to infinity and beyond!

addison road

Addison Road rocks. Just in case you needed some music to download with those Itunes giftcards you got in your stocking! :)

Seriously. I can listen to their music all day long. This entire album is amazing. A couple other of my favs are Always Love and What Do I Know of Holy.

lips

Miss Elle finally got her own lit-loss for Christmas. So now when she demands "Lips! Lips!" she can dig her fingernails (or teeth) into her very own lip gloss instead of Mommy's. Bubblegum Lipsmackers. Smells just like I remember.

christmas time

What a weekend it has been! I'm exhausted and still picking up the pieces from a very fun and blessed Christmas. Cooking (and eating!) yummy food, seeing the kids' faces light up when they discovered new toys, spending time with family and celebrating Jesus' birthday... just doesn't get any better, does it?

Here are a few highlights. The rest of the pictures are up on hewood.

Making cookies for Santa.

Andrew, Laura and I prepared a fancy schmansy Christmas Eve dinner.

Summing up Kyle's year... skateboarding doctor.

Ready for Santa!

Whew! Santa did stop by afterall...

Embry's highlight... the Woody doll he received on Christmas Eve. After that, he wasn't interested in anything... not even Santa's goodies the next morning.

We love TJ and Auntie! It was so fun hanging out with them. I even got some one on one sister shopping time in!

Papaw made Ellie this precious baby bed. Minnie made the bedding. This will be cherished forever.

Grandma and the girls... most of them anyway. It was so good to see everyone.

happy birthday jesus!

on my mind

Luke 2: 1-20
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

looking back

I love looking back at Hayes' pictures when he was the same age as Ellie and Embry. I found this today. 27 months old for both boys. It just makes me want to stop Hayes from growing. That precious little boy seems so long ago. He is such a big boy now. I know I will be saying the same about Embry far too soon.

christmas kids

christmas train

Thanks Grandpa and Nana for treating us to the Christmas Train last night. It will definitely become a yearly tradition!

donut face

Thanks for the Krispy Kreme G.G.!

little gym superheroes

Here is Hayes and his buddy Jake. They go to same sports class at the Little Gym on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are the highlight of Hayes' week. I don't know what is more entertaining... watching the boys go crazy in the gym or watching Jake's little sister Paige in the lobby. She could totally take those boys on!

paci-fied

baked rigatoni cake

Here is a fun dinner to make. It was a hit with all three kids. Let me say that again, IT WAS A HIT WITH ALL THREE KIDS! Yee-freakin-Haw!

The recipe is from Martha Stewart and it is easy and delicious. I altered it just a bit, mainly to omit some of the grease.

Baked Rigatoni Cake

1 pound rigatoni pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ground meat (beef, pork or turkey)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes

1 cup finely grated parmesan

8 oz shredded mozzarella

*Preheat oven to 400*

*Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt if desired. Add pasta and cook until slightly underdone. Drain. Rinse in cold water, and drain.

*Toss pasta with one tablespoon of olive oil and set aside.

*Brown ground meat in large skillet. Drain. Add minced garlic, one teaspoon salt and some pepper. Cook two minutes more. Add tomatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes.

*Butter or spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick spray.

*Toss pasta with parmesan cheese. Tightly pack pasta in pan, standing each piece on end.

*Spread meat sauce on top of pasta. I used a blender and pulsed the meat sauce a bit so it would fill up the pasta holes better. Push the sauce down into the holes. Bake 15 minutes.

*Sprinkle mozzarella on top. Bake 10 to 15 minutes more, until cheese is pale golden.

*Remove from oven. Let stand 15 minutes. Run a knife around edge to loosen. Release the spring on the pan. Cut into wedges and serve.

You can also just use 2 cups of the sauce when filling up the pasta holes and serve the remainder sauce with the wedges.

new little friend

This kid cracks me up. The things he attaches himself to. Puppy. Woody. Buzz. His collection of hats. Now an acorn from our front yard.

The friendship began on Friday after dropping Hayes off at school. I convinced Embry to leave the acorn and its hat on the porch and he could get it after his nap. He remembered and Mr. Acorn has been at his side ever since.

lookin' for trouble

on my mind

1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Luke 16:13
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Luke 16:10
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

well, is ya or ain't ya?

"I have the fiercest headache of my life" was the response I got yesterday when I picked Hayes up from school. Apparently, he had an emotional afternoon. His teacher thought maybe he wasn't feeling good... seeing that the last time he had an emotional day, he was starting to get sick.

But then again, he also has a history of saying he doesn't feel good when things aren't going his way.

He never showed signs of sickness today at home so off to school we went. Today he was a little handsy or should I say... he was hitting. What in the world?

He tells me again he doesn't feel good. He cries the whole 3 minute drive home. As soon as he sees Ethan across the street playing, he's better. And I mean in one second, he goes from crying to "I feel so much better!"

Sorry mister. Momma don't play that game.

So I don't know what is going on. Is he just having a rough patch at school or does he really not feel good? I guess we will wait and see what tomorrow brings.

His song of choice tonight: "Hanukkah, Hanukkah"

"Where did you learn that?"

"From my teacher at school."

"What does Hanukkah mean Hayes?"

"It means Christmas in Spanish."

advent conspiracy

worship fully

spend less

give more

love all

What a concept. I discovered Advent Conspiracy through Jane Anne at Gravity of Motion and can't stop thinking about it.

Let it sink in... it would take $10 billion to fix the world's water problem forever. Forever. And Americans alone spend $450 billion on Christmas each year. So basically, over 3,000 children a day could escape death from water born illnesses in exchange for Americans not getting as much stuff under the Christmas tree.

I don't know why this is affecting me so much now, but I'm glad it is. I hope it does you too.

$10 would give a child clean water for life. If you want to donate you can go to Advent Conspiracy's partner Living Water International.

hijack

Embry the mighty hunter displays his harvest. When questioned about his recent success he said, "I'm just glad that I have the opportunity to share some quality time with my dad and provide supper for our family." He further commented, "Hey pheasant, you eat corn out of the field, I eat corn off of the floor. Say hello to your mother for me."

And yes, I know it's wrong. -kw-

tis the season

I spent Saturday by myself. That doesn't happen very often. I asked Kyle if he would take the kids with him to Blackwell. He was going to hunt so I thought if I could get them to go along (not to hunt, just hang out with the grandparents), I could get all kinds of things accomplished!

And that I did. I started and finished my Christmas shopping in one mighty sweep across 71st Street. God also got something accomplished. He opened my eyes to the shopping madness and made me realize I want no part of it.

God has really been working on my heart with Christmas. As I was dodging in and out of aisles at Toys R Us, I overhead several hateful comments between husbands and wives. At the mall, I listened as a lady yelled at her kid to shut up and if he didn't she was going to find a belt and whip his butt. Seriously. You could just see the stress oozing out of people. All the expectations. All of the money.

As I was filling my cart up with toys my kids don't need, I had the urge to put everything back. What am I doing? We don't need this stuff. We can't afford this stuff. But what would happen on Christmas morning when there was nothing? Hayes wouldn't understand. So there's this battle going on inside of me. I want to shower my kids with gifts but I want to be strong and act on God's urges.

I'm seeking his direction in how to teach my children the true meaning of Christmas. I want them to have giving and generous hearts. My hope is that one day, they will genuinely want to give instead of receive. Is that an unrealistic goal for kids?

Changes will need to be made. And some have already been made this year. Because we have no other choice financially, there won't be as much. But I'm learning that is a blessing. However, I don't want money to be the reason that stuff doesn't fill up our Christmas. I want it to be the fact that we get it and fill up Christmas with family, giving and celebrating the birthday of this little baby that came down from heaven.

I ran across this. When you really think about what Christmas has come to, can't you just feel God's heart aching? You know he's thinking, "They just don't get it. I gave them the most precious gift and here we are..."

read me a christmas story

I kinda have a thing for children's books. It's no different when it comes to the ones about Christmas. I love picking out a new book each Christmas for the kids. I've gone a bit overboard in the past with buying more than one (two, four, ten) a year so I'm holding off this year. Simply because we have enough... like I'm pretty sure I have got all of the good ones and I need to wait for more to be published. Not really. Well, kind of not really.

If you have favorites, please share them. I would love to get ideas for uh, next year. Here are some of our favorites... you can click on the titles to see the books.

For the little ones:

J is for Jesus

Crystal Bowman

Jesus, Me and My Christmas Tree

Crystal Bowman

Who Is Coming to Our House?

Joseph Slate

Christmas in the Manger

Nola Buck

Mary's Happy Christmas Day

Kathleen Long Bostrom

The Christmas Story

Patricia Pingry

For preschool and up:

Santa's Favorite Story

Hisako Aoki

One Winter's Night

John Herman

Room for a Little One

Martin Waddell

The Light of Christmas

Richard Paul Evans

The Tale of Three Trees

Angela Elwell Hunt

The Crippled Lamb

Max Lucado

Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect

Richard Schneider

which one of y'all pooped?

We had a first today. And I know you all are going to be so proud! I know I was.

Someone pooped in the bathtub. Hayes never did this so it was a first for us... or should I say a first for Daddy! I knew he was on bath duty for a reason.

I'm not naming any names because I'm not for sure who actually did the deed. Ellie confessed. She confesses to everything though. That's the thing with twins and poop. Unless you catch one in the act, you've got to sniff out the stinker.

By the way, this picture has nothing to do with the post. I just like it. I didn't think it would be appropriate to take a picture of the crime scene. However, I did take it after the incident... does he look like he just dropped a couple kids off at the pool? I don't know. I'm still bettin' on Miss Elle.

chocolate goodness

Daddy made hot chocolate tonight and we slurped it down. Hayes told him he was a good cook. Mmm Mmm good!

Hewood has some new pictures if y0u are interested.

chicken and biscuit casserole

A yummy homecookin' dish for the cooler weather. This has been one of our favorites for awhile. I found it on allrecipes.com. It looks like a bit of work but it comes together pretty easily... and it's worth the effort! I usually just buy a rotisserie chicken to save some time.

Come on Joy and Katie! You can handle manhandling the bird! ;)

Chicken and Biscuit Casserole

1/4 c butter

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 c chopped onion

1/2 c celery

1/2 c chopped carrots

1/2 c all-purpose flour

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

2 (14.5 oz.) cans chicken broth

1 (10 oz.) can peas, drained

4 c cooked chicken, diced

2 c buttermilk baking mix

2 tsp dried basil

2/3 c milk

*Preheat oven to 350*

*Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.

*In a large skillet, melt butter over medium high heat. Cook and stir the garlic, onion, celery & carrots in the butter until tender. Mix in the flour, sugar, salt, 1 teaspoon dried basil and pepper.

*Stir in broth and bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, boil for one minute, reduce heat and stir in peas. Simmer 5 minutes, then mix in the chicken. Transfer mixture to the baking dish.

*In a medium bowl, combine the baking mix and 2 teaspoons dried basil. Stir in the milk to form a dough. Divide the dough into 12 balls. On floured surface, flatten each ball into a circle. Place on top of chicken mixture.

*Bake for 30 minutes. Cover with foil and bake an additional 10 minutes. To serve, spoon chicken mixture over biscuits.

tick in my couch

I was walking through the living room, half paying attention and saw this. I about peed my pants.

"Why did you scream Mom?"

"Because you scared the patooty out of me Hayes!"

"Do I look like a tick?"

"What's a tick?"

"You know, the bug you don't like that drinks your blood."

Uhhh... not the first thing that came to my mind. But ok, a tick.