Christmas Sunday

At our church on Christmas Sunday we have always given away "Christmas sacks" to everyone present. Noah is getting his sack and really seemed excited about it. He was on his way to show his Papa. He just adores his Papa.
Last night we took him to see Santa. On the square of our town there is a Santa House where you can take kids to talk to Santa. All Noah wanted was to get out of there and away from that crazy looking guy with all the white hair. Poor kid. I remember taking our kids and having at least one picture of them with Santa and they are crying. I guess we are just mean. They laugh about it now but it wasn't funny then.



I pray all of you have a Merry Christmas and that we remember why we even have a Christmas holiday. Christ is the reason and he loves all of us so much. What a wonderful Father we have.

Finally got my Christmas tree up and mantel decorated. I usually decorate a lot more than I have this year but with doing the carpet and all, I just wasn't in the mood to take it all out and then have to put it all back up. I really like how my tree turned out though. I have a very nice set of mercury glass ornaments for the tree but last year I didn't use them because of Jessica's cat, Cecil. He was very fascinated with all of the dangly things on the tree plus he would get up in the tree itself. Now this tree is an artifical tree so I don't know what his deal was with getting in the tree but he did. I used just plain simple glass balls. After he broke all of the ones on the bottom, I replaced those with plain simple plastic balls. So this year with Cecil and now that Noah is walking, I decided to use these plain simple balls again and it really looks good. My mantel is different every year because I can never remember how I did it the year before or I'm just in a different mood. This year I was feeling more "country" so that's how my mantel turned out. I have loved looking at other blogs and their decorations and I hope you enjoy mine. Now for the pictures.

Today I am linked to Rhondi's Thankful Thursday. I am thankful today for a wonderful earthly father. He would have been 82. My dad passed away 14 years ago but he left us a wonderful Christian heritage which began when I was 10 years old with my dad and I being baptized on the same day. There were four of us kids so any time I got to do something or go somewhere with my dad when it was just me and him was a treasure. One of my best memories of being with my dad was when I was about 6 and he took me trout fishing somewhere in Missouri. There was a trout farm up there so I was guarranteed to catch a fish. On the way up there, we stopped several times to have a picnic which must have started my love for picnics.
There were times he would take the entire family fishing and what a mess that would be. He didn't get to fish much on those trips because he was constantly getting someone untangled from the bottom of the lake or out of a tree. I have lots of memories of my dad but I think my favorite one would be of how as he lay in the hospital dying he led one of his best friends to Christ. He had been talking to this man for a long time, and he never gave up. Here is a picture of Daddy with a group of guys that flew into Alaska to do some fishing. Daddy is the one on the left with the orange scarf.
Daddy left us with a love our of heavenly Father too. How blessed I am to have two fathers that have shown such love to me. Thanks Dad for always being there for me and showing me how much Christ loves me. I miss you and I love you.

OMGosh!

There has been so much going on since Thanksgiving. First we did the Black Friday thing and this year we didn't even go to bed. Kacee and Jenny wanted to go to Toys R Us at Midnight and that took care of any sleep we might have gotten. We literally shopped til we dropped around 1:30 that afternoon. While we were gone, Gary and some guys from church started moving our furniture out of the house because on the following Tuesday we were getting new carpeting. Gary decided we could move the furniture and pull the carpet up ourselves and save a lot of money. We did save about $500 BUT whew! pulling all of that carpet, sweeping, painting, hauling, moving furniture, sleeping on the concrete floor really takes it out of you. Actually Gary and some guys did most of the work but it sure was tiring watching them when I was home. Gary's schedule is much more flexible than mine so he was home more than me. We finally got the carpet down and are now putting all of that furniture back, cleaning out as we go. Fun Times! It looks beautiful. Didn't realize how bad the other had gotten. At least for a while there will be no more eating in the den. We'll see how that goes. My house is going to be so clean now. We even carpeted the closets this time around. We have lived in this house for almost 33 years and this is the fourth time we have carpeted. The second time we picked a terrible carpet and it didn't hold up at all. We built this house and started out with that wonderful dark brown SHAG carpeting. There is only one thing that I can think of that hasn't been changed in all the years we have lived there and that is the wall paneling in the den. Now don't think that. It really doesn't look like you think. It is very different paneling and is actually quite cozy. Hopefully by this weekend we will have everything back in its place and I can get all of my fall stuff down and begin on Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving Day today. I have so much to be thankful for I could never list it all here. But I do want to say I am thankful for Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross for me. I know He loves me so much He would have done that even if it was for me alone but He died for all of us. Every single person. Do you know him? I mean really know him. You can. All you have to do is to ask. It is so simple, just ask. Love to you all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Black Friday

Are any of you crazy enough to do the "Black Friday" shopping? Both my sisters, a few of our daughters (we have 6 between us) and I lose our minds and are at the stores no later than ... are you ready... 3:30 a.m.!!!!! ACKKKKK!!!! Yes we have lost what little minds we have. AND the craziest part is we are all at a point that we don't actually have that much to shop for, at least until we get there and see all of the good sales. We do get the black friday ads ahead of time and then on Thanksgiving night, we pour over the ads, make our lists and map out what stores to go to first which is (sorry) usually Wally World. They do have good sales and they stay open 24 hours so you don't have to wait in line for them to open. I have usually been able to get most of what I have on my list and if not, then I didn't need it anyway. Gosh are we tired afterwards but we have husbands that are really understanding OR are out there with us. We do it just for the fun of it. Of course some of our daughters don't think of this as "fun." They just don't know what they are missing. Us shoppers??? we just miss out on a little sleep. Come on out, we'll see you bright and early Friday morning.

Christmas open house

One of my sisters and I have a booth at a local antique mall and last Saturday they had their Christmas open house. We were both so excited to decorate our booth and make some Christmas items to sell. This is our first venture together and we are having so much fun making things, going to garage sales, yard sales, auctions and other such stuff. We love it. Our other sister has a booth at another place and has had for a long time so this gives all three of us an excuse to go "junking". Below are some pictures of our newly decorated booth. It's very small but we hope to expand in the near future. Come by to see us if you are in the area.

Big News!

I have a new picture of Noah to post here. Actually a couple of new ones. Noah and his mom and dad came over for a short visit Saturday night and here is what Noah was wearing. Isn't that just the cutest way to tell us the great news!

Hee Haw 09

Wow, what a busy weekend. It's alway this way the weekend of our church's annual Hee Haw fellowship, completing the script, having rehearsals, decorating, setting up tables, cooking, more rehearsals and finally the show. It's a lot of fun but also a lot of work BUT I couldn't do it without all of the wonderful help I have. The ladies that do the cooking are great and I don't even have to think about that part. I just know it will be taken care of. The kids that are in the program are great too. So willing to help set up and clean up. Jessica took over part of the show this year directing the kids in decorating and getting furniture moved to the stage. We are really blessed to have her as our youth pastor and no I am not prejudiced just stating a fact. We have been doing this for five years now and this originally just started out to be a tribute to Gary's father whose birthday was October 30. Everyone enjoyed it so much that we have continued it ever since.

Winner and Birthday

We have a winner!! Congratulations Ana from http://www.barefooted-blessings.blogspot.com/.

Noah's birthday party was a hit. His precious mama dressed him in a darling dragon suit and invited all his little friends from church. His best friend was dressed as Tony the Tiger. So cute! I think even though he is only one year old, he had a terrific time. At least he looks like he did in these pictures. Take a look. Also, Noah does not like getting his hands dirty so he tried to eat his cake without touching it but finally gave up and dug right in and ate nearly the entire cake. What a sugar rush!

Big Doings

Well, there are big doings in the works for tomorrow. Noah is having his first birthday party and it is going to be some kind of big party. All his little friends from church will be there, his family from both sides, lots of food and games. We are going to be partying all day. I'm sure he won't be awake for some of it though. Kacee loves parties and is doing this one up bigtime. It will be fun, I can't wait. We are going to be making cupcakes, caramel apples and other food tonight for tomorrow. I'll post pictures next week.

Cute Giveaway

OK, I am going to have my very first giveaway here. I'm really excited to be able to do this and I think you'll love these "Little Fatties" too over at Jenny's etsy shop. With Christmas just around the corner, I chose her holiday collection. If you win, you can choose one from the collection. Here they are.

Now how to ENTER:

Leave me a comment with your email address (so I can contact you if you win.)

Want to enter again?

"Follow" my blog. Add yourself over on the right sidebar...scroll down a bit.

Another entry?

Make a post about this giveaway on your own blog with a link. Share the love with a friend.

Final way to enter?

Go on over to www.jbfatcatstudio.etsy.com, look around and choose your favorite item. Tell me your choice in your comment.

The giveaway closes on Friday night, October 23 at 11:59 (central time). I will announce the winner on Monday.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Full House and War Eagle

Wow, what a houseful we had last night. Tuesday nights is our family time with kids and grandkid (hopefully that will change to grandkidS in the near future) but we also had a young family with three small kids from our church for dinner. We also "adopted" Jamie and Kacee's little Otis (dog) for a while. So we had four small children, seven adults, two dogs and two cats. Full house. But I kind of like it that way just not all the time. Our house will continue to grow with animals tonight because Jenny is coming home for a long weekend and will be bringing her two cats with her. Whew! She is coming in so we can go to War Eagle this Friday morning. We were going to go on Thursday but it is supposed to rain and rain and craft shows just don't go together in my book. So we are going Friday morning and hopefully it won't be too soggy out there. I love the fall craft shows. I'll have to post some pictures of our finds next week. My niece, Lana, is having her first booth there and I can't wait to see what all she has. She is a very talented young woman, painting like crazy while raising four kids and taking care of her husband. Wonder woman! but then most women I know are wonder women.

Don't you just love Fall. This is my favorite time of year. I love the colors, the weather, the promise of snow (I hope this year we get some) and all of the activities. Oohh and the smells. I love the smells of wood fireplaces, of pumpkin spice and cinnamin and the warm hot cocoa or coffee. Fall is a comforting time of year. A time to gather your family together, to laugh, play in the leaves, to bundle up for a football game or just to sit by the fire and read a good book. Fall is also a good time for weddings which Jessica was maid of honor for one of her best friends in and showing off her Converse shoes she wore. It's also a good time to take Noah to Wild Things Farm to ride in a wagon being pulled by Papa and Daddy, to pick out his favorite pumpkin with his mom, to pet the goats and go on a hayride. I just love the fall.

I wish I could remember how to link from my blog to another one but I can't so you will just have to look for it on my sidebar and click there. There is an absolutely wonderful posting today on the Internet Cafe from Chelsey at www.joyfullyliving.blogspot.com. She is really an inspiration for women to take up the "Battle Cry" and find out where we stand with God. She says it far better than I can so go on over and visit her at the Internet Cafe.

This is something I should have done a long time ago and really don't know why I haven't. Some time ago the president of our country stated that our country was not a Christian country but a secular country. I found that to be VERY offensive. So did some other people. My husband began a website http://www.jesusnation.us/ that hopefully will help turn this around. If you are interested in keeping our Nation a Christian nation, please go to this website and find out what you can do to help. This is not a plea for money just action. This is very important. When my family was in DC this past summer, Gary and Jessica handed out several hundred braclets that state the website on them. Here are some pictures of them doing this. We will be going to DC again soon with the petitions from the website to bring to our leaders and to hand out more braclets. What we thought would take a couple of hours only took 20 minutes. People were not reluctant to accept the braclets in the least.

Do you remember where you were or what you were doing on September 11, 2001? I was on my way to work when Gary called me and said a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers. I thought how sad and how could that happen. When I got to work, we turned on the TV to see exactly what had happened and watched as a second plane flew into the other tower. That's when I realized our precious country was under attack. As a mother, I wanted to gather all of my little chicks together and make them come home. I had one working in Oklahoma, one an hour and a half away at college, one that just didn't live at home anymore and one still in high school. We sat and watched horrified as the two towers fell, as we found out the Pentagon had been hit and as we learned that a fourth plane had crashed. A quietness fell upon the entire country, a stillness even in the air as though we were all holding our breath waiting, praying and watching. We knew we would never be the same. It was hard not to constantly watch the news coverage even though most of it was just the same stuff over and over. How could this have happened to us, afterall we are Americans! How dare someone come and attack us on our soil. I pray for the families of those that died that day, I pray for our Nation, I pray for those of us who watched this chapter in our Nation's history play out. And today I remember.

Just a few more pictures of our vacation. One of my girls with Noah, the Serendipity house from Nights in Rodanthe with Josh, Jenny and me helping Noah walk on the sand that he didn't like and two of my boys on the deck solving the problems of the world. Well maybe not quite. What a great time we all had.

Just a few pictures of our family vacation. What a wonderful time we had. We spent part of it on the Outer Banks beaches and part of it in our Nation's great capital. The history in DC is simply amazing. Too much to see in just a few short days. We saw lighthouses, dolphins and the house from the Nicolas Sparks' movie at the Outer Banks. Don't know exactly why I am so drawn to that place but I am. I will have to go back in a couple of years or so. Sigh.