Week 51

Wowzer!  Sorry for the delay!  Technical difficulties over here.  Every 4-ish months I have some issue  of varying degrees of difficulty levels with my photos, the cloud, my uploading abilities, by backups, or...It's always fixable, but usually takes some patience and some hours to get back on track.  

Monday, Dec. 17th

Maddy went on a shopping day date with Pop and Kiki and basically did all of her shopping in a day!

Tuesday, Dec. 18th

The girls ran errands together.

 I love that I still come across this scene here and there in the house.

Colombo and I went to a birthday party at the Ninja Warrior gym for one of our Crossfit buds.  Colombo was amazing at everything, even the entire salmon ladder.  I got up the smallest of the warped walls and did well enough to not look like a fool.  I felt like an 8 year old boy telling people I was going to the Ninja Warrior gym for a birthday party!

Wednesday, Dec. 19th

My only picture from the day- Renna's duet costume came in.

Thursday, Dec. 20th
For the fourth or so year, I met Andrea at Wickham's cabin to visit Santa.  It's just the most adorable thing...and free!

So thankful for built-in besties with our cousins on both sides.  The kids don't know how lucky they are.

That night, Renna and I went to volunteer at a huge toy drive.  We got to pull gifts from giant piles sorted by age and gender and make the actual gift bags.  Renna was such a good little worker.

Friday, Dec. 21st

The youth Christmas party was amazing!  The leaders do an incredible job of making it a very nice and very fun event.  It's the best attended youth night of the year.  Great Gatsby was the theme and the church looked stunning!

Sarah is a friend.  She's like a mini-Maddy.  We've known her and her family for years because she is Bob's niece.

Incredible and dedicated leaders who give up every one of their Friday nights for the kids.

Colombo and I served food.

Two faithful leaders.

During the service, C4 played the drums.

And Nathanael was honored to be asked to preach.  Click here if you'd like to watch.  Awfully proud of that boy!

Saturday, Dec. 22nd

Sunday, Dec. 23

My sweet boy wakes up most Sunday mornings very early to serve either on camera or light board.  Also, how about that hat???

Got the biggest kick out of C4's response.

Week 50

Monday, Dec. 10th

Bathing beauties.

Sleeping beauty.

Tuesday, Dec. 11th

Hard at work!

Special delivery from Auntie!

Wednesday, Dec. 12th

 Dress rehearsal for the kids' production.

Thursday, Dec. 13th

An old family friend posted some pictures that he came across.  Tim is on the far left and Lisa, me, and Bethany are the 3 girls center, circa 1985 or '86.

Birth order standing behind.  Lisa in red plaid down to Bethany in red shirt.

 Renna and I did our Thursday girls' night.

Friday, Dec. 14th

Took these clowns out to run a few Christmas errands.

We went and bought all of Maddy's favorite snacks because...............it's MADDY'S COMING HOME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We spent the day stealing a page out of Aunt Bonnie's book and a page out of Uncle Lee's book and just being giddy about her homecoming!

 I picked her up around 6:30p and drove her directly to a Sweet Sixteen party, but then....around 10:00....oh, happy day!  Mama's home!!!!!!!

In other happenings....Happy Hockey Day!  The Wiles gift to their kids is a NJ Devils vs. Vegas Knights game in Jersey.  This year it happened before Christmas.

Saturday, Dec. 15th

Maddy and I rode down with friends (Matt, Shelley, and Taelyn) to see our friend James in his Christmas performance at Faith Church.  Because he moved down that way, he quickly found a home at Amy and Ryan's church and decided in September that the best way for him to get involved and meet people would be to audition for their Christmas show.  Well, no surprise...he landed the lead and completely hit it out of the park!  The show was great and his performance, stellar.  I sat their like a proud mama just so dang proud of him!

One of the best moments was his (Joseph's) lullaby sung to Baby Jesus.  Also watching James dance in the last scene.  A difficult role that he played so excellently and professionally.

Sunday, Dec. 16th
I was at church for all 3 services, both feeding and supervising the kids' cast and watching all 3 performances.  It was a fun, little, "churchy" kids' Christmas production, but kids and leaders alike put their hearts and souls into it over the previous 3 months.  Our family was going to take the season off (without Prince of Peace running) but then Trevor was asked to help as they needed male vocalists.  Since he had to be at rehearsals every Sunday afternoon, Renna joined the cast as well.  Here are just a few of my favorite shots.  "All About That Baby"

 

So thankful for a wonderful church community.  Thankful that my kids would rather be there than anywhere else.  Thankful for the size and diversity that allows for lots of great opportunities.  It's not perfect (because, people) but we are thankful to be a part.  Here a couple behind-the-scenes...you probably won't be surprised to know that a) Trevor loved his costume and b) Trevor attracted the 'crowd' between shows entertaining the cast.  With Renna at his side, of course!