Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I realize that Christmas is over and we are into the new year; however, for all of you faithful family and friends who continue to send Christmas cards year after year, even though you get no card in return...this is for you. We love and cherish those cards and family updates. Maybe one of these days you will receive a card from our family!

What we love about our kids!
Jensen: His love of building things and his interest in studying instruction manuals...particularly if they are related to Lego's or games. He is not really interested in music; however, he has been diligently working on his drawing skills. He's very sweet and cuddly...even at the age of 10! I hope he's always willing to give his mom a hug. What a gentle and kind-hearted young man he is!

McKenna: Her strong will and determination can sometimes get her into trouble but we love her tenacity. It'll be great to see how God uses that to His advantage! She's very adventurous and athletic. She loves to listen to music and enjoys making up her own songs. She has attempted piano lessons (which she thinks she has mastered at age 7) and loves to play her Dad's guitars.

God has a great sense of humor and I'm glad he gave us one as well. Our awesome creator has blessed us with two precious kiddos.

Dakota the Cat and Kodi the Dog's first Christmas!

KK loves her animals!

Christmas Eve at Nana and Bob-bob's!

Cousin Marsden and Jensen

Christmas Morning!
We really thought that one of the kids would get coal in their stocking from Saint Nick; however, the un-named suspect must have put in over time and been taken off the naughty list at the last minute.

KK showing off her song writing ability. Let's see if she will listen to her dad's instructions and actually learn to play another artist's tunes.

BEWARE - Construction zone. Enter at your own risk. Notice (in the background) one structure has been completed and he has moved on to the next project. Such efficiency!

Christmas Day at Aunt Wendy's with Cousin Lauren and friend, Erika.

The kids with Gran-dad and Frances

The kids with Aunt Margaret.

Gran-daddy and Aunt Margaret

The kids with Gran-mom

This year we did something different to help us remember the true celebration of Christmas. We made an Advent wreath and read a daily devotion from the book A Family Advent. We began the Sunday following Thanksgiving and finished on Christmas Eve with the Christmas story. The kids enjoyed lighting the candle(s) and learning the meaning for each. I also enjoyed reading A Keepsake Christmas to get ideas for future traditions we can begin as a family.

Happy Birthday Jensen!

All right, I'm a little behind on my posts so here's what's been going on.

Jensen turned 10...yikes...double digits!


We celebrated his birthday by taking him and 4 of his friends to LP's Fall Festival. His favorite ride was the Viper. They rode almost all of the rides, had CC's pizza, lots of candy, and soda. KK had fun at the festival playing with her friends. She got her face painted and somehow talked her friends into riding the "big" rides. You know...the ones that make you want to hurl your CC's pizza. Hey, it happens. I heard all about the pile of puke they saw while in line for one of the rides. That's KK for ya, she's very observant and easily entertained.
KK's favorite ride was the Storm!

Around 8:30pm we took the gang back to our house for more sugar! We had cake and Jensen opened his presents. The kids played chase with Kodi the dog, wrestled in the living room and finally settled down in Jensen's room to build Bionicles. Everyone cleared out around 10pm which felt extremely late to me because I was coming down with a horrible cold!

Then we had Halloween. I'll have to post pictures later.
Jensen was a Ninja and KK was Spiderman. We went trick or treating with friends then drove to Gran-mommy's lake house. We had another family with us so the kids woke up at the crack of dawn, even though they went to bed at 1am! We fished, drove the gator, and took a boat ride. It started out cool but turned into a beautiful day.

Last night Jensen had his annual Awana Grand Prix. Jarrod and Jensen (mainly Jarrod) worked weeks on designing and building the car. Last year Jensen won the Commander's Choice Award for the sweetest looking car. This year he didn't receive an award. He did have one of the faster cars. He finished in about the same place as last year...somewhere in the top eight. There were around 50 cars entered into the race. There's apparently a lot of science behind making a fast car and Jarrod's figured it out but isn't willing to make a wedge or flat plank car just to win a race.

Here's last year's car:


Here's this year's masterpiece!


Next year, Jarrod will have his hands full! J and K will both be making cars to enter into the Grand Prix! KK already has a design in mind. She wants to make an Underdog car. We'll see how that goes with the boss!

Karate

We've been very fortunate to find a FREE Karate class for the kids. A friend from church, Darren, teaches Karate in his backyard as a ministry. He's a great teacher and has a cool website HERE. A few weeks ago he had his teacher and a few other guys come out to give demonstrations to the kids. The kids have really learned a lot in a short amount of time. There are 30 or 40 kids that show up every week. It's an awesome group of kids and we're glad J & K are having a blast.

Darren working with J & K on their first day of Karate.

By the end of their second lesson, J & K almost have their Kata down. We ordered their gi on-line and they turned out A LOT larger than expected. It looks like they'll be wearing them for a long time! :)

Jensen working on a defense move with a friend.

Camping with Friends

We had a blast camping with John and Amy at Tyler State Park. The kids stayed home with Nana and Bob-bob. We found a great campsite with a trail to a private "beach". We stayed in the water most of the days and were pleasantly surprised at the weather during the night.