A Christmas Carol

One of my incredibly talented friends from high school is a professional actor and now does local theater here. The last couple years she and her son have been part of The Christmas Carol. She plays Mrs. Cratchett and he is Tiny Tim. I took Lauren to see it and afterwards we were able to visit with them for a little bit. I am telling you..you should go see it next year if you live in this area. All of the cast is so talented. It was a wonderful production and Lauren and I had a great time. Thanks Steph!

Victory Days

All 3 kids love gymnastics. It is a great time for the boys to get some of that energy out! Every year that have a special day for the younger classes called Victory Days where they get to show us their stuff and get a certificate. It is so cute and they have so much fun!

Violin Concert

This is Lauren's 3rd year playing violin and she loves it. We are so thankful for the wonderful program she is in at her home school class. If you can't tell..she is the little one on the left. Her special friend Savannah is standing next to her. Savannah is Briannah's sister (the one Lauren did the birthday for). I am hoping that if you click on the youtube site I have here you can see a video of it. I thought the picture of my Dad looking at Brennan is sweet, so I had to include it. Try clicking on this site and see if it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EKxcm5eihc

Thanksgiving

Greg was gone for Thanksgiving, but I took the kids to our annual Neely Family Reunion. My Grandma was one of 15 kids, so that makes for a LARGE family. The kids had a great time visiting with cousins and on the way home we saw a beautiful double rainbow. It reminded me of how thankful I am for what God has created.

Since Greg was gone on Thanksgiving, we had another Thanksgiving with him on Saturday when he was home. My parents and sister's family came over. We also celebrated Mom's and Michelle's birthday. No-we don't normally have a large curtain hanging on our window, but we were taking family pics and trying to cut the sunlight out.

One picture is worth a thousand words.

This is Brennan. I cannot tell you how many times I have found him over the last few months hiding-his mouth full of something. A couple months ago I found him shut in the pantry...mind you there is only about 6 inches between the shelves and the door-he had a mouth full of chocolate chips. I have also found him under the table with different things-including the container of sugar. This last episode was when we were watching some family videos together. He was being so nice and quiet and really into the video-I thought. I knew that he was lying under the coffee table, but what I didn't know was that he was eating a candy cane....this is how I found him. Needless to say...discipline was involved. Not 2 days later we were out Christmas caroling. We stopped at our friends house and they offered him a candy cane. I said that he could take it, but we weren't going to have it right now. While I was talking to my friends, I see him out of the corner of my eye crouching down and running to hide (military like) behind a bush in their yard. I went over to the bush and he was sitting down behind it with a mouth full of candy cane. "Mommy-it was broken, so I had to eat it". I have to say-it is hilarious when we find him...but it has become a matter of obedience and his heart. Yes, you can laugh.

If I could only be a monkey...

I think Joshua's dream would be to be a monkey and to climb trees all day long. He is so happy just climbing a tree. Any tree...eveywhere we go. Look closely in the first pic-he is up about 12-15 ft. high.

I'm back..starting out with more pics from Lauren's birthday.

I know I have let the ball slip in keeping up with the blog, but I figure I can get caught up today before the new year!

As most of you know Lauren's birthday was the end of October. She asked if she could do a birthday party where no one brought any presents for her, but instead brought presents for baby Briannah-her friend's little sister. She has an inoperable brain tumor and the medical treatments she is undergoing are very expensive. In fact, just 2 days ago she had to be rushed to the hospital, because of low sodium levels which was causing her to have convulsions. Praise God she is doing fine now. This picture is of Lauren, Briannah and her sweet Mom Tammy. It was actually Tammy's birthday that day at the party and I didn't even know until after the party was over! It was a wonderful afternoon and so many people brought wonderful donations for her. We are so thankful for all of you who donated!!! Please keep Briannah and her family in your prayers.