Pre-Christmas Christmas

The first couple weeks of December I felt like I literally ran from one thing to the next. Apparently, most of Laney's best buddies are born in December. The girl had 4 b-day parties within the two week time frame. Ashlyn also had a friend's birthday party and girl scout Christmas carroling. All 3 had school parties. Whew...fun but tiring.

The weekend before Christmas MiMi and Papa D decided to come in so they could be a part of Reese and Laney's fan club at their school program. Here are 3 of the Fan Club's top members! I wasn't sure how Reesie would do going up on stage and seeing us in the audience, considering the moment I leave a room in our house she asks, "Where's Mommy?" and comes to find me. But the cutie-patootie did just fine!
I am pretty sure the following picture is while the song the 2 year-olds were supposed to be singing was going on. Quite a few had "deer in the headlights" looks. However, unlike the past 4 years we have been a part, not one 2 yr.-old left crying mid-song! To her right is Reese's best friend, Lilly Jeane!

Then entered the Star of Bethlehem, our very own Laney Hope. It took me at least 3 minutes to snap this picture because I was laughing so hard! I had seen the costume but not on her before the show. Just seeing her head and legs sticking out was so cute and had my tickle button going. If she tried any of the hand motions with her class her face would sometimes disappear as the costume adjusted to her body!

She even had to lead the wiseman out into the audience and make it back up on stage in perfect timing...which she did with ease!

My sweet girls after the program. Aren't they beautiful?!

The whole fam.

Oh, and did I mention that we also celebrated Christmas with Mimi and Papa D while they were here? Here are the girls having fun with some of their gifts.

Yes, they got dress-up clothes as every princess needs and a karaoke machine too to add in a little diva to their mix.

Every Soul Needs a Savior

"Because of God's tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace." Luke 1:78-79

As I was reading my Bible last night I came across these verses. I think because it's in the New Living Translation it stood out to me as if I have never read these verses before. The truth is I have read them more times than I can remember. But oh what a precious gift I felt God lay across my heart last night. These verses come from Zechariah's mouth soon after John the Baptist was born and just months before God incarnate was born in the form of a helpless child.

All day long these words continued to dance across my mind and heart. Because of God's great mercy, we were given a Savior. Not just mercy from one man to another but from God himself. Not just God's mercy but his tender mercy. Because of His tender mercy God gave the most precious gift possible...His Son wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger among cows and horses and whatever other animals found solace in that tiny stable in Bethleham.

Light broke upon us that quiet night. A bright light. A heavenly light. A light that burns for all eternity for all men and women, every boy and girl, for the rich and the poor and everyone in between. A light for the hurting. A light for those who celebrate. A light that triumphs over the darkness in even the darkest of nights and greatest of storms. A light that beckons us to peace, to hope, to life.

You need a Savior. I need a Savior. Every soul needs a Savior. And over two thousand years ago, the Savior we all need chose to come in the form of a baby...to walk as we walk so that we can walk as He walks. Wherever this time in life finds you...on a mountain of inexpressable joy or in a valley of deep sorrow, know that Emmanuel "God with us" has come. Let His light nestle into the very crevice of your heart and bring peace to the deepest part of your soul.

May the greatest Gift ever given be yours this Christmas Eve night. Merry Christmas!

Proud of the Boy!

There are so many reasons why I love Jase and why I'm proud of him. He is loving and faithful. He is patient and kind. He works hard to provide for our family and is a godly example. And superficially, I think he is amazingly handsome. Yup, I picked me a good one. About 3 years ago he decided he'd like to run a marathon. Since then he has run 3 more. While preparation for him begins months and months before the race, us girls...we prepare a day ahead of time.

Here are the girls working hard on their posters.
Reese was so funny. As you can see, she colored her sign too and was so proud.
This was just 1 of about 6 pictures she had me take holding her sign...in all different poses.

Laney working hard on hers as well.

The finished product of some of the finest cheerers you will ever meet! Don't they look incredible?!!

Sweet Jen helped me navigate through downtown Dallas for the White Rock marathon yesterday. She is so dear to us and I am sooooo thankful she was there to help guide me.

Jason's favorites!

This picture is so funny! We were trying to proudly document his cheering section. I wasn't expecting him yet so had Jen take a picture of me and Reese. Next thing I know there he is! This is about mile 5. I'm so glad he saw us. We got in the car and I asked Jen if we had gotten any pictures of Jason and she replied no. Jason was the one who noticed that he in fact did get captured in the first stop photo shoot! Like the surprised look on my face?

Cutest cheering section out there!

This next picture is taken at around mile 16...lookin' good, isn't he?We saw him at mile 21 and he was still pushing through. He did look white as a sheet though and it scared me. I sent out a prayer request and got people praying. I had us pull over and I just got out at mile 23 to make sure he was okay. Color was back and my heart was at ease.

Can you believe this picture is taken after he has run 26.2 miles!!!? He truly amazes me. I always get so emotional at these things and it feels like my heart could pop from how proud I am of him. In my mind anyone who finishes a marathon is a winnner. However, even if by only 30 seconds, Jase had his personal record. He finished in 3:54:25.

And our last shot...us after Jase had a chance to get food in his stomach after the race. He was absolutely starving. Jason Mills, you have my heart! Love you! Love you!

Sweet Moments in the Craziness

Okay, one of the things I treasure most is authenticity. To that end I have a confession to make...this is no news to my husband, but I've just been grumpy this past week. I don't know why but I am. I am tired. I have felt angry although not at anyone in particular or for any reason I can state. I have had a dull headache for days now. This, of course, does not give to me being a very good wife or mom which then makes me even more frustrated...at myself because I'm not being a very good wife or mommy to three precious little girls who take in everything I say and do. Blah.

That being said I'd like to share my favorite moment from this week so far. I have started reading the Christmas story out of Luke to the girls before bed. We started on Monday night with the angel coming to Mary and telling her that she was to become pregnant with the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. It brought up such a teachable moment as we talked about why this news would have been so scarey for Mary who was probably a young teenager at the time. Then we talked about the fact that sometimes God asks us to do things or endure things that are difficult and yet we should have the same response as Mary two thousand years ago, "May it be to me as you have said." I'm not going to lie. That both calms my heart and scares me.

The sweetest thing was our prayer time after that. Ashlyn prayed "Lord, when the going gets rough (didn't know she knews that expression) help us to be like Mary and say yes to you and trust you." Reese immediately started in with "Jesus, thank you for my family and please help the people, help the people..." (and we helped her finish that sentence). Laney prayed for the children that we took off the angel tree.... that people would take care of them. It was a sweet moment in the midst of these crazy few weeks, and it helped take some of the grumps away.

Thanksgiving

Before I begin telling you about our Thanksgiving holiday I have to share a picture of what we woke up to this morning. I know it might be hard to tell but we had snow! Can you believe it? Here in Texas in the beginning of December. It was glorious! Even more glorious was the fact that it was gone as quickly as it came. And might I just add, "Brrrr, was it cold today!"

One more fun announcement. I am typing this post from my bed! on my (oops...excuse me...our) new laptop! with a 17 inch screen! Our old one is about to crater and I'm digging this!

Okay, now for Thanksgiving. The past two years we have been at our home for Thanksgiving and so this year we made the trek to Arkansas to spend time with Jason's parents. We always enjoy our time with them. As you can tell, one of the things the girls enjoy most is getting dressed up fancy.

How precious is Reesie in her tea party hat?

Yes, we had ourselves a good old fashioned tea party. The girls always want us to get fancy. Excuse me if any extra is hanging out from my dress :o). And we all have to wear hats.

Then we move onto celebrating Christmas and the girls decorated gingerbread houses.

Reese ate about half of her candy while sweet Laney Hope put half of it on one side of her roof. Love her!

Cute Ashlyn Jean was in artist mode and made a beautiful home! She puts me to shame she is so talented.

The wonderful couple that gave me my wonderful husband. Seriously, they are some very priceless people that I'm so thankful to have in my life. And, if you can't tell, they are very loved by their granddaughters. By the way you two...Happy 36th Anniversary!

Papa D and Reesie! Happy birthday to you, old man!

Mimi and her girls!

We loved every minute of being together as a family, sleeping in late (okay that's me sleeping in late...I'm sure David and Melody think I always wake up at 9 because I usually do at their house...hey, a girl has to catch up when she can, but thanks!), and much to David's chagrin...playing games late into the night around the fire. Perfection if you ask me!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving! Miss Indian Reese in her little headband that she made and wore for her Thanksgiving Feast at school.
Sweet turkey Laney Hope...again in homemade turkey headband.

Ashlyn and her fall fashion items. This picture is really for my dad. After Ashlyn described everything he asked her to take a picture so he could see it from hundreds of miles away. Ashlyn is incredibly creative and the other day decided to make herself a purse. It's made out of paper but she did it completely on her own, and made sure it had a pocket so she could put essentials inside, including a homemade cell phone, camera, nail polish, lipsick, driver's license, etc..

My favorite tradition our little family does each year: we make a thankfulness tree. I take the girls for a walk and we find the perfect sticks to hang our leaves from. The girls love it. And Lindsey...thanks to your suggestion last year... I plan on buying a scrapbook in which to place our leaves of

thanksgiving in year after year.

One of Reese and my leaves. (Reesie- cousin Drew, Aunt Kelly and Uncle Andy;

me- my 3 precious girls!!)
One of Jason's (All of my girls, Mommy too!)

Laney's in her own handwriting (Ashlyn);

one of Ashlyn's (my grandparents).

We are undoubtedly blessed.

And we know that "Every good and gracious gift is from above." (Jms. 1:17)

Lord Jesus, we couldn't have a thankfulness tree big enough to hold all the things You have given us to be thankful for. Thank You. Thank You.

Thank You!

Updates!

Well, I promised some of my favorite family pictures and here they are for your royal

viewing pleasure.
Let me update you with some exciting new regarding my gift baskets. THANK YOU by the way for all of the great ideas and encouragement you posted or e-mailed me. So very helpful! And a humongous thank you to my friend, Jeni! My wonderful CPA friend is donating her time to set up this little project as a 501(c)3 which means all dontions will be tax deductible! Plus, she is going to help with the accounting end of things. Yay, Jesus! I talked with a local hospital's oncology department today and they are very excited. My heart has been filled with joy today. I'll keep you posted!

Let's see...we'll go in the order they are lined up here. Laney Hope is 4 1/2 now and I love this age. Today I went outside and helped her with her "conection" (a.k.a. collection) of brightly colored leaves and purple flowers. One of the most precious things lately is I'll be playing my Steve Fee CD (yes, once in a blue moon I change out the Toddler Tunes CD) and the song "Lift up your hands" comes on. I'll see her lift up her hands and sing along. I don't think she has seen anyone else do this and it makes my heart swell to see her sweet little heart worship Jesus this way. She continues to have the cutest little crush on a boy named Matthew that goes to our church and her school. Seriously, C-U-T-E!

Reese Ellery is one fun girl. She enjoys singing "Oh Happy Day...You wash my sin away!" She also must do a song at school that has the word hallelujah because she'll do the sweetest little melody of "haleloolah!" She also lies on her back, places her arms crossed behind her head and tells you "I'm just relaxin'!" And she likes to grin real big and tell you "I'm just teasin!" Where does she get this? She has a sensitive heart and if she thinks you're upset with her will burst into tears.

Ashlyn Jean is growing up before my very eyes. She has joined Girl Scouts and after only attending one meeting I am convinced will love it! It's right up her ally with girl friends and craft projects. The other day Jason said there was a lipstick commercial on with a girl wearing bright red lipstick. Ashlyn did a double-take and then told him "Now that's the color lipstick I want to wear!" (oh goodness!) A couple of weeks back I also found a fun message written in lipstick on my bathroom mirror which read, "A dog loves M dog." You know...Ashlyn loves Mommy!


And my man. Well, I love him too. A whole lot. He is training for another marathon in about a month. He ran 17 miles Sunday. In fact, to honor his amazing wife (I know her and she is quite amazing...tee hee), he got up and ran those 2 1/2 HOURS (I know...crazy) by 7:30 am so that he could help me get the girls ready for church. Love him! Love him! Now if he'd only burn some calories for me :0)

A Birthday Getaway

Our precious Reese Ellery turned two on Saturday! Our kind and generous church friends, the Haywoods, once again blessed us by allowing us to head out to their lake house. You know the one...where we a few months ago had our best family vacation ever! Well, this year she completely got that the birthday thing was all about her! If you'd ask whose birthday was coming up she'd proudly and loudly proclaim "Mine!" Grandparents had sent their gifts early in the week and so for several days she would hand me a present and ask if she could open it. We let her open one big one the day before we left. She is quite pleased with her fancy pink car! And she especially loves it when someone will push her really fast! She just laughs and laughs.


Here is the birthday cake...made with love from Mommy, Ashlyn and Laney.
She usually rushes into her class at school and immediately goes for a baby doll or the vacume cleaner so she got her very own for her birthday. She also got a baby doll that she has been pretty inseparable with.

All three cuties in another gift...
We took the big girls out mudding on the four-wheelers this time and they are absolutely hooked! You could just hear them giggling as we drove through the mud.

Laney Hope

Who doesn't love to get dirty?

Ashlyn and Daddy

Feeding the horses carrots each day was still a highlight.An extra special treat was having my brother, sister-in-law, and cute nephew join us in the fun. We kept prodding them all weekend to be the ones to buy their own lakehouse and horses for the family to use at their disposal. Come on? What do you say?

Cousins and best of friends...
We got some fun family pics out there. I'll probably post more in the near future.

They make my heart sing!!!

And one picture of Reesie and Laney before school on Monday. Andy, Kelly and Drew bought her this outfit for her b-day and I just think she looks adorable in it!

Our sweet Reesie, We couldn't have picked a more perfect fit for our family. You are so much fun and full of so much joy! It is such a reflection of the Father's heart and we feel a little bit closer to Him because of you. We love you sweet girl!