Can It Be Done?

What do you think? Can I cram 7 weeks of eventful life into one single post? Am I crazy to even try? Well, crazy I can do! Hang on....

Chris' big present from Grandpa. A real life 4 wheeler! Heaven for my boy.

Sister spectator.

Vrooom.

Taking it for a spin with Dad.

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Emily and I went to see Elmo Live! with Brandie and Lil'Bobby

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Bobby chaperoned the field trip to the zoo. He got the two Christophers! Can you tell that they had a LOT of fun? Look at those smiles!

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Emmy is 3!!!!!

The whole family (and honorary family) clan in the living room watching the Wii games.






$$$




She's not shielding her face from the paparazzi, she's showing us 3 fingers!



Yummy cake face.


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Easter Sunday



Bite off the bunny ear.


A huntin' we will go...


Ta Da! Now we're all caught up.
Kinda.....

Happy Birthday, Chris!!

Chris is 6!
We celebrated early while Grammy and Pop were here. We went out to Olive Garden with the family, then to church and then back to the house for cake and ice cream. It was nice and simple. : )

We cranked up the karaoke machine since we knew that Chris was getting a few new CDs to go in it.

The grandmothers watching the karaoke show.

Emily with Aunt Liz.

Pop.

I didn't get a face shot of Katie, but here's one of Chris talking to her.

Chris with cousin Connie who already poses like a model.

Chris generally does more dancing than singing. If you look closely on the present-opening pictures you can see that he's sweating. That's from all of the dancing. ;)

Major concentration while reading his card!
See the sweat?

My three.

With the football cake.

Happy Birthday, Buddy! We love you!

Emily's Hair

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Well, life is kra-zee.
I copied this out of an email that I just sent to a friend who asked what had been going on the last couple of months...

- I spoke with OUHSC and made a last minute decision to apply to nursing school for the fall of 08. The app. was due Jan 15th, which gave me about 3 weeks to get everything gathered.

- I enrolled in the wrong Microbiology class and figured it out the first day of classes. It was a pure miracle that there was one slot left in the right class - which of course, is a harder version!

- My grandmother died in Dec. and I flew down to Houston for her funeral.

- My grandfather (same side of family) died this past Sunday. The funeral is Friday.

- The Kettlers have set the date of 3/14 for us to move - um, that's 6 weeks from this Friday.

- We're pretty sure that Emily needs surgery on her eye. Don't know when that will be.

- Bobby's been through a lot of job INsecurity because of the new contract. Thankfully, I think we're through the worst of it - it's all working out as we'd hoped. God is good.

Anyway, I've had a lot of things rattling around in my brain and I really don't see a let-up until. oh, May! Cest' la vie. : )

Now you know why I haven't been posting.

Top 10 Predictions for 2008

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost.

I got this in an email and I LOVE IT!
Just thought I'd share...

Second Tooth Gone....

....down the hatch???!!!!

Bobby and I were in the kitchen after dinner when Chris ran up to us to tell us something. I turned to hang up a towel when Bobby said "Hey! Wait!" and looked closer at Chris' mouth.

The second tooth is gone.

And nobody can find it.

I think it was part of dinner....

Hugely Huge Pre-Christmas and Christmas Day Post

PRE-CHRISTMAS REVIEW:

"Mom.... we need to run in the snow!!!"

You can tell that it doesn't take much of that snow to impress us!

Next up... Emily's very FIRST haircut. She sat like she'd been going to spas for years.
The first sssnnnn-ip!

What a beauty.

Chris' class Christmas party was a blow-out. I wish I could show more pictures, but since this is a public blog, I don't want to take the risk.
These are the sweatshirts that they made to wear for the party.

We had a cookie decorating station along with the craft stations. Can you see the cookies? Nope, me either...
just piles of frosting & sprinkles.

This was our Christmas tree french toast breakfast. The original version calls for m&m ornaments, but I didn't have any so we just used sprinkles.


All dressed up for Christmas Eve service. We actually went to 3 separate church services that weekend. Our usual Saturday night at Life Church, Sunday morning with my aunt and uncle and then Christmas Eve on base. It was really nice to see all of our old friends from the chapel again.

p.s. Doesn't the tie add a nice touch? It was Chris' idea! ; )
Then.... Christmas eve, just before bed, Chris lost his VERY FIRST tooth!!
He's very environmentally conscious and thought that it would be ideal for the Tooth Fairy to sleigh-pool with Santa, hee hee.


CHRISTMAS DAY REVIEW:


Chris woke up to this under the pillow,


and then the kids opened up these...


and this...


and this...


and then they jammed with this karaoke machine.
It's actually a miracle that the picture shows Emily singing because Chris is the master of the microphone you know. She's supposed to be a back-up singer and should never forget it.


After a whole weekend of celebrating and cookie eating and ripping open presents three separate times, this is what happens.

A BELATED
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Conversations with the Kid

So, the kids, naturally, are very excited about Christmas, Santa in particular. I've tried to downplay that aspect of the holiday and have been reading books and discussing the role that Jesus plays for us as Christians at Christmas-time. In a nutshell, my message has been that God gave us the very best gift of all -- Jesus.

Okay, that's the background. So this morning while we were driving to school, Chris started talking about Santa.

me: "What does Santa do?"

Chris: "Well, God gives him all the presents and he takes them to people and then they are happy."

me: "What's the very best present of all?"
Clearly a test to see if our talks had sunk in. Sneaky Mom in action.

Chris: "Ka-ra-oke!"

me: "What about Jesus?"

Chris: "Hmmm.... I don't know what he wants for Christmas."

I Love Thomas Edison

See, Aunt Debi? I told you that would be my title!



So, if anyone was wondering why I hadn't posted pictures of the big ice storm yet, it's because we've been out of power since Sunday night. We finally got it back around noon today and while we're extremely blessed to have family around who didn't lose power, there's still nothing like being at home with lights and warmth and internet during a storm.

Here's the photographic evidence as usual:


Our poor little tree. Folklore has it that it's survived a lightning strike already, but this ice split it right down the middle. The grass was covered in solid ice yesterday.
It's really very pretty.



Trees in our neighborhood just down the street. Every yard pretty much looks like this.




The cute tree with little red berries in my in-laws yard was taken out. In a weird case of forshadowing, I took this picture of our Christmas tree the night before the power went out. Creepy.







I'll be out of commission again, for the next several days. My Granny passed away Monday morning after a long battle with ALS. I'll be away for her funeral through Saturday.

Go Fish

My new favorite music group: