We spent Christmas day at home this year. My parents came for a late breakfast and stayed until evening. It was a good day of kicking back and enjoying one another and relaxing. The girls each got Nintendo DSs, as that was their big gift and they were thrilled. My mom's birthday is on Christmas, so we got to celebrate her birthday in addition to the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
We had a Christmas Eve service at our church and this is a picture I snapped as we were waiting for the service to begin. I was asked to do the children's sermon for the preschoolers during the service. I did this last year as well, but I was costumed as an angel. This year, no costume. We had nearly 100 kiddos join me up front and I did a lesson about bells and just like the bells are created to make a beautiful sound, we are created to tell others about the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ! I don't mind doing this children's sermon type of thing, but I have to admit that I'm also glad it's over with for another year...
Pink (by Abby)
Lights, Camera, Action (by Abby)
Both of the girls' school have PTA, of which I am a member. The PTA offers an annual Cultural Arts competition in which kids are encouraged to use some sort of art form (writing, visual arts, photography, music, dance) of which they produce and submit some sort of work to compete against other students. Every year I think that it's such a great opportunity, but I've never had my ducks in a row enough to have either Abby or Molly submit anything. This year I was bound and determined to have them submit some sort of masterpiece. Molly created a splatter paint creation which she titled "Stars and Splatters." Abby submitted two photography pieces, as she's becoming quite the master of photography. One is of a gerber daisy on our front porch this summer, which we called "Pink" and the other was a photography creation from a mistake. This summer while we were at Disney we went to the night time parade and Abby's camera wasn't sure what to do with it being dark and wanting to flash. She turned off the flash, but then she had to hold the camera still and the objects she was taking photos of were moving and she got a very cool effect of loving lights. She titled that peice "Lights, Camera, Action!" This year's competition theme was WOW! They both turned in their pieces the last day of school before break. Not sure when we'll hear the results. I'll keep you posted.
Molly and the Jolly Man in Red
A couple of weeks ago I took Molly and her friend Peyton to Taco Bell...not for lunch, but to see Santa. When we first got there, they handed each child a kazoo to entertain the little ones while waiting to see the man in red. It was noisy, but I didn't hear anyone complaining about waiting the few minutes. Peyton looked around while we were waiting as he noticed most of the kids were preschoolers and he asked me, "Do you think we're too big to see Santa?" My reply to that was, "You're NEVER too old for Santa." Wouldn't you agree? Molly and Peyton each had their chance to sit and chat with Santa, they were then given some gifts, and we were on our way.
Abby during the concert
"Oh Mom...do you have to take my picture?"
Girlfriends! Caty, Lexi, Ashley, and Abby
Buds Forever: Paisley and Abby
Abby plays two instruments for the bands at school: the clarinet for the "regular" band and the tenor saxophone for the jazz band. In the regular band, Abby is currently seated as first chair. The bands had a Christmas concert in December and here are a couple of photos from the event.
We had our annual Christmas celebration with our college gang the first weekend of December. At that time it seemed like Christmas was so far away...now it's just around the corner!!
We got word before Thanksgiving that Paul's uncle (his mom's only sister's husband) went home to be with the Lord. While in Michigan for Thanksgiving, we stopped to see Aunt Sharon. Although we were not able to stay longer and attend Uncle Duane's memorial service the following week, it was nice to have a visit with Aunt Sharon and two of her grandkids, Victor and Duane.
A Thanksgiving Snowball Fight
A Little Card Game
Rock Band Anyone? (Yes, even Paul is trying!)
We spent Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family in Michigan. It was great to catch up with relatives, the food was yummy (of course) and it was a nice little three day get-away. Here are a couple of pictures taken while we were celebrating Turkey Day.
I remember when my parents and their friends all turned 40 and they seemed to all have parties to celebrate the momentous occasion. Now it's my generation's turn to do the same! We got to celebrate the turning of the big 4-0 this weekend at a party for Melodye, who is one of my sorority sisters from college. She and her family are part of what we affectionately call the "college gang," the group of friends and their kids whom we get together with several times a year. I like to remind all of the gals that I'm the baby of the bunch and there will be no celebrating for my 40th until 2010!
Virtually every year we have a small photo shoot of the girls in a leaf pile. Molly was much more into the whole idea this year, but Abby was a good sport and joined in. Even though Abby might not like sitting in a pile of leaves, she very much likes "traditions." Molly loved jumping into the pile -- the hard part was for me to capture her midair!
It's always fun to see the loot the girls get for Trick or Treat. It's a tradition after Trick or Treating to dump out the candy onto the floor, sort it, and trade. The girls got something this year that I've never seen before: Halloween candy which acts as a push for political campaigning. Here you'll see the Republican gum. Clever, indeed. Unfortunately, it didn't work to the Republican's advantage...
Molly wasn't the only Dorothy from the "Wizard of Oz" this year! Jennie, one of her very best friends was Dorothy, too. Funny thing about that is both girls chose Dorothy without the other knowing. At school in Molly's class Madeline was also another Dorothy and Jenna was the Wicked Witch of the West. Fun, fun, fun.
The weather was PERFECT for Trick of Treat this year! It's interesting to see the choice of costumes as the girls get older. Molly chose the Dorothy from the "Wizard of Oz" costume friends from church handed down to us from their daughter (who is now in 9th grade). I tried to convince Molly to wear the costume last year, but my sales techniques weren't good enough then. I thought Molly was a perfect Dorothy! Abby is old enough to figure out her own and she decided to be a Steelers fan. Nothing wrong with that, for sure! Here are a couple pictures of our Trick or Treat kids. It's a shame they didn't get any candy...
Yesterday was a practically perfect fall day and I needed to take a break from the "busy-ness" of life and I declared it was time to go do what now seems to be our annual fall photo shoot. We went to a local park and it made for a beautiful backdrop! Abby and Molly were quite the little models and we like the end result of many of the photos. We had lots of smiles and fun on this bright and sunny day! If you get a chance, take a look back at the blog from last year's fall photo shoot in November and see how Abby and Molly have changed. For some reason, they keep getting older (not I...just them)!
Silly girls! Need I say more?
It's always surprising to me how Molly loves to get her picture taken when we do these "photo shoots." She just poses and and I click away. We got some cute ones this time around, don't you think?
