The Girls

While Sophia wants her two front teeth for Christmas . . . Gracie would really like Santa to bring her some hair!

Christmas 2004

Christmas 2003

Christmas 2002

CHEEEEESSSSSEEEE

What a ham! This sweet little girl loves to smile and loves to make us all smile!

Christmas 2001

Gingerbread House

Dawson, Sophia and I gave a whirl at a gingerbread house this weekend. We had a good time, I think. Dawson at one point said . . . this is fun, but it is kind of stressing me out. Yikes, too much my kid!

Christmas 2000

Snowy Night leads to SNOW DAY and No School

Yes, these are shots in Tennessee from last nights snow storm. Normally, we Nebraskans laugh at what folks 'down south' call snow. But last night, we were in agreement that we had snow. It was so beautiful! I do miss the snow (not the cold, ice, crazy driving . . . but the snow). Snow is like one of the things on my checklist to let me know that it is Christmas time. But as we know even in Nebraska, snowy nights can lead to SNOW DAYS and no school. So today I will be joined at home by very excited kids who are out of school.

Dawson's First Christmas 1998

Brandon's First Christmas 1992

Christmas in the Snow 2007

Dawson, Sophia, and cousin Cole playing in the snow in Nebraska!!!

Blessed Weekend

We had such a blessed weekend.

We got to see Santa. The girls were not so sure about the man in red. This is all the closer Gracie got to him, and that would be because he has a candy cane, her new favorite candy. And Sophia was finally willing to pose with him, but not for long. Sunday morning, Brandon was baptized by our youth pastor, TJ. We are so proud of Brandon and the positive decisions he is making each and every day. He is a great amazing child who wants to live his life for Jesus. It is just awesome! After Brandon was baptized, the children (1st through 6th grade) performed their Christmas program. That blurry child in the middle of the top row is Dawson. He sang, he danced, and he appeared to really enjoy it. And we loved watching it! And then the closing to the weekend was the preschool program where Sophia performed. She also sang, danced, and enjoyed herself. This is the first program for her that I have not had to sit on stage with her. She is growing up.

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2005

I give you . . . our Christmas Trees . . .

The pretty-don't-touch-this-or-suffer-the consequences Christmas tree to be used for Christmas present opening on Christmas Eve and Day. Until then just look and say AWWWW, Pretty! Our Kasey Kahne Christmas Tree . . . every die hard fan has their collection. There are Elvis trees and Mickey Mouse trees out there I promise. So why not Kasey? Our Kids-Have-At-It Christmas tree. This is the tree that Dawson and Sophia got to do whatever with. This tree is located in the corner of the upstairs bonus room for the family to enjoy.

The kiddos

The Stockings were . . . worn by the children with care???

Crazy

I have decided December is my blogging via pictures only month. With the craziness of all that can be around this time of year, and with the normal craziness that is our fun filled life with four kids and two jobs . . . sometimes a picture can tell you a thousand words. Today I give you the love and laughter of my baby girl!

Cute Babies

Here is an adorable picture of Grace and her friend, Reese, from Halloween. Aren't the adorable?

Thankful E:Mail

I just received this e:mail from my Aunt Rocky in NE. I thought it was fitting as Thanksgiving is in a week, and we often can't remember what it is we are to be thankful for. Even this morning on the radio, they were asking callers to say what they are thankful for but with a twist - it had to be something they had never said before. When we reflect on all that God has given us during this time of year, remember to be thankful for all His blessings He gives each and every day!

I AM THANKFUL:
FOR THE WIFE WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT, BECAUSE SHE ISHOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONEELSE.
FOR THE HUSBAND WHOIS ON THE SOFA BEING A COUCH POTATO, BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITHME AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.
FOR THE TEENAGER WHOIS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS ATHOME, NOT ON THE STREETS.
FOR THE TAXES I PAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I AMEMPLOYED .
FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER APARTY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BYFRIENDS.
FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOOSNUG BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TOEAT.
FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES MEWORK BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THESUNSHINE FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THATNEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THAT NEEDFIXING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE AHOME .
FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THEGOVERNMENT BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OFSPEECH.
FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR ENDOF THE PARKING LOT BECAUSE ITMEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITHTRANSPORTATION .
FOR MYHUGE HEATING BILL BECAUSE IT MEANS I AMWARM.
FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH WHOSINGS OFF KEY BECAUSE IT MEANS I CANHEAR.
FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY ANDIRONING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TOWEAR.
FORWEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THEDAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVEBEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.
FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLYMORNING HOURS BECAUSE IT MEANS I AMALIVE.
AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL BECAUSE IT MEANS IHAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME.

Another episode of random ramblings

Wow! Can't believe it has been a week since I blogged. My life must be crazy busy or something. I don't know might have something to do with . . .

Dawson coming down with bronchitis and spending 2 1/2 days home from school sick. I was able to get him into the Dr and get him some good meds. He is sounding much better now , a week after starting on antibiotics.

Dawson's stress after missing 2 1/2 days of school and having a WW2 project and a 4 minute speech on Trustworthiness due on Thursday this week. I am sorry but 5th graders should not have to experience the stress I saw on my son's face last night as he could not eat and was just crying. I mean really, the kid was really really sick like he had to go to the dr to get better sick . . . and you can't extend him a deadline. Anyway, he spent some time last night at our family friend, Della the PC, and was able to hash out the WW2 project. Now we just have to come up with a bunch of stuff to say about being trustworthy . .. by tomorrow.

Brandon having some funk and spending 1 1/2 days home from school sick. He was able to get up and get on the "cheese wagon" this morning bright and early at 6:20am. See next item as to why B was riding the bus this morning.

Brandon wrecking his car and having to find someone to get it fixed. Oh yes, this makes #3 oops for my sweet 16 year old boy. This time he oopsd into the back of a friends trailer hitch. His bumper has a nice hole . . .along with his radiator and air conditioner condenser. His cool car is currently sitting at the cool shop getting some cool up to $1500 repairs done to it. So, that would be why cool junior boy had to ride the BUS this morning. Oh yes, the bus!

Those sweet girls, they have really been quiet the last week. They haven't done anything too crazy. Sophia has kept up with the usual questioning. Our last really good one involved asking how we knew our dog went to heaven. "If I am going to heaven because I have Jesus in my heart, and that is because you told me about Jesus, who told Maggie about Jesus so that she could get to heaven?" My reply . . ." Another dog." Followed with "Actually I think all dogs have free passes to heaven." There has got to be a book out there that answers the questions my daughter asks. And if there is not, I should start writing it.
Grace has just remained to be our cute dancing machine. Latest words added to our expanding vocab would be . . . Nasty( what is in her diaper), Buppy (which is Daddy pick me up), Oogie (a stuffed dog), and Baby.

Outside of all the craziness, I have managed to find quite a few high school friends on Facebook. Yikes, that thing is addictive. Plan my Thanksgiving feast for 21. Attend the annual craft show with my peeps. Hang out with the youth at Dodgeball and at Life House. Oh . . . and check this . .. my job, you know the one I was going to lose, they have decided to keep me on. SO for now I am off the roller coaster. I am sure I am still in line as I have come to expect the unexpected at this job. But for now, I have a job and that is something to be soooo thankful for in these economic times. Even if I do work for crazy people who can't decide if they want me or not. I know God is in control, and I will just let him continue to work it all out for me. (I just need to continue to remind myself of that every now and again)

My man, husband, father, love of my life watched the new episode of Hannah Montana with me Sunday night at 10pm. :-) But last night he made me watch this total corny movie of Dungeons and Dragons, I will have to be sure I get the remote tonight. I think it is Clean House or Ace of Cakes tonight - that is if Ace of Cakes decides to get me some new episodes. I can only see you make that Georgetown bulldog and pinball machine so many times.

Okay, this is the end of the random ramblings. Have a lovely day! And thank you for stopping by!

My Man

This here is the love of my life,Jeff, with our youngest child. You don't get to hear about him much, do you? He is an amazing husband and father. I mean if you know me at all, you know he has to have TONS of patience and what not to put up with me and all my nonsense. And he is a super amazing loving Dad, and if you know my kids you know his patience also comes in handy there. He is a hard worker both at home and at his job. He loves his friends and family without bounds and will do anything for them. He is just awesome and I should really brag on him more. But . . . that wouldn't be near as funny as telling you this . . .
Monday night, 9:30pm . . . three older children all in bed. Grace is cuddled up with me on the couch drinking her milk getting ready to doze off. My love is sitting on the other couch. I start flipping TV channels trying to find something for us to watch. I ask Mr Man if he wants to watch the football game, check the score, Nah he says. So I cruise past Nick, Cartoon Network (the kids are in bed remember), and get to Disney . . . Mr Love of My Life sees that Hannah Montana is on . . .it is a new one . . . he has never seen . . . and with no children in the room that would care about this show . . . My MAN says . . . "Wait, I wanted to see this one!". Oh yes, me and MY MAN watched an episode of Hannah Montana together on his command!
Now just remember all the great and wonderful things I said about him earlier and when you snicker at him for his love of tween shows . . . you remember this love comes from being a great dad who lets his high def plasma TV reside on Disney or Nick pretty much all the time. He is a wonderful amazing man . . . and he is mine!

Fav Foto Friday - Brothers

Playing dolls

See these sisters??? See the mischief in each of those eyes??? They are a handful these two. Sophia is my rough and tumble tomboy. And while Gracie likes her wild times, she also has a sweet tender little princess side to her.
Last night, these sisters were playing dolls together. The vast difference in how they played with their dolls made Jeff and I laugh.
Gracie was walking around with her doll holding it so gently. She would occasionally come and carefully hand her baby to either Jeff or I. She would sit her baby nicely in a chair and talk to it. She would sit down with her baby. She would cover her baby. It was adorable.
Sophia, however, was seeing how far she could throw her baby across the room and still have it land in the chair she had set up. She was getting very competitive with it - setting up obstacles and making the chair farther away. Each time she landed the baby in the chair she would scream with delight. The poor baby was tossed about by its legs and arms just wishing it could have been Gracie's baby for the night.

Oh what a night . . .

Friday nights adventures involved a beautiful sweet princess fairy . . .
And a fearless ninja dragon warrior girl . . .
And an attack of a crazy 10 year old alien . . . Lucky for the sweet princess fairy and the fearless ninja, the handsome teenage pizza boy showed up to save them both from the insane alien.

After which time the princess fairy and ninja mounted their horses and rode off on the Great Wall to escape all the nonsense.While riding along the Wall, the ninja ran into her good friend the beautiful cowgirl Mackenzie and stopped for an excellent photo op.And while all this was going on, the mom was off being a crazed fan with Mel. They couldn't help but be inspired by the Tony Stewart fan of the previous weekends NASCAR adventures.

Saturday morning, the princess fairy, ninja, and alien were gone, and in their place was a sweet 1 year old, and 2 soccer players. The handsome pizza boy went off to work. And the mom, yes the mom, washed the tattoo off and put on her jeans to be the soccer mom for the day.

Let the Fun Day begin . . .

Here they are in their Halloween shirts for school today! Thank you Grandma (and Grandpa) Horn-sing for the great shirts with fitting messages for each child . . .

Dawson . . . Who Needs Halloween? My sister scares me enough.

Sophia . . . Just hand over the candy, and no one gets hurt.

Grace . . . My magical power is being cute.

Of course Brandon was also gifted a Halloween shirt; however, because he leaves for school before we all even get up - - - I have no idea if he wore it or not. :-)

Enjoy your day/evening and all your sugar hyped up children!!!

She cracks herself up!

No arrests were made

Well here it is the moment all of you . . . all 10 of you . .. have been waiting for . . . did I or did I not meet Kasey? Did I get my photo taken giving him a big hug? Did I get arrested while trying to get said photo of big hug moment? The answers would be not, no, and no. But am I disappointed . . . a little bit . . . maybe . . . but this weekend was too much fun to write off as a disappointment. And besides now we have the inside scoop and the "real" plan for next year to get our prize photos - it involves high heels, tight designer jeans, a plastic card, and attitude. This was our first time having pit passes and so we really had no idea whtat to expect. There are basically three layers to the infield - pits, garage, and drivers motor homes. We would have had to bust through two sets of security officials to get to the drivers.

We had a great time walking up and down pit road though. I know many of you non-Nascar fans are wondering . . .what are you mental? . . . well, maybe so. We were able to talk to a pit crew member that I went to high school with. He gave us the inside scoop on what goes down in the pits before and during the races, what some drivers were really like, and just all around inside NASCAR scoop. (Thanks Tom!) We also stumbled upon a prime standing spot as cars rolled out to be inspected and placed on pit road before the race. We were within inches of many of the cars. We made friends with the Security guard and thus got the inside scoop on the plastic card. All we kept thinking was . . . we couldn't have planned this any better. Which is why I am thinking that God was blessing us for attending His sport. I mean think about it - Sunday is his day of rest, races can take up a pretty good chunk of your day, and they are on for most of the year - I really think that Nascar is His sport that He had planned out for Sunday. (okay save all the theology commentary for someone else just go with me on this.)

Any-whooo . . . enough words about the weekend . . . here are the photos . . . and additional commentary . . .

This is Nick from New Zealand outside Victory Lane(cousin Jeff's friend). This is Nick's excited happy face. Really . . .he is having fun. We just couldn't get him to make a rock star face - believe me I tried.

Mel and Ryan at the back of the #24 pit stall. And Mel and cousin Jeff in the front of the #24 pit . . . And me and Mel in the #24 pit . . . you get the feeling Mel wanted many witnesses that she was there in the same pit . . . that Jeff would be in soon. :-)

Jeff and I in front of the #9/Kasey Kahne pit

Jeff, Ryan, and Mel in our special spot We wondered for a brief moment if Mel had paid for this . . .

Kasey's car that he raced on Sunday . . . it was a piece of trash in the end . . . UGH!
This is why people think only wierdo's are Nascar fans. I mean really, at least throw on a pair of jeans before coming to the track . . . too much. The picture cut off the #20 orange crocs that went with this outfit, and it doesn't completely show that the hair was sprayed orange also. The jury is still out on who her driver was.
This was our friend the security guard who gave us more authority than we could handle and almost got us beat up by a woman who would have taken both Mel and I (and maybe Ryan and Jeff too)If you look closely on the driver side of the #9 car, you will see a red suit and a head . . . that is Kasey . . . that is how close I got to him. I am in row 50 of the stands, he is on pit road getting ready to get in his car - the start/finish line between us. No real chance of arrest at that distance.