah said, "We must've been on the nice list, not the naughty list!"

This is Josiah's reaction to opening the wii...he's wanted one for a long time!

Josh kept saying, "Oh my goodness! Another present!"

FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Our snowman

The boys couldn't wait to get out in the snow again today, so we built a small snowman with the snow we had and pulled them around on the sled. They had a blast! Some of their neighbor friends came over to play too!

New tree decorations

Josiah and Joshua wanted to have blue decorations on the tree this year, so here they are with their new Christmas tree....

WHOO HOO for snow!!!!

The boys are loving the snow today. We took a few moments to go outside and make some snowballs and have some fun.....

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving with our family in Indy. Just wanted to share a few pictures with you!!!! The first one is of me (minus makeup) and my dad after we finished our 4.5 Turkey Dash Run in Broad Ripple. The second picture is all the grandkids - Jonathon, Josiah, Kaitlyn, Sabrina, Kelsey and Joshua. And the third picture is all of us - Ronnie, Nathan (my bro), Chris (my bro-in-law), my dad, the kids, Kelly (my sis-in-law), me, my mom, Megan (my sis) and Carol my brother's mother-in-law.

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we're off to Indy to my parent's house for four days for Thanksgiving. My sister, Megan and her husband will be there and my brother's family, so it'll be a nice family reunion! Josiah is so excited that we get to spend three nights at Papa's house and he gets to see his cousins!

So, last night we got our tree up and decorated. This year I bought new tree decorations. I was getting so tired of the ones I bought the first year we were married. The boys wanted blue so we got blue and silver decorations. Last night we were putting on the lights when they went to bed so when they woke up this morning they were so excited to see it all done! Josiah said, "Wow! How'd you do that?" I'm so excited for Christmas this year! The older they get, the more fun it is! Until they're too old to care much...

We haven't gotten around to putting lights up outside yet, that'll be next week...

So, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and fun with your families!!!

YOUTH CONVENTION!

This weekend is our IN Youth Convention and I am soooooooooo excited!! I can't wait to see what God does in the lives of our teenagers!!!!! It's going to be a blast!

New Family Pictures

We had some pictures taken on Monday night to give out to family for Christmas....I posted one, but you'll have to click on my family pics links to see more....

Snow flurries

Today we had our first snow flurries and the boys went crazy!!! They were so excited! Josh could hardly get any words out to tell his grandma about the snow he was so excited! Josiah cannot wait to get a big snow and build a snowman! They haven't seen snow in a while, so they're super excited!!!

Women's Conference

This past weekend I attended the IN Women's Conference in Indy. The speaker was Lisa Bevere and she was great! She's much different than her husband! She has some incredible testimonies of where God has brought her from and some great insights on what kind of women God wants us to be. One thing she did talk about was affiming your husband. I am guilty of not affirming my husband enough. We need to build up our husbands strengths and not just always point out his weaknesses. I am so blessed to have Ronnie has my husband, and I am beyond grateful for his faithfulness to me and the boys. So, I need to remember to affirm him and build him up, and tell him what a sexy hunk of a man he is before some other woman does!!!!

Boys eat a lot!

Last night Josh did not want what we were having for dinner, which was chicken devon. Skinless, boneless chicken on top of rice, with broccoli, cheese and a cream of chicken sauce over it. My boys are not big on broccoli, so I chop it up very small. So, last night he went to bed with no dinner because he didn't like all that other stuff on his chicken. (I know, I'm such a mean mom!)

Today has been a different story. He ate normal for breakfast - some Cherrios and OJ. Then, for lunch he has 3 chicken nuggets, about 12 mandarain oranges, chocolate pudding, a whole Peanut-Butter and Jelly sandwhich, and a whole apple. WHAT IN THE WORLD????? That's like two lunches!!! This kid isn't even 3 yet!

So, I guess this is what happens when you send your kids to bed with no dinner!

VOTE AND PRAY!

God, we pray that You will keep your hand on our nation through this election. Guide the people as we vote, to make right choices. No matter what the outcome, we lift up our political leaders to You and ask You to guide them in every decision they make and we pray that they would rely on You for direction and wisdom.

Reaping what I sowed....

Remember years ago when our parents told us, "One day you will reap what you have sown..."And today that proved to be true. Today I spanked Josiah on his bottom and he laughs and says, "That didn't even hurt!" It was all a game to him. And I say, "Josiah, you're not supposed to laugh when mommy spanks you." (As I'm trying to keep from laughing myself, b/c he's making me laugh!) And he says, "But, it was funny...." I said, "It's not funny when you get spanked." And he replies, "Yeah, but I'm a silly nugget-head!"

I remember numerous times when my mom would spank us and my brother and I would laugh and tell her that it didn't hurt. And she was always trying to keep from laughing with us!! But, when dad got home, it was another story!

So, today I'm reaping what I sowed years ago....what a weird feeling!

Jumping in the Leaves!!!

Josiah and Josh had a great time today jumping in the leaf piles that daddy made!! I love this part of fall!!!! It's so beautiful! Check out the rest of the pics in the family pics link!!

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we took the boys to the pumpkin patch and they got to ride the little train and the hayride out to the pumpkin patch, which looked like it was really a mowed down corn field with pumpkins in it! Oh well! They both loved petting the animals!! My favorite was the donkey because he reminded me of the donkey on Shrek! Check out all our pics under the Family pics link!

Fall

I absolutely LOVE all the colors outside right now!!! Last year we didn't see any b/c we were in FL and here in Bloomington, it's so beautiful right now! Our backyard is starting to show lots of colors now too, so we took some pictures in the yard yesterday.

Boxing

My boys have learned how to play the Nintendo wii at my parent's house and other people's houses, but since they do not have a wii yet at home, they like to improvise and still play the games without the wii. Here are some pictures of them boxing with their water wings on their hands for boxing gloves and the string that hangs from my ironing board is what they're boxing. Then of course, they start boxing each other. The pictures are a little blurry due to some fast moves! Guess the wii is on the Christmas list for this year!

All Done

We finished painting last night and the stairwell was done without having to rent anything...thanks to some friends lending us some things!!! I'm glad to be done!!! It looks great! And I have a wonderful hubsand who worked so hard on the stairwell!!!!!

Time for some waffles and oatmeal!

Painting and more painting

I started this morning at 7:30 taping my downstairs....I love the color downstairs, but the dummies used flat paint....you can't wipe it and it doesn't stay clean when you have kids and it marks up really bad! So, I'm using the same color and going over the entire downstairs...quite a job, but it's looking much better....I quit at 3:15 and my first piano lesson started at 4:00. I took a very fast shower!!! I have a 30 min. break right now and then 5 more lessons....then I can eat some dinner!!!! I'll be dead beat tired tonight!!!!

And tomorrow I get to paint some more!!!! Until I get to the stairwell, because that is going to require me to rent a stairwell ladder....ugh!!!

Monroe County Fall Festival

Josiah and his friend Mackenzie from church...
Josiah, Morgan and Josh riding motorcycles
Josiah and Morgan on the Scrambler!
Josiah petting the baby alligator!

This weekend is our fall festival in our town. Our church does a booth and sells tenderloins, drinks, fried twinkies and a few others things to raise money for Speed the Light. It's a HUGE fundraiser! It starts on a Thursday evening and goes until Sat. night. Ronnie's been there the whole time, so he'll defintely be tired on Sunday morning! The boys went this morning and played games and saw an animal show and we went tonight and rode some rides with some friends from church. They had a blast!! More pics in the family pics link!