Random pictures

Kalleigh is officially eating "solids" now. John doesn't think that rice cereal mush should count as a solid. He has a point. :) Yeah, it's a little early, since she won't be 4 months until Friday, but she sure is sleeping better at night!


Mom?! Do we have to take another picture?


Here's my little picture in the Tyler paper from Saturday. Kinda cool!

It's Done!

We did it! We survived the GTWPMS praise session. (Isn't it interesting that an all women's event ends in PMS? Inevitable.) I didn't stay to hear Dee Brestin speak after the praise session because I wanted to get the kids home and in bed. Therefore, I have heard absolutely NO feedback from it. I haven't seen anyone yet who was there that evening! Makes me a little anxious. John talked to someone today who told him that my picture was in the paper today. I hope someone saves it for me--we don't get the paper!

From my viewpoint, the praise session went fine. Our rehearsal the night before the seminar was better, but I think it really was fine. When you're up front, you get to see everyone's faces, and it's so encouraging! I hope that the ladies could see the emotions I was feeling conveyed by my expressions. I hope that it was a sweet sound in God's ears!

In other news, Johnathan busted his lip wide open today. I took the kids to a play place today where the whole inside area is filled with those tunnels and tubes that kids crawl through, like at McDonald's. He had a blast working his way through the maze of tunnels! Until he found a section that was three round sections stacked straight up. There were holes cut in the bottoms so that you could get from one to the next. Johnathan got to them at the top and tried to go through the hole down to the second one. It was a long way down--farther than he anticipated--and he lost his balance and fell flat on his chin on that hard plastic floor! His top teeth slammed into his bottom lip and he bruised his chin pretty good. There was blood all in that section! I had Kalleigh strapped in the Baby Bjorn in front, but I took off into the maze until I reached my first baby. I basically had to pull him out because he was afraid to move. It was so sad!

Many paper towels and 2 ice packs later, we headed home.

His lip is nice and fat now, but it should heal fine. Poor baby!

And now, a short funny story:

A few days ago I heard Johnathan whining, so I went to check on him. He was holding his thumb. I think he had pinched it in his dresser drawer. He said, "Oh no! Mommy! My ..." he paused to think,"... flumb!" I had to laugh out loud.

Have a good week!

GTWPMS

This stands for the Greater Tyler Women's Prayer Ministry Seminar. It's a big deal. Glenwood is hosting it this coming Thursday, January 25. The ministry itself is made up of women from all different denominations. They meet once a month to pray together. I know very little about it! From what I've read, this is the first time they've put a big seminar together. Why they chose to host it at Glenwood, I have no idea.

Julie Brown, the conference committee chairman, had planned on bringing her congregation's band for the praise and worship session that evening before the keynote speaker (Dee Brestin, author of “The Friendship of Women;” also co-authored the “Falling in Love with Jesus” trilogy studies with Kathy Troccoli). Apparently this had just never come up when coordinating with Virginia, the Glenwood representative of the committee

... until last week.

Julie was just going to double check with Virginia to make sure Glenwood had the accommodations for the band. Virginia said she would need to check on that ... and the elders put their foot down and said, "Absolutely not." Don't get me started on how ridiculous I think that is.

Anyway, Virginia asked if Julie's band could do something a capella. Julie relayed the question to the band, and I think the worship leader just laughed in her face. Julie then told Virginia basically, "If it's your rules, YOU come up with an a capella praise and worship session!"

This is where John enters the picture. Virginia came to John to see what he could come up with. John said, "Kim will do it!" Great. 45 minutes of all-ladies a capella and less than 2 weeks to practice. I agreed, like I had a choice, and we had our first rehearsal last night.

We will have 8 ladies up in front on mics. I wish, I wish we had more time to arrange all the songs for women's voices, but since we're limited (big understatement) on time, we're just going to sing the SAT & B parts, with T & B and octave high, of course.

Rehearsal went well, I thought. The kicker is that we have 25 songs to practice! The sopranos and altos know their parts just fine, but the poor ladies who are singing tenor and bass for the first time! They did a good job, but one of their biggest challenges is to be able to feel comfortable enough to get their heads out of the music, since they are all new parts to them. If we can all do that, then I think we will be able to get the focus off of ourselves and onto God.

Kind of funny how the roles are reversed. If it was a room full of C of C'ers, a band might be distracting to us. But for a room full of mostly non-C of C'ers, I'm afraid our a capella will be distracting!

I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. We have a good opportunity with a big responsibility!

Please pray for the seminar to go well and also the praise & worship session. Pray that the ladies' hearts will be open to hearing the words of the songs and to look past the style. Pray that all involved will be blessed by what they hear.

What I did with my new scrap stuff from Mom ...

My kids did so great going to see Santa. It was the first time for both of them. When it was our turn, Santa held his arms out to Johnathan who ran to him and gave him a big hug! Kalleigh didn't cry at all and even looked in the general direction of the camera! He was a sweet Santa with some Santa-like advice about being good for Johnathan.

Anyway, this paper is from the Cosmo Cricket "Wonderland" line. This line has some beautiful colors in it, but I went with the more subtle colors because NOTHING would match that nasty green chair Santa sat in! The journaling says:
Favorite Things
Johnathan (2 1/2): blue blanket, Nemo, running and jumping, Rudolph, Fruit Loops, cars and trains
Kalleigh (12 weeks): pacifier, thumb, Mommy's milk, mobile, Daddy's arms

Thanks again, Mom, for the new paper!


Since the kids were dressed up that day, we took a family picture. We needed a new one with Kalleigh. We gave this picture to the parents and grandparents for Christmas. I love my family! Thank you, God!

Reading Material

Hey, whatever works.

The Christmas Post

It took me awhile, but here, finally, is the Christmas post of '06.

This is mostly a picture post, but they tell the story probably better than I could.

We started our Christmas at home, opening our presents for each other on Christmas Eve. It's not neccesarily a tradition, but it worked with our schedule this year.


Johnathan with his pile.


Kalleigh's new cd player.


My new favorite scrapbook paper with thier most beautiful line yet!

Then we went to Bonham, TX, to Granny Lou's Bed & Breakfast, owned by John's brother and his wife. Isn't it beautiful?


This house was completely gutted and remodeled a few years ago. It's gorgeous on the inside, too!


Kalleigh, soaking it all in.


He's so cute in his new hat!

Then over to Dallas to see the Kells. I didn't get near as many pictures in Dallas as I would have liked!


Kalleigh with her GREAT-Aunt Karla. ;)

Then we came home and a few days later, Kreg came to spend a couple of days.


Awwww ....

I took Kreg out to see Gallant (my horse).


Me an' my horse.


I had an hour and a half riding lesson Sunday afternoon, so I'm trying to practice what we learned!

Kreg even tried his hand at riding my young horse!



Oh, the lack of details. All in all we had a very good Christmas ... a few speed bumps along the way, as the holidays are always a little hectic ... but a very good Christmas. We enjoyed seeing so many of you!

Happy New Year!


The shirt says Ciao Baby ... a gift from Uncle Kreg brought back from Italy!