1 year ago
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Nov. happen's update!
Well as I started out the November Happen's post with me getting my first deer......about 30 days later Aaron got his first deer with our other vehicle! Yes, we are now reaping the benefits of that car insurance that we have been paying how many years for. It's just those deductibles that make it not so exciting! Thankfully no one was hurt and neither vehicle was totaled. Now Aaron is thinking about getting into hunting to help with the problem!!!
Mackenzie turns 5!
I can't believe my little girl turned 5! I think back five years ago and I can barely remember, but what I do remember December 21st changed Aaron and my life forever! God blessed us with a beautiful baby girl and I can't even explain the joy that she has brought to our lives! She is so full of life, sweet (most of the time), smart, and her personality reminds me so much of myself'!
I have always felt a little guilty for her birthday being so close to Christmas, so we make a strong effort to make her birthday special, complete with a party and not just thrown together with Christmas. This year she chose to go to her favorite restaurant, Pizza Ranch, and we had my family along with one of her friends Tucker, whose parents happen to be our good friends as well!
It took Mackenzie up until the moment we had to order the cake to decide what "theme" she wanted for her party. It was between Dora and High School Musical and although I must confess I enjoy a little HSM, I am glad she chose Dora, a little more age appropriate for a 5 yr old. Kate was pretty happy with her choice as well.....Dora and Boots are a hot item at our house!
After dinner we came back to our house and did the traditional birthday party thing.....cake, ice cream and of course the presents!
These are the balloons that Aaron brought to Mackenzie when he came home from work! I was so impressed with his idea.......complete with both of her choices....a Dora AND HSM balloon!
Kate sporting one of Mackenzie's gifts....she also had the "glubs" on to match at one point!
She got so many special things.... HSM things, games, a lot of crafts to do (my favorite was the old pot holder loom and loop set), a jewelry box, calendar board...etc!
This is the part where the birthday ends and I start rambling about my child....again mostly for my memory preserving benefit, but if you would like you can either choose to read on or just exit!
I have been meaning to give an update on each of the girls for a while now, and this seems to be an appropriate time to do exactly that! Mackenzie is really enjoying preschool and I think she'll be very ready for Kindergarten next year, I just don't know if I'll be! She is such a good helper around the house and is learning to be a very good big sister. I would have to say her favorite activities are something involving art.....coloring, doing a kit, cutting and glueing, basically anything along that line. Like I mentioned earlier she likes Dora, High School Musical and a few other favorite shows are The Fresh Beat Band and Electric Company. She is still taking naps most days, and I am very thankful for that time during the day to just sit down and well.....do something like this! She loves being outside, playing school or playing "me being her sister and dad being her brother." I'm not really sure what she does when she instructs us of this, but it is about everyday that I hear that phrase. She is a fairly good eater....sometimes just sparadic. Her favorites are fruit, fruit and more fruit along with some Mac n cheese, pizza, hamburger rice casserole....the typical kid foods. Does like raw veggies with dip and if I really need her to eat....Mc D's hamburger with ketchup, mustard and pickle with a soft bun always does the trick! I just try to avoid that if I can!!! The one thing that she is not big on is dessert, maybe a couple bites of ice cream once in a while, but really not a big fan of the cookies, cake..etc. Does not like chocolate, but loves candy! ( just like her mom) She is now pretty much in"big" girls clothes, although I still try and do 5T sometimes, and coordinate the girls, but I think that time is soon coming to an end. She is just getting so tall, but then the next girls size is 6/7 and that is too big!!!
I think the 5's are going to be good for us, she has grown and matured so much in the last couple months and is starting to figure some things out. We feel so honored to be called her parents. I know God is working on her heart and as our prayer has always been we pray that He draws her to Him more and more everyday and that she will make that choice to call Him Lord of her life!
I have always felt a little guilty for her birthday being so close to Christmas, so we make a strong effort to make her birthday special, complete with a party and not just thrown together with Christmas. This year she chose to go to her favorite restaurant, Pizza Ranch, and we had my family along with one of her friends Tucker, whose parents happen to be our good friends as well!
It took Mackenzie up until the moment we had to order the cake to decide what "theme" she wanted for her party. It was between Dora and High School Musical and although I must confess I enjoy a little HSM, I am glad she chose Dora, a little more age appropriate for a 5 yr old. Kate was pretty happy with her choice as well.....Dora and Boots are a hot item at our house!
After dinner we came back to our house and did the traditional birthday party thing.....cake, ice cream and of course the presents!
These are the balloons that Aaron brought to Mackenzie when he came home from work! I was so impressed with his idea.......complete with both of her choices....a Dora AND HSM balloon!
Kate sporting one of Mackenzie's gifts....she also had the "glubs" on to match at one point!
She got so many special things.... HSM things, games, a lot of crafts to do (my favorite was the old pot holder loom and loop set), a jewelry box, calendar board...etc!This is the part where the birthday ends and I start rambling about my child....again mostly for my memory preserving benefit, but if you would like you can either choose to read on or just exit!
I have been meaning to give an update on each of the girls for a while now, and this seems to be an appropriate time to do exactly that! Mackenzie is really enjoying preschool and I think she'll be very ready for Kindergarten next year, I just don't know if I'll be! She is such a good helper around the house and is learning to be a very good big sister. I would have to say her favorite activities are something involving art.....coloring, doing a kit, cutting and glueing, basically anything along that line. Like I mentioned earlier she likes Dora, High School Musical and a few other favorite shows are The Fresh Beat Band and Electric Company. She is still taking naps most days, and I am very thankful for that time during the day to just sit down and well.....do something like this! She loves being outside, playing school or playing "me being her sister and dad being her brother." I'm not really sure what she does when she instructs us of this, but it is about everyday that I hear that phrase. She is a fairly good eater....sometimes just sparadic. Her favorites are fruit, fruit and more fruit along with some Mac n cheese, pizza, hamburger rice casserole....the typical kid foods. Does like raw veggies with dip and if I really need her to eat....Mc D's hamburger with ketchup, mustard and pickle with a soft bun always does the trick! I just try to avoid that if I can!!! The one thing that she is not big on is dessert, maybe a couple bites of ice cream once in a while, but really not a big fan of the cookies, cake..etc. Does not like chocolate, but loves candy! ( just like her mom) She is now pretty much in"big" girls clothes, although I still try and do 5T sometimes, and coordinate the girls, but I think that time is soon coming to an end. She is just getting so tall, but then the next girls size is 6/7 and that is too big!!!
I think the 5's are going to be good for us, she has grown and matured so much in the last couple months and is starting to figure some things out. We feel so honored to be called her parents. I know God is working on her heart and as our prayer has always been we pray that He draws her to Him more and more everyday and that she will make that choice to call Him Lord of her life!
Monday, November 30, 2009
November Happen's
~Beginning of Nov I got my first deer....well actually what really happened is a deer literally ran into the side of my Jeep as I was driving down a 4 lane Highway. It did a lot of damage to the Jeep, but surprisingly enough I was able to keep it on the rode and after stopping to see what all had happened was able to keep going. I am just so thankful I was by myself because it got Mackenzie's door pretty good!
~I started my second trimester and thankfully feeling so much better! I have most of my energy back and the nausea is gone!
~The weekend before Thanksgiving the Carlats, well most of them, came to visit. The girls, well Mackenzie had a great time with our friends that we left behind in Ames. Unfortunately Kate got Croup and we had to take her to the ER since it was the weekend and I got the stomach flu. It took us all last week to get over it and recover, but thankfully by Thanksgiving we were able to sleep through the night and eat!
~The Tuesday before Thanksgiving Mackenzie's school invited the families to come have a Thanksgiving meal with the students and they entertained us with a program as well.
~We had Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday, Aaron's Birthday on Friday and my Dad's side of the family Thanksgiving on Saturday.
~Aaron and I got to go Black Friday Shopping by ourselves. Aaron had several things on his list, but he didn't want to get up early to go. We didn't get to our first store until 9:00 and he ended up getting everything on his list at the best prices.....mostly tools! We topped it off with getting new phones, as we were in "need" and they were running the free phone with 2 yr agreement deal. It was nice to just do it together and I wasn't stressed because I didn't have anything pressing to get.
I can't believe tomorrow is December.........here's to getting into the Christmas spirit!
~I started my second trimester and thankfully feeling so much better! I have most of my energy back and the nausea is gone!
~The weekend before Thanksgiving the Carlats, well most of them, came to visit. The girls, well Mackenzie had a great time with our friends that we left behind in Ames. Unfortunately Kate got Croup and we had to take her to the ER since it was the weekend and I got the stomach flu. It took us all last week to get over it and recover, but thankfully by Thanksgiving we were able to sleep through the night and eat!
~The Tuesday before Thanksgiving Mackenzie's school invited the families to come have a Thanksgiving meal with the students and they entertained us with a program as well.
~We had Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday, Aaron's Birthday on Friday and my Dad's side of the family Thanksgiving on Saturday.
~Aaron and I got to go Black Friday Shopping by ourselves. Aaron had several things on his list, but he didn't want to get up early to go. We didn't get to our first store until 9:00 and he ended up getting everything on his list at the best prices.....mostly tools! We topped it off with getting new phones, as we were in "need" and they were running the free phone with 2 yr agreement deal. It was nice to just do it together and I wasn't stressed because I didn't have anything pressing to get.
I can't believe tomorrow is December.........here's to getting into the Christmas spirit!
Beth Moore & Concert
The first weekend in November a large group from our church went to a Beth Moore Conference in IL. I have had the privilege of seeing her a couple times before and have done several of her studies and every time I encounter her I walk away in amazement of her passion for the Word! I pray for just a fraction of that as it is something that I struggle with daily, making time to get into the Word and by getting into it, I mean "study" it, not just read it. Her conferences are like a big Bible study with awesome worship. We studied the life of John the Baptist (Matt. 3 & Is. 40) and 7 things to do if you want God to bring a fresh move in your life. When listening to her read the scripture it is like reading it for the first time, I get things I never understood before from reading it. She has so much knowledge of the history, culture and referencing that it just jumps off the page. She made it into a "movie" if you will! I don't want to make it sound like she is on some high pedestal, but rather recognize the Lord working through her. She is real and if you ever get a chance to go listen to her....GO!
Here are the 7 points she made about bringing a fresh move to your life:
1. Research God's promises
If religious people don't have a fresh encounter with God they will turn to legalism
2. Risk fresh hope
3. Redefine Repentence
4. Renounce territorialism
5. Recognize an offense
6. Reevaluate the promise
We can claim any promise under the NT
7. Regain the GOAL!
A servant of God will not be taken until his witness is complete
I got to go with my mom, my sister, my aunt and my mom's friend. We drove separately from the group and kind of did our own thing, with so many it's hard to coordinate all the details. We enjoyed some good girl time, good food and some good shopping! We got home late Sat night and on Sunday I got to top off the weekend by going to a Point of Grace/Mark Schultz concert with Mackenzie and a good girlfriend of mine! I have been to several POG concerts and have also heard Mark Schultz right when he was just coming onto the scene. I was pretty excited and after jumping through some hoops it all worked out and we got tickets and good seats. I love worshiping through music, it just one of those ways that makes you feel so close to the Lord especially when surrounded by hundreds of other believers!
I give a huge thanks to my husband for caring for our children and allowing me to have some time to refresh!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
My Mom's 50th!
November 1st was my mom's 50th Birthday and we wanted to do something special for her! We chose a smaller cocktail hour type of party at my Aunt and Uncles new condo overlooking the Mississippi River! She knew we were going to have dinner at their place, but what she didn't know was that there was going to be friends and some of her family from IL there too!
She was pretty surprised when she walked in and we crowned her the most beautiful 50 yr old!
My dad had special instructions to be "running late" so most of the people would be there before her!
So many friends and family came to help her celebrate........
And some came in style! Some of the ladies got together and thought it would be funny to dress up like an old women.........hilarious and "all out" I must say!
My mom, her mom and her 3 sisters!
The hostesses with the guest of honor! (Several other ladies helped with food and decorations as well)
Check out my sister's blog for more details of the evening including the menu and decor, she said it all much better!
She felt very blessed to have all these people celebrate with her and I have to say we are more blessed to have her in our lives! While planning the party we were trying to figure out what her favorite things were and we couldn't come up with much.....she just always does what everyone else does, eats what everyone else wants, or goes where everyone else wants to go that we had a hard time.
She was pretty surprised when she walked in and we crowned her the most beautiful 50 yr old!
My dad had special instructions to be "running late" so most of the people would be there before her!So many friends and family came to help her celebrate........
And some came in style! Some of the ladies got together and thought it would be funny to dress up like an old women.........hilarious and "all out" I must say!
My mom, her mom and her 3 sisters!
The hostesses with the guest of honor! (Several other ladies helped with food and decorations as well)Check out my sister's blog for more details of the evening including the menu and decor, she said it all much better!
She felt very blessed to have all these people celebrate with her and I have to say we are more blessed to have her in our lives! While planning the party we were trying to figure out what her favorite things were and we couldn't come up with much.....she just always does what everyone else does, eats what everyone else wants, or goes where everyone else wants to go that we had a hard time.
Halloween '09
Halloween this year was a little different, which was ok, it's not that big of a celebration in our family. Not the the girls don't get excited about dressing up and getting candy or us getting excited about watching them get excited....you get the point! It's just not one of our most favorite. This year I happened to schedule my Mom's 50th birthday party (post to come) for the same night as trick or treat. Thankfully the girls still got a chance to dress up on the Wednesday before for our church's Harvest Party!
Always the picture on the front porch...tradition...just like the first day of school!
Mackenzie had decided a while ago that she wanted to be a princess....which I have to say I was kind of shocked as she isn't into princess stuff all that much, but was thankful that I didn't have to go by an outfit.....she just used her dress up clothes! Oh, we did by the crown!
Kate on the other hand didn't have a choice....a duck it was....it is what Mackenzie wore when she was the same age. I always tried to get a non-gender type costume when she was picking them out for the very reason of all the kids being able to wear them growing up! Always thinkin...ha!
BUT on Halloween night my brother, who was watching them during the party, graciously agreed to pass out all the candy I had bought, before the party date was set mind you, to the hoards of kids in the neighborhood. We were warned right when we moved in that this was a popular area for trick or treating. I think the girls had just as much fun passing out the candy and seeing the costumes that they didn't even care that they didn't go door to door. They got their fair share of candy from the bowl and I think that is all that mattered!
Always the picture on the front porch...tradition...just like the first day of school!
Mackenzie had decided a while ago that she wanted to be a princess....which I have to say I was kind of shocked as she isn't into princess stuff all that much, but was thankful that I didn't have to go by an outfit.....she just used her dress up clothes! Oh, we did by the crown!
Kate on the other hand didn't have a choice....a duck it was....it is what Mackenzie wore when she was the same age. I always tried to get a non-gender type costume when she was picking them out for the very reason of all the kids being able to wear them growing up! Always thinkin...ha!
BUT on Halloween night my brother, who was watching them during the party, graciously agreed to pass out all the candy I had bought, before the party date was set mind you, to the hoards of kids in the neighborhood. We were warned right when we moved in that this was a popular area for trick or treating. I think the girls had just as much fun passing out the candy and seeing the costumes that they didn't even care that they didn't go door to door. They got their fair share of candy from the bowl and I think that is all that mattered!
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