Small groups

Our small groups at Riverbend got together tonight for some wassel and prayer time and it was great as always...the kids especially love getting to hang out at each other's houses and drink hot chocolate....YUM!

Ellie, Mari-Morgan and Karis

Brayden, David and Nathan

Karis' new favorite "friend" Ethan (he says she is his "girlfriend" but she doesn't agree with it...which is just fine with her daddy) :)

Point of Grace concert

Last night Lolli and Pop bought Jay and I tickets to the Point of Grace concert at Faith Baptist while they took our kids to the Christmas Festival at Germantown Baptist.  My brother Matt and future sister-in-law, Allen and Jonathan joined us at the concert and it was a great one.  There was also a guest singer Ronnie Freeman there and I REALLY enjoyed hearing him sing.  He is new on the music scene and I will definitely own his CD sometime soon.  I didn't get many pics of the night, but here is one that I did get...

Thanks Lolli and Pop.  We appreciated the time together almost as much as you did with the kids.  :)

Baking Christmas Cookies with the kids

Friday the kids and I spent the day shopping, preparing and baking Christmas cookies for some friends and family.  We made some great memories together!

My helpers....

Just some treats we made in addition to the 70 homemade sugar cookies we baked, iced, and sprinkled...

Some of our finished product

And we had to try them out and make sure they were good enough.  P-E-R-F-E-C-T...they were just perfect!  And we had the dyed lips, tongues, and teeth to prove it!  Nice.

Delivering them were just as much fun...for me and the kids.

Until next year...

I THINK we are finally on the mend...for real this time...

Somehow we all got the yucky cold 2 weeks ago and are still recovering.  Of course it started with Brayden and myself and moved on to Jay for a couple of days and then in the last 4 or 5 days Karis has gotten it.  She has been fine during the day but coughs her head off at night. So she has been getting Delsym and Benadryl to try to help her sleep.  For several nights in a row she woke up during the night and she and I were up for a couple of hours trying to get back to sleep (thanks Benadryl).  Well my cold has gone through several stages but as of yesterday was still not gone.  I won't give you all the details but yesterday I finally decided to give in and go to the doctor due to the whole left side of my face throbbing.  I did have a sinus infection and almost double ear infection.  So I started a Z-PAC last night and am feeling some relief this morning.  And last night was the first night Karis slept all night for a while.  SOOOO all that being said, I THINK we are all finally on the mend!

Just some of my favorite randoms lately

The kids in the car...

Karis wearing my sunglasses

Karis wearing my boots that come up to nearly her thighs...

We caught the kids talking about the ornaments on the tree to each other...precious!

The kids watching a movie and Karis had her arm around Brayden.

Hernando Parade

After seeing 2 parades this past weekend, we finally got to participate in one!  Our church had a float in the Hernando parade and the kids loved it!  I will admit it was kinda fun!

My sweet family

Waiting at the church before the parade

The boys David and Nathan

Mrs. Paige with the girls Ellie, Mari-Morgan and Karis

Mrs. Cherie, Eli, and Mrs. Mari Beth

Me and my boy

A daddy's girl and her dad

It was a fun parade!  Can't wait to do it again next year.

Live Nativity Scene

Saturday night we headed over to a live nativity scene at a church in Bartlett and it was great.  So great, we went through it twice.  The story line was great along with the live scenes and we enjoyed getting to tell the kids the Christmas story in a neat way.  They also loved all the live animals!

Here are a few of the scenes...sorry they are a little out of order.