December Sightings

This past weekend Brandon returned home from college. And he brought Amanda home to meet the family. We loved her! And for an only child she seemed to be okay with the chaos that is our home.

Here they are making cinnamon decorations . . .

The girls looking all cute and stuff. Rumor is that Amanda even got a braid in Sophia's hair.WrestleMania2010 broke out with dad and his younger kiddos . . . We braved it and went out for dinner one night . . . it went fairly well. Gracie wasn't quite feeling 100% but still was able to entertain with her olive hand trick . . .
And we constructed our 2010 Gingerbread Houses . . .
It has been a busy few days here. And there are more busy times ahead. Cookie baking and decorating. I need some Christmas fudge. Christmas cards have been sent. Wrapping presents. Shopping is finished. Opening presents with the Boro Stahly's. Packing clothes for trip to Nebraska to see Grandpa and Grandma Hornsing and Matt,Mary, Cole, and Reese!! Woo hoo! And through it all we must remember that the TRUE reason for this season is that Jesus was born!!!! All the gifts and gadgets can not compare with the greatest gift of all, Jesus! May your CHRISTMAS be blessed with joy, peace, hope, love, and friends and family!

Snow Day TN Style, and Famous Sayings from Sophia

Sunday and Monday were snow days here in TN. Monday the kids had a blast out in the snow.

Famous Sayings from Sophia. . .

Saturday we were on our way to look at furniture. I was giving the good behavior speech "I want the very behavior you have!" I said. Sophia's response . . .

"I don't think I have one of those!"

From the mouth of the diva

( insert photo of Grace with eye roll, hand on hip, and total whatever duh Mom expression on her face)

No, I did not forget to insert the picture . . . I am not allowed to take pictures of Grace. My three year old is a diva! I thought I wanted a girlie-girl, I really did. Now??? Not so sure I will survive. I think I have mentioned that Grace has two styles of dress : Pretty and Awesome. Pretty is tights,flats,skirt/dress, bows, sparkle, glitter, SHINE! Awesome is jeans and tennis shoes with accessories. Today she decided to be awesome.

It started with a Barbie sweatshirt where Barbie is a ballerina and her skirt is a bit of tulle. Then the jeans . . . she had to lay all her jeans out to pick just the right pair.

Then the socks (did I mention that she had a sock thing for about 6 months and would buy a pair of $1 socks every time we walked into Target, so we have ALOT of socks). The pink Sleeping Beauty ones won today.

Then on to the shoes. "No not pretty shoes Mom, awesome shoes!" (DUH!). That would be the Tinkerbell pink tennis shoes that light up.

Now for accessories. This is where I was getting exhausted and she was pulling out belts and hats. To which as she found the perfect ones, I heard "BAM!" I said "what was that about?" . . . "I am ready to get dressed now" . . . "Good about time" . . . and what response did I get . . . "Stop being so sassy at me Mom!".

So once we were properly assembled, I asked if I could take her awesome picture to show Daddy how pretty she looked . . . "Mom I am awesome today not pretty!" . . . but I want to take your picture . . . and you get the eye roll, hand on hip, DUH photo I described above that was never actually taken with a camera in this house.

I will survive . . . I will survive . . . I will survive . . . God blessed me with my girlie girl . . . now I need the . . . dare I say it . . . patience to endure!

I heart Traditions!

I really do love traditions! I like having those familiar things each year that make the holidays so special! Thanksgiving comes with many standard traditions - turkey, big Thursday meal, Black Friday, etc. Thanksgiving in our house comes with a HUGE meal with family and friends. This year our good friend Mr Tim joined us from Florida. He used to live here and would join us for holidays, so it was great to have that tradition even with him living so far away now. After eating and scouring the ads for anything worth staying up all night for (which by the way this year I found nothing worth losing sleep over), we played cards and watched football.

Friday Brandon and I held on to our tradition of seeing the Harry Potter movies in the theatres. It was great to have him home for a few days and get to spend some time with ever changing and maturing oldest child. He is one awesome man! (I also heart him!)

Saturday the whole family hit the movie theatre for Tangled. Way cute! It was great to sit there with all my kids watching a movie and laughing together. I would definately recommend this movie. Gracie is in love with Rapunzel . . . now if only she would stop twirling her own hair into knots and pulling it out . . . she too could have long flowing blonde hair.

Saturday evening we did one of my favorite traditions of this long weekend. We opened our new ornaments from Grandpa and Grandma "Hornsing" and put all the decorations on the tree. The pics are from that time together. I love watching the kids put all their ornaments on the tree and talk about what each one means and when they got it. And then to actually see them all work together to spread the ornaments out so they are not a bunched up mess. Ah, does my heart good?

We completed the weekend with one more tradition . . . Griswalding up the outside of the house for Christmas. We actually are pretty low key this year but it still looks great. After spending four hours outside we decided that was long enough and it looked good so we were done. We however are missing some inflatables that died at the end of the season last year. So maybe just maybe I can convince Jeff that I can get just one new inflatable . . . or maybe a nativity scene?!?!

How was your weekend? Full of traditions and family and friends that you HEART I hope! I pray you really enjoy this Christmas season and slow down to remember that Jesus is the true reason for the season!

Play with your Veggies and Soccer Ball

Last Thursday Grandma got us tickets to go see Veggie Tales Live! The girls, Grandma, and I went and had a great time! Here is our first glimpse of Bob, Larry, and Archibald (I think) with their friend Suzy. Suzy had on a sparkly fun jacket and was really happy and had lots of big blonde hair . . . Gracie loved her and she was Gracie's favorite Veggie character . . . even though she wasn't a veggie. Girls just wanna have fun . . . or was it gourds just wanna have fun? Oh where is my hairbrush? The classic!!! I remember singing this with Brandon when he was a wee lad watching Veggies on VHS. Thank you Grandma for taking us to Veggies!

After the show, Grandma had gotten us special tickets that allowed us to meet Bob and Larry. We had to wait a bit in line while Bob and Larry changed into their special costumes that had hands. It was way past our bedtime and we were getting crazy!And then the moment finally came where we got to tackle . . . should have been gently hug . . . Larry. Sophia went at the poor pickle (cucumber) full force and about knocked the guy over.And the final picture with Bob and Larry . . . and then a stop at Culvers for fries and cheese curds and home in bed by 10 or so.Friday was Dawson's final game as an HMS Hornet (for this season hopefully). And I remembered to take my camera . . . or maybe it just happened to still be in the truck from not unloading it the night before . . . but who is to say??? Look for #15 or the hair on the field and that is Dawson playing his favorite sport!Dawson came out of the game for a bit, and Grace thought she could just go sit with him. Because yes she is even princess of the soccer field, just try and tell her what to do.

If you remember from previous post, our local highschool was performing Beauty and the Beast. Grace, Sophia and I went to it on Sunday. It was AMAZING!!! Grace and her friend Mary Claire were in love with the Beast by the end! It was sweet. Here is a picture of Sophia, Grace, and Mary Claire. Grace dressed up as Little Mermaid , and Mary Claire was Belle. Sophia went as the best Sophia there is!

(this photo was taken by my Iphone . . . why is it blurry . . . last night on Hawaii FiveO . . . DanO took a picture with his and it was clear as can be . . . what up with that? They could even photo fingerprints and ID the bad guys.)

My Little Missionary

Sophia is 6 years old and in the first grade at a public school. She is a very smart and inquisitive child. She loves Jesus with all her heart, and has a passion to help others. Each week they are given a writing prompt. The page above came to her with just the four leaf flower type shape. When I asked her what other kids did, she said most of them made into a flower. Sophia, she made it into the cross and put Jesus on it. Next to it she put an angel and a guard. And what did my sweet amazing 6 year old right about? Nothing less than the story of what Jesus has done for us . . . in case you can't see it . . .

When Jesus dide on the cros for our sens. It was ranig and God had a plan he let the bad gise tack him they put him on a cros then. On agole came to the bad gise they were scard of the agole. Then they put him in a thig for three days. And he rose up from the ded!

I think Sophia just found her first mission field in her first grade class. I am so proud of her for not even thinking twice about making the story of Jesus something she wanted to write about in class. For seeing something with four leafs and thinking of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. If only we as adults could see Jesus in everything, and proclaim Him without a second thought in our daily mission fields? I am so blessed to call Sophia my daughter!

Aren't They Cute???

Gracie is number four . . . last child . . you know the one who doesn't get all the pretty photos taken because mom and dad are too busy running all the other kids around. Brandon and Dawson had pics taken every three months probably until they were two. When Sophia came home, we had photos done then and probably every 6 months for some time. Gracie . . . well we try to make sure we get her around her birthday . . . in May . . . well, these are her three year photos taken in October. Just a few months late. I decided we would do it big and get all four of them taken together. So we took off with my friend Sonya and she did a bang up drive with them. So enjoy them as we are . . .

Happy 15th Anniversary to me!

November 4, 1995 in a small town in southeast Nebraska, Mr. Jeff actually said I Do when the pastor asked him if he wanted to be my husband. And here we are 15 years later, another state, four kids, different jobs, different bodies (hee hee) . . . and for some reason he still loves me and puts up with all of my craziness!
Here we are so many years ago . . .
We celebrated our anniversary at the Melting Pot. Here we are enjoying are first bites of the goodness.WWe didn't get a lovey dovey shot that evening. But here is proof that we did go out together. :-)