Goal Setting 101

Well, I have given it some thought and prayer and here are a few goals I have for the new year:

1. Read the Bible thru - I have never made it thru in a year unless you count my children's Bible when I was little. :)
2. Tone up and lose a little weight. I have exercised before, but never consistently. This year I want to get back to pre-baby weight.
3. Take one day a week to do more of what the girls want to do. Possibly a "memory making Monday"?
4. Go to Disney World. Okay, that one is a definite, we have been planning a trip come beginning of May.

New Year

Happy New Year's!!

My house was quite the party on New Year's Eve. The girls were in bed by 8pm and I was asleep by 10:30. Alex watched the Tennessee football game and then went to bed shortly there after (before midnight). Try not to be too jealous that you weren't here. ;o)

We did get to go to my Grandma Jackson's house for lunch on New Years. It had been awhile since I had been there (actually too long) and had a nice time visiting. We went to my parent's afterwards to do our last Christmas celebration with my siblings. My brother and his wife were up from Louisville, oh, and their puppy Cocoa. :)

As for New Year's resolutions......I need to spend a bit more time deciding what to focus on this year. I don't like to make too many as I tend to lose focus and not complete them.

Until next time, I hope you and your family had a great 2009 and an even better 2010!

Snow Days

We have been fortunate enough to get to enjoy several days of snow, and honestly am hoping for more. ;o)

Here are some pictures from our snow adventures. This is when we had only enough to cover the ground. We went out Monday, but I didn't take any pictures, just played.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

Christmas Day

We were so blessed Christmas Day. I absolutely loved every minute of the day. The girls got up around 7:30. Lillie informed me that she looked at the tree and that Santa didn't come because things didn't look any different. So we went in to check it out and she realized that because the lights were off (and it was dark outside) that she just didn't notice that Santa had come. The girls broke into the stockings lightening fast. Probably the funniest thing that happened was when Gracie opened her last present. (Lillie had just opened a camera) She saw it was a Cinderella doll, threw it down, kicked it, and then cried. After convincing her that Santa said she had to wait until she was older like Lillie to get a camera, she was okay and has been sleeping with her new doll everynight since.

One of Gracie's favorite things (and the only thing that she actually asked for) was the pink suckers she found.

One of Lillie's biggest reactions came when she opened a pair of pajama's with feet in them. She also got a camera, which had over a hundred pictures by the end of the day. :o)

Both girls received a ton of things from Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles. Something that my parents did each year was take a picture of us with our gifts and it is kind of neat looking back and remembering what we got, so I have been doing the same for my girls.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!

Merry Christmas

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! What better way to celebrate, but by remembering the birth of our Saviour - Jesus Christ. As you go thru your festivities this weekend, don't forget the real reason.

Santa Claus and Christmas trees and presents are okay,
But Jesus is the real reason, we have a Christmas Day!

Luke 2 Message

The Birth of Jesus
1-5About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.
6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.
An Event for Everyone
8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13-14At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
15-18As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
19-20Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!
Blessings
21When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.
22-24Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God's Law: "Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God," and also to sacrifice the "pair of doves or two young pigeons" prescribed in God's Law.
25-32In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:
God, you can now release your servant;
release me in peace as you promised.
With my own eyes I've seen your salvation;
it's now out in the open for everyone to see:
A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
and of glory for your people Israel.
33-35Jesus' father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,
This child marks both the failure and
the recovery of many in Israel,
A figure misunderstood and contradicted—
the pain of a sword-thrust through you—
But the rejection will force honesty,
as God reveals who they really are.
36-38Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.
39-40When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him.

Visit with Santa

Last week we visited Santa at Sony. It was a fun trip with lots of excitement from the girls. Both talked about seeing Santa and telling him what they wanted. Lillie said she just wanted to stand by him for her picture and that is okay with me. I am not going to force her to sit on his lap, I just wanted the picture together. As you see below she did wonderful!

Then there is Gracie. She was excited to see him and waited so great in line. She kept looking up to where he was standing and telling us to look. She seemed like she would do really good this year. And earlier she told me that she was going to stand by him too. Well, as soon as she came around the corner and was next to go, she changed her mind. She grabbed Alex's leg and started crying. Since I am such a good mom, while Lillie was getting her picture, I pried her off Alex and held her close to Santa for a picture. The photographer looked at me with a "what do you want me to do" look, and I said just take the picture, I do not mind if she is crying in it. Thus we have a Santa stare-down. It is too cute and hard to keep from smiling at it.

Don't worry she did not mind and talked for the rest of the evening about getting to see Santa. Here is another picture from later in the evening of the girls eating cookies at the party. As you can see there seems to be no long term affect of the trauma she endured earlier. :)

My scanner wasn't cooperating with me, and that is why the pictures of Santa came out with a shine. Sorry.

I want a hippopatamus for Christmas!

This is for my little brother! Merry Christmas, Ryan!

Lillie is beside herself with excitement. Every time I come in the living room she is peering under the tree. She doesn't try to open anything, but just making sure I hadn't snuck any new presents under there. :) Yesterday she wrapped a couple of things for Gracie from her and when Gracie got up from nap, Lillie exclaims loudly, "How did those presents get there?" It was too cute. This is going to be such a fun year!