Snow Day

You know down here in good ole Kentucky, they close the schools at even the slightest chance that the roads may get wet. They will dump inches of salt on the roads, clear out the bread, eggs, and milk from the grocery stores and sit and wait for what may or may not happen...unbelieveable! So we had our first "snow day" with approximately 3 inches of snow fall on the ground. The girls did their best to make a white snowman...although he is a little brown from the mud. But they had a blast and they did it all by themselves. I wasn't about to go out and freeze rolling up balls of snow....so this creation is all their very own. They even took the pictures of it themselves. They were so proud. They even made Marcus go outside with a flashlight in the dark to go see what they had created. After "frosty" they came in for a good old cup of cocoa, homemade right out of the packet....disappointed that there were no mini-marshmallows. I was just happy that they finally got to wear all the gear I purchased for all that skiing we were going to do this year. This just happened to be our first snow fall. Better late than never I suppose.

The Rest of Christmas Week

To top off the rest of Christmas week, we went Icey Skating with the girls, mom, and me and Marcus. (wow, check out the bad grammar)! Lauren ended up being the "die-hard", she just kept going round and round and round. It was a lot of fun, and we had yummy food too,,,popcorn, chicken tenders, I think we ate all their chicken tenders....
My Jenn did my hair too while we were there. I tried to use someone new here in N.KY- but I just need Jenn....she knows my hair, you know what I mean? I would also like to say that she is now engaged!! To a great guy, I'm so happy for her!
And last but not least, on the last few days of the week, we took off to Chicago to go see Kent and Alli, and little Malachi. We had a great time, watching him open his presents, and going downtown.
What a great week!

Christmas Blessings

What a great Christmas!
We started out our Christmas Eve with Mimi Marsha here at the house as she made these beautiful night gowns for the girls. There were Webkins, video games, lots of smiles and hugs...it was so good to have our Mimi Marsha here. We then packed in a frenzy, and loaded up to go to Michigan.
Arriving at about 11pm, we crawled into bed, and woke up Christmas morning to coffee and breakfast with Papa, Mimi, Uncle Bryan, and Auntie Jenn and us. Starting with stockings, and moving on to gifts.
Papa was so excited about the electric razor scooters he had gotten the girls that he made me take my place down by the tree to take the ultimate picture of the expressions on their faces....He had built it up so much, that when the girls got downstairs, they staired at the tree (thinking that was the great surprise), Savannah gives the "Home Alone" hands on her cheeks expression, and Lauren stares at the tree and says, "I saw this yesterday.".~~priceless I tell you!~even after that they didn't really notice the scooters! Ha Ha!
It was all quite comical...you can see from one of the pictures regarding the scooters that someone asked how they work and Lauren grabs the directions as if to read them, and says, "I don't know..."
So we exchanged gifts with Gamecube, games, Doodlebears, perfumes, colognes, jewelry, sweaters, and many cups of coffee later, we were sitting around and it just made me so thankful for our family. Thankful for all that we have and are able to give.
It was great having Jenn there this year too as a big addition to our family. As you can see from the picture, she is very kind and sweet, but don't cross her (hence the knife in her hand)...yeah, we saw a whole other side to her...just kidding...my dad gave us all pocket knives...(I love you Jenn).
We then moved into the kitchen and had all the yummy turkey, pretzel jello, potatoes, corn, stuffing, rolls..mmm!
So needless to say with the weight I have lost I may have put a bit back on!
Well, it was absolutely great!
I have more pictures and more happenings from the week, so more to come later.
Sorry for the long delay in blogging, it was so insanely busy!

Our Staff

Hats off to an incredible staff!!!
We had such a blast this year at our staff Christmas party! The team is really coming together and they are just that, a team. They all work so hard and we are so thankful for each of them.
Between the great food that night and all the laughs, my stomach muscles were sore from laughing so hard. We did the white elephant gift exchange and it was just hysterical. Gas proof underwear, fighting over the ice-scraper with the glove, all the Starbucks giftcards, Marcus winning the t-shirt that says "I'm training to be a cage fighter..." HA! Marcus stepping on the oxygen tank line for someone who was there, and the machine making a freaky noise...he thought he might have really hurt the person needing the oxygen to breathe...The fuzzy kitten slippers and purse that one of our single young men on staff received....It really was just too much fun, my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing...
Anyway, what a gift it truly is though, to feel like your team under you is a fit and has your heart. Marcus and I are so blessed to be able to be a part of such a creative group of people who all they want to do is please the heart of Jesus. Watching our childrens pastor putting together our Christmas kids play has been truly amazing, he has a degree in film and watching him literally coaching and conducting...I guess it's just really neat to see people working in their element.
So needless to say...and not to keep repeating...but we had a blast!!
And we are so so happy here in Northern Kentucky! We call it home, love being here! And all these people make the difference....Thank you Lord!
///IN OTHER NEWS///
Todd and Tara Hendricks had their baby girl, Laney, 2 minutes before midnight as Peyton predicted she would come on the 10th! Congratulations!!!!!
Amazing how the siblings know....Savannah was the only one who predicted Lauren would be a girl...
Love Ya'll

Our Turkey Day

Wow! What a day! My parents came down from Michigan, Marcus' mom too, as most of you know, she now lives here. So not too full of house, but this year I decided to do a "fresh" turkey (for twice the price) and you know, I think I could tell a difference...better taste, moist, just simply yummy. With all the preparation that goes into this day, I think we should win an award...you take days if not a week of prep, your time, your money, your irritating grocery experience....mine is always irritating...I think I'm going to dedicate an entire blog just to my shopping day at "the forgotten Kroger"....oh yes, it has been forgotten. I should take my camera and time myself as to how long I have to wait in an aisle for the "blue haired" people (all the little old ladies from the retirement center behind my house) to finally realize I've been sitting there waiting and saying excuse me for at least 3 minutes....3 minutes may not seem so bad unless you have 20+ aisles X 3min per aisle...you do the math....okay.....Turkey day....that's right. By the way, the blue haired people really clump together on Monday, bad day to go.... So our spread of yummy food was great, these are just a few pictures to show you what everyone's job was on that day..I was the picture taker, so I'm not in there...but it truly was a great day. After we ate, we all went downstairs and watched RV..oh my, what a great comedy. A must see, and it's kid friendly. Well, until next time...

Bryans Wedding

So finally my big brother leaps into marital bliss. He took a while to find her, but she is perfection for him. Jennifer will be a fun addition to our family, she is so sweet. We left Kentucky on friday and returned from the six hour drive on saturday. So it was a blink, but so worth it. Savannah and Lauren were the flower girls, with another little girl, so there were 3. They were adorable. Bryan cried when he saw Jennifer, emotion that you don't usually see from him. The wedding was beautiful! And the desserts, ahhh! They had these huge strawberries covered in chocolate that looked like little tuxedos and brides dresses. So as quick as the trip was, it was a moment that we all waited a long time to be a part of....

One Shred of a Day

Imagine yourself, early in the morning, you're still sleepy as the sun is barely rising and for thousandth time you are getting your child ready for school and ready to embark on the long drive to and from school....55minutes to be exact....but who's counting?? You are extra sleepy this fine morning and choose just to drive her in your flannel pj's, socks without shoes, t-shirt only, hair thrown up in a pony tail, no make up, etc... You proceed down the expressway as you have 1000 times going approximately 75 mph in what should be your trusty vehicle...Lord knows you paid enough for it to be that way... When you hear a sound as if a large rock has just crawled up your wheel well in the rear and paid it a visit. I look in the rearview mirror apologizing to the poor soul I just spit that baby out at--I then hear the sound of a large semi approaching right on my tail, only I don't see one....nope, it's the sound of my tire....my dummy light comes on inside that says "check tire pressure" only what that really smart computer didn't realize was that I didn't even have any tire pressure as the tire was burning to a crisp. There was no safe place to pull off as I as at the highway split ready to merge onto another highway...so I had to drive it out until I could pull off into the grass...Savannah and I both roll the windows down and peer outside the vehicle and see what had become of our tire....yes.....or lack there of.....it was truly, one shred of a day....