Christmas #2

I may not be able to upload pictures for the next week or so, so I wanted to get these on the blog as soon as possible!

Steve and Kathy gave Brianna a drawing pad! She has barely put it down since getting it yesterday!

Also, her very own laptop! This thing is so cool and does so many different things!

They got Hunter one of the Hess collectible trucks! Steve is wanting to get him one every year which would be really cool. This truck is a toy but we are probably going to treat it as a collectible for now, not a toy.

Stephen received some money as a gift and I received several bath products that smell incredible! I love gifts like that!!

Now for Christmas morning...

Santa only brought Brianna one gift this year, and we bought her something small to go with it. Her big toy?

A slide!!

Which was immediately put to use:

Caught mid-slide - you can't get any more candid than this!

Sitting up there contemplating life:

Opening her other present:

She got two scratch-and-sniff books from us. "Brianna" bought me Dance Workout for the Wii. "Hunter" bought me 3 60-minute massages from a local place! What great kids!!

Side note: Stephen and I do not do Christmas for each other. We haven't for years. But he snuck around and bought these gifts for me anyway. I felt so bad when I found out he did that I cried! But he said that everything I do every day is for him and the kids and he wanted to do this for me. Of course I don't feel like that is the case but it was so sweet of him to do this! I can't WAIT for those massages!!

Bri was so helpful while I was packing for Georgia:

Are we there yet??

Christmas party at the Kirby's! Of course they had to do Ring Around the Rosie:

Awesome wooden puzzle!!

New Sunday shoes!

The K.'s bought Bri her very own makeup case! If you know Bri at all, you know this is very necessary!!

In the following video, you will see Brianna in all her glory. You will see her be very sweet and cute. You will see her whine. You will see her question several things. You will see her two cups of water/juice she needs at all times. You will see the chapstick she puts on religiously. And you will see her cut her eyes at me at the end of the video!

Christmas Party #1

Last night was our first Christmas party. We've usually had one or two by now but they got lost in the hustle and bustle of the season. We usually do a Christmas Eve party at Stephen's family's house but we changed it this year to the 23rd instead. That means we have tomorrow night off which is good because we have to go to bed early so Santa will come!!! I hope he remembers this year to come because he has forgotten in years past...

This has been such a busy week but it is winding down!! Poor Granny has been in the hospital having all kinds of tests run on her. She will get to come home for Christmas, thank God, but has to go back on Monday for more tests. It's almost like she gets out of jail on good behavior but is expected to turn herself back in after the holidays.

Wednesday we took our December Fed By Faith delivery to the two families. I think it is awesome (God is awesome!) that we were able to sponsor all those families for Christmas with the Angel Tree and still have enough donations of food to sponsor two families with that too.

I took the kids to mom and dad's simply because we hadn't seen them in a while - except long enough for me to drop the kids off and yell, "See ya, suckers!!" We got to hang out for a couple of hours, and even better - Evan, Claire and Jenn were there for a while too! Then we headed over to see all the Talberts. I'll have to take pictures of Brianna and Hunter with their new toys!! We ate some awesome food, had a great round of Chinese Christmas exchange (I came home with electronic Phase 10 and Stephen came home with $10 worth of candy!!), sang lots of carols, and exchanged presents. We had a really great time. Unfortunately, by 9:00 the kids were both worn out and Bri was just randomly saying, "Bye bye! Bye bye!" like "Hint, hint, mom!" So we left a little before I was ready but after we got home I realized I was pretty wiped out too.

I love Christmas!

Organization: Bathroom

I go through phases where I actually have time to organize different parts of the house. I have completed the laundry room, several closets, the pantry, the kitchen, the dining room... so my next project was to tackle the master bathroom.

Many months ago we put everything that was hazardous to Brianna in one of our cabinets and babyproofed it (i.e. put a rubber band around the knobs.) But in recent months she has started playing with things that aren't hazardous but I am so tired of cleaning up! Such as cotton balls. No, they aren't dangerous, but they are sure as heck easy to pull apart and spread all over the bathroom. Plus, our shelves just looked disastrous.

Beach towels haphazardly put away. Cleaning supplies in disarray, just stashed up there to be out of Brianna's reach. White basket full of "miscellaneous" products like sunscreen. Shampoo, conditioner, lotion and body wash jumbled together.




So I made use of some of the extra plastic tubs we had around the house. I don't have pictures, but I cleared out the space underneath both sides of our sink. Beneath Stephen's side of the sink are now "dangerous" items (electric razor, rubbing alcohol, etc.) and body wash. Beneath my side of the sink of tubs of those miscellaneous items and all "odor control" products (body sprays and deodorants). Both sides of the sink are babyproofed now.

Now:

Beach towels are put away in the upstairs closet with all other linens. Cleaning supplies stayed in the same place - out of reach!

One plastic tub holds all of our oral care products. The other holds all of our shaving supplies.

White basket is now for hairstyling products such as blowdryer and hair straightener. Also on that shelf are all lotions.

Bottom shelf is now designated for towels, washcloths and hand towels.


Like I said I don't have pictures but everything else in the bathroom is so much more organized too. I put a small basket on the counter in between our two sinks which holds everything we are using right now - lotion, toothpaste, contact solution, etc.

Ahhh, much better.

Picture Update

Yes, it's that time again - time for me to get some pictures off my camera. I need the space so I can take plenty of pictures at Christmas! These are just a few pictures, I was trying not to overload you.

"Throw your hands up in the air and wave 'em 'round like you just don't care!"

Bri needed to put her baby doll in the Bjorn like how I carry Hunter around:

So nice that she can feed herself sometimes!

Let's put the baby in a strainer...

Angel Tree 2010

I don't have the time right now to write a very lengthy post about our trip today but I wanted to post these pictures at least.

We sponsored 94 families. Some of those families had 3, 5, 8 children. Some of the parents cried. Some asked where to send a thank you note. Some praised God and started dancing! (Those were the ones that really made me know this was a success.)

These pictures do not do justice. Half the time I forgot to take pictures because we were talking, or watching cute kids, or finding presents...

We set up a "dollar toy" bin. As the kids got their presents they could also pick a toy or two to take home with them. We also had a bunch of socks donated and we gave those out at this time too.

In the afternoon it started snowing! We did get to play in it a little bit. :)

The people I have to thank for this are too many. I'm going to forget someone. You know - if you bought a present, helped me wrap, helped me count, helped me deliver, gave me money, showed your support in any way, watched my kids (so I could work!), helped me organize... there are so many things that went into this being a success and I can't thank you all enough for being part of it.

We gave some kids Christmas! As Christians, if you find out that someone needs something, you're not supposed to say, "Well, I'll pray for you." and walk away. You need to say that and then do something if possible. These kids were not going to have Christmas in a lot of cases. Instead of us saying, "Oh, that's awful. I wish there were something we could do.", we came together as a church (literally - our specific church), as a "church" (in general, Christians, because other churches helped out with this project), as a community (those who do not attend our church who supported this) and we did something about it. We had several opportunities to tell people this was all God, that we were only able to do this because He had blessed us. You can't ask for anything else than opportunities to show blessings and be able to plant seeds in someone's life.

So who's up for sponsoring them for Valentine's Day?? :)