We're Home!

I pray that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. It was fun to hear of everyone's Black Friday shopping fun! My mom and I were up at 3:15 and at Elder Beerman at 4am. Meijer by 5am, Walmart at 6am - which we promptly left because of mass chaois and very long lines. Menards, Target and a few places in the mall. We met Kevin, my dad, "Almost Aunt" Liz and the kids for lunch at Fazoli's and then went to Kohl's. We had a great time and bought almost everything that was on our lists! Kevin and I went out later and price matched those MP3's (that Best Buy had) at Walmart. So, next time we see the Hutsell's we'll have to see if we ended up with the same MP3's. Although, I hope Jord doesn't read this!
I ate way too much - I always gain a few lbs. when I go back home! I brought home a delicious pumpkin roll - thanks Grandma Fogle and I'm looking forward to having a little of that each day this week just to savor Thanksgiving a little longer.
It was great to visit with family, the Sizemore side and the Farmer side this visit! We love all of you and it was great to catch up with everyone!

One more post today

Ok - I have one more post and some pics to share.

Last night was family night at AWANA, so I went to see what the kids do while they are there every week. Abby was not feeling well, so Kev stayed home with her to put her to bed early.

And the pic of Jord - she was decorating everything even herself for Christmas!

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree.........

The Christmas Tree is up - I don't believe we have ever been this early. We are heading out of town tomorrow and will be gone until Sunday so at least it is a project that we won't have to do when we get home! We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and BlackFriday Shopping . My mom and I go every year and we have such a great time. There is nothing better than spending a whole day shopping, eating, laughing and talking with your mom.

We have so much to be thankful for:

• Healthy children that are smart and energetic
• A husband who works hard and loves the Lord
• the shelter of our house
• the food on our table
• family that loves and cares for us
• friends that are always there to help us out
• our freedom to Worship the Lord
• Knowing Jesus as my Lord and Saviour

I could go on and on because there are so many wonderful blessings in my life. There are so many things that I take for granted and should be thanking God for everyday. God is good and He is a Provider, Comforter, Saviour and Friend. I' m so thankful that He is my Friend!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving

She Sleeps

Abby crawled up in Kevin's lap this afternoon while he was working and fell asleep. How precious! When I wanted to wake her up (payback -you know!) he wouldn't let me. He held her for a while and then brought her to the couch.
We did have a busy day - homeschool group then a few families came to our house for lunch and of course she was up last night - she got up to go potty about 11ish and when I went to bed around 12:30ish she was asleep in the hallway outside of her bedroom. Then her and Rach were up around 6:20 this morning. So finally, she sleeps with daddy!

This week

This week we have had our first snow! We were in the basement digging out boots and trying them on, gloves, hats and scarfs too. Somehow every year we need new things and we can never find matching gloves - we had them last year, but in storage one glove had disappeared. We've had AWANA, had friends over for dinner, signed up for basketball (Zach & Jord), made plans to look at a refridgerator for our rental, sold things on Craigslist, cleaned out toy bins and closets, cleaned the bunny cage and kept up with school - it's only Wed!
Zach and Jord have been going out every day at lunch to practice basketball, they just came in and their whole faces are red from the cold outside!
Jord just got her own e-mail address jordan@mwas.biz , so she has been sending me e-mails everyday and this is one that I received the other day -

Hi MOM you know I would like to do some things with you .And thanks for talking with me last night I LOVE talking about GOD MOM I LIKE YOU . YOU HAVE done a lot of GOOD THINGS for us Kids And OUR FAMILY and that helps us to BE BETTER AT LISING AND BEGAN GROWING AnD SOON YOU,ll BE SEEing us BEING AGOOD AND WONDERFUL CHRISTRAIN PERSON LIKE YOU two AND IT WILL BE BECAUSE of YOU AND DAD AND I FEEL like youtwo are making us a better PERSON.your dooen aGOOD JOB . your doing a GOOD job of being a parent .AND SHOW this to dad. I LOVE YOU MOM. YOUR THE ONLY MOM THAT would BE GOOD FOR ME you JUST RAISE ME UP SO GOOD THAT I WOULD NEVER ASK FOR ANOTHER person. THANKS MOM FOR EVERYTHING . LOVE JORDAN.

It makes me cry every time I read it - I'm glad to know that she would never request another person to take my place as mom. As far as she if concerned her dad and I are doing a great job of raising them and she loves the Lord and knows that she will serve Him all of her days!
Precious huh? Giving her an e-mail address has gotten her creative writing juices flowing.

Wedding Pics

The wedding was wonderful and the girls all thought that the bride was a princess. Rach wanted

her picture taken with "the princess"! The wedding & reception took place in the same room - we sat at our tables for the ceremony and then waited while they set up the head table on the stage, then we were served dinner, cutting of the cake and then dancing. The girls had a great time dancing around with grandma's and great grandma's as well as aunts and cousins. Zach, not so much. He did venture out a little when Kevin came out to dance with Abby - Abby fell asleep on Kev and then we left. All the college kids were really starting to have fun by now and it was time for little ones and their parents to go to bed.

My mom (Nana) stayed the night with us in the hotel. She brought lots of snacks and prizes for everyone. By the time we all settled down it was midnight.

We came home tired, but had a great time. Congratulations Clint and Sandy - the wedding was beautiful and we pray for God's blessing on you both as you start this new life together.

Goin' to a Weddin'

We're heading out tomorrow for Indianapolis to a wedding. My mom's sister's daughter (my cousin) - she was in our wedding 13 yrs. ago as a flowergirl. Hard to believe! We are looking forward to seeing everyone and being with family. We've pulled out some fancy dresses for Rach & Abby, but still need one for Jord so we are shopping first thing in the morning. There was so much excitement about painting our nails tonight and trying on the dresses and picking out the shoes and hairbows! I have to admit that I think it's fun to dress the girls - I am always obsessing about having them match.
Thank goodness it's an evening wedding. It should take us 3 hrs. to get there. We'll stay all night and travel home Sun. morning.
Have a great weekend friends,
Stacy

Rach's bathroom playhouse

The bathroom became Rach's house today - for her and all her little people!

We made it!

We made it through the night as far as "the pukes" go. We are still dealing with Abby waking up and staying awake for hours at a time in the middle of the night. Last night, she woke up to go potty and could not go back to sleep. Some time passed and I heard something in my bathroom - thinking it could be one of the other kids I continued to lay in bed and snooze a little until I noticed that I was still hearing noise from the bathroom - it was Abby and she had my lipstick! I cleaned her up, gave her a stearn warning and put her back in bed. About 45 min later I heard some noise in Jord's bedroom and then in the hallway so I hollered out, "Abby, if that is you - you are in big trouble!" She must have made a mad dash to her bed - she was not in the hallway but in her bed trying to be as still as possible in her bed. In the hallway I found a bag from Jord's room that holds all of her lip gloss and nail polish - that could have been disastrous. After some time, she finally fell asleep! At least no one had the pukes! - Yeah!

The Pukes!

We had a good case of the pukes today! Shortly, after breakfast Jord started complaining of a tummy ache and it wasn't long before she was depositing her french toast sticks into a big blue bucket. For some reason, we have grown accustomed to carrying around these big buckets whenever we get the pukes - my kids hate doing it in the toilet!

Of course, now I'm a little anxious for the night - will anyone else get it! The kids seemed so hungry before bed and were asking for all kinds of snacks and I was trying to ration out the smallest amounts.

We'll see what the night holds!

Election Night Party

We had a lot of fun at our party! Counting electoral votes, locating states and coloring them in red or blue! As you can see Abby fell asleep, Jord, Rach & their cousin Savannah made alot of pictures and drawings and worked on puzzles while waiting for the next state to be called. Zach had a book that he was reading in between results.

We are planning to put together Bimini boxes (Christmas boxes for orphan kids in the Bahamas) while watching the Buckeye game tomorrow. I need to go buy some supplies for that today and do some house chores!

We are concentrating on some History and Science today. Pocahontas and Vertebrates!

Have a blessed weekend,

Stace

Let's Vote!

The kids and poll workers!

Our neighbor called to say that there was not a line at our polling location so Kevin immediately headed out to vote and then he headed out to do inspections. Kev called and said that there was still no line, so I got the kids ready and we all headed out to vote - still no line! Abby kept asking to see the "boat" - she thought that was where we were going. I tried and tried to explain that we were saying "vote", but she was still asking when we were going to see the "boat" even at dinnertime.

I am taking a break from our "exciting" Election Night Party to blog - we have had pizza, cake and we are filling in our maps - right now it is McCain (69) Obama (103). The girls have made lots of pictures and signs to put up around the house.

Well, back to the party.

Family Fun Nite was a great success! The kids had a great time - Kev and I took turns working a stop on the"Roman's Road" . They had a couple of the connecting Sunday school rooms dark and set up as a path that led you to Christ! That was fun to do for us! Of course, plenty of candy. I've already had way too much!
We picked up our nephews Kane and Gabriel for the Family Fun Nite and ended up keeping them all weekend. We just took them home tonight.
Saturday we spent the day outdoors - it was beautiful here! We did yardwork and cleaned out the van and garage and did some "painting". I hardly ever get out the paints, but we got out some pieces of wood left over from the building of the playhouse and got busy making some awesome masterpieces.

We had a wonderful service today at church - I love that song, "I am a friend of God!" Who am I that You are mindful of me? It's Amazing! Pastor preached about Love - 1 Corinthains 13 - one of my personal favorites!
I love all of you - God has blessed me with wonderful family and friends.

Well, we've survived the Fall Back time change! It was dark tonight at 6pm! Looking forward to voting this week and our big Election night party and no school on Wed!
Have a great week,
Love, Stace