closet fan

Although I have yet to get to a couple of other posts, I had to go ahead and blog about tonight.

Tonight Jason and I had date night to the Casting Crowns Christmas Extravaganza. A sweet lady that serves on the worship team at church works for the local Christian radio station and she got us free tickets and backstage passes. The lineup was Casting Crowns, Natalie Grant, Avalon, Michael English and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra.

I will have to admit I was always a closet fan of Natalie Grant and Avalon. We even had an Avalon song sang at our wedding. I might also become a Casting Crowns fan considering how incredibly nice there were backstage!



I had to meet Natalie Grant and get my picture taken with her. You see, Emma loves Natalie Grant's music. However, she thinks that I am the one that sings her songs. I tried to tell her repeatedly that it was not me singing, but she kept insisting it was. And hey, who am I to spoil her dreams? I just pretend along with her now and it gives me a little bit of an ego boost:)

So now I can show Emma that mommy got to meet the woman that sings "What are you waiting for?"


On a side note, a guy that Jason used to play drums for (he played drums for 16 years before he started leading worship, my husband is so multi-talented) is now in the group Avalon. Small world.

Christmas Cookie Time!

Tonight, I decided to get out the icing and sprinkles and let the girls have some fun. The girls love to eat cookies, and they LOVE to make messes. Emma did pretty good at staying clean, Ava on the other-hand, well, see for yourself. And as always, Daddy had his camera close by to "capture the moment"




Emma, "painting" her cookie


Ava, of course, went straight for the icing!


Trying to eat the whole thing in one bite?





Some of the creations...

random cuteness

I love this one of Ava. Ava has some kind of strange sense of exactly when I am doing my makeup. As soon as I start to apply it, I can hear the pitter patter of little feet. I have 2 makeup brushes and she holds out her hand ready for one so she can get busy. No telling how long the child could sit there brushing her face!


The next 3 pics were taken the other morning as we were getting ready to leave for Emma's dance class. Dance class is the part of the week that Emma lives for.



Not to be out done, Ava had enough of Emma getting her picture taken. She had to get in on the action!


There really is no point to the picture except that it reminds me that Emma is no longer a baby or a toddler. She has turned into such a beautiful little girl.


This is the girls all decked out in their purchases from Old Navy. They were determined to wear their new house shoes, hat and gloves home from Old Navy. They were quite the site to see leaving the store!

thanksgiving

Well, Thanksgiving has now come and gone. Time is just flying by! As I type, Jason is stringing the lights around the Christmas tree as we welcome the Christmas season in on this Black Friday.

As much as I love decorating for Christmas, I really do love having out all of my fall decorations. The picture above is from a banner I made for Thanksgiving. I have been on a crafting spree. I think it is because I love living in a place that is all about doing it yourself!

This year was the first year that we hosted Thanksgiving at out house. We we were so excited about not traveling on a major holiday! I put my cooking skills to the test and we really did have an amazing feast. I did have some great cooks to help though. Jason did a fried turkey that was absolutely delicious! The meat literally fell off the bone. Nana contributed the meal with a couple of dishes of her own and I made the dressing, sides and dessert. So good!

The spread...


The happy family... (although not a good angle for a picture for me)

i've been tagged...

So my friend Maribeth tagged me and I thought this one was pretty easy to do.

here are the rules:
1. choose the 4th picture folder on my computer.
2. choose the 4th picture.
3. explain the picture.
4. tag 4 people to do the same.



Oh, what can I say about this one? This was back in February of this year. It was a couple months shy of Ava's first birthday and she was just learning how to walk. She loved this little walker. She would zoom from the playroom, through the kitchen and down our long hall, ninety-to-nothing about 50 times a day. I thought I would lose my mind. Too precious!

Oh, and I forgot how her hair for 6 months stood straight up in the air like she had been electrocuted:)

So here are the people I'm tagging:

1. sonya
2. faith
3. jennie d.
4. jenny l.

compassion

Get this widget!

With the Christmas season coming up, Jason and I wanted to do something with the girls to teach them about giving and about people who have less than us. Instead of doing just a one time gift this Christmas season, we decided we wanted to make it an ongoing part of our lives. So we decided that we would sponsor a child through Compassion.

We chose a sweet 5 year old girl named Dayerling. We wanted to choose a child that was close to the girls' age. She is from Nicaragua. We chose that country because our church has adopted that nation and we will be taking lots of mission trips over there. How exciting it is that we may one day meet our precious Dayerling!

Please consider adopting a child. For just $32.00 a month, you can make sure a child has food and clothes. That's just giving up one time a month of eating out. How little is that compared to a child being fed all month?

I am reminded of this verse...

42 For I was hungry
and you gave Me nothing to eat;
I was thirsty
and you gave Me nothing to drink;
43 I was a stranger
and you didn’t take Me in;
I was naked
and you didn’t clothe Me,
sick and in prison
and you didn’t take care of Me.’
44 “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?’
45 “Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’

halloween

For Halloween we headed to Memphis. The church I grew up at was having its annual Trunk or Treat. This year Emma went as an elephant, and Ava went as a Kitty Cat. Somehow I managed to talk Emma out of being a princess and into the elephant costume. It was just too cute! Ava was not happy at us at all when we first put her in the cat costume. I think she screamed for about 30 minutes. Somehow she managed to compose herself long enough for us to strap her into the car and head to Faith. After seeing the promise of candy everywhere she quickly changed her tune.

Rows and rows of cars were lined up and decorated so cute! Inside there were games set up. The girls had a blast. I was really surprised at how quickly Ava got onto the whole Trick or Treating thing. She was not going to be outdone by her sister.

after the candy raid...

After a fun night at Trunk or Treat, we headed back to Nana and Papa's house to see all the goodies we got. The girls were delirious with sugar. So much so that Emma actually let us capture some sweet shots of her handing out loving to her Mimi and Papa.

haunted house fingerpainting

Yesterday we got adventurous and got out the fingerpaints to have a little art time. The girls were ecstatic. They love making art.

I gave them different shades of yellow, orange and purple to finger paint to make an eerie sky as the back drop to the "haunted house" I had cut out. I had to pry the fingerpaint from their hands to move on to the next stage of the picture. I then helped them to glue on the hill and the house and they added some stickers I had in my scrapbooking kit.







Ava's art


Emma's art

weekend with the pairs - part 2

Candice wanted to get some pictures of Presley with pumpkins for fall. Jason took some great shots of her. I forgot how easily this age photographs.