Drew's Baptism!!

Sunday was a wonderful, happy day! Of course, we know that the most important thing for Drew was when he ask Jesus to be the Lord of his life on October 27, but, following that up with the obedience of baptism was a true blessing. I cannot really describe that feeling. It is something I have thought about often in the last several years, knowing that soon we would come to a point of Drew being ready to make this decision. It was just a moment of pure joy and peace, knowing that my sweet baby boy was now a child of the King! He was so very excited on Sunday morning when we headed to the back to prepare for the baptism. He got dressed and we had a good 15 minutes to just wait until time for the baptism. He was pacing the floor he was so excited. He kept going up and down the steps and putting his hand in the water and his foot a couple of times! We had time to take a few pictures while we waited...



This is Bro. Alan, our Children's Pastor. He baptized Drew. I actually used to be Alan's secretary when I worked at Longview Heights before Drew was born. He and I have been friends for a long time so it was very special to have him baptize Drew.

Drew was so excited when he was done. He came to the back to get dressed and told me "I cannot believe I just got baptized! I am so glad I did that!". I was so proud of him.

We had a large group of people there to see it. Many of our friends from our old church as well as family got to come and be part of this special day. I am glad that we have pictures and that I have been able to write all this about it so that one day Drew can look back and remember it all!

Christmas 2010

I had wanted to post all about our Christmas yesterday but I have been under the weather. I think the holiday probably just caught up with me, but thankfully I am now feeling better.

We had a wonderul Christmas! The boys were so excited about their gifts. Drew got a new bike, a movie, and a dragon egg (an egg that disolved in water to reveal a small dragon from the movie How to Train Your Dragon. JC got a Little Tikes work bench and a Tonka Race Track. Drew has not really gotten to use his bike a whole lot. It has been very cold. It actually snowed all day on Christmas. Just flurries though, nothing that would stick. It was actually really nice because it was fun to see snow on Christmas and not have it actually mess up the traveling. He did go out and ride it for a very short period of time on Christmas. There will be a video on here of it. Watch closely in it and you will see the snow!

Here is a picture slideshow of our Christmas fun!

Personalize a picture slideshow

Here is the video of Drew riding the bike.


That is gonna be it for today. I wish I had time for more but that is it. Tomorrow evening I will post some more and include pictures from Drew's baptism!!

Christmas Eve

It is 8:30pm. I have just finished preparing meatballs to be cooked in the crockpot tomorrow, a breakfast casserole for Christmas breakfast, and iced a red velvet cake that looks incredible, if I do say so myself!! It has been a full and wonderful day.

Today we had Christmas with the Mayo family. We arrived in Batesville at about 10:30am, which was about an hour and a half later than I had planned on arriving! But we were still there in plenty of time for me to help my mother-in-law get things set up for lunch. We had a great lunch together. It was all lighter types of food, fruit trays, chicken nuggets, chip and dips. We all decided that we did not need everyone to spend the morning cooking. Of course, as soon as lunch was done the kids wanted to know when we would be opening gifts! We settled everyone in the living room for all the passing out. The kids distrubute the gifts and then we open them in order by age, youngest to oldest. So JC was first, since he is the baby! He has still not really been into the unwrapping thing but he did seem to get the hang of it by the end of his stack of gifts!

As you can see he had help! His brother was close at hand to help him along. I don't think it was as much about helping him as the fact that he would be the next to open and the sooner he could get his brother done then he could rip into his own!


This bear was JC's favorite thing he opened! Memaw gave this to him. He immediately starting hugging the bear and laying down on the ground with it like he was ready to go to sleep!


Next it was Drew's turn...

Drew had fun getting some new things, what kid doesn't!

After all the unwrapping was over we had to get the kids by the tree for the traditional photo of the grandkids! My batteries started dying at this point so they are not the best pics...

Jim and I realized when we were looking at these on the computer that they sat in sibling groups! We thought that was interesting. Of course our kids, JC and Drew are together. Jim's sister's daughter, Samantha, is in the middle and on the right are his brother's children, Will and Mary Allison.


Drew was trying to be a good big brother and keep JC straight during the pic taking, but JC was slipping away and Drew decided to try to pick him back up, by the head!! They are quite a pair!

Here they were drumming on the box of Lego that Drew got from Memaw. They both have drummer in the blood!

Oh, what a wonderful, lazy, morning!

As I type this I am still in my pjs, smelling the sausage for our Christmas morning breakfast casserole simmering in the pan as well as the traditional Red Velvet Cake birthday cake baking in my oven! Oh what a wonderful morning!

We had an awesome day yesterday! Some very good and sweet friends watched the boys for Jim and I to have a little date. We went to lunch at one of our most favorite places, The Olive Garden, and went to a movie, The Little Fockers. Lunch was wonderful and the movie was HILARIOUS!!!! We had such a good time. We got a little bit of shopping squeezed in there too. We went to Lifeway to purchase Drew a personal devotional book to give him Sunday as a happy for his baptism day. We also went in H.H. Greg to get some batteries for my camera. I know that was probably not the most sensible place to go, but even if I paid $5 more than they would have been at Wal-Mart it was well worth it to avoid being in that place!!! I am glad we went in that store though. We had fun looking at all the TVs and making plans for what we would like to have when we have to replace ours. We are planning to purchase a new one for our bedroom in the late spring so we were able to get some ideas about what size and all from this little shopping trip. The boys had a great time over at our friend's house. It was just all around a wonderful afternoon!

We came home and prepared a quick dinner so that we could get ready to go see Christmas lights! We loaded up in the car, in our pjs, to cruise all over the Olive Branch area looking at lights!


You just cannot beat some good cheap fun like that! JC only made it about half way through our outing before he was snoring. And I do mean snoring!! He had not had a nap at all yesterday so he was really tired!


This morning we are being extra lazy! I got up and fixed us some breakfast. A lady from the church I work at brought us in homemade biscuits and sausage for us to take home and cook for our families. It was so sweet of her to do that and we greatly enjoyed them! Jim said the biscuits were almost as good as his grandmothers. It was great to have a breakfast that was basically already cooked. I am going to get cleaned up as soon as I finish this blog so that we can get ready to go to my sisters. My mom is taking she and I out for our birthday outing to dinner and a movie. Jim has graciously agreed to keep all 6 boys!! But he says I owe him big time and has not told me how I have to repay him yet. But it will be worth it! We will be heading south to see Jim's mom and do Christmas with his family tomorrow. I should have more pics to share soon!

Christmas with the Hanks

Tonight has been a wonderful night! We celebrated Christmas with our good friends the Hanks tonight! I will write more about that but first lets recap the week thus far...

I only had to work through today this week! Yeah!! That means I am off for 5 days. I am so very excited about that. I do really love my job and going to work is by now means something I do not look forward to. But, it is just nice to have some time off. Especially when Jim and the boys are getting to stay home without me when I do have to work! I worked pretty late yesterday and today but I think it will be well worth it to have these days off.

Last night we went to a fellowship with our new Sunday school class. We had such a great time and I felt like we really got to know some of the people better. You just don't become friends with people by sitting in a classroom together once a week. We had some great food and the kids, and adults, baked and decorated Christmas cookies. After we left there we drove around some neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. We plan to do this again tomorrow night. It was rather late last night and JC was getting pretty tired but tomorrow we plan to go out and do it after dinner. Drew had a good time looking at all the lights.

Tonight, as I said before, we had Christmas with the Hanks.


We ordered pizza and my friend made my favorite, eclair cake!! After we had eaten we let the kids open up their gifts.
Drew got Toy Story 3 and a Hotwheel car.


JC got 4 little trucks that are just the right size for him to push them around on the floor with his hand.

He had a little help opening his! He is still not really into tearing the paper off of the gifts.

We gave each of the girls a purse with their initial on it. Inside the purse they each had an accessory for their American Girl dolls. Mackenzie got a pair of purple eye glasses. Erin got a pair of roller skates. Rebecca got a purple headband. I think they were all very excited about their gifts.

After the unwrapping was done they all sat down to watch Toy Story 3.

They are a crazy bunch but I love them all so much! God did not give me daughters of my own but I love these 3 girls like they are mine.

Well, I am tired! It was a long couple of days at work and now all the fun tonight has just worn me out. We have lots planned for the next 5 days. Tomorrow Jim and I are going out for a lunch date and a matinee movie. Thursday I am going out for some girl time with my mom and sister to celebrate our birthdays. Friday we will be in Batesville and of course Saturday is Christmas and that will be a busy and full day! So I am excited not to be working but we will be staying quite busy during my time off.

I will try to keep the pics and stories of our fun coming!

Another busy week in the book!

Well it has been another busy week of Christmas gatherings and work and finishing up a semester of school. It was a good week. Drew had another great week at school and got to have a party on Friday. I think he brought home more candy from the party than he did at Halloween or the Christmas parade combined! I really do not know what we are going to do with all the candy we have here now! JC had a good week at daycare. It was his last week there. It was a bittersweet day. We are excited about him staying with Elizabeth's but we will miss all the people there that have been so wonderful to him. He had a party on Friday also. They did a book swap and he got a great Christmas book from his friend, Harris.

Thursday night we had a party at a friend's house. It was several families from our old church. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and get caught up on things. The kids all had a great time. Jim and I both miss so many of our friends from there but we are also thankful that God has given us a great peace in our decision to join another church.

Friday night I had choir practice at church to prepare to sing our Christmas program this morning at church. I was so tired that night! I had to go to Walmart after the practice so that made for a very late night!

Yesterday we did get to sleep in a little bit. Elizabeth had a birthday party for two of her boys yesterday. Nathan will be turning 10 on December 23! I can hardly believe that he is already turning 10. He is such a grown up little boy. He loves to hunt and play in the dirt. He actually shot his first deer not too long ago. I am so proud of the great young man that he is becoming! Also, Ben will be turning 6 on December 29! Ben is Drew's best bud! They had a great party. The kids had a great time.

After the party we headed to mom's to celebrate Christmas with my two step-sisters and their families. We had a great evening of food and fellowship. We have a traditional ornament swap that we do Dirty Santa style.

So it was an incredibly exhausting day, but a good one!

Jim's mom actually came to the party at mom's last night and then came home to spend the night with us and go to church this morning. The choir performed the Christmas program during the morning service and the children's choir sang one of the songs so she got to see Drew perform as well. After church we went out for lunch and then she headed home. We came home and all took a pretty quick nap before we headed to New Prospect to see their children's choir perform. All of Stephanie's girls were in it and they did such an awesome job!! All the kids really. I got to see many of my kids that I had taught in Sunday School and in Awana, that was great!

Well, I am tired now and kinda rambling! So, I guess I will just close for now. I have not taken any pictures lately, I know that is just terrible, I will try to do better this week.

It's Saturday morning and I am blogging from home!!!

I am so excited that we now have the internet at home again! This is a big help to my blogging, obviously! And it is a big help to Jim. He can now post grades and lesson plans from home rather than having to go to the school in the evenings. He has not planning time during the day so he is unable to do those things at school, like most teachers do.

Well, of course, I have some catching up to do!
Last Saturday we had a VERY busy day! We had the annual OB Christmas parade. My friend Stephanie went to the parade with the boys and I. We had a great time! The weather that day was PERFECT! Not too cold, not too hot. The boys had a really good time. Here are the pictures...
Getting ready to leave

Steph and the boys waiting on the parade to begin

Steph's girls are on the top of the firetruck. Scott, her hubby, is standing on the side. He is not the one waving in this pic.

And the highlight of the parade, in my humble but accurate opinion, the OBHS Marching Band!!! Jim actually saw us this year, maybe the first time ever, and actually talked to us!


After the parade Jim and I had to leave to go to my staff Christmas party. The boys stayed home with a babysitter. We had a great time at the party. There was incredibly awesome food and good fellowship with friends. We got home about 8 that night and got everyone ready for bed. Sunday was a pretty low keyed day. We did not have anything special going on and that was nice because the week ahead was going to be a busy one!

Tuesday night Jim had the Middle School Christmas Concerts. They do two of them now, one for 6th grade and another for 7th and 8th. They do them on the same night, they just do not have a large enough auditoriam to have one concert, so they just do them an hour apart. We went to the 6th grade concert at 6pm. We ended up having to just stand on the side because there were no more seats. The boys did great though and seemed to really enjoy the music. It's kinda scary to think that in just 5 more years that will be Drew up there!! We tried to hang out until time for the 2nd concert but it was just too long and too hard so we gave up! It worked out well though because I brought them on home and got them in bed on time.

On Thursday evening I went to the Ladies Christmas Dinner at New Prospect with Stephanie. It was really nice to see everyone from our "old church". I really enjoyed the evening and got to eat some really great food again and enjoy some beautiful entertainment by a gourp of 4 sisters that call themselves All Four Glory.

Yesterday was Drew's Christmas Program at school. It was a western this year. Drew did not have any special parts this year. He did get to sit on the front row though. Here are some pics from the program...

Drew is on the very front row...


This morning Jim is at the Men's Prayer Breakfast at church. This is the first time he has been able to attend. The last one was during band competition season. He was excited about going and was actually picking up a friend from Sunday School so that way he was with someone he knew. The rest of the day is going to be pretty boring. It is raining out today and the temps are a little warmer but there is a massive cold front coming through tonight. The temps over the few days will barely get above freezing and the over night temps will be in the teens!!!!! I am really not feeling well. I have taken a pretty bad cold, which I think I got from JC. He and I shared a spoon one day last week and he has had a running nose going on. I really think that is what started it in me. I am hoping that my body will fight it off without a trip to the doctor. We have our Christmas Program next Sunday morning and while I am not singing a solo or anything I would sure like to be able to sing without being worried about my voice cracking.

I really need to stop typing. JC is getting pretty wild and it trying to get to the computer! I have neglected them for blogging long enough for today. I am snapping some pics this morning so I will try to upload them later today or tomorrow.

I have mentioned that I am excited to have internet at home again!!