Twenty -Ten ;)

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that it is 2010 already (in 47 minutes, actually). Last year flew by and was a great year of growth, joy, and thankfulness as we watched in awe how God provided for all our needs, even though Big T was unemployed for 1/2 of 2009. I can't wait to see what 2010 brings!

My sister and her family are here celebrating with us and we somehow managed to get 7 kiddos tucked in for a movie upstairs and we are partying hard downstairs!

 

You just never know how Welch's Sparkling Cider will effect you ;)

pre-2010 post

I love our church! Our preschool has this cool character named Kiki that helps teach the kids a Bible story each week. We have several great volunteers that rotate teaching the lesson and whatever poor schmuck they grab gets to be Kiki for the week. Here are a couple of pictures from today...

Kiki and Princess P dancing (she was in jeans b/c of the nasty weather...she usually looks nicer for church, I promise!):

And C.W. with "Kiki" after the kids went back to class:

52/52!!!!!

Wow! I made it. I am so glad I did this blog. It is fun to look back through the year at the things we did and see that I was there too ;) I was looking through Christmas pics last night and realized that I wasn't in even one picture yesterday. But that's ok...the kids will still know they had a mom thanks to this fun project. I have started the book already and can't wait to get it printed.

I just can't quit this now...I love it. I like that it is something I can do and it is done, if that makes sense. I can clean the house, wash dishes or laundry (quit laughing, honey, I said I CAN not that I do) and it all has to be redone the next day. But this blog...I can do it and hit publish and it is done. I like that sense of accomplishment. So I am keeping it up but changing it up a little in the new year.

So for the last picture of 2009....this sums up my life and year:

We hope you all have a great ending to 2009 and remember to have some fun in 2010!

Oh and I got my haircut again....what do you think?

51/52

Today, Tricky T turned seven!!! (ten would have made a better alliteration but I am not going to rush the time!) We had a great day celebrating with our family and friends. He invited his best friend to go bowling and out to lunch (a fine lunch of McD's...had the best play area though, and really all he cared about was playing with his buddy). Tonight, he wanted "eggs at Cracker Barrel" for dinner - if only he would always be this easy to please. He said it was a GREAT day and that is what matters to us. I had Big T take a picture of us right before Tricky T went to bed for the night. As I've mentioned before, he isn't my cuddler but he does tolerate it when it gets his bedtime stalled a little bit ;) I can't imagine our lives without T in them...he definitely brings more joy to our family than we ever imagined possible. I love you, buddy, and pray you have an awesome year as a 7 year old!

50/52

50 of 52??? Just doesn't seem possible, does it ?!?

We spent the better part of "family fun day" today chopping, splitting, and stacking wood. The kids all pitched in (some more than others but they did all help) and we got it all done. We had a fireplace insert installed yesterday and are planning to use it to heat the house all winter so wanted to make sure our wood pile was in order.
We continued with the gift giving tonight and the kids got Toy Story Mania for the Wii. We loved that ride at Disney World last year and thought it would be a fun, family game. And it is :o) We also gave them the makings for s'mores:


Yum!

I was going to crop this in closer since the living room looks trashed in this picture but I wanted to be able to remember how the kids decorated for Christmas this year. There are about 50 coffee filter snowflakes taped all around the house and a few beautiful paper chains too. So ignore the gifts/wrapping that we opened today and the 2 nativity sets, Lego game T was playing, and the Wii remotes on the table and enjoy the view ;)

49/52

After talking with a friend that spreads out their Christmas celebration all month, we decided to do a variation on that this year. The kids and I did a fun Nativity book that we do each year on Thursday and we are giving the kids one gift each Saturday until Christmas. We chose gifts that we could enjoy together as a family and that, if received on Christmas Day amidst the Legos, Barbies, etc, etc, etc, might get over looked for a while.

Tonight, we made homemade pizza and then gave the kids Disney Scene It 2 and a new pack of Christmas Silly Banz (thanks, KJ, for the timely package!!). I had bought some chocolate popcorn from the Boy Scouts last month that we hadn't opened and Big T picked up a 2 liter of Root Beer and we were set for a night of fun. Big T and Captain C smoked me and the little guys the first game so we split them up and made it parents versus kids in game two....and it was CLOSE. We were both on the "all play to win" and luckily we pulled it out. Phew! We had such a great time tonight. I am so glad we didn't give this to them Christmas morning and it sit on there waiting to be played. I can't wait for next Saturday :)

And as a Christmas bonus...here we are after the kids' CC Christmas Program last night. They did such a great job - we are so proud of all the hard work they put into learning their songs and memory work. It is such an awesome group of families and we are so blessed to be part of this group.3 more weeks to go....