Happy Birthday Uncle Jack

We hope you have a great day!!

We love you!!

Oh NO....NOT ME!!

Feeling bad about letting your kids eat junk for breakfast? Not getting MOM OF THE YEAR because you let a child out of the house and made it to the store withOUT shoes? Well don't worry, we're all in this together. So sit back and enjoy some of the things I did not do this week. Then head over to Mckmama's site(just click on the Not Me button at the top of this post) and see what a lot of other moms have NOT been doing this week.

This week I did not waste a ton of printer paper and ink--all while trying to actually SAVE paper!! Nope not me I am very careful with how I put paper in my printer and would never put it in upside down when I'm printing on the back of a printed page.

I did not have the opportunity to hear many (and I do mean MANY) versions of Away in A Manger as sung by a certain little blond 3 year old.

I have not forgotten to pick up the same item from the store all week. And said item has not been on my shopping list each time. I always check my list before I leave to make sure I have all the needed items.

I did not spend 2 hours shopping for something to wear to Steve's company Christmas party and then not buy a single thing for me or Steve.

I did not have a wonderful time at the party with Steve and we did not enjoy staying in the hotel over night--just us!!

I am not totally grateful to Mimi and Kokopat for keeping all of the kids this weekend.

We did not have a wonderful visit with our old neighbors in Charlotte and they are not doing great recovering from their wreck.

Steve and I did not go to a movie just because we didn't have the kids and the theater was within walking distance of our hotel.

If we had gone to a movie, we would not have chosen the midnight showing. Since we did not go to the midnight movie, then we were not walking in uptown Charlotte at 2:30AM.

I most certainly did not tell Steve how much I disliked cold weather--nope not even once.

I also did not tell Steve that we were not getting in the elevator at the hotel with 2 other couple simply because they had been parting a lot harder than we had!!

I also did not see young ladies dressed like REINDEER at several different places. If I had seen this, I'm sure that their "attire" would have been longer than the shirt I sleep in at night!!

I did not leave Mimi and Kokopat with 2 little people where had been coughing like crazy and a teenager who needed to be someplace at 8AM!

Some important things happen this week

The first thing is that we need to wish

GRANDMA

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

We also want to wish

MIMI and KOKOPAT

A Happy Anniversary!!!

Now back to our regularly scheduled VERY, BUSY week!!!

SLOW DOWN!!!!!!

I hope that everyone had a great weekend. Did you eat way more than you intended? Did you brave the shopping madness on Friday?

We had a house that was buzzing all weekend. It was great. There were the usual moments of drama but that's to be expected.

I did eat more than I should have, I did go shopping and I did have a great time. I'm tired but it was great.

Now......

I have to get in gear for the weeks to come. I really wanted to have a relaxing few weeks leading up to Christmas. I wanted to do fun, relaxed advent things with the kids but man my calendar is slammed. The kids are so busy with things for Church and school and Steve's busy with church and work and Casey has dance and me? I get to lug them to all of their events.

I'm working on the plans to slow down things in this house. I don't want to be so busy that we loose sight of what is really important.

I want things to be memorable for our family. So that's what we are going to do. Make things memorable and fun!!!

Today, I am thankful for....

so very many things.

I am thankful:

for a country where I can worship God without fear

for Steve's job

that Steve works for Pete--a great boss who cares about his employees

for 4 beautiful and healthy children

that I can stay home with my kids

that we have the opportunity to homeschool

that my husband loves me

for parents and grandparents

for my friends--who sometimes get an earful and are still my friend

for the opportunity I had to visit historical places with my family and see the excitement on Drew, Shelby and Casey's faces when they see a place we've been in real life on TV

for our camper and the trips we've taken this summer

that Drew and Shelby still enjoy listening to me read to them

I am thankful for

Internet

phone service

cell phones

indoor plumbing

spell check and calculators

washing machines and clothes dryers

Curious George and Blue's Clues

Creme Brulee creamer and coffee

playing cards

Such a short list.....it could go on forever......

So what are you thankful for? Anything outside of the norm (like flavored coffee creamer)? Let's hear about it.....

A new Christmas song

Sung to the tune of Away In A Manger/Silent Night

By Casey

When Baby Jesus was a tiny baby he was born.

When Baby Jesus was in a barn

Was in a barn today

And everyone would see him

Baby Jesus was born in Mary and Joseph

Baby Jesus was in a manger

And you know

And you know everyone liked that baby

Baby Jesus was born when he was a tiny baby.

Gotta love it. So happy I was listening to the playing in the other room while doing the dishes this morning. It's one of those--never be able to sing it the same way again--songs.

This girl...

This girl is beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside.

She has been working so hard to learn her verses for AWANA.

She started in TNT in September of this year after we got back from our trip.

Since that time, she has memorized no less than 34 passages of scripture (and some of them were pretty long) plus answered tons of questions. She has stepped outside of her comfort zone to call one of our friends who is a missionary and ask her some questions (ha on that one, she tried to just email them but didn't get her answer in--I told her to call to start with but she was to "nervous"--thanks Missy, it was great talking with you tonight!!)

I love that she was "sick" because of all the adults clapping and cheering. There were twice the number of people in the hall tonight and I'm not even sure why. She didn't want all the attention on her like that. Now some of you know her and are shocked I'm sure!!

We are so proud of you Shelby!!! You are doing a great job at putting God's word in your heart and mind!!!