The Christmas Season

The Christmas Season has begun!!! These next few weeks are my absolute favorite time of  year. I love Thanksgiving, Black Friday (only on Friday), and the holiday traditions that we leading up to Christmas. See what we have done so far already this season...

The event that we are still working on is putting in hard wood floors throughout pretty much the whole house. It is a slow process but Matt is doing a wonderful job. This isn't the most current picture, but it gives you an idea of what the hard wood looks like. The kitchen is pretty much finished, so on to the hallway now. 

After shopping on Black Friday, we bundled the kiddos up and went down to see the Plaza lights. We stopped at Latte Land, which is now Kaldi's to enjoy some hot chocolate and cookies. Below are the children blowing kisses. 

Saturday night we had some dear friends over and they helped us decorate our Christmas tree. Please excuse the sub flooring...we haven't gotten to the living room yet!

 Monday night was a continuation of a tradition that was started a few years back with friends...Christmas Movie Night! We meet up every Monday between Thanksgiving and Christmas to enjoy a meal together and a Christmas movie. There are 9 kids age 8 and under. So it is completely crazy but such a good time. This past Monday we watched Elf and had Chicken Noodle Soup. I didn't take any pictures...so hopefully next Monday I will remember to take some. 

Below is what I have been working on for a new family tradition. It is a Countdown Christmas Calendar or an Advent Calendar. I couldn't find one I liked to buy so I just made one! Gotta love Pintrest! Each ornament has a pocket that contains a slip of paper for a family activity. These range from looking at lights, Christmas movie night, coloring Christmas pages, to setting up our nativity scene. There are some more detailed activities and others that take no prep time or very little time. I arranged the slips of paper according to our calendar so if we have something going on one evening, the activity is smaller. 

I am hoping it is a hit this Christmas season! 

I hope everyone has a very special holiday and gets lots of family time to enjoy. 

I went to the eye doctor today. 

Eyes look good and my astigmatism has gotten smaller. 

However, after my eye doctor asked me a bijillion questions of "does 1 or 2 look better?" "how about 3 or 4?" "does 5 look better or worse?" she states: 

"It seems that your eyes are working very hard when you are looking at things up close. I think a +1 would be helpful to you."
I am puzzled by this +1 thing and then I say "Is that like bifocals?" (in a disgusted voice)

Calmly, the doctor says "You could just pick up a pair of reading glasses and have them on hand when you are working on a computer for a long period of time or reading for a long period of time."

Great...I love getting older. 

I come home to tell my husband how my appointment went. I simply state that a pair of reading glasses would help my eyes from being so tired (I am trying to be positive). 

He laughs and says...so you need bifocals?

Thanks honey...

So I am going to embrace this and find a cute pair to carry around with me. I might even get a super cute, sassy case for them...heck I might even go with a chain! (Actually probably not a chain.)

Have a good night!

Princess Party

Each year Blue Springs puts on a Princess Party. The money goes to provide dental work for kids that don't have insurance. I had heard about the Princess Party but this year Sophia was old enough to go. I had no idea what this even was going to be like...and it was more than I could have ever imagined. It took up the most of the alternative high school building. They had a nail salon (it even smelled like it), cookie decorating, an Enchanted Mall, professional pictures, makeup, the tooth fairy, crafts, a Princess Concert, a Princess Dance Party and more. It was so much fun. What was even more fun was that Sophia dressed up like a princess. Take a look...

 Sophia was so excited for the Princess Party. She was dressed by 10:00 and the party didn't start until noon. 

There was a nail salon. This was our first stop and Sophia asked for white fingernail polish. She sat like a big girl and was so proud of herself. 

While decorating and eating her cookie, she kept looking at her fingernails. 

Asking Nana LeAnn if her face was clean. :) 

Looking in the mirror...

Getting makeup put on like a little lady

Here she is looking in the mirror checking out her makeup and sparkly hair. 

Dancing it up at the Princess Dance Party. She danced like no one was watching. 

The Bears Visit!

We have dear friends, the Beards and they came to visit it us! Our kiddos got to meet for the first time.  It was so sweet. 

Sarah and I are good friends from college. We married best friends, lived in the same town for a while, lived in the same house for a few months, then both lived in the KC area. Then the Lord took them somewhere else to serve and now we live about 8 hours apart. Sarah and Andrew are like family to us so for our kids to get to meet and play with each other was fantastic. 

Check out this little guy...LOVE his cheeks. 

Last Weekend of September

 Fall is here and I love it!! We went to the Liberty Fall Festival this weekend. Wendi, Matt's sister, lives on the parade route in Liberty...which is quite the perk! We went up and ate a yummy breakfast, celebrated Kurtis' birthday and enjoyed the parade. Kurtis was sure that the parade was in honor of his birthday. We just let him believe it. This year was a little different because John and Luke got to be in the parade. They rode along with Nana and Papa in the church's float. So the little ones, Sophia and Kampbell, enjoyed getting to collect candy without fighting the bigger cousins. It was a great day! 

This was picture was taken while we were up at the Festival. I thought it was cute how she was posing for the picture.

Sunday was a fun day too. We headed to church and then off to the church picnic. It was the perfect day to have a picnic. We had lots of food and had the Chiefs game on to enjoy. However, the Chiefs game was not the most important game of the day...it was the Lakeland Staff vs Everyone Else Volleyball game!! 

Matt was the lucky one of the family to get to play the game since he is on staff. He was less than excited to be a part but we did find a few smiles throughout the game. Unfortunately, the Staff team lost but it was fun to watch everyone having fun. Tonight, when I asked John what his favorite part of the day, he said it was watching Daddy playing volleyball. :)

And we continued to work on the house this weekend. I think this is the first picture I have posted on the blog....so here it is so far. We took out a complete wall and then cut out part of a wall. The cut out part will have counter top on it to make a bar. It is looking awesome. My husband is quite the stud when it comes to home improvement! All we have left is the counter top, sheet rocking, mudding, and then painting. Then we will begin the floor. More pictures to come....hopefully soon! 

No Camera

We are without a camera right now and it sucks. I have cute videos that I want to post but I can't seem to figure out how to transfer them from my phone to my computer...so here are a few updates. 

• John is now in a booster seat. He has reached the height requirements and is ecstatic!
• Sophia is doing such a better job at potty training. She is working hard! 
• We are remodeling our house right now. We have taken out one wall and a half of a wall. Matt is doing it himself, with the help of friends. He did step on a nail and had to get a tetnus shot. Hopefully this will be our only injury in this remodeling process. 
• John got the Quote of the Week at his preschool. This is posted in the hallway, right outside the door. Here it is...

John: (Talking to one of his teachers on the playground) Are you sure you can climb on that?

Ms. Nicole: I think I can. 

John: I hope you don't break anything. (He shrugs his shoulders and walks off.)

• I am leading a Women's Small Group Bible Study. 
• Sophia is into dancing right now. She loves to twirl and wave her hands around. 
• The Halloween costumes are bought...so be looking for pictures to see what the kiddos have picked. 

Have a great night. 

God Revels Himself

As I sat in church yesterday, I left having the question, "Am I really where God wants me to be?' I actually have this question a lot. I guess you could say that I worry about it often. I often wonder if I am doing what God wants me to do. Living with someone that works at a church can be hard sometimes because he gets to go on mission trips, he works downtown to help poverty and abandonment, etc. And it is all for his job! I feel like I have to use the excuse "I can't miss work." or "I have to take care of the kids." most of the time. 

Anyway...I left church yesterday feeling like

"hmm...I wonder if this town is where our family is suppose to be." 

Yet today at work...God totally revealed Himself to me. 

I got to sit with a kid that misses his momma because he is in foster care. 

I got to hug a kid because he misses his daddy who is in jail. 

I got to play Legos with a little guy that is also in foster care and doesn't feel like he belongs anywhere. 

That was all in one day. I think God has me exactly where He wants me. 

I am thankful for my job and the lives that He has put in my life. 

It was an emotional day but a really good day.