Merry Christmas!!

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very nice. I had to work a couple of days while my parents were down here, but other than that we were at Leann and Ryan's house most of the time. Saturday there was a huge snow storm (while I was working) and it was blizzard conditions. It was so crazy. However, after all that, we all were together. This is a picture of all the grand kids. Can you believe it? It is a full house with all of us together. I guess that Mom and Dad should be thankful they only had two children!

Here are Richard and I with our coffee. How did we all get along without Starbucks? Gotta love it!! Obviously here are Ryan and Leann. Notice how Richard and I and Ryan and Leann do not have any children in our picture. That was a lot of work to keep them out of the picture.

Here are mom and dad at my house. Of course Wilson needed to be in the picture too as he is part of the family. He was very good staying here with Jasmine while we were off at Leann and Ryan's house. Good Dogs!!

And of course there is the traditional making of the gingerbread house. The kids and I worked on this Christmas day. We literally had it up for an hour and then ate it! It was really good. Apparently if you don't let ginger bread houses sit out for days at a time then they don't break your teeth when you bite into them. Who knew? Happy Holiday's everyone!

A Boy and His Dog

Yesterday Jacob was sitting by Jasmine (our dog who used to be Leann and Ryan's dog) and was starting to discuss with me how things work in the dog world. Jacob said that first the boy dog and the girl dog have to get married. Then the mom dog "has to stay home with her babies and the babies drink milk from the mom." He continued on, "the dad dog.....well....he goes out and goes hunting!" Ha! Have a great day everyone!

New Family Members (Again)

These pictures were from a couple days ago when we acquired new members to the family. The first picture is to show our Christmas tree. It is pitiful, but it was $10 so I am happy about it. I think that it is funny that the kids are almost as tall as it. Anyway, this next picture is Aaron and Jacob with their new fish, frog and shrimp. They love them, though the shrimp are really hard to find.

The girls had been begging for a hamster (Alyssa) and rat (Rebekah) so last week one of Richard's students was moving so they were giving away 2 cages and one hamster. They came with everything so all we had to get is the rat. The girls were so very happy. Rebekah named hers Mickey and Alyssa's is named Peaches.

I babysit Isabelle and Gideon every Tuesday and Wednesday while Leann and Ryan have meetings. So I took these pictures today as I think that these demonstrate the difference between boys and girls. You will notice that Isabelle is smiling nicely. The boys however, Gideon was squinting at me the whole time (because he thought it was funny) and Jacob was roaring at me. Boys! They are hilarious. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Thanksgiving

I hope that you all had a wonderful thanksgiving, I know that we did (even though I am not smiling in my picture, oh well). We had Thanksgiving by ourselves. It was very relaxing and we just made whatever our favorite things were. I even used my christmas goblets (which I usually forget that I have until after the holidays are over, go figure) so I was very proud of myself. We then decorated for Christmas. We listened to Christmas music while doing it, though I must confess that I have been listening to Christmas music for a while now. Actually, Leann and I always were listening to it in October when growing up so really, I am late! Then last night (Friday, the day after Thanksgiving) we got about an inch of snow. It is really pretty. The kids are having a great time playing in it. It is not sticking to the road or anything so that makes it very nice for us drivers. Richard had just got done cleaning out the garage yesterday so we could put our cars in there and then it snowed. I am so glad that he got that done. It is super nice not to have to get snow off the car. This is the first time that we have ever had a garage our whole married life. In North Carolina there were very few people that even had a garage on their house. Mom and Dad have been in Oregon over this Thanksgiving break and they should be back late tonight to their home. I know that they have had a fabulous time. Richard and I went and got our driver's licence changed over so we are officially part of Kansas now. Have a great weekend everyone!

Haiti Mission Trip

I would like to petition everyone for prayers as I will be (lord willing) going on a mission trip to Haiti, March 16-21. This will be to minister to the children in the orphanage and the community. My last mission trip was 2 years ago to New Orleans. It was when Hurricane Katrina had hit. It was a life changing experience. I am arranging for time off from school and work so that I may go. I would like to start applying for my passport next month so that I can be ready. God has blessed me with a husband who encourages me to go on these mission trips and is willing to be a parent by himself for a week. We are blessed that he is a teacher and it will be spring break for us. If you would like to look at the website it is http://haitichurchofchrist.org/ We will be organizing activities for the kids and visiting the hospital there. Please pray for the safety of all going and that everything that needs to be done will be done smoothly. Love, Mary

Check out my Slide Show!

I am trying to figure out how to use this slide show. I really like it, it is a lot of fun! These are pictures of Halloween. Then the others are just this weekend when we brought mom back home. Dad had gone hunting that morning and got a deer within a half hour. So my kids got to experience what it was like to slice up a deer! Oh, the memories. Alyssa didn't want to go outside so I only have one picture of her looking at the deer. It is cold in Nebraska! I think that Rebekah looks really scary for Halloween. We decorated our trunk of our car for Trunk or Treat at church. We had 30 cars there participating and over 300 kids showed up from the community. It was a lot of fun. Richard was very scary because he was in all black and would stand really still so people didn't know he was real until he moved. Have a wonderful day everyone! I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Sydney Evangeline

I am so happy that we have finally got to see Sydney. She is one precious little girl. Of course I needed to put this picture of Alyssa and Isabelle on here too. They are the best of friends. Every time the cousins see each other, it is like it has been years. So here are some pictures of us holding her. Enjoy!!

I would like to say that I went over to Leann and Ryan's house today and I still have not seen Sydney open her eyes. She is just very tired, either that or she is trying to ignore me!