Proud Mommy Moment

Haven't we all had days where our kids do something, something that we have taught them from the time they were very little with the hope that it will "stick", and when we either see them do it or someone tells us what they did and we feel like maybe, just maybe we are doing something right?! Well, I had one of those days yesterday.

Last night, the girls and I headed to a friend's house for dinner and to watch the beginning of the Sugar bowl. Mike was lucky enough to actually BE at the Sugar Bowl! We visited, ate, and the kids played until time to head home for baths and bed. As we were driving back, Macie and I were talking about her day at school and I asked her if she had fun eating lunch and watching a movie in her classroom. (Students with good behavior each month get to do this as a special treat with the teacher). She told me that it was a lot of fun and went on to tell me a little story, which made me so proud of her. She said, "Mommy, my friend and I were the only ones that brought our lunch, so we had to wait in the classroom while the other kids went to the lunch line. We got our lunches out and I asked her if she went to church. She said yes and so I asked her if she wanted to pray with me for our meal." She went on to say that the little girl agreed and Macie led them in a quick prayer before they started eating lunch.

How great is that?! It's something so simple. Something we do at home each night as a family. And she not only wanted to pray over her meal, but she also used the opportunity to witness and pray with a little friend. I was so proud of her. She's such a sweet little girl - we are so blessed to have her!

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a happy and blessed 2011! Praying that God would be first in your life this year and that he would fill your homes with love, health, happiness and many blessings!

Much love,
Chrissy

Christmas 2010

WOW! Where in the world did the month of December go?! It seems like it was just Thanksgiving and now Christmas has come and gone and it's almost a new year. Crazy!

We had a great Christmas this year! Totally not how we planned it, but great nonetheless. We found out early last week that St. Louis was expecting snow on Christmas Eve and continuing into Christmas day. Our original plan was to leave for St. Louis some time on Christmas afternoon and be there in time for dinner with my family. Well, after some discussion, we decided that it would be best to leave before the bad weather started and get there on Thursday. It was good that we did because it started snowing first thing Friday morning and continued throughout the day and into Saturday. They got around 4" - nothing crazy, but enough to make driving a hassle and potentially dangerous.

It was a week full of laughter, games, food, gifts, shopping, and lots of fun. We only get to see my sister and her family about twice a year and Christmas is one of those times. I was really glad to have a couple extra days with them. I also had the chance to see several friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. It was so nice - awesome how we pick up right where we left off! I love that about "old" friends. Time just doesn't seem to disrupt the friendship at all!

I am looking forward to 2011! I'm excited to see what this year will bring! February is a special month - especially this year! Mike and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary! So exciting! It's been an amazing and blessed 10 years - it's flown by and I can't wait to begin our next 10 years together. February also holds the birthday of a sweet little girl - Maddie will turn 5 years old! Then in March we get to celebrate another sweet girl's birthday - Macie will turn 8! Spring is always a fun time as it leads us into the end of the school year and then to summer. The end of summer 2011 will be so much fun! We look forward to Mabrie turning 1 in September - such a wonderful blessing she has been to our family! So many things to be excited about and thankful for looking ahead to the new year!

Very thankful for a blessed 2010 and a wonderful Christmas season! God has truly blessed us - so much more than we could have ever asked or deserve. All we have is because of Him!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!

Just This and That

Just a few updates about our Thanksgiving Holiday weekend! Mike was off work last week from Tuesday - Friday and it was so great! We enjoyed some nice, relaxing family time and while we missed seeing our family for Thanksgiving, we had a great time just the 5 of us! We then spent Thanksgiving night with some friends that may as well be family. Isn't it nice to have people like that? When you don't live near family, it's so important to have friends that you love and that love you back and we feel blessed to have many friends here that we truly love! For that, we are so thankful!

My meal was overall a success. The turkey could have cooked a little less, but tasted good. Everything else was totally yummy. Well, not the gravy. The gravy was my nemesis. I have decided that I can only make good white gravy - that's it. And who wants white gravy over their turkey. GAG! Oh well, we had a good meal! My favorite part of the whole day was Mike reading to us George Washington's official statement about Thanksgiving and why it was going to be set aside as a National Holiday. Mike then asked each of us to say what we were thankful for and then we held hands and prayed - it was a sweet time.



On Friday (Black Friday, that is), we got a wild hair to load up the girls and go to the mall. Do not ask me why I thought this was a good plan, but for some reason, I did. We got to the mall and became annoyed within minutes of walking thru the doors. HA! Here we were with the 2 older girls walking and pushing Mabrie in the stroller, all of us single file, because there was no way we were fitting side-by-side through those JAM PACKED WITH JUNK aisles! And what is up with people deciding that it's a great plan to stand in those aisles and chit chat, all the while blocking the traffic flow?! We went into 2 stores, got the girls a pretzel and got right on out of there. Note to self: Black Friday is hideous. Shop another day. :)

Saturday we did our decorating for Christmas! I love putting up the tree - it's always a big job, but I love when it's done! I love sitting in the living room at night just by the lights of the tree. It is so pretty! The girls loved helping and were so excited about it! We turned on Christmas music, decorated, sang, danced, laughed. You can't get these years back. You gotta make the most of them!



On Sunday, we went to church and had a great day. I love our church. I look forward to Sunday each week. It starts our week off right. Thank you, Lord, for a wonderful church and the great friends that we have there!

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend as well. So much to be thankful for!

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.

Macie's Science Fair Project

Macie really wanted to take part in her school's Science Fair this year. She had several good ideas, but finally decided that she wanted to do something on tornadoes. Mike told her that this was going to be HER project and while he would guide her through it, she had to do the work and research. He helped her find good websites and also taught her how to write a report. She did a great job. She wrote down some interesting facts about tornadoes and learned that Arkansas is in "tornado alley". She also learned about the different levels of tornadoes and the damage that they cause.

She is such a good student and we are so proud of her! We told her that even if she didn't win a ribbon, that she could be proud of herself knowing that she did her best work and also learned something in the process. BUT - we are thrilled to report that she did in fact win 3rd place! She was SO excited! There were a lot of entries and hers came in 3rd!

Congrats, Macie! Mommy and daddy are so proud of you! You are not only a sweet little girl, but you are a great student!

We love you!

Nervous Nellie

That's me. Nervous Nellie. Why, you ask? Because this year, for the first time EVER, I am in charge of a Thanksgiving meal. THE WHOLE MEAL! Turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie - all of it. And to say that I am biting off my nails daily is an understatement. They are down to nubs. Nubs, I tell you.

Here's the deal. Every year we travel either to my mom and dad's house or to Mike's mom and dad's house and celebrate Thanksgiving as one big happy family. Since we travel from so far away, I am always responsible for things like plates, napkins, drinks, etc. I help out in the kitchen on Thanksgiving morning, but help out is a lot different than making the whole meal. I've made a turkey once - and if you know the story of me and the turkey - you know how well that went over. (It turned out fine, but the neck and giblets just about did me in - Mike, too - there was dry heaving - lots of it.)

Well, this year, we aren't traveling. Mike's sister, Mallory, got married last weekend and since we traveled for that, we decided not to load up and drive the 7-8 hours back just a week and a half later. So, Mike's family is coming here to spend Thanksgiving with us, so the meal is on this girl. Giblet girl. Nervous girl.

Thankfully, I will have Mike's mom here to help me. Do I know how to make turkey gravy from the drippings? NO! She gets that job for sure. Have I ever made homemade stuffing? Again - NO! And I refuse to make Stove Top for Thanksgiving. It has to be the real thing and if it tastes like dookie, well, then that's what we will eat. (Maybe I better have Stove Top as a back-up).

Mike gave me a vote of confidence last night and said, "It'll be fine, babe!" I hope he's right. I hope my turkey isn't raw on the inside and black on the outside. I hope my stuffing isn't a pan of bread slop. I hope my pumpkin pie doesn't gag the family. I've got the mashed potatoes in the bag - no worries there! Cindy is on gravy duty - so no worries there either. Corn, it'll rock the house. Everything else is up in the air. Wish me luck. I gotta go bite my nails some more.

Pumpkins

We have never been very creative with our pumpkins. They are usually the standard: triangle eyes, circle nose and a funky mouth. Until this year. Macie is really into Hello Kitty all of a sudden and was determined that her pumpkin look like the famous cat. I looked at Walmart to see if they had any sort of template and had no luck. I just assumed that we'd do our normal and somewhat boring pumpkins again. Well, Mike thought otherwise. He got online and looked at some pictures of Hello Kitty, grabbed a pen and free handed her face on the pumpkin. And after some sweet carving skills (and one power tool) he came up with this little cutie - and one happy little girl! Such a good daddy!



Then, not to be outdone, Maddie needed a cool pumpkin, too. She decided she would like Ho-Ho the monkey from Ni Hao Ki-Lan. So, back to the computer he went for a picture and grabbed his pen and went to town. His drawing skills amaze me. There's no telling what these would have turned out like had I been the one to draw and carve these!

Make that 2 happy little girls in our house tonight. :) Mabrie can pick her favorite character next year!