A VERY EARLY Christmas Morning

On Christmas Eve we told Emma she could not get up between 1-4am, but anywhere from 5am on was ok. Well as soon as the clock turned 5:00am she was beside our bed with Ty saying they were awake and ready for Christmas. They loved what Santa brought them (Ty-Bible with his name on it and a Mickey Mouse raceway and Emma-Lucky the Dog and twin baby dolls) we also got to open presents from Grami and Poppy and Auntie Julee, Uncle Ed and the cousins, as well as each other. We had so much fun and after a lunch of ham with all of the fixings, we ALL took long naps!!!

Seeing what Santa brought.

Looking at the stockings.

Emma writing on a dry erase board.

Ty with his Longhorn jersey and gym shorts that Grami and Poppy got him.

Christmas Eve

This year I learned a lesson about boys and girls on Christmas Eve. Girls are excited about baking cookies and cakes and decorating them for Jesus and Santa, and boys would rather be outside riding bikes or playing. We started off with just Emma helping me make Jesus' cake and then after going on a bike ride with Ty and Jeff we got Ty to help with the cookies and decorating it all.

Emma helping mix the birthday cake for Jesus

Going on our bike ride

Putting reindeer food on the roof for Santa.

Ty and Emma cutting out cookies for baking.

Emma decorating and Ty licking eating all of the dough and icing off of his fingers.

Emma with her cookies.

Ty with his cookies.

Both of them with the cake, Ty helped ice it and Emma did the writing.

Getting a snuggle break with Daddy after the icing.

Putting cookies out for Santa.

Emma's Baptism

If you saw our post a few back, you saw that Emma made the biggest decision of her life, to give her life to Christ. Well this Sunday she was baptized to show everyone the decision she made. Jeff had the incredible opportunity of baptizing her, and he didn't even cry too bad :) ! That night Emma even got to participate in her first Lord's Supper--her comment after eating the cracker representing Christ's body "That tasted like paper" I told her I wish we could use the mini crackers b/c they taste better--she agreed!

Christmas with PaPa and MiMi

PaPa and MiMi got to come and celebrate Christmas with us this past weekend. We had such a great time, playing, opening presents, playing, eating out, and playing some more. Ty and Emma loved everything they received and MiMi and PaPa loved the photo book we made them!!

Emma and Ty in the Puppet Theatre they got.

Emma opening gifts

Ty opening gifts

PaPa and MiMi, Emma and Ty all looking at the photo book.

Christmas Parties and Mother's Day Out Program

This past week was full of fun things. Ty had his Mother's Day Out Christmas Program at Church on Tuesday, and Emma had her Christmas School Party on Friday. We had a blast at both of them!

Emma's teacher, Mrs. Nance, talking to the class.

Emma working on a craft.

Ty singing loud and proud at his program.

All of Emma's younger life I loved putting bows in her hair, but this year I was quite perturbed at the bow in the little girls hair right in front of Ty--it kept covering him up :)

The Best Christmas Present of ALL!!!

Saturday night we were given tickets to a Christmas musical at a local church. The youth minister had given Jeff tickets at a youth ministers meeting and I had heard it was really good, so we decided to go as a family--I am so glad we did! The whole musical was about a little girl and at the end she asked Jesus into her heart. After the pastor came up and led everyone in a prayer, Emma asked Jeff if she said that prayer would Jesus be in her heart. Jeff said, " Well you know that you're a sinner and that Jesus died on the cross for you and rose again, the only thing you haven't wanted to do is make Him boss of your life (we have talked about this alot at home), are you ready to make Him the boss?" Emma said yes and Jeff said, " ok we can talk about it more at home." Emma said, " No, I want to do it right now." So right there during the offering Jeff got to lead Emma to the Lord. WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR HER. She was so excited about it and has decided to get baptized next Sunday. She told one of her friends about it on the way to school and then her teacher told me she told her about first thing this morning. What a great gift, a long prayed for and awaited gift.

I posted this pic b/c it was the only one I took at the musical--they had live camels--although now that doesn't even compare to how the night ended!!!

Christmas Lights--Mississippi Style

This past Friday we all loaded into the van with the kids in their jammies and hot chocolate in hand. We went to go look at a few lights that we had heard about and boy some of them were very interesting!! The first house we went to, the yard was FILLED with blow ups and lights, They probably had over a hundred blow ups just in their front yard!! The second house was the last pic and was beautifully done. The middle pic and our last house of the night (after we looked at Graceland) was a house that had lights programmed to music on a radio station that they had posted in their yard!!! They've done this for years and even had traffic officers to help with the crowd. It was a fun family night.

In the van before we left

House with at least 100 blowups

House with radio lights

Beautifully done yard!

Little Gym Award Night

Last Thursday was award night at the Little Gym for Ty. They showed us everything they had learned about Football, Basketball, Soccer, and Bowling. At the end they received a medal and had a medal ceremony--it was too cute!! Ty was so proud.

Thanksgiving, Decorating the Tree, and Visiting Santa

For Thanksgiving this year my parents got to come in town and we had so much fun. Wednesday night we went and visited Santa, and then Thursday we had Thanksgiving lunch, took naps and then went to the movies. After the movies we got our tree out and decorated it. The next morning (after going to bed at midnight) my mom and I got up at 3:45AM to go hit the sales. We went to Penney's at 4:00, then stood in line at Circuit City until 5:00 then went to Target and stood in line until it opened at 6:00. We did get great deals and we had a blast making memories!!!

Emma's Field Trip to the Enchanted Forest

Emma had a field trip right before Thanksgiving to a place called the Pink Palace and at this time of year they have an area called the Enchanted Forest. We got to watch an IMAX movie called "Santa vs the Snoman" and go through the Forest, where there were all different kinds of decorated trees, gingerbread houses, and Santa at the end. This isn't Emma's whole class, but the ones we were walking around with.

Boots--the best kind of dog to have!!!

This dog is the best kind of dog you could ever have! It's actually our neighbor's dog and most days, when he hears us come out back to play, he'll crawl under the fence--hole made by a mole grrrr :( and then plays with the kids for a while. He even can fit under our gate and when we're out front he'll come around to play there too. He's great b/c we don't have to feed him, or take him to the vet, or any other dog duties, just play!! Last night was actually hilarious though---Ty was playing his drums in his room right before bed and after he quit, he and Jeff were praying before bedtime. As they're praying Jeff hears boots right outside of Ty's window barking b/c of the drums. Ty's bedroom is not even on the same side of the house as boots, but he heard it and came to tell us about it. Crazy, and a little scary that Ty's drums are so loud that you can hear them outside on the other side of our house!!!

I Can't Believe He's 4!!!

WOW what a day!! I can't believe my little boy is already 4 years old. It seems like he was just born and they were laying him in my arms. He said to me one time today, " When I was borned they gave me to Emma and I stopped crying" (I think he's heard that a few times from his big sis:) ) Ty came into our bathroom this morning and Jeff started singing Happy Birthday to him, then I made him a #4 pancake for his big four years. After that we took Emma to school and then I took Ty to school, in between all that he got calls from the grandparents. Jeff suprised him and picked him up from school and took him to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. After much playing and a nap, Ty had a haircut, got a call from his aunt, uncle and 2 cousins and for dinner we celebrated at McDonald's!! We ended the night with a phone call from his sweet friend Corin while watching Sky High and eating popcorn. To celebrate Ty I wanted to tell you the many things I love about him: Ty is loving and kind, usually he puts others before himself. For example the other day I asked him if he wanted to eat at McDonalds or Chickfila, He said, what do you want mommy? He loves to eat with people and not by himself--PaPa got a good taste of this when he had to eat a second waffle b/c Ty got up late and didn't have anyone to eat with, so PaPa sacrificed and ate another one!!! He is funny and not overly competitive, He is joyful most of the time and loves to sing and dance as well as play all of the different sports. He is a great little brother, pestering at just the right times and always caring and loving on Emma if she is upset. I am so thankful that the Lord has allowed us the opportunity to raise such and incredible little man and I can't wait to see all that the Lord has in store for him!!

Singing Sunday Night and Christmas Boxes

Emma and Ty both had the opportunity to perform in our Sunday Evening Service the night after his party, which was great b/c my parents were still in town and it was the first time any extended family has gotten to see them perform at church. Ty's class sang 3 songs and Emma's did 2. Ty was absolutely hilraious b/c for almost the whole first song Ty stood and kept messing with his belt and shirt. We could not figure out what was going on, however, near the end of the song, he came off the stairs and came up to Jeff and said, "can you tuck in my shirt" I have to admit, in our household Emma and I are the comfort dressers while the boys take over in the wanting to look good category. Ty was very concerned about his shirt, so Jeff fixed it and Ty went back to the stairs and finished the 2 songs doing a wonderful job!!! Emma's group sang one song and then sang and did motions with a black light for the second song. She had so much fun doing it and it really was impressive. At the end of the night was our opportunity to bring our shoeboxes for children around the world to the stage and pray over them. Ty did a good job this year in not wanting everything for himself that we put in the box, and Emma was so thoughtful with hers. She didn't want to put in a puzzle, b/c if they lost a piece of it they would be very sad. There were also a couple of other things she vetoed b/c of her caring spirit, but the sweetest thing she said was, " I wish Dollar Tree had bibles so we could put one in the box." I assured her we could get one even if it wasn't at Dollar Tree. However I did forget and remembered after they were all sealed up. I'm so grateful they put a little booklet in there in their own language.

Emma's clear box and Ty's snowman one

blacklight song

emma singing her songs

Ty finally doing the motions

Ty very concerned about his shirt!!!