Our Christmas

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas this year.
I hope that your family was as blessed as ours and
will continue to be throughout the coming year.



In our Santa hats to decorate the tree.


Ta-Da! The finished product!


Can't forget the garland! Thanks Dad!


Opening presents early with Grandma Renshaw.


The traditional Christmas Eve new P.J.'s.
Robes were new this year and very toasty!!


A kiss from Grandma! So sweet!


The brick hammer!


A gift from sister!!!

Blessings

Merry Christmas Dear Friends!!! May God bless you and your families throughout the coming year!

An Overflowing Heart

I love being a mom. There is nothing that I would rather do. At times, I do get tired. Not very often, but sometimes "Mom" can make me cringe. After a long day of breaking up fights. I just need a little break.

And then, something wonderful can happen. Tonight it was Savannah who made me cry tears of joy. We went to her Christmas program at her school. It was so cute and she of course did great. Afterwards, we went and rented "Horton Hears a Who". (It was great!!!) Anyway, we were watching the movie and laughing. Savannah crawled into my lap and gave me a big hug. She said, "I love you so much Mom." I said, "I love you too!" Then she said, "I can't even tell you how much." I said, "I understand, I feel the same way." She said, "I don't think there is even a number." Well, that's all it took.....a heart overflowing with joy!

First Snowball Fight

With the first snowfall, comes the first snowball fight.
Even though Savannah had been sick, she was ready to
get out there and play for awhile.

Getting ready for the fight!


Practicing on the Jeep as Dwight pulls away!


Chandler doesn't know he is in trouble yet!


The perfect snowball!


Sneaking up on Chandler!


Ready....Aim....


BULLSEYE!!!!


I Got Him!!!


Payback!!!


Got her back!!


It was still worth it!!

SNOW!!!!!

We woke up to our first snow this morning. The kids are so excited.
Chandler got dressed as fast as he could so he could go outside and
do his favorite thing.....shovel snow! He loves it!!!! In fact, he goes
to our neighbors and shovels their driveways too. He is such a good
kid!!!

Scraping snow off our back door

He loves to shovel

Thanksgiving

I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did. My brother and his family got to come down from Iowa. It is a real treat to see them since we only get to about twice a year. David is my brother, Kathy is his wife, David II is in his first year of college and Brittney is in the 8th grade. Here are a few pictures of the excitement.

Playing games!

Posing for the Camera!

Decorating the Christmas tree!

After dinner Poker




Loving Hugs from Uncle David

A good time was had by all!!!! Now bring on Christmas!!

The new Savannah!

I took Savannah to the beauty shop for a TRIM! She decided that she was old enough to pick her own hairstyle. I said okay, but that she would have to live with it once it was done. Well, she ended up being right. She looks so cute and she loves it. I am getting used to it as well.


Before


and After.

Side view


Back view

New Addition

Two years ago, we were able to buy our home and have really loved the neighborhood and calling this ours. Our kids have always shared rooms. Daniel and Chandler for a while, Savannah and Chandler for a while and now Daniel and Chandler again. I know that many of you shared rooms with your siblings and would talk about the lessons in sharing and the closeness that comes from it. I, on the other hand, can share the stories of one neat freak complaining about the slob that they have to share a room with, the fighting over who gets to practice their instrument or who gets the Playstation or the T.V. remote, the complaining about privacy and no space of their own. At this point, I think that the sharing of the rooms is pulling my boys apart.

I have always felt that it is important for the kids to have their own private space. I know that I need to get away sometimes and just have time to think or read or stare at the wall without someone coming in and interrupting. My kids still don't understand this yet, but that is a story for another time.

We have been very blessed this last year and are able to build on to our house. We are having a game room, master bedroom and bath added. Things finally got started a week ago and I thought I would share pictures along the way.

This is the back of the house before we started.


Tearing down the back porch. Sorry Dad!

Spider kids!!!!

Breaking up the cement.

Cleared out.

Breaking ground on the addition!!! Yea!