Merry Christmas

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and continue to be so blessed! Christmas Eve we went to church as a family. Megan and I sang, "Christmas is a Feeling". It was beautiful and Megan did a great job! After church we went to our great friends house for dinner and a visit from Santa. The kids had a great time and we all enjoyed sitting on Santa's lap telling him what we wanted for Christmas. Once we got home, the kids and John and I opened some gifts and enjoyed visiting until MUCH to late! :) Nolan wrote a letter to Santa and we left him Cookies and Dt. Dr. Pepper. Santa left Nolan a letter back and he said that the Dt. DP was the best thing he'd had all night! :) Christmas morning we opened presents and received all of the treasures from Santa. We were all blessed and spoiled. :) Thank you Santa and Daddy! We enjoyed a wonderful day at the Price's for lunch and games. Nolan and Sam played their little hearts out and I don't know about Sam, but Nolan was EXHAUSTED! We then headed to Wichita for John's tradition of eating at Kwan Court for their Grand Buffet. We finally made it home and we all watched the classic National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It was a great day spent with family and friends and although Santa is very fun, we are so blessed that it was Jesus' Birthday and all that he brings to us every day.

Merry Christmas to all!

WE HAVE WATER!!

Oh, you don't realize how much you miss something until it's gone. Saturday morning we woke up to NO WATER! They advised us that there was a leak and that hopefully we would have it back on Sunday. Sunday night they said, FOUND the leak, you should have water tonight or tomorrow. Monday morning....UM, we found another leak, so if you are east of 100th and Purity Springs you don't have water and we don't know when you'll get it. Last night about midnight I thought, let's just see that we still don't have water just so I know I can sleep tonight. :) And what do you know, THE WATER WAS ON!!! It was glorious!! I woke up John and told him, it was like two kids on Christmas morning, we had to go check all of the faucets to make sure it was REAL!!!

Praise the Lord, we have water again and life is somewhat back to normal...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to Daddy...
Happy Birthday to you!!!

Today was John's ACTUAL birthday. We celebrated with NO WATER! He had a relaxing day with a nap got a lot of work done. Happy 40th honey!

NO WATER...and a party

So most of you know, I'm a serious party planner.  This holiday season, I got my house all decorated and thought, no one ever comes out here, so let's have small Christmas party.  SO, I invite some friends, purchase the food, I've baked all week, hence, no blogging, too busy to sit down, and last night prepared until mid-night getting ready for our fabulous party that we are going to have tonight.  WELL, this morning arrived a little "glich" in my plan.  WE HAVE NO WATER!

I call the Rural Water people and they say, "well, we have a leak and we can't find it, WHAT?!?!  How can you have a leak and can't find it, we continue to work on it and will let you know our progress."  Okay, no problem, I don't really have anything that needs a ton of water, we had a couple of gallons of water to wash our hands etc so we'll just plan that the water will be back on before the party.

12:15, I talk to my GREAT friend and happen to mention that she might want to pray that we get water as currently we don't have any.  She mentions that she's been cleaning and if the water doesn't come back on we can move the party to their house.  SO NICE, but no worries, the water will be back on.  We found out at 3 PM that they STILL have not found the leak and no word on when we might have water.  GREAT FRIENDS to the rescue.  Not only did they invite us to move the party to their house, they let us take showers there too!!  We could have cancelled, although I had all that food, but our gracious friends opened their home to let us continue the fun.  Praise God for great friends!!

We had a great time this evening and even had a special visitor from Santa himself!  Nolan had a great time visiting with Santa.  And each of the kids had a turn sitting on Santa's lap and telling them what they wanted for Christmas.  I only got a few pictures because my camera battery died...seriously when do you hit the max and have a melt down. :)  Again, great friends came through and I think they got some on their camera for us.  Whew!

Still no water and quite honestly, no water in sight.  But we had a great evening with friends and hopefully we'll have water tomorrow!  

I even had a chance to tell Santa what I wanted, 

I jokingly said, "DIAMONDS" but I think 

I should have asked for WATER!

Great Weekend!

We just arrived home from a GREAT weekend!!  Our friends and us headed to KC this weekend for a little get away.  We started our weekend off with a visit to the precious twin girls.  (See pictures below)  We did some shopping, which John and I are pretty much DONE, YEAH!  We stayed down on the Plaza, ate a wonderful meal at "Capital Grille" and went to the movie, "Four Christmas's".  This morning we opened up "Cheesecake Factory" for brunch and finished our shopping!! It was a great weekend!!  We need to make it a tradition!!  Lots of great food, shopping and company: now back to real life, working out and dieting! :) 

This was our breakfast...and NO it's not on our diet...but it was GOOD!

Meet Mallory and Allyson

"Christmas Memories"

Yesterday was a day of beautiful music and Christmas Memories.  First off we attended Nolan's Christmas Program at First Friends.  He did a great job!!  They sang two songs and shook the jingle bells.  He looked so handsome and was a very good boy!

Then it was off to Megan's middle school program, "Christmas Memories".  It was so great, the choir sounded wonderful and a couple of kids read their Christmas Memories.  I had the honor to sing a duet with Megan titled, "Christmas is a Feeling".  This was her first time having a "solo/duet" part and she did great!!!  I was so proud of her and so was her dad and rest of her family!!  She is such a wonderful young lady and a true blessing to all of us!

WELCOME Mallory and Allyson!!

Today we have been blessed!!  My brother and his wife had two healthy beautiful twin girls!! Mallory Nicole 5 lbs 7 ounces and Allyson Renee 5 lbs 6 ounces.  I'm stalking my email waiting for pictures! :)  I'll post as soon as I have them!!  

"31 years ago, it was a COLD morning"

I have heard that phrase from my parents for 31 years now.  That's correct, today is my 31st birthday...just to clarify it's not NEARLY as old as I thought it was when I was younger! :) 

Last night John and Nolan took me to dinner at Outback, greeted me with flowers and let me eat and drink whatever I wanted.  It was great!  

This morning I went for a 3 mile run with my great friend Kristine at 6 AM it was a COLD morning this year too! :)  When I got home John looked at me and said, "did you go running?"  I said, "Yeah, it was a little chilly but no snow" he had the most confused look on his face and he finally said, "I thought you were laying in bed asleep, Happy birthday!"  

I was a little chilly and sleep is always something I enjoy so I thought, maybe I can get a 30 min nap in before Nolan gets up.  MY WONDERFUL CHILD slept until 9 AM!!!  Happy birthday mommy!!  

I enjoyed a birthday of carmel popcorn on the couch with Nolan for breakfast, a viewing of "Mickey Saves Santa", some great calls, emails and texts from friends and family, an afternoon at the salon getting my hair done and finally safe at home with a sleeping 2 year old, chili in the crock pot and an array of yummy desserts from Dillon's Marketplace.  Glorious day!

Happy Birthday Mommy!  

All day yesterday when I would try to get him to say Happy Birthday mommy he would say, Happy Birthday Nolan.  FINALLY this morning he said Happy Birthday Mommy.  Too Cute!

Nolan enjoyed smelling the beautiful flowers that John brought for me.

He got a little close once and he said, "Oh, it got my boogie!"

Basketball Off to a great start!

Tonight was Luke's second basketball game of the season.  Basketball is Luke's sport, definately his favorite I do believe.  

The first was last Friday vs. Augusta.  It was a bit of a nail biter and I forgot to take pictures!  AUGH!  They won in overtime, whew...it was a good one.  Luke hit a 3-pointer right when they needed it, it was great!!  

Tonight they played Pratt at home.  The final score was 46-36, great game again and Luke did great!  We are so proud of you!!  2-0 we'll see how the rest of the year goes. :) 

Good defense 32!

"Box out"

Nolan enjoying some time with Mimi.

And playing with Grant is always a bonus too!

FBC Children's Christmas Program

I remember when I was a kid, being in the Christmas program at church, there was always something funny that happened.  One year, this little girl got up on stage and says, THERE'S MY DADDY!  We laughed about it and how cute it was. 

Well, last night was the FBC Children's Christmas program and what a wonderful program it was!!  Nolan was a part of the toddler song, they did great!!  Our very own Miss Kansas, Emily Deaver, sang "Let's Celebrate" and the little ones rang their bells and sang "gloria"...kind of! :)  Well, they all get up there and I was trying to stay out of sight as Nolan wasn't real sure he wanted to be away from me, but if I'm out of the picture things go much better, right.  SO, they all got in there and Nolan sitting so cute spots me and just like the little girl when I was little yells, THERE'S MOMMY...HI MOMMY!! It was SO cute!!!  He didn't run off the stage either so that was good!!  They did great and Emily sounded wonderful...THANK YOU EMILY!!!

"Let's Celebrate"

Emily Deaver, Miss Kansas

It's so hard to take pictures in the sanctuary, but this is the best I could do....

Nolan is in the middle.

Nolan all done and getting off the stage. 

Nolan and daddy in front of our Christmas Tree...

Nolan and "Ha", Heather. :) 

She is Nolan's FAVORITE!

Makin' Cookies with Mom

Yesterday Nolan and I had a blast making cookies for the basketball boys.  Chocolate Chip and Christmas Peanut Butter cookies...YUM!!!  Nolan enjoyed dumping the ingredients in the bowl, stirring and of course liking the batter!!  He first had a taste when it was only crisco and brown sugar and egg, he says, "that's real good mom".  I thought, wait until it's ALL in there.  He soon found out what REAL GOOD was when they were complete and he was able to like the beater.  YUMMY!!!  Good times making cookies with mom...

Big helper

Sneak a lick with only Criso, sugar and an egg..."That's REAL good!"

Yummy...

Now THAT is real good! :) 

Santa's Boots

Today was a good day.  We've struggled a bit this week getting back into our routine after a long weekend with daddy home, Luke and Megan here and a visit with my family over Thanksgiving.  We had to "de-vacationize" Nolan.  I have to admit the first couple of days this week was a struggle and I appreciate all of you that were praying for my sanity. :)  Luckily Amy helped out yesterday and we took the kids to McDonald's to eat lunch and play.  WHEW...

TODAY on the other hand, we're getting there.  Nolan had a great day and I feel we are getting back into the swing again.  THANK GOODNESS! :) 

Tonight after Nolan went to bed I was decorating the formal room hearth and I heard his door open.  He does this sometimes and just lays on the floor by his door.  I ignored him thinking he'll either lay there and go to sleep or he'll go back to bed, or he could get in trouble, which is always a possibility...so I waited to see what was going to happen.  

After a bit he says, "I see you".  I laughed and said, "Honey you need to go back to bed".  He said "look at Santa's boots".  I didn't really think about it at first, but he said it again, "Santa's boots...1, 2, 4, 5" (That's counting to 5, he has something against 3).  I finally realized he was talking about the stockings that were hanging on the hearth.  Stepping back and looking at them, by golly they do look like Santa's boots, I had never thought of that.  It's amazing how when we let our children observe what they see through those tiny, wonderful eyes.  

I wanted to blog this so that I'd put it in my record of memories.  Have a wonderful day and after they have climbed your refrigerator door and emptied out all of the condiments, or stuck gum up their nose, or screamed so much you thought you'd go insane, let your children observe, they an cshow us the most fascinating things in life. :) 

Santa is coming to town...

Nolan took a trip to the North Pole to visit Santa.  He was a bit shy at first but since then he LOVES Santa!  Can't stop talking about the guy.  Unfortunately he hasn't put together that Santa brings gifts and you have to be good for Santa to come....BUT maybe next year.  :)

We're SLOWLY getting the Christmas Decorations up.  I'll post pictures when they are done.  The tree is up and Nolan has enjoyed taking the balls off the tree.  Good Times.