All Dressed Up!

Abby had a little fun today...I'm not sure what Lucy thought?  

Abby sure thought it was fun though:)

yes that is a bow in her hair:)

Finalized!

Last night Greg and Reese were in his room talking for a long time and when Reese came out he told me he was FOR SURE a Christian!  This is (of course) is amazing news for anyone but beyond that it is such an answer to prayer for Greg and I.  See one year ago May 5th Reese asked Jesus in his heart but Greg and I never felt completely at peace with his decision. We really wanted to be careful that he wasn't just being a Christian because everyone else in his family was.  We wanted it to be HIS decision between him and the Lord and Greg and I both felt that the Lord would give us a peace about his decision if it were "legit" and He never did.
Well last night the Lord not only gave us a peace but He gave my son eternal LIFE!  How thrilling and how wonderful to feel the Lord's hand all over HIS decision!  Praise the Lord!  So Reese's "new" Christian birthday is January 22nd!  Looks like I have a Jesus in my heart party to plan....better get busy;)
And also Reese is chomping at the bits to get baptized!  He asked to do it this morning but we thought my parents and Greg's parents might want to be there;)  Better get here soon Granny and PaPa because Reese tried to baptized himself in the bathtub last night....not sure how long I can hold him off:)

Expressing her Emotions

Ever since Abby was little she has had a hard time expressing her emotions.  Normally she would start crying and run into her room and want to be alone and NOT want to talk about it.  Greg and I wanted to help her learn to express her emotions even if she didn't have the words.  That's when we began asking her (since she's so artistic) to go and draw us a picture of how she was feeling and then we would sit down and talk through it once she had herself under control.  This has worked quite well and she actually began to really enjoy talking through her pictures even if it ended with Mommy and Daddy "winning" in the end.
Well the other day I didn't even have to ask her to draw me a picture.  She just ran out of the room and came back with this...

Abby is on the left and I am on the right with a "I hate Abby" shirt on--yikes!
Abby was feeling misunderstood and thought because I was getting after her that I did not love her.

I wonder what a psychologist would say about this? :/
No worries though, we were able to talk about it and I made it very clear that there will never be a day that I hate her even though I have to disciple her.  The verse in Hebrews 12:11 (in the Bible) that talks about disciple was very helpful...thank you Lord:)
*Just for the record I will NEVER own a shirt that says this....EVER!:)

Oh Abby...

this makes us laugh....well a little bit:)  

I guess it's better than I hate school right?

House Rules

I have never made an "official" rules of the house list before but I did think of one today...
Rule #1
If Lucy is sleeping on you you do not have to get up for any reason.

More rules to come:)

Oh How I Love My Sister...

I love that there is someone in my life that has loved me through it all and known me my whole life...(besides my parents of course:)  Through those awkward years that no one wants to remember ever happened and this someone remembers and loves me anyway.

I love that there is someone that can laugh "with" me while I'm making a complete fool of myself and she thinks it's hilarious...because she acts the same way:)

I love you sister...thank you for always taking funny pictures with me.

You make me funnier...is that a word used correctly oh sister teacher of mine?:)  oh how I love that you correct my grammar and hate that I never punctuate:) 

I love you sister!

the lighting was wrong so we decided this direction would be prefect...it was:)

doesn't she look great?  

the close up...the serious one:)

even more serious...

the famous "Michael Buble" pose...thank you Michael for introducing us to this ridiculous pose.  We love how stupid we look doing it:)

Building with Papa!

Reese asked Papa to build something in his shop while we were in town.  They worked all Sunday afternoon and made a picture holder made out of wood that said his name.  (I will get a picture of it later because that doesn't make any sense:/

Anyways Reese had a blast and I know Papa was born to work in the workshop with his grandkids:) 

Thanks Dad it meant the world to him...something he will NEVER forget!

Making the template

cutting out the letters in his name

action shot:)

he's so cute!!!

this is my favorite with Reese is the front and Papa working hard  in the background!  Too funny!

Working...working...working::

Playing in the SNOW!

We were so blessed to have lots of snow in KC while we were in town.  The week before we got to town they got dumped on big time so even though it was "leftover" snow it was still better than nothing!!  Reese and Abby were in heaven.  I think they played outside for about 8 hours over the period of two days....INSANE!  It wasn't super cold out (too cold for Greg and me:) but not for the kids!

We went sledding on Saturday and they played out in the backyard too and went "ice skating" on the pool cover...more like break up all the ice and get sopping wet!!  Fun! Fun!:)

Here's a bunch of pictures of them playing and one of Lucy's first snow...she LOVED it!  She growled at us when we tried to take her back inside! Ha!

Ready to go sledding!

Abby and cousin Tobey (my brother's son)

pooped out!  It's tough walking up the hill every time!

This is a sad picture.  This is the exact moment that Reese pulled a muscle in his neck when he hit a bump and he was really hurt:(
~3 days later he is still sore!

playing on the pool cover...pretty thick ice

it's starting to break up...they were so wet!

she was happy...very happy!

Lucy leaping through the snow!

My nephew Tobey.  I had the privilege of leading him to the Lord on Sunday afternoon! Yay! What a thrilling thing for Greg and I because we have been praying for him since he was born!  So very cool!

Our little snow angel!

feeding Lucy snow...she liked it!

eating snow....lots of snow!  I kept telling her not to eat snow that was not white but she didn't seem to mind what color it was...yuck!

Happy Birthday Granny!

My whole family!  (p.s. my Mom is in a sling because she just had shoulder surgery...she is doing excellent and will be pitching in the majors before we know it;)

Statue and the table my Dad made

"Little Disciples"

This weekend we were able to go to Kansas City to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday! (sorry Mom I had to tell your age on here:)  My Dad planned a surprise party for her on Saturday night and tons of people came over to my parents house to celebrate my wonderful Mother!  Dad ordered food, a cake and cleaned the whole house (props to Dad:)  We had a great evening hanging out and the whole family was able to be there so I know my Mom was thrilled about that!
My Dad also had this amazing statue made for my Mom called "Little Disciples". He made the table it is displayed on, including the stained glass...WOW!  My Mom loved it and was thrilled there were 2 girls and a boy sitting around Jesus (one for each of her precious children:)
So glad we could make it home to be there with my Mom!  Love you Mom!  Happy Birthday!!  You don't look a day over....35---sorry you do look older than 25;)

Reese's Trip with Poppa!

The week after Christmas, Reese and I (Poppa) took a roadtrip.  Our destination was Wichita Falls, birthplace of Greg (and Doug) and home to my alma mater, Midwestern State University.  But we didn’t get there the most direct way, but instead we first drove to Nocona, TX.  It is in Nocona that they make the NOKONA baseball glove and we went to watch them make gloves from a side of leather to the finished product.  It is a small operation and the grandson of the founder gave us a tour which we both enjoyed.  Reese was excited to get to push the button that started the embroidery on the gloves.  They were very nice at the Nokona factory and even gave Reese a styrofoam ball which we later used for some in-hotel room baseball action.

We made our way to Wichita Fall, checked into our hotel, played a little baseball in the room and then headed over to the Falls at Wichita Falls.  It was fun climbing around and also racing down the hill.

From there, we drove by the hospital where Greg was born and then had some dinner at McBrides Steak House.  This was something we never got to do back when we lived in Wichita Falls as we were trying to get through college.  It was quite tasty.  

Next, we headed to the campus of Midwestern State to see the Fantasy of Lights display.   This is a tradition in Wichita Falls every Christmas season and something we enjoyed taking our two little boys to when they were toddlers.  Most of the same displays are still out.   So we roamed about in the cold and enjoyed all the sights and sounds.  Then back to the hotel for a warmup in the heated spa. 

When we checked into the hotel earlier in the day, Reese told me that he had a surprise plan for me later.  But he needed a little help.  So I helped him set up the coffee maker to make a pot of coffee for later.  He asked me if I could forget about it because he wanted it to be a surprise later.   In my season of life, it is real easy to forget things, so after our dip in the spa, we headed back to our room and Reese surprised me with a cup of coffee.   We hopped in bed, turned on the Food Network (Reese’s favorite channel) and drank coffee and ate snacks that MawMaw had sent with us.

The next morning, we went back and explored the campus of MSU for a while, drove by our first apartment where we brought Doug home from the hospital and also drove by our little house where we brought Greg home from the hospital.  In our little neighborhood was a little playground that still has the same playground equipment in it so Reese got to play on the same equipment that his dad played on when he was only a couple of years old.  (As a matter of fact, we went to that park to play with Doug one day and Greg was born just a few hours later.)  We also stopped by our little church that we attended when we lived there – Sunnyside Baptist Church.

We had taken a couple of rolls of aluminum foil and on our drive back home, and made stuff out of aluminum.  Of course we both made a baseball glove and they turned out great.  We played a little catch with the styrofoam ball.   We also created what Reese described as a water slide that we rolled the ball from the front to the back seat. 

Last but not least, we had some McDonalds in Decatur and went over to a store called AgVantage.  It is a farm and ranch store owned by the Hancock’s (friends of ours from church).   We just roamed around and explored all the interesting things they had in the store and might have bought a little tractor and plow.   

We made it home safe and sound and I think just in the nick of time.  About 20 minutes from home, Reese started talking about being ready to see his new puppy, Lucy.

We had a great time and Reese is a great traveling buddy. 

Nokona Baseball Factory!

"The Falls" in Wichita Falls, TX

Love this one!

Fantasy of Lights display

Reese and Poppa

Sunnyside Baptist Church

standing in the baptismal 

aluminum foil glove and mask--Reese loved these!

shopping with Poppa...crazy boy!

so cool...Reese thought this was the coolest thing ever!

water-slide!!!

coffee, snacks and food network......that's my boy;)

MSU 

playing at the park that Doug and Greg played at when they were little

the house Greg was born in

watching them make a baseball glove

Reese really enjoyed this!