Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

I'm taking the rest of the year off! :)

Daddy's Girl

Ok, I'll admit it, as much as I always say that Emma Lee is a lot like me, she also has a good bit of her daddy in her too! Outside of my dad who has lists any and every where, Andy makes the most lists of anyone I've ever met. Emma Lee has also developed a love for lists, and I find them all over the house. Here's today's:

*The proud mama/teacher in me would also like to point out that every word is spelled correctly and she's even mastered the use of the possessive apostrophe! :)

The Next Level

I feel like we've taken a step up to the next level in our life as parents. That's right, even though it's not the "official" swagger wagon,

we are now proud new owners of a minivan!

Hey, I think it's already been proven that dads have major cool points, and a minivan only enhances that. Just in case you still have  some doubts, I offer you more proof: 

I mean, come on, just because I may be a minivan driving mom doesn't mean that I have to pull out the mom jeans anytime soon (or ever)!

Oh, by the way, while it has been proven in this post that owning a minivan does not inherently make one "uncool," if one was to happen to take a lets-all-jump-in-the-air picture in front of said minivan, that would most likely result in a pretty significant deduction of cool points. 

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Just Because . . .

he's so amazing 

                        . . . my sweet husband not only decided to fix my favorite breakfast this morning (biscuits and gravy, sausage, and eggs),

he also decided to pull out the Christmas tablecloth and napkins and really do it up right! 

Yep, he's a keeper!

Mermaids, Mice, & Men

We've had some busy busy days visiting with my two youngest brothers - one who has just been stationed at Fort Benning, GA (a mere hour and a half away!) and one who is home on leave from Iraq. Like the good uncles they are, they agreed (with complaint!) to some girly activities with their little nieces. We had a fun time visiting the aquarium and seeing "real live mermaids" (said in Kerri's voice) with Nathan.

Jeremy got the privilege of watching Tangled with us, but he also managed to fit in a lot of wrestling time!

We managed to make it back to GA in time to meet the mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" at today's library story time.

   Next up on our agenda - lots of baking of Christmas goodies for our neighbors and getting our Christmas cards in the mail!

Mini Concert

Emma Lee loves making up songs and singing them. Here's a little concert she put on for me the other night. She did three songs - all made up on the spot. My favorite is the second one - it made me laugh so much (in my head of course because she offends very easily!) -  and she ended the set with a sweet little Christmas song. You can also see that participating in Xtreme Praise at church is influencing her to add in some dance moves.

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Johnsons Unedited: Kerri on Favorite Restaurant

I think we're way overdue for a Johnsons Unedited sequence, so Kerri kindly agreed to answer a question for me tonight. Today's topic - favorite place to eat. Enjoy!

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Andy said today that Kerri is like a living breathing cartoon, and he is so right! Seriously, have you ever seen or heard anything cuter??? I'm sure going to miss this when she grows up!

P.S. You can always type Johnsons Unedited in the search box to catch up any you have missed or to watch them again and again. ;) 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

*Little frustrated with how I can't get the pictures to do it justice. Anyone have any suggestions on what settings to use for taking pretty Christmas tree/lights pictures?? 

Christmas

. . . is about adoption . . . 

"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."  Galatians 4:4-5 

Jesus didn't leave the comforts of heaven to be born in a stable and die a cruel death just so He could experience life on earth. He did it for you; he did it for me, so we can become part of His family. 

It's hard work to adopt. Things have to be given up, sacrifices have to be made, your privacy is invaded, you can even get hurt, but all this is worth welcoming someone new into your family. Jesus did that for you! Are you ready to become a part of His family? Are you ready to tell others about the family you're in? This Christmas, let's celebrate our adoption.

It's a Wonderful Life

. . . and I'm so grateful!

Sew Cute!

This week the girls and I ventured out on our first little homeschool outing. Every other Thursday, a group of girls meet to do crafty type things - this week it just so happened to be sewing. Emma Lee was thrilled to learn how to sew and is very proud of the hand-sewn sachet she made.

 

Here she is hard at work:

Look at those great stitches!! She did everything (but thread the needle) all by herself!!

She now has her own little sewing basket and is begging for more projects (stay tuned!)

What about Kerri, you ask?

Well, I think the look on her face says it all.

Maybe she'll be more interested next time. ;)

Good Times

Not only did I get to take their pictures, but I also got to keep these adorable little ones overnight!

I LOVE still having some family close enough for sleepovers and get-togethers!

4th Annual Christmas Tree Trip

For the last four years, we've gone somewhere in the mountains of NC to a choose and cut Christmas tree farm with Andy's parents. This year, Andy's sister and her family were also able to join us. Somehow, in all the craziness, I didn't manage to get a group photo, but here are a few pictures from our day.

The hunt begins

Maybe this one?

Getting the thumbs up!

No better way to warm up then with a fire and some hot chocolate!

Oreo

It cracks me up to see him go from this

to this

Plus, check out his adorable little Christmas bow tie! :)

Oh yeah! I'm one of those people who think it's super cute to dress your little dog up! (It's just too bad he's a boy - they make much cuter girl stuff!!) Bring on the Christmas sweaters and reindeer antlers!

From

From tears to laughter

From frustration to relaxation

From disasters (however small they might be) to solutions

From acquaintances to friends

You gotta love the days (like today!) that take a turn for the better!

Christmas Cards

Every Christmas season I look forward to the rush of "fun" mail. December is the one month of the year where the "good" mail outweighs the "bad" mail. Did you know you can learn a lot about people based on when their Christmas cards arrive? You have the overachievers: their cards will arrive precisely on December 1st! You have the Goldilocks mailers: their cards will be not too early and not too late but just right! You also have the late bloomers: their Christmas cards turn into Happy New Years updates. Finally, you have those who might send out cards every couple of years because I, I mean they, just don't get around to it every year.

Whenever they come, I enjoy getting them. My favorites are the ones with personal pictures. Have you seen the great designs you can make all with a few simple clicks on your computer?? I love these from Shutterfly! We've used them for cards and prints before, and my all-time favorite of their products is their hardback photo books like these! I love scrapbooking, but I feel so much more comfortable leaving these out for my girls to pick up and look through (not to mention that they are way faster and easier to make!). Anyway, if you are a fellow blogger, Shutterfly is offering a promotion right now to give away 50 free cards if you write a post about them and their promotion. Guess I need to narrow down my choice, and pick out my free cards to send out this year!!

P. S. (Can you do a P.S. on a blog post??) What do you do with all the Christmas cards you receive? I'm always trying to come up with a creative way to display/enjoy them through the holiday season.  

Our First Christmas

In a way, we feel like this year will be our first Christmas. It will be the first of many Christmases that we spend together as a family in our own home (we'll do all our traveling after the fact). Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year, and I've been dreaming up grand plans and traditions that we can make our own this year. In the back of my mind, though, there's always been a part of me that thinks that I don't make a big enough deal about why we celebrate Christmas. In the past, it has been too easy for me to keep that thought in the back of my mind, or to just satisfy it by throwing in some little conversations here and there and adding in a little extra Bible reading.

Yesterday, I read this, and it completely changed my outlook. You have to stop and read it now, or the rest of this post will not make much sense.

My first reaction was thinking this is crazy! Who'd give up presents at Christmas time?! What kind of bad parent would you have to be to not get your kids any Christmas presents?!

My second reaction was one of guilt. Why do I think it's okay to be satisfied with making Christ a small part of Christmas? How can I feel bad about giving up my presents when God gave up His Son for me?

My third reaction was hope. As in, I hope that I can just feel bad about this for a while, and then go back to having "real" Christmas plans, or I hope that maybe God just wants to show me to do a little better at sharing the true meaning of Christmas with my girls.

My fourth reaction was shame. I'm sorry, I can't be a better follower of You. I just can't.

My fifth reaction was to question. Why can't I? What is holding me back? What lessons do I want to teach my girls? What do they need that they don't already have? Is getting them a new doll or toy that will be played with for a while and then be forgotten under the bed more important than teaching them to love and care for others because we love Jesus and want others to love Him? Why can't I?

My final reaction was one of acceptance and excitement. In fact, the more I thought about it while I was waiting to talk about it with Andy, the more excited I got! I think the clincher for me was thinking about it as Jesus' birthday (not that I've never heard that before - just that I've never taken the time to honestly think about how we celebrate His birthday). Birthdays were always a huge deal in my house when I was growing up. They were pretty much equivalent to a national holiday. I've continued in that pattern and made my girls' birthdays a pretty big deal every year. Why have I made Jesus' birthday a big deal for us instead of for Him?  Well, things are about to change!

With this being our "first" Christmas, it's the perfect time to set new traditions. Here's our take on it. We are going to give presents to Jesus for his birthday! It's not about us - it's about Him! On Christmas morning, the girls will have one special present from us to help us talk about the most important gift that we've ever received. They will have stockings as their "treat bags" from Jesus at His party. We will then spend time around the Christmas tree with catalogs from Compassion, Samaritan's Purse, Partners International Harvest of Hope, World Vision, Gospel for Asia, and any others we find. Together, we will pick out presents for Jesus.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25: 34-40.

*For clarification, I don't think that gift giving at Christmas time is wrong. Our Christmas will actually last about a week with all the traveling and spending time with our families, and many presents will be given and received over that time. For us, in our own home though, this is how we have chosen to celebrate our Christmas morning and our personal gift exchanges. 

On the Road . . . Again

Wednesday the girls and I loaded up the car and set off for NC. We have many scheduled stops and tons of fun planned. The night before we left, Andy said, "You are taking Oreo, right?" (Yeah, he's still not a huge fan of us having a dog, but between you and me, I think he doesn't want to get too attached because that way none of the dog responsibilities will end up on his plate. Guess, I understand why because I cleverly managed to "temporarily" make changing Felix's litter box his responsibilty over 6 years ago and guess who has continued to change it ever since??) Anyway, of course Oreo had to come along. I tried my hardest to get a cute shot of them all in the back seat. You know what they say -

If at first you don't succeed,

try

try

try again

. . . and then just give up!

For the record, Oreo was only insanely crazy for about the first 15 minutes. After that, he curled up and pretty much slept the whole way! 

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Monday we celebrated the girls 5th and 6th birthdays. How did that happen?? I can't believe how quickly they are growing up, but as sad as it is to think about how they're not babies anymore, every year just gets better and better. I'm looking forward to all the fun and excitement these ages will bring.

We spent the day together as a family at the Atlanta aquarium, visited The Varsity for dinner, and then headed over to Stephen and Rachel's house (my brother and his wife) for some cake and ice cream. Whew! Busy day! Of course, I took a ton of pictures, you can click here to see all of them, but here are a few highlights.

Thinking about how big the girls are now led me to looking through all the pictures of them growing up to this point. I also found a few old video clips, so here's a little walk down memory lane.

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Cake, Cake, and More Cakes

It's about time! I've finally found most of my cake pictures and have them all together in one place! I'm definitely learning as I go, and I'm always looking for an excuse to make a cake! Want to check them out? You can click the Just Icing on the Cake link at the top of the page, or you can always just go to it directly at justicingonthecake.blogspot.com

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, and November 20 is National Adoption Day. If you are considering adoption as a way to grow your family, why don't you take some extra time to pray about it this month. If you are not considering adoption at this time in your life, why don't you give it some thought and prayer.

Will you accept the challenge to do something to help adoptions this month? You may choose to set aside some time for some serious prayer this month, or you may choose to donate some of your time, money, or supplies to help the cause of either domestic or international adoption.

Our family is planning some special activities this month to help us celebrate our adoption and the country we are adopting from. Want some ideas? Here's a neat little calendar I found with an idea for every day of the month.

Gorgeous Mermaids

This was the first year that I didn't have a costume plan. Instead, I took the girls to a store and said go ahead and pick whatever you want (although I admit I did try to steer them toward a super cute little red riding hood costume). They spotted the Merliah (a mermaid from a Barbie movie) costume right off the bat and there was no other option for them in their minds, especially when I agreed to pink hair dye to get the real Merliah look!  (It was too hard to not give in after laughing so much at them asking if they could get their hair "dived.")

Here's their conversation as they were getting ready:
Emma Lee: "Kerri! You look gorgeous!
Kerri: "Gorgeouser than you??"
Emma Lee: "Welll, not that gorgeous."

Of course, Mommy had to make the decision that they both had the same amount of gorgeousness. Don't you agree?

And . . . just in case you're wondering . . . here are their answers to "What's your favorite candy?"

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