Christmas 2013 -- The Condensed Version

Pretend this is read like the fine print at the end of auto sales commercial  . . . nospacesnobreathsandsuperfast!

Little Girls Baking Club - Princess Sparkle tied for 1st place!

Finally found some decorations for on top of the closet in the entryway.  LOVE IT!

Celebrated Christmas with a friend that knitted each child their very own hat.

Got to spend time celebrating Christmas with this cutie pa-tootie!

Oh, and the rest of mom's family . . .

but everything pretty much revolved around her . . .

until we found out she is going to be a BIG SISTER!  Congrats, Aunt Mel & Uncle Josh!

The ornament I made for the sibling ornament exchange -- shrunken chip mobile for Jon,

The ornament I received from Steve.  (We don't even try to come close to this skill level.  It would just make us look worse.  Whittled from a couple 2x4s. Hmph!)

The ornament the Knight received from Anna. (An awesome compliment to the ornament I received.)

Church Christmas program - Bud with his age group

Butterfly (far right) with her friends from Sunday School performing their part.

Nana (aka church secretary) being recognized for the amazing support she gives the church staff.

My Knight (aka church treasurer) being recognized for his exemplary work on the church finances.

Christmas Day - Round 1 with Nana & Pappy

Sparkle finally got her Vera Bradley purse & wallet.

Daddy getting a new winter coat.

Bud trying to drag off all his loot before the rest of the family came.

His bag was partially filled with this new tire pillow from Nana & Pappy and this ragtime quilt that Mommy made for his bed.

Christmas Day - Round 2 with the cousins (Daddy's side)
We decided to open gifts in two rounds -- kids then adults.  With 21 of us, the kids don't like to wait their turn anyway.

Round 3 with the adults - So much easier now that we do grab bag style.
Over-sized lap blanket and feet warmer I made for Aunt Pat.

Cousins hanging out in the "kid cave" playing their DSs while the adults hung out and talked.

Sparkle and Daddy working on her new 3D puzzle.

Tada!

Above average temps gave Bud the opportunity to drive around his new orange 'maro!  (He wanted me to take a picture of the front of the car, then her turned it around and told me to take a picture of the back too.)  Love that kid.

A Weekend Of Thanksgiving

A little behind, but I don't want to forget the fun weekend we had.

Right before Gramma and Papaw came, a snowstorm moved through -- it was nice packing snow.  The kids enjoyed rolling up the snow. I thought it was funny that it picked up everything and left "clean" grass in the paths.  In the backyard, they attached snowballs to some twine that was hanging in a tree (no doubt from another one of their creative adventures).  It reminded me of the play area that Manny on Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs made for his soon-to-be baby mammoth.

This is the beautiful floral arrangement my in-laws sent us to enjoy for Thanksgiving.

My blessed family enjoying Thanksgiving "dinner".

After we ate, the kids read their list of things they were thankful for (with a little help from Daddy).

We found a new craft that we like to do . . . making window clings.  Click here to see how to make them.

Friday we drug Gramma and Papaw along with us to cut down our Christmas tree.  It was cold, unlike last year, and the pickin' was slim!  We wandered around the hillside for what seemed like forever.  The kids got bored and had fun scooting along on the incline near where we finally found a tree.

We ended up settling on a tree that was good enough.  Was really bummed as all the branches/needles were sparse and already looked like they were dying.  This year's tree was closer to 10'.  It made us laugh when we though about how much smaller it looked than last year's tree.

That's the Knight -- the gray ball at the bottom of the tree -- cutting down our tree.

After we cut down our tree (and drug it for what felt like forever back to our car), we met up with Nana and Pappy at the Chinese buffet for dinner before Gramma and Papaw headed back home.  Everyone surprised me with a birthday celebration at the conclusion of our meal.  It was sweet and thoughtful -- made me feel very special!

Goodbye, Pap

Some good memories I have of visiting my Pap's farm were walking barefoot through the soft, newly plowed dirt where Pap was going to plant his huge gardens - I remember he planted a whole row of waxed beans just for me one year.  My siblings and I would climb the apple trees in his yard, and we'd take long, exporatory walks in the woods with my dad.  We'd pet all his coon dogs along the path to the woods.

 

Over the last few months, my 87-year old grandfather's health has been declining.  He had congestive heart failure among other health issues.  We were able to visit him when we were in Ohio for Christmas and again at the end of January when we went up to celebrate Gramma's birthday.

 

A few weeks ago, he was put in a nursing home to help with rehab after a visit in the hospital.  The doctor didn't feel he would come home from the nursing home.  The last couple weeks his health began to decline -- kidney failure, fluid build-up, etc.  He didn't feel like eating much, but the medical staff said his heart would give out before his lack of eating would be a problem.

 

Last evening, he took a turn for the worse.  He became almost completely unresponsive.  My dad (Papaw) stayed with him through the night.  He was able to rest peacefully since around 2 am.  This morning as I was talking to my Dad on the phone, Pap slipped into eternity.  Even though we didn't have a real close relationship with that side of the family, we are thankful he was saved and is now in Heaven.

 

Pap from his days in the Navy

Pap and Nan with me and my siblings - July 2010

Happy Easter!

We had a very blessed Easter weekend.  Papaw and Gramma came for a long visit.  The Knight and the kids attended the Annual Egg Party at Nana and Pappy's house while my parents and I went to lunch and went shopping for a few things to work on a few house projects.

 

We ended the weekend over a scrumptious Easter meal before Papaw and Gramma headed back home.  We had a wonderful day at church.  We are so blessed.

 

Bud took this picture of us!

We did Resurrection eggs this week.

Waiting for Papaw & Gramma to arrive and enjoying the warm"er" weather.

Sparkle gave tractor rides at the Annual Egg Party at Nana & Pappy's house.

Time to dye eggs!

Sparkle made origami bunnies for our Easter dinner table.

What a Grandparent Wouldn't Do

My parents came to visit this past weekend.  The kids have been asking to put the old swingset up at the new house since spring.  I mentioned it to Papaw before he came.  That's all you have to do . . . mention something the grandkids want.  If it's feasible, it will be accomplished!

Papaw securing the swingset.  Notice the level ground under the swingset?  That took hours!  Parts of our new yard are a mess.

Patches and Toothless seem to remember the swingset and were enjoying hanging out on it.



I couldn't get a good picture of them all, but I still think you can tell they are having a great time!

Bud wasn't so sure about this new trick Butterfly wanted to try.

She got it figured out!

He must not have thought it was too scary because he did it too.

Sparkle got brave and was swinging back and forth!

Thank you, Papaw, for all your hard work getting the swingset up!  Thank you, Gramma, for getting us caught up on laundry and helping clean the house!