Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to Angie & Michael's for an Open House. I finally got to meet Lisa, my cousin Scott's fiance. She's a sweet and pretty in person as she is on Facebook! It's always good to get together with family and friends.

We stayed later than we had planned (that always happens!).


We had our camera, but never took any pictures! Sorry!


After getting the kids in bed, Kevin and I did some last minute wrapping and constructing. At 3am we fell into bed, the alarm set for 6:30 am so we'd be on time for breakfast at Granny's at 8:30.

December snows

We had 2 measureable snows in December. One was in early December (5th I think!) it was a nice pretty snow that came on a Saturday afternoon and didn't really create any issues.

The second came on a Friday night into Sunday morning Dec 18-20. It was a blizzard with about 16-18 inches of snow. When it started Friday night it took me over 2 hrs to drive 35 minutes home from work at midnight- so much traffic and bad roads. I've never seen so many cars on the beltway at midnight!

Because of this snow we missed seeing the Radio City Music Spectacular in DC and had to reschedule our Christmas get together with Kevin's family. But it was nice to suddenly have a "nothing to do and no where to go" weekend.

Megan and Kellie enjoy the snow very much. They like to make snowmen and sled and run around. I am not a fan of snow, but had to admit it was pretty.
Here are some pictures-

Christmas preparations

Over the last few years we've made Gingerbread houses at Granny's. We had a great time decorating and eating and laughing. The kids really are creative (and we adults try very hard to not help too much!).

With the rising cost of real Christmas trees and the infestations of critters that has occurred from real trees (one year mom and dad had baby praying mantis all over their house, we've had spiders a few years in a row) and the needles and watering, we decided to purchase an artificial tree. Those of you who know Kevin and his tree perfectionist, I was surprised at how quickly he chose one (and it was on clearance the day after Thanksgiving!). I miss the fresh evergreen scent, but LOVE having the tree up so early and not sweeping up needles 5 times a day!

Thanksgiving- Blog catch up

WOW! I haven't updated in a long time! Sorry, I know you've all been anxiously awaiting my next post! HaHa, So I am going to try to update you on the happenings over the last 6 weeks or so!

Ok, let's start with Thanksgiving.

We had a nice dinner with my family at Angie & Michael's house. I had to work from 3-11pm so they kindly had dinner at lunchtime!
It was quiet at work so they let me stay home until 7 pm, so I got some bonus time with my family.

When I got off work at 11:30pm, I picked Mom up and we went Midnight Madness shopping at Arundel Mills Mall. I almost gave up when we pulled into the parking lot, but little drive around to the other side of the lot and away from Best Buy and there was plenty of parking!

The Gymboree outlet was having a great sale and I got some amazing bargains on clothes for Meg and Kel (although I stood in line for about an hour- I didn't check the time on purpose, so I don't know exactly- it was worth it and I got to talk to some nice people and spend time with my mom.). Mom and I bought some Christmas gifts, too (Webkins at buy one get one free- that's a deal!). I think it was around 3am when we headed home. It was fun!

The rest of the mall wasn't very crowded, not much worse than on a rainy weekend, probably because everyone was in Gymboree and Old Navy and Starbucks!

As many of you know my parents decided to separate, and they went to settlement the Monday after Thanksgiving. It was a hard day all around. It is my hope that this will allow each of us to develop healthier relationships.

Megan said "Mommy, we usually make brownies for people who move in to our neighborhood, are we gonna make brownies for the lady who bought Nana and PopPop's house?" She makes me smile!

I am thankful to Aunt Sara, Uncle Fred, and their family for welcoming Dad to their Thanksgiving celebration.

So, that's our Thanksgiving! Hang on for a few more posts to bring us up to date!

Christmas Shoes by Newsong [HQ]

Christmas Shoes by Newsong [HQ]
This is a video of my nephew singing with NewSong at the Chick-Fil-A Christmas Concert. Samuel is the boy at the end, about 5 mintues in.
I think he did a great job!

Birthdays and Sunny Sunday

This weekend we celebrated my birthday and Michael's birthday. In our family if someone has a birthday near you and you are an adult, you have to share! We had a great time together, the kids played and played and played. And we ate and ate and ate (Ledo's pizza and cake and pie).

Sunday, the weather was beautiful, so we spent more time outside. Kellie learned to drive Meg's battery powered ATV and loved it. It is so cool to watch them play together and Megan is a pretty good big sister!

October in review

I can't believe October 2009 is history already! The girls have enjoyed playing in the leaves. It is so cool to see them have fun with such simple things!

Most of October was spent with at least one of us being sick! Both girls had fevers that went away and then they had ear infections a week later. Kevin and I both had sinus junk. The pharmacy tech at Target now recognizes me and welcomes me back!

Meg's every 3 month check with the retina specialist went well. Her retina is still attached and working and her vision is almost back to pre-surgery. So now she's finished with drops in that eye. She is doing much better in school. They've had a long term substitute teacher lately, so I'm anxious to see if things continue to go well once her regular teacher returns.

Kellie finally had her 2 yr check up, she's a tall kid- in the 50-75th percentile for height! She's still on the bottom of the weight chart, but that's to be expected. She has picked up a few new words.

Halloween was fun. Meg's school had a parade and party on Friday. Kevin went to help at the party, which thrilled Megan.

We went to visit Granny and Granddaddy Hurst on Saturday afternoon. The kids had fun running around like crazy folks!

For more pictures of the fun go to- http://kevginmegkel.shutterfly.com/1476

On Saturday Megan and Kellie went trick or treating with Meg's friend Amy and her brother Brandon (who is close to Kellie's age).

Well, that's the high and low lights of the month at our house.

Please continue to be in prayer for my family, as my parents house sold, the separation papers are in process, Dad will be moving away, and Mom will be moving too.

Please also pray for Grandaddy and Granny. Granddaddy had a heart attack and yesterday they put in a pacemaker and he is in the ICU. Don't know much else at this point.

Thanks!