Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

So I am working on this project, Christmas project to be exact, plus Christmas cards and shrinky dinks of course and I am just so anxious right now in this moment to get to spend every day with my KiKi Bee. She fought the Christmas photos and it made us laugh so hard..... I will post the good ones later, just needed to savor this first....

Christmas was eye opening as usual and it really made me want to establish traditions that will hold when traditions we have now change. My Paw Paw reads from the bible the Story of Christ's birth and tells an amazing story of God's goodness and grace and desire for relationship...and how the night that God sent Christ into the world and poured open heaven onto some lonely quiet shepherds and let them see the glorious army of the Lord, it was the start of something big, so big we still don't understand it... the start of a love story we always wanted but don't understand. He then shares with us some true to life experience of His own about how that love story has played out for part of his own life... this year it was how his own father came to know the Lord from a little miracle. I love hearing his "God stories" they inspire me and make me want to recount my own. One thing he said was repeated in Narnia on the trip... which was that God, angels, chances to experience Christ will come NOT when you are trying to make them happen, but when your least expecting them YET waiting in expectation.

New Years resolution... to live that way... not expecting God to do something great as if I deserve it, but always anticipating that something great IS about to happen, my eyes will be open and ready and I will be so familiar with His word that I will be tuned into His ways and words and work and I won't miss it. I will not be distracted by the foggy stuff of this world and the blur of temporary things... no, I will we clear headed and fully fixed on the creator of all things and opportunity to see His glory will arise. In the mean time I am going to try my best to teach my little girl how to get to know Him.

Here are some highlights from this years celebrations...

PS. my projects turned out great and as usual the most meaningful gifts were the ones that cost close to nothing but took a lot of time and were sentimental. next year we are doing things differently, speaking of traditions.... we are starting one. No more of these Christmases with so many presents you can't really remember who gave you what. We are sticking to three. 1 from wealth ( something you buy) 1 from the heart (something sentimental, thoughtful) 1 from the hands (something you make). More traditions to come.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year... we are partying it up at the Cotton Bowl New Years Eve Party with our friends on an amazing Anniversary Trip... more to come on that. (pictures included of course)

Blessings! ................................. time for bed

Welcome!!

Megan got me hooked up with the "Tour of Homes" so it gives me a chance to share our home with you. It's not much but we love it. Already lives have been changed in a drastic way by the hand of the Lord within these walls. We will try to keep Lilly at bay and don't forget to grab some Chocolate Butterflies as you walk around :) (recipe at the end)

Come on in!

Welcome, dust off your shoes...

Bry and I love to fall asleep to only the light of the tree in our den, you will notice i don't have a tree topper... I can't find one that I am looking for. It's something special and I will know it when i see it, but this has been several years running now and I think Bry is tired of looking at a bare tree top!

My tree is mostly browns, silvers, blues and golds... but occasionally the rare colorful ornaments HAVE snuck onto the tree!

Stockings were hung by the bookcase with care...

These little houses I probably could have made, but I thought they were too adorable to not bring home to show my baby girl... one is a cottage and one is a church.

Lets be honest... this is really what's going down....

Welcome to Santa's Workshop!

I likes this tulle wreath hanging in my kitchen it was funky and went so well!

My nativity is all I have ever dreamed of... I love having it in our home. It's going to be an awesome way to tell our children about the great Love of Christ. I reminds me of just how MUCH God gave...

It's just not Christmas season without Shrinky Dink ornament making going on!

Have a VERY Merry Christmas full of God's presence and power this year!

Chocolate Butterflies

heat Rolos on the pretzle on parchment paper for 30 seconds in the microwave

When u pull them out press pecan in the middle of the Rolo, let cool completely. May refridgerate if needed. ENJOY!!

Stop and Smell the Roses

Kehnley is now 18 months old... she is a VERY expressive little girl, sometimes I forget that she is just a baby still. She is so sure of herself and so smart and she has atitude in everything that she does. She give the best kisses....and I mean for everything and everyone. She makes a dramatic "muaw" noice when she gives them, or sometimes if she's being sneeky she just purses those lips and leans in... if you are lucky you will see it coming and meet her half way and she smiles.

She knows what "say cheese means" and she poses for a pic!

She said the following words over thanksgiving weekend... she is just now sarting to really use her words and she signs for food, outside, dada, hi ( and says the word especially to Lilly) more, no no, bird.

she said Jussy ( for justin)

Papa ( for my dad)

Da-di instead of dada

Mama

No Ma'am

No No (can you tell it's her favorite word)

Three ( she was counting with a bird on TV)

she makes all animal noises my new favorite is for a turtle... it's "durth durth durth" which means "turtle turtle turtle" like Bry and I say it.

Jew (juice)

Dee (drink)

Uh-ew ( uh oh)

Pree ( pretty, said only for flowers)

She always makes the surprised sound when she sees something she really likes

Wow Wow- said for a dog, or when she slips and falls or watches Wow Wow Wubsey (sp)

Here she is smelling flowers, something I had to do all the time for weeks to keep her from picking all the blooms off the flowers in our backyard, she finally caught on and LOVES to do it.

SNOWWW WAY!

I was home sick with a serious sinus infection and ear ache, my head and body was hurting so bad I thought I had the flu. Kehnley had the sniffles all day as well. We both decided it was a fine time to take a nap... the house was a cave, the only light was the dim glow of the Christmas three... I just love having no lights on in the house but the tree... it was windy and freezing outside. Let the napping begin! After a few hours we both woke up and I was getting Ms. Sniffles McEye Rub out of bed and I saw it... SNOW!!!! I stared jumping up and down and Kehnley joined me.. not sure what the excitement was, but once I said the words "outside" she was getting her shoes. Needless we say we needed a lot more on than just shoes. Twenty minutes and three layers of shirt, fleece pants, fleece Jacket, changed socks... oh wait, gotta change the diaper, off comes the fleece pants, off comes the socks ( she pulled them off on the changing table) over head goes the fleece jacket, she is screaming b/c it's stuck on her head... i pull the fleece jacket back down, change the diaper, redress the toes and the legs... AND NOW we are out the door. camera CHECK, hat (mine not hers) CHECK, shoes.... "Kehnley, why did you take off your shoes sweetie, we have to wear shoes to go outside." She grabs a cracker and out we go...

Noses running as fast as our legs to feel he snow that's falling from the sky.

Say Bye-Bye Kehnley, time to go inside!

And when we came in.. Kehnley stole my strawberry Popsicle... It was a great day to be home sick.

At least she did share a little of it with me after she was done... ok off to bed, hope I get feeling better so I can get us all outfitted for our Christmas pic. (this year's is FULL of HIDDEN, TACKY surprises!)

Bun in the Oven....

Not my oven of course :)

Here are pics of Kaytlin Elizabeth Hall...

Jeanae is so in love!! I love to see their facial expressions in these photos.

It make me ache hold my own baby more!! Pour Kehnley kept getting pretty jealous of all the attention going toward this sweet baby... she made sure to sit in my lap the whole time I was holding Ms. Kayt just to make sure everyone knew who belonged to her, little miss priss.

Se actually told Kandace "no ma'am" tonight lol.

PS. the Tree and Christmas Decoration Extravaganza at our house has been going on for way too long... I am still not done ( and yet I am distracted by blogging!) shocking!

This is us shopping for our tree last night!

Yeayy we found it!! This is the one...So TALL!

Just a little sneeky peaky of what I added to our tree... I love going though all the ornaments, so many memories... this pic is from our couples shower.

What was cool was, as I was decorating our tree I had the TV on the Christmas music station... and it was a blessing to get to worship Christ and the joy He brought to His people on that quiet, dark night.