Christmas Pictures

Back from our Christmas travels, we are ringing in the New Year at home in Lynchburg tonight. Last week, we visited Nana and Pop and Uncle Ben, and then we went to Aunt Danielle and Uncle Kurt's house in Newnan for a visit with Shane's side of the fam. Trips always go too fast--you wish you could spend more time with those you love. But it is still incredibly nice to be home! Here are some pictures of Christmas Day. Happy 2008!

December Preschool Fun!

Luke and Holter celebrate at a birthday party for Jesus in Luke's class.

Shane shared the Christmas story with Luke's class during "Circle Time." In the beloved sandbox. Notice the scuffle over the cement mixer. Pastor and Mrs. Mabray shared the Christmas story during our preschool's Christmas program. The different classes wore their pajamas and sang songs between readings. The four-year-olds came out first and sang the most songs. They definitely knew their stuff. Then Luke's three-year class came out and did a little bit of singing and a few hand motions. Then the two-year-olds came out and pretty much just stood there. Then Jackson's one-year class walked in with their teachers and jingled bells all the way to their mommies and daddies in the audience. Except for Jackson. As you can see in the video in the post below, he did come sit with us. Then he noticed Luke on stage and started calling, "Luke! Luke!" So I told him to go stand with Luke, and he did, front and center for the rest of the program! It was really precious, and Luke got a huge kick out of it.

Ringing and Singing

Interesting Stuff

My friend Robin challenged me on her blog to share 8 interesting things people don't know about me. I confess that I was lying in bed last night trying to think of things to reassure myself that I am, in fact, interesting. =) Here's what I came up with: 1. I have been snorkeling with sea turtles. 2. I like watching "Cops" on TV. It's not that it's entertaining so much as it's enthralling. It never ceases to amaze me what people will say to get out of trouble. 3. I wrote and sold a poem about firefighters to a company that makes those cheesy plaques you can buy in gift stores. And, yes, the poem was cheesy. 4. I played in the snow in the middle of July (on top of a mountain in Vancouver, BC). 5. I have never seen any of the original Star Wars movies, and I don't feel the need to. 6. I was the fourth-grade spelling bee champ of Kincaid Elementary School, and I still remember the word I missed in the school bee: e-m-b-a-r-r-a-s-s-e-d. 7. In college, I was a summer camp counselor at Camp Sandmann at Lake Allatoona in Georgia, and it was the most physically exhausting job I have ever had, but I loved it. 8. I played flute in my high school marching band. So maybe you learned something new about me. This is fun! I tag Ashley S. and Britney H. to go next!

More recently...

Luke, Jackson, and I at Rivermont's All Hallows Eve Party. I was one half of the duo who came up with all the booths and activities for this party and coordinated volunteers, and by the time of this picture I was worn out! We had a great time though and we met lots of new folks from our community who came by for the food, fun, and games. Jackson decorated our senior pastor's "beard" with cheese puffs. Playing games, dressing up, eating and drinking sugar all day...who doesn't love this holiday? Shane's 32nd birthday was Oct. 30. Luke asked that we make dad a green cake, so imagine a green cake under that chocolate icing. My first attempt at pumpkin carving went pretty well. Luke wanted a scary one, and I think I delivered. Shane was actually a little concerned that our neighbors would think we are mean because of our scary pumpkin =) Grrrr

Catching Up

October was crazy busy for us, and here it is the middle of November! I'll share some of the highlights of the past couple of months. The pictures are in kind of random order, but you'll get the idea. First, we went camping with our good friends the Halls. Twins Hadley and Holter are Luke's age, Michaiah is Jackson's age, and Michael and Heather are our age =) Friends for everybody. They went camping in George Washington National Forest and we joined them for an afternoon/evening. Here are some pics of our outdoor adventure.

GG came to visit for a long weekend, and we all went to the pumpkin patch. GG, Shane, and I went to watch Mississippi State play at West Virginia. The drive was beautiful; the campus, not so much. Luke and I went to a caramel apple party at the Hannings' house.

Back to School

We took Luke to a Lynchburg Hillcats game back in August along with some guys from our youth group. We sat behind home plate and we were on the evening news cheering and waving. Jackson playing in our backyard. He and Luke like to throw rocks back in the woods, and he's showing me a rock here.

This was Luke and Jackson's first day at preschool, the Tuesday after Labor Day. They are enjoying their classes very much and are bringing home all kinds of cute projects and lots of sand in their shoes from the playground. They both go Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

Summer Continued

Pictures from senior high RYM in early July. We were in Panama City, FL, with 12 youth from our church. We got the added bonus of seeing youth from our old church in West Point.

GG came up to stay with Luke and Jackson while we went to RYM. In the photo on the left, the boys enjoyed 4th of July sparklers.

In early July, Shane and I hiked Sharp Top Mountain in the Peaks of Otter off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was tough but rewarding! A few pictures above you'll see a picture of what looks like just woods. Look carefully and you'll see a wild black bear! He walked right in front of us--thankfully we were in our car! The pics in the previous post were from our family trip to Emerald Isle, NC, in the southern Outer Banks.

A Summer in Pictures