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Friday, December 12, 2008

Back to Blogging

Our family has been quite busy since my last post. After some computer problems kept me from posting with pictures, I became quite delinquent on my posts. So, I have decided to do a quick bring-you-up to-speed post, rather than try to make several separate ones.

I'll begin with Thanksgiving. As always, we had so many things to be thankful for. This year I kept being reminded of the opportunities we have by living in the U.S. We are blessed that I can stay home with our children with the freedom to teach them about Christ and have our freedom of worship. My husband had the freedom and ability to get at new job at Schlumberger. We have freedom in our health care choices and are able to provide this for our family. We are not confined to our home in fear and are able to have peace where we live. My heart goes out to everyone who is not able to have freedom in their daily lives and who have to live every day in fear for their families and their own well being. I am thankful that we can find comfort and protection in our Most High God.

Okay, I think I should have regrouped my pictures. I find it difficult to follow our Most High God with this picture. This is Baby. For the last two Thanksgivings we have kept Baby for our friends while they traveled. Baby does not like many people. She is 14 years old and rather moody sometimes. However, she seems to be very fond of Avery. Avery likes to carry her around and have Baby with her wherever she goes. I think Baby feels pampered and secure with Avery's watchful eye. Since Baby is so old, she has lost most of her teeth allowing her tongue to hang out. Most of the time you only see about 1/4" sticking out. I snapped this picture when we noticed a good 1 1/2 inches sticking out. We were laughing so hard at the poor animal.

This would be the girl's version of a "Got Milk?" commercial. It was more like Got Melted Marshmallows in Your Hot Chocolate?"

Last year we were able to start the tradition of the Playroom Tree. I found this tree at an after Christmas sale for a STEAL and automatically thought of putting it in the playroom. It has colored lights and the kids hang all of their ornaments on it. It was heartwarming to listen to them as they reminisced about the ornaments they made and how long it had been and how small they were. I even gave them an ornament from 1986 when I was in choir in elementary school. You know you are getting older when you have a 22 year old ornament hanging from your kids tree. I can't wait to get my hands on our family's ornaments from when I was a kid!
Going to see the Nutcracker is a tradition that started when we moved. Our neighbors own a ballet company and the company puts on the Nutcracker every year. We get dressed up, go out for a nice dinner and then we are off to the ballet. This year was very enjoyable and the kids were able to enjoy some "snow" during intermission. Both of our neighbors children have parts in the ballet and our kids enjoy seeing them perform. Tony and Cooper are getting a little tired of seeing it, so next year I think we are going to make it a Girls Night and hopefully we will be able to take Lily to see her first ballet.

Speaking of tradition, Avery enjoyed participating in her first Christmas Pagent at our church. There were many practices and rehearsals involved (including a rehearsal every night the week before pagent). Although it was a lot of hard work, we were all so very blessed by it. Avery did an amazing job. After the first of 3 performances, a lady approached us and complimented Avery on how animated Avery was as she sang and how sweet she looked. Avery was grinning from ear to ear and was so very proud of herself.
We ended up bringing Lily home with us on Saturday the 6th, which was our 11th Wedding Anniversary. I was only able to get Avery to the church by the skin of my teeth Saturday night since we drove in from Bryan. As we turned onto 105 from Hwy 6, there was a rollover accident. Knowing we had little time to spare, my first thought was that we were going to be late. As we got closer to the scene, we could see that our lane was open and traffic was able to get through. I said a prayer of thanks right then and there. I was thankful that we didn't have to rush home and be hurried as we made our way to the church Rushing always has an effect on my mood. We were able to make it in plenty of time and Avery did a wonderful job again.

On Sunday night we were all able to attend pagent together. Cory and Rachel joined us and helped take care of Lily, who was not feeling well.

It snowed for the second time since we've had children on December 10th. Nothing stuck to the ground, but the kids enjoyed playing in the falling flakes of ice. The last time it snowed was on Christmas Eve, 2004. I have a picture of Cooper sitting on our back porch as the girls tried to catch some flakes on their tongue. He was not walking yet, but wanted to see the snow bad enough to crawl out in the cold.

3 comments:

Deborah said...

That was a fun adventure to read through as you caught us all up! Is there a Christmas Tree in the kitchen? I love that idea and it looks so good with the sparkling lights - and you get to enjoy since we all spend so much time in the kitchen!

Judyn said...

Wow! Now that was one info filled blog! We also have a large tree for the kids to decorate and they love it. Your family looks beautiful, and so very happy.

I'm also happy you had a memorable 11th anniversary!

Leila said...

Hey Deborah,

Yes, there is a tree in the kitchen! It is my favorite new addition to our Christmas decorations. I hardly ever get to see the tree in the living room and if I'm going to take the time to put up a tree, I want to see it! I have this whole gingerbread house thing going on in there so now I'm hunting for decorations that fit the theme for my new kitchen tree.