Surprise Supper

At the beginning of December our Ney church hosted a Surprise Supper.  I had never attended anything like this before, but as it turned out, it was tons of fun!

First everyone was given a menu.  There were 12 "items" listed on the menu.  We had to fill the 12 items onto the 12 blanks (4 for appetizer, 4 for main dish, 4 for dessert).  The items include things like: elf, tinsel, and other "Christmasy" words.  What we didn't know was that elf meant fork and each word was code for either a utensil or food.

So then the menu's were collected and our meal began.

Mr. Lowell got creative and ate his spaghetti with a piece of his plate.

Mr. Scott had to eat meatballs with celery, because he got no utensils for that course.

Ronnie's appetizer round was his spaghetti, bread, meatballs and salad - but no utensils.  He made it work though! :)

Maddie had a salad, 2 desserts, and a knife...again, she made it work.  She was super excited to have her dessert before her meal. 

Nathaniel and I both had a fork for our spaghetti, a blessing!

Eli was pretty excited that ALL table manners were thrown out for this meal.

We had a great evening of fun and memories!  Fun times with our Ney church family.

Christmas Program

These 3 handsome men were the "wise men" for our Farmer Christmas program.  The Program was the "Best Christmas Card".  It was a family who was looking for the "best Christmas card".

The star was Lelah, one of the little girls I babysit for!

 It was a cute program and all the kids did a great job with learning parts and memorizing lines!  Lots of work and it paid off!

Mary and Joseph were adorable!

Maddie was the littlest sister in the family and had several lines that she memorized perfectly.  She was so excited to be a part of the program as "Lil Jil".

Even the Youth Group had a part.

I didn't get a good picture of everyone, but it was a great job by so many!  

There were 30 kids with parts and then the Youth Group too!  

The best  part was the message of the program.  

The best Christmas card is the One with Jesus at the center!

Christmas 2013

Christmas with 4 kids is crazy and fun and just non-stop!

Christmas morning started out slow...

but it didn't take long for everyone to wake up.

The best thing about our Christmas this year was the kids involvement.  This year we gave them all a few dollars and sent them to the dollar store to shop for one another.  It was exciting for me to watch as they gave each other gifts.  Eli especially enjoyed giving.  All 4 kids thought through their gifts and took time to make them meaningful.  Ronnie handed the money back saying he was able to cover his with his own money!  Love that my kids are growing up and wanting to give and are excited about giving and not just receiving!

This year was a year of games.  We need to get a new game cabinet because we got so many games this year.  Here the boys are enjoying an NFL board game.

Maddie practicing her artistic abilities.

 Trains from Pap and Grandma

While I didn't take as many pictures this year and document our family time, we have had a good time just being together.

As we draw to the end of 2013, we are so thankful for Jesus Birth, so thankful for the gift our Creator gave us of His son and we continue to look forward with anticipation for His coming again!

Come Quickly Lord Jesus!

A Stable Christmas

This picture was on a blog I read!  It's a great reminder.  It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle and forget the true meaning of this season.

I pray that in our home we can relax, have fun together as a family.  NOT have to have everything in place or done, but truly remember the Reason we celebrate and the gift we have been given.  

All Jesus wants (this time of year or anytime) is US!

Praying that in our home we can not stress, but reflect on Him and give Him ourselves this year!

Nativity

Today I put the Nativities away! I had gotten a couple of new ones this year. The one above is both Maddie's and my new favorite. It plays music and the it looks like it is snowing! I love getting them all out every year and I hate putting them away! I left one out again this year, my African one! Maddie said, "Mom, do we have to put ALL the baby Jesus' away". Absolutely not Maddie Anne! We'll keep Him out and keep Him in our hearts!

Circumstances

We celebrated Jesus birthday a day early (yesterday).  Complete with singing Happy Birthday and enjoying a coffee cake and Advent reading before presents!

 

I was so proud of the kids this year, they all got each other gifts!  They weren't big, but they thought of their siblings - I love it!

 

We enjoyed some days with Grandpa and Grandma Adkins.  They were able to come on Saturday (celebrating Eli's birthday) and stay through until this morning!

 

Last night we participated in our Christmas Eve Service!  Our family was busy, as Eli sang, the boys had the Advent reading and prayer, Ron and I served communion and he gave a devotional!  What a blessing to worship and lead our congregations in celebrating Jesus' coming!

The plan was to load up early and begin our 16 hour trip to Gulf Shores, AL where we would spend the next few days with my parents and my brothers family!

 

Unfortunately, plans change!  (I don't like change, by the way!)  We were a little nervous about the weather (tornado's and blizzard like conditions in the path we were traveling), but we decided we had a window and we were preparing to go. 

 

Let me back up just a minute and say that we had gotten a rental vehicle.  We have had it booked for over a month  - our van is in the shop this week and we knew it wouldn't make the 900+mile trip one way.  Yesterday when Ron went to pick up our rental van we were told that it hadn't been returned and would we be OK with an upgrade.  Ron agreed (with no price increase).  However, upgrade meant leather seats and fancy gadgets, instead of more room.  In fact, there is less room.  As we loaded this morning - it didn't work.  We couldn't cram our family of 6 and our belongings for 6 days into it.  We tried, we maneuvered, we attempted - it wouldn't work.

 

Finally we had to make the decision that it wasn't going to work.  I despise letting people down!  I had to call my mom and inform her we couldn't come, then we had to tell the kids - I really don't like disappointment!  I so don't like letting them down!  There were tears!

 

I am trying to be upbeat, I'm trying to roll with this one and see what it is Jesus wants to do for us and through us this week.  Perhaps it's just a week of relaxation as a family.  Perhaps there is something more!  Jesus knows and despite my disgust of change and things not going as planned, I am trying!

 

Our Christmas has not begun quite like we expected - or not at all like we expected!  But Jesus still came, and He is still coming!  We wait with anxious anticipation!

Caroling

Last week our churches came together to carol at a local nursing home.  We had nearly 70 people participate and bring Christmas Greetings to the residents!

After our caroling we went back to the church for cookies and fellowship!

It was a great evening together as a church family.

(unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures)

 

1st Attempt

If you are a mom of multiple children you know how difficult it is to get a decent picture of all of them at the same time!  So, being the efficient mom that I am - I began my attempts early this year!  Here is my first take

 

We still need to "practice" and there will be plenty more attempts!

 

 

 

Surely by the time Christmas arrives I will have a good one of all 4!  It might help if I invested some time into photo shop! :)  But I'll have fun trying!

Busy Sunday

This time of year with 2 churches is busy! 

We started the morning with Eli singing with a little girl in our Ney church.  These 2 are not shy at all and they did a fantastic job.  They both love to sing!

 

Then in the evening, we had our Farmer Christmas Play.  There were 25 kids who participated to tell the and act out the Christmas story.  They really did a great job.  I admit I was a little worried seeing the practices, but they pulled it off and it was GREAT!

 

Of course I am a little biased toward, Joseph, a shepherd and rogue sheep and the littlest angel!

 

A busy but fun Sunday!

Nativities!

I love Nativities!

I love that they show the true meaning of Christmas! It's fun for me to see all different kinds. I am collecting them and am at about 20! Not a lot, I know, but it is fun. I thought I would show you the new ones I got this year, as I just got all my Christmas stuff put away today! (The pictures don't really do them justice, just take my word for it, they are neat!)

This Nativity was given to me by my handsome hubby prior to Christmas. He actually got it in November when he went to Wilmore! He wanted me to have it to display this year! It is so neat, I love it!

This one was a gift from our Farmer Church. It has so much detail that it's hard to see it in this picture. It is very neat! I love that it is in a cross too! I'm not sure you can see it, but in the top, below the star are the wise men coming!

This one is from a parishioner! She got me one last year too. I like this because the boys and I studied the Christmas Tree this year in our Advent book. We talked about how its shape is a triangle to represent the Trinity. And how all the branches point to Heaven. We have talked about this story before, but it seems to have stuck this year with Eli who has repeated it several times. This Nativity is a fun reminder of that story!

This one is only partially new! We had the Stable, star and Mary, Joseph and Jesus before, but this year my mom added some pieces. She made all of it. It is cross stitched. Her intent was so that the kids could play with it, and they are honestly beginning to wear it out. It sits on our windowsill that leads up our stairs, so it has a lot of activity throughout the Christmas Season!

A funny story with it, Maddie opened the bag that the new pieces were in, along with her brothers, but she was very upset and even began to get whiny and weepy. She wanted to know why we didn't get Baby Jesus! I had to explain to her that the Baby Jesus was at home (not AL, where we opened it) and that we would take the other pieces home to be with the Baby Jesus!

This one below is another new Nativity in our home, but it is not mine. Maddie got her first Nativity or "tivity" this year! Granny gave her this glass one. She was so excited that it was her own and I can't wait to see her use it to decorate her own home one day and share it with her children! Until then, I'll display it for her! Maddie has really grown to love the Baby Jesus' figurines around our house and it has been a good opportunity to talk to her about Jesus and who he was. I new she was a little confused one day when she said, "Baby Jesus died on the cross". Not exactly, we'll still work on the whole story!

So we are sad to put away our Christmas decorations today and our Nativities, but excited to see them all again in just about 11 months :)

Back WAY up

I have to go WAY back 2 weeks ago to catch up on things. It has been a busy, hectic, memory making couple of weeks! I'll try to give the short version, but there are lots of cute pictures to tell the story!

My last posts were on Eli's birthday and the anticipation of Christmas! On Thursday evening (prior to Christmas) Ron had a wedding rehearsal. Who gets married 2 days before Christmas? Seriously though, we have enjoyed getting to know Mike and Natalie through Marriage Counseling the past couple of months and have prayed a lot for them and their marriage together. We are excited to see how Jesus leads them and we're excited that they have decided to join our Ney congregation! So Ron was busy with the rehearsal and then Friday a wedding.

Also, on Friday, Ron's parents came! They wanted to celebrate Eli's birthday with us and also Christmas! They got Eli this for his birthday...

He was so excited for Christmas Morning to wear it.

He looked just like a "real preacher".

Also Friday night we learned that one of our parishioners was life flighted to Toledo. Ron couldn't go immediately, because of the wedding, but went Saturday morning! It was a touch a go day, but we are thankful that Ron was able to be with the family for a short time.

We all enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa Adkins. It seems that our double "guest" bed is getting a little small for 4 kids to sneak down and crawl into bed with Grandpa and Grandma in the mornings. The fun had to be moved to the couch!

Our gift to the kids was connected to my parents gift. We were traveling to Gulf Shores, Alabama again this year for some fun with cousins on the beach (much more on that to come). Because of our plans to leave after Church Christmas morning, we celebrated Jesus birthday on Christmas Eve with our Birthday cake for Jesus and we opened presents with Grandpa and Grandma.

Eli was so excited to give a gift to Grandpa and Grandma this year. He had painted and, with Daddy's help, assembled this gift and even wrapped it himself. Just look at his eyes as the anticipation mounts.

Their very own...

helicopter!

And he thought they should display it on the back porch to their house! He had it all figured out!

Here he is showing Grandma how it works, in case she wants to play!

The boys got complete Buckeye equipment (shoulder pads and helmets too) from their Grandparents!

Maddie got a vacuum, and she's not even scared of it!

Things calmed down briefly the evening of Christmas Eve so that we could get some pictures... before worshipping together in a beautiful candlelight service!

These 4 even sang together (Away in a Manger). It was the first time they had all 4 sang together in public. This momma thought they did great!

Christmas morning we were up again getting ready to worship together. What a Blessing to Worship Jesus on Christmas morning together with our family and our churches.

I had to throw this picture of Maddie in.

Sometimes the busy season can just be overwhelming!

She was quickly over her mood and ready to pose (not smile) with her brothers!

You may not completely understand this, but ministry is tough sometimes, in a lot of ways. But I think it is at times hard on our kids. We want them to be involved in our ministry and make it fun for them and I think we do pretty good.

Christmas morning they had several songs and memorized lines for 2 churches, but they did a wonderful job at both services and we had a wonderful time of celebrating Christ's birth!

Although I am several days behind schedule, we hope that you and your family had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed the season of celebrating our Savior's Birth!

A Belated Merry Christmas from our family to yours!