Merry Christmas

I hope this finds everyone enjoying the Christmas Season! Tomorrow I plan to finish my baking by letting the girls decorate cookies. They have been anxiously awaiting that!
We plan to make our way to PA on Friday morning and will head back South on January 1st. Our visit looks busy and will fly by I am sure. David and I are looking forward to a mini Honeymoon getaway for two days and two nights! We thought it was about time since we cannot remember the last time we did!
We hope you have a great Christmas!!

Rissa LOVES to color. I have been surprised with how well she does for two years old!

We had our family Christmas last Sunday. The girls had fun opening gifts, but are still waiting for their big gift! Daddy has been busy making them a play house for the back yard at the shop and they cannot wait till it is finished and can be brought home!

Playing with some new toys.

Each of the girls got new PJ's

Rissa can now pretend to be at her favorite place all the time!

Rissa thought her new Dora puzzle was great!

Rissa will now be ready to head to the North Pole, I mean PA, with her new warm boots!

Even Treyton got in on the fun!

Amber had her school Christmas Play last Thursday. It brought in (as always) quite a crowd. We fed 350 people a full course supper, who then all stayed for the play.

Amber was nervous, but she had fun. As a first grader, she only got in on the singing parts of the play.

Treyton liked the music. He has started this new thing of bouncing whenever he hears music. (:

Projects

Yes in case you wondered, we are still here! Seems like life is busy, busy! Every spare minute I have is spent baking. Now this week I have to make 4 pumpkin pies and three batches of cranberry salad for the school Christmas banquet/Christmas Play Thursday night, on top of baking my cookies.
All the while, Treyton is dealing with another ear infection that just won't go away. He has been on antibiotic for a week now. He could not have amoxicillin since he just had it, so this stuff must not work as good? Plus he just got two more teeth. So goes the life of Motherhood! (:
We have been having colder than normal weather, in the 20's through the day! (: Oh, well, it should not last too long!
The last week, the girls have done a couple little extra projects for fun as you will see below. (:

Our librarian told us about making a gum-drop tree. I thought it would be a cute and unique thing to do. (:

They thought it was interesting!

Jenny and Rissa had fun making reindeer antlers at the library story time.

The girls helped unwrap candy for my cookies, I tried to make sure that the candy was put into the bucket,not their mouths (too much anyway, it is Christmas right? ) (:

They enjoyed putting the candy into the cookies.

One Sunday night we tried our hands at home-made soft pretzels, they were pretty good!

"Mommy's Little Heart-Breaker"

This past Sunday I stayed home since Treyton was sick. Rissa stayed too, so while Trey slept, I took the opportunity to have quality time with JUST Rissa! We read books, colored a picture and did a little swinging out in the cold.

Peek-a-boo!

A pretty South Carolina sunset!

I recently was talking to a friend who said that sometimes we Christians are more like the children of Israel than we would like to admit! We are not easily satisfied; we complain when it is hot, but complain when it is cold too, maybe our house is too small, but if it were bigger we would not like how much more cleaning we have to do, or our vehicle is rusty and has tires that fall apart cause they are too worn, (yes we had another flat, but all are now new!), but we don't have payments to complain about each month, our kids are always getting sick, but we complain when they are FULL of too much energy. It is so easy to think that things can always be better than how it is at the present! I was challenged recently with a story/song I heard on the radio recently, that makes my complaints look small, and made me feel guilty for not being more thankful for how God has blessed me and my family! Especially at this time of year where family togetherness is thought about even more than usual.
Click on the link below to see a song that was written about a true story. Maybe you like me will think twice about complaining about the little things. (:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye39mgcHC3E

Our Thanksgiving and More

I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving! We did! We were just ourselves for lunch. In the afternoon we taught the girls how to play the table game "Aggravation" (which they enjoyed). Then in the evening we went bowling, a first for the girls.
This has been a busy week spent in the kitchen. I had to make a ham for widows supper, make a meal for a friend who had a baby, and tonight we are having company for supper. I hope to start Christmas baking next week, so it will not be any better! (:

The girls had fun helping to decorate for Christmas!

Treyton and his best buddy!

Waiting for Thanksgiving lunch.

Amber had insisted that she did not want to bowl, but we made her try, she cannot wait to go again!

Sometimes we wondered if Jenny's ball was even going to make it to the end! (: Like the time the ball slowly rolled up the lane, bumped into a pin and stopped. lol, reset...

Even Rissa liked it!

You just never know where you might find Treyton anymore!

I think the cotton fields ready for harvest are pretty.