Saturday, January 1, 2011

December


Despite me not posting life really has marched on. On the 11th we took Kaitlyn Joy to Sea World for her birthday. Before heading out we had her blow the candles out on a birthday cake and let her open her gifts. I made her a cupcake shirt and a big cupcake hair bow for the day; she wore them with a blue jean skirt, stripped leg warmers and yellow ribbon socks. Yep she was cute.

We had a lot of fun at Sea World. At the first show we went to Kj was laughing her head off at the pre-show.

When the water shot up from beside us to over our heads we jumped up and ran. There was a guy standing over the water and splashing it on everyone. It was funny to watch. Kj had been laughing for a while when Neal shot this video.

On the 15th we took cupcakes to Kj's school for her birthday. Because she saw the 15th as her "real" party (she didn't want to go to Sea World at first thinking it meant no cupcakes at school) I bought her a Cinderella cupcake-cake at Walmart. Note to self, take a knife next time because the icing was thick. Her teacher did a wonderful job at getting the cupcakes apart, but it would have been a lot easier if we had something to cut the icing with. I kept the toppers thinking we might get the cake again for her party. They did a great job on it.

On the 16th Kj had a good time with her friends at school having a Christmas party; it was her last day before the Christmas break.

Seeing how we are never home for Christmas we decided to open our gifts on the 17th. Kj did a wonderful job oohing and gooing over everything. Between the 17 & 22 she opened seven horses. She's in horse heaven. We gave her a bigger one for her birthday so she has 8 total. We gave her both an electronic game and two board games, a small stuffed cat, Legos, ect... A short time after opening her gifts I asked which was her favorite; she held up her little tabby kitty and said it was. Her second was the Legos and cell phone (lip gloss). For a short time we found ourselves taking three cats everywhere. I finally convinced her the tabby can go alone. Don't ask me why, but she named it Super Star. LOL...

On the 23rd we headed for my parents house for Christmas. We had a packed day planned for the 24th. We opened gifts at my parents and both grandmother's houses. Kj had a good time at Grandma's with my cousin's kids. I felt bad for her when we were at Mama Peggy's because her second cousin wasn't there. She was the only great-grandchild present. Laci was with her mom and grandfather. Speaking of grandfather, I went into Daddy Billy's room for the first time since his passing. I first walked in without thinking about it then when I realized my mistake it felt like the air was sucked out of the room. It took me a moment to breath. I had gone in to place a toy in there. It was a toy that had always been in that room, at least until it became Daddy Billy's. It didn't feel right putting it anyplace else so I left it in the room. I went back in there before we left and honestly it felt the same. I guess it will feel like his room until it's cleared out.

Oh, how could I forget... On Christmas Eve Kaitlyn Joy turned four. Daily she finds a reason to tell me her age. I know when she gets around other kids she can pick up how they say things, like Bleth-la-hem, but for the most part she can pronounce things correctly. It's funny to hear her say four though because she sounds like it's a struggle to say. I need to work with her on it. We've worked on Bethlehem many times and she can say it at home. I think it's hearing others say it wrong that throws her off. Once home from school we are back to saying it over and over trying to drop the L.

On the 25th we ate at my parents house. Mama Peggy, my cousin Dustin, and my youngest uncle and his family all came over. I had woken Neal up and told him seeing how we were at both my grandmothers the day before mom didn't have time to do any pre-cooking. I told him we needed to help her. He looked more interested in sleeping. I announced I was going to the bathroom and told him to be ready when I came back. Of course he was checking out the inside of his eyelids when I returned. I told him he needed to get up then I began to get dressed. Suddenly there was a desperate knock at the door. I opened it and dad rushed in to say there was a deer in the field and Neal needed to come shoot it. Neal was now wide awake, out of bed (thankfully wearing shorts) and running for the backdoor. Dad gave him a gun and a pair of Crocs. Basically dad handed him a deer on a silver platter so neither one would have to help cook. Rats! =p

Mom and I spent the weekend reading Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers. It's a good book! We pushed hard to finish it before I left. Once home I bought Her Daughter's Dream and finished it in a couple days. Wooooh, that book had me in tears by the end. I kept reminding myself it was just a book and tried fighting the tears. LOL...

Neal ended up working New Years Eve and on into New Years. Sadly the circumstances are never good if he must work on a weekend or holiday. I feel for those affected and pray for peace. Anything life changing around a holiday seems to taint the holiday for everyone. It's just terrible all around.Kj stayed up with me as long as her eyes would allow it. We went for a quick drive - I know not the best idea - and she really had to fight to keep her eyes open. I kept talking with her the whole time trying to keep her awake. When I turned the car off I turned around to find her sleeping. I woke her up and took her upstairs to bed. She held out 2.5 hours passed her bedtime; it was 10pm. I ended up wasting a lot of time waiting on Neal to get home. And that girl... Only on a handful of occasions has she slept past 7am. She would get up earlier if I would let her. I bought a color changing alarm clock that signals her when she can get out of bed. Like clock work she comes into my room every morning at 7am; today was no exception. Neal would have slept till noon if it hadn't been for Kj setting off the house alarm. =D Good girl! Hehehe... No I didn't have anything to do with it.


Happy New Year!

May 2011 find your family healthy and happy. May you receive many blessings throughout the year. And may God be more real to you this year then ever before.

We already have a piece of good news for 2011. I looked back and I never blogged about an issue that came up in our church. Our Pastor and a couple staff members were having problems. The staff members felt he wasn't a good leader. Personally I disagree. The board talked about it and decided the situation couldn't be rectified between the parties so someone needed to go. The staff members had been in the church the longest so the pastor of 1.5 years had to leave. On Halloween Pastor told us about the problem and said he prayed about it and decided to leave. I was stunned. He's the main reason we go to the church. How can I trust the church to pick a new pastor when they got rid of one over a squabble? It really made me question why the last guy left. Did staff members disagree with him too? The board was quick to wipe the church and it's website clean of anything dealing with it's now former pastor. Thankfully, today we were walking into the movies when a couple we know were coming out. They had gone to the New Comers Dessert at Pastor's house with us. From them we learned Pastor is starting a new church. I will have to find out from Pastor's wife which civic center they will be holding it at. They aren't officially starting it until March 9th. I'm excited to be apart of what God is doing with our Pastor and the group of people who are already meeting together.

1 comment:

Hilary said...

Sounds like you guys had a fun,crazy Christmas!!!! Happy 4th Bithday Kaitlyn....sounds like you got LOTS of fun horses and girly stuff..yeah for 2011 hope it's a great year for you girl :)