Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we go to a church service at our church, followed by an easy crock-pot meal.  And, I always try to get pictures of everyone dressed in their finest.  I love the girls in their "twirly" dresses.  We ended up sitting near the front at church, and the girls were really interested in the music and singing (and Lauren wanted to hold her own candle for Silent Night), but they were intrigued by our organist, who has a big white beard and maybe does look a tad like the "jolly guy up north", causing Hannah to point and whisper (loudly) - SANTA'S HERE!

 Merry Christmas!

 almost 6 years old

 3 years old

 Daddy & his girls

 One of these days I'll teach Jon how to take pictures...none of the serious pictures of me and the girls turned out...so the silly one is really the best of the ones taken....

 After church the girls got to open one present each - they opened their gifts from "Cleaning Lisa", which was a giant craft center and lots of pink paper.  The girls were in heaven and started crafting after dinner as soon as their PJ's were on!

 Their first crafts were for Santa.

 They sure did leave a lot of cookies for one guy.....

We have a tradition of celebrating Jesus' birthday on Christmas Eve with a birthday cake after dinner.  The girls helped me make and decorate the cake and it is a good reminder of why we are getting presents to begin with.  I forgot to get a picture of the "before" cake, but here is after we had some....

Delivering Cookies

Since I am 100% an absolutely full-time working mom who fancies herself able to do the things that stay-at-home moms are able to do during the day, tonight after work the girls and I filled up the wagon and walked around delivering cookies to our neighbors, since we'd done so much baking, it was only fair to share it.  We live in a neighborhood with a large number of Asian families, and it was nice to do something nice for our neighbors and try to get to know more of them.

The girls' favorite house to visit was Jack & Janice's house, an older couple across the street.  Jack was a music teacher, and they invited the girls in and they got to play all kinds of instruments...piano, organ, drum set (!!), violin, and even an accordion.  They had so much fun and it was clear they were excited to have little ones in the house (and excited about instruments).  I'll admit, I was holding my breath the whole time that they didn't break anything!

Homebuilders ABF Family Picnic

We have been really blessed to be part of a great ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) at our church this year.  Jon and I were in a Young Couples class before Hannah was born & our class kind of fizzled out as we all had kids and stopped coming during the Sunday School hour.  Our church really had a need for a new group that was more "30-somethings" than young couples, and they started our class at the beginning of the year.  We've done studies on parenting, books, and books of the Bible.  [One of the more interesting studies we did was a study of Philippians were we had to do homework sheets every week as a couple - they wanted us reading the Bible & studying it together - needless to say, Jon & I discovered early on that we have VERY different study habits....]  Our class is made up of about 12 couples...and 30 some odd kids.  We had about 50 people, including kids, at our pot-luck Memorial Day picnic.  I'm so thankful for the great (reservable) shelters in Dublin because we got a place by the river, with a playground, and plenty of space for our big group.  We're all in the pre-school/early school stage of life, so things are a little crazy for us right now, but at least we are all in it together ; )

Chow time

I think a number of us live with kids (literally) attached to our bodies

Ellen, carrying a screaming child from the playground :)

The guys doing some "guy things"

Jake & his 5th treat of the day

Jake & Hannah down by the river

Jon, fishing ... need I say more?

This kid has a good time wherever she goes

Some ladies & baby overload

Pastor Brent & "baby Lucy" 

(Lauren is obsessed with her & has named all of her baby dolls Lucy)

Gill, our super-cool & super-fun pastor's wife : )

Feeding the Horses

The girls' favorite part about going to my parents' place is getting to feed the horses.  My parents don't actually own the horses - a guy named Jack does, but when we are in town, Jack lets the girls feed them -- and the girls love it.  But, the other thing they love is the book collection....and the fact that Grandpap will read to them just about any time (even if it is a little past bedtime).

(notice the size of the book pile!)

Hannah (with help from Abby) feeding Blockhead, Molly & John

The thing I love most about the girls being at my parents is the fact that they are almost always running outside - it is hard to keep them in....and I love that about the farm!

Sistersville High School Alumni Parade - 2013

The town where I grew up has an annual alumni parade every Memorial Day weekend for the 5 and 10 year reunion classes for the high school.  They have chapel speakers in the gym, class dinners and get-togethers, and a big parade Saturday morning.  Reunion classes put up displays in the local business windows - my dad's class did a fantastic display, but I didn't manage to get a picture.  In the parade, the local band plays, reunion classes make floats, and local businesses and civic organizations have floats too.  Some small-town things that you don't see everywhere include the fact that they still throw candy into the street for the kids, and a local tradition - the parade goes around twice - and everyone on the floats switches sides the second time around so they can see everyone in town.  (Plus, main street is only 2 blocks)  

But, the most unique thing about this alumni parade is that the school closed 20 years ago - a victim to an old building, in an area with decreasing enrollment.  I went to the "old" high school for 7th through 9th grades, and graduated from the "new" consolidated school.  When we joined up with our cross-county rivals, some of the community that comes from having a school in the middle of a town (for both towns) was lost, since the new school was as close to the "middle" of the county as possible, but the students in the area ended up really winning with a new building, new technology, all of the best teachers in the same building, and making friends with people from all over the county. 

We were home for the weekend, so we took the girls in to the parade - plus, it was my dad's 55th class reunion (although he certainly wasn't going to attend any of the events, lest he ruin his perfect "no attendance" record).  The girls had a great time, loved the band, the music, and especially collecting some candy!

(there was a 4-wheeler under here and they had people telling the guy driving to go left or right, rather than have a cut-out in the front for the driver to see)

They were playing "Eye of the Tiger"

The drummer in the back is my cousin, Dale