You Might Think I'm Crazy

But I had no choice but to do what I did in the wee morning hours. For years my sweet Katie has longingly asked, "Mom, when am I going to get to see snow?" And my answer has always been the same, "Probably never, at least as long as we live in Louisiana." So when Katie heard on the news that there was a chance for snow, she was beside herself with excitement. She was very disappointed to find out that she still had to go to bed at her normal time last night. I told her if it snowed that I would wake her up so she could see it. She then wanted someone to stay up all night to watch for snow. Yeah, right. As bad as I wanted her to see it snow, I was not willing to do that. But lucky for her someone was watching. I woke at about 3:30am to the beeping of our answering machine, which meant that we had a new message. I always think the worst when we get a call in the middle of the night. But it was my sister-in-law, Amy, who in a very happy and excited voice was telling us that it was snowing at their house in Vidor, Texas--so much that they had been playing in it for an hour and had built a snowman the size of my 16 year old nephew, Jarrett. So I got up to go see if it was snowing here. When I first looked out into the night, I couldn't tell that it was snowing. But when I looked out of the back door I could see some accumulation on Aaron's truck. So I looked closer and could see tiny, little snow flakes falling--the kind that you have to strain your eyes to see. I went back to ask Aaron if he thought I should wake Katie up. I knew she would be upset if I didn't wake her, especially if I told her we saw it snowing and it wasn't snowing when she got up at 6:30. I also knew that it might be a long time before she would see it snowing here again. Aaron says he only remembers it snowing once when he was little. So I went and woke her up, and Sarah too accidentally. They were both so excited when I told them it was snowing and wanted to see it. Turns out that we got up at just the right time because the tiny flakes turned into the big-beautiful-can see them from a mile away snow flakes! It was so pretty to watch it falling. So then of course the girls wanted to go outside to get a closer look. Sarah, when she felt how cold it was, decided that she could see just fine from the doorway. Katie, on the other hand, wanted to really get the full effect of the experience.



Look at how excited she is--at 3:30am!



And of course she had to taste it!



Check out how huge these flakes were!



A front view of our house.



Aaron's truck.



When she woke up at her normal time and found out she still had to go to school, she wanted to go make a snow angel. I had to let her, even though the thought of it make me shiver. Who knows when she'll get the chance again?!



Here is Katie's first snow angel. Even though we had to miss out on some sleep, it was so worth it to see the smiles on the girls faces and to see the beautiful snow falling--something that is very rare in Southwest Louisiana. Our own little Christmas miracle!

Happily Ever After

My conversation with Sarah at nap time today.

Sarah: What does happily ever after mean?
Me: It means you are happy always and forever.
Sarah: Do we have happily ever after in this life?
Me: Yes, we can if we do what Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to do.
Sarah: So I can live with you happily ever after?
Me: Yes, if we do what is right. That's why it is so important for us to make good choices.
Sarah: I want to live happily ever after with you and my family.
Me: Me too!

All I Want For Christmas

For months now Katie has been hoping that her two front teeth would not come it before Christmas. Why would she hope for such a thing? Because she wanted to be able to sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." But about a month or so ago she lost another tooth right beside those two front teeth. So, now she goes around singing, "All I want for Christmas is my three front teeth!"

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town!

Tonight Aaron was talking about one of his new favorite treats, hot chocolate with cool whip. He asked if we had any and I told him I thought we did and I would make him some later. Soon after that the girls disappeared. I didn't think anything of it until Aaron called me into the living room and told me to bring my camera. Apparently the girls had found the Reddi Whip in the refrigerator and Katie had tried to make Sarah a beard like Santa's.



It was seriously cracking her up!



And us too!



So then Katie wanted me to make her a beard. And I did. Silly girls! Don't they know that Santa is watching?!

The First Presidency's Christmas Devotional

I am so grateful that we were able to go to the Christmas Devotional tonight. It really got me in the Christmas spirit. I really enjoyed all three talks, but I have to say that President Uchtdorf is fast becoming one of my favorite speakers. It could be his accent, but whatever it is, I am just captivated whenever I hear him speak. I have always felt that way about President Monson too. I am so grateful for living prophets, who uplift and inspire us to want to be and do better. On the way home, Aaron and I discussed things that we felt inspired for our family to do this Christmas season, and throughout the upcoming year. I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ, for his birth and life, and for this wonderful time of year.

Christmas Under the Oaks

Okay, so there's not a whole lot to the little town of Sulphur (as far as entertainment goes), but I have to say that Sulphur has the coolest Christmas Festival around. I have been wanting to go to 'Christmas Under the Oaks' for the last few years, and finally made it on Saturday. We started out the day going to 'Breakfast with Santa', which was really cool--literally! It was set up outside in a tent and it was pretty cold, but it was so neat. First the girls had their picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Clause .............................



................and then we sat down and had a breakfast of pancakes and sausage.



We also enjoyed the company of the Zachary girls.



After breakfast, I dropped the girls off at the Zachary's for Emma's birthday party, and Wendy and I headed back up to the Henning House and had some delicious gumbo that Sulphur High was selling. Then we walked around and checked out all of the vendors selling all kinds of cool, fun, and delicious stuff. After Aaron had picked up the girls, we all headed back again for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, complete with a video presentation--which made us proud to live in Sulphur, another sighting of Santa and Mrs. Clause, fireworks, and SNOW!!!! (No, it wasn't real, but as real as it will get in these parts.) The girls were SO excited to see it 'snow'. They were even trying to eat it. Yikes! We had a great time and look forward to next year.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Today was Aaron's birthday. We celebrated with Kent, Johnice, MawMaw, and a few friends here at the house tonight. We are now the same age, thank goodness. He loves that he married 'an older woman'. Only five days older, but he still likes to make a big deal about it and tell me that I'm old for the few days that I am older than he is. He's so funny.



Blowing out the candles--36 of them, to be exact.



Yes, he got them all out in one blow. And look at all the smoke. I'm surprised the fire department didn't show up. Hope you had a great day honey!

A Few of My Favorite Christmas Things

It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Youngsville. After working Wednesday and Thursday we have all of the inside decorations up. Now if Aaron can just find some time to do the outside lights (he's been pretty swamped with church and work since we go back), we'll be all decked out for Christmas. I took pictures of some of my favorite Christmas decorations. I could really go crazy with Christmas decorations, but I try to keep things simple since we have a small house and our space is limited.



Our stockings all hung by the quilt rack with care? Small house--no where else to put them. I especially love Aaron's. Our good friend Jana (who introduced us) gave it to Aaron the Christmas after we met. Her mom actually made it and painted the deer and his name on it.



I love this sign I found at Target a few years ago. And that sweet little angel happens to be one of my favorite things too!



I absolutely adore this beautiful nativity that Aaron gave me for my birthday after we first moved into this house. You can't tell from the picture, but it has amazingly beautiful details. You'll just have to come over to see for yourself.



Aaron also gave me this for the same birthday. It too has beautiful detailing that can't be seen from the picture.




And here is the tree. I have to admit that I think it looks great.



Here it is all lit up. Of course, the picture doesn't do it justice. It is much prettier in person. Come by for a visit and see for yourself. We'll even make you some hot chocolate!

O Christmas Tree

This year I feel so off track for Christmas. We usually start putting up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving and have in all done in a day or two. And here we are a few days into December and I don't have everything up and I feel like I'm wasting precious Christmas time. Well today I was thrown even more off when Aaron showed up with a live tree. We have a beautiful pre-lit artificial tree, which I LOVE, but Aaron......not so much. We bought it about seven years ago when Kmart here in Sulphur was going out of business. It was originally over $200, but we paid $60 for it. It is full and beautiful, but because of it's age, it has a few issues. For instance, some of the branches at the top are broken, but I taped them up and it works, and you can't even tell. And then last year some of the lights on the bottom of the tree went out. I spent hours working on them, to no avail. But I am fine with just adding some string lights and calling it good because I just love the look of the tree so much. Aaron has been trying to find a new tree for the last few years, but I just don't want to pay the price to have a tree as beautiful and full as the one we have, especially when we can just make do for a little longer. We were over at the Cliffords on Monday and he got so excited about their real tree and I think that is when he decided that we needed a real tree too. So here he is, all proud of his real tree.



In my opinion, the only great thing about a real tree is that it smells up the house really nicely. But, we have found that Yankee makes a 'Mistletoe' candle that smells just as good, and makes you think your tree is real, without all of the headache of a real tree. I know lots of people will disagree with me, but I think there are so many more cons than pros to having a real tree. Here are the ones that really are bothersome to me:

1. Having to water it and try to keep it alive until Christmas. I have put Aaron in charge of this, since it was his idea, and because it is a little harder for me to get up and down these days.

2. Having to pay every year for a tree that is going to die. Makes no sense to me.

3. All of the needles EVERYWHERE!!!!!

4. It is not perfectly shaped like my artificial tree. Aaron says that's because it is REAL and REAL trees, like life, aren't perfect. I say--what's wrong with a little perfection? After all, isn't that what our ultimate goal is supposed to be?!

5. The branches are too weak to hold some of our heavy ornaments. Even the ones at the top won't hold them. They just keep falling down. It's very frustrating.

Having said all of that, I really am trying not to be a Scrooge about the real tree, especially for the girls sake. They really weren't too sure about it either to begin with, but once they got out of the bathtub tonight and saw the tree all lit up after I had shaped it and strung all the lights, they were very excited and immediately went to work putting on the ornaments, which has always been their job.



Posing by the tree.



They used to put all of the ornaments in the same spot on the bottom of the tree, but they have gotten better about spreading them out.



While they were decorating, Sarah kept saying, "Mom, this is the yummiest Christmas ever!" I guess the real tree is growing on her. Maybe it will me too. But really, these smiles are all that matter.

Countdown to Christmas

I know I am a couple of days late, but I fell in love with this cute idea for a Christmas countdown on Tip Junkie and I made it today. I put fun things inside each 'little drawer' for us to do each day to help us countdown to Christmas and get in the spirit of the season. I included things like write a letter to Santa, make Christmas cookies and take some to a friend, read the Christmas story together, go Christmas light looking, go ice skating, make a Christmas ornament, send Christmas cards to the missionaries from our ward, etc. I am loving my new little advent calendar and look forward to a new fun thing to do with my family each day! I love Christmas!

Home Sweet Home

We finally made it in tonight after an extremely long drive home. We are tired and so glad to be out of the van and sleeping in our own beds tonight. We did, however, have a great visit with our family and friends in North Carolina. Here are some of the highlights.....and lowlights.

FRIDAY

Highlight--We were finally well enough to leave. HOORAY!

Lowlight--Sarah started asking, "Are we at the hotel yet?" five minutes after we left, and kept asking every ten to fifteen minutes, unless she was really distracted by a movie.

Lowlight--Getting a rock chip in our windshield from a truck we were behind on the interstate.

SATURDAY

Highlight--Entering good ole Duplin County and seeing the cotton fields. I love cotton fields. Not sure why, but I do.

Lowlight--Entering Duplin County and catching a whiff of the distinct smell of the air, which is not pleasant, because of all of the chicken, turkey, and hog farms. Sarah was so funny. Every time we would walk outside of my parents house, she would say, "EWW! Something stinks!" The funny thing is that I didn't usually notice until she would point it out.

Highlight--Going to my little sister Kristie's baby shower and seeing her and lots of family and friends I haven't seen in a while. Fun stuff.



Highlight--Going to my parents house. I like to walk around and look at every room when I get there just to see what's different, which usually isn't much, but I still like to do it.

SUNDAY

Highlight--Going to the ward that I grew up in and seeing lots of people who are very dear to me.



Highlight--Going to my niece Kyleigh's baptism. I was very honored to be asked to speak at her baptism, and that she asked me to help her change into her baptism dress, and to help her change after she was baptized. It made me so happy to be part of her special day.



Highlight--Meeting my newest little niece, Paige. She is such a sweet and happy little baby, and smelled absolutely delicious. I enjoyed every second that I got to hold her.



MONDAY

Highlight--Going shopping at Target with my sister, Melissa. Wish we could have had more time, but at least we got to spend a little bit of one-on-one time together.

Highlight--Spending time with my cute nephew Ethan, who absolutely loves to laugh, smile, and 'talk' to Aunt Lynetta....................



Lowlight--.................as long as I am NOT holding him. Makes me very sad, especially since we had bonded so nicely while we were there in July.

Highlight--Listening to Uncle Aaron tell a 'Ted and Linda Lou' story to all of the girl cousins who slept over and didn't want to go to sleep. He talked them all right to sleep.

Lowlight--They didn't go to sleep until after midnight and were up by 6:30am.

TUESDAY

Highlight--Eating some good ole' collards and chicken and pastry at McCall's. YUMMO!

Highlight--Getting to visit with Kristie and Luke again.

WEDNESDAY

Highlight--Shopping in K-town and my sweet husband buying me some UNC stuff for my van.

Highlight--Eating a cheesesteak at Andy's. Seriously the best!

THURSDAY

Highlight--Aaron helping Katie, Sarah, Charles Allen, Emmy, Marleigh, and Kyleigh shoot Katie's gun. All of the kids loved it, much to Grandma's dismay.



*Love this picture of Charles Allen shooting with his tongue hanging out. He 'shot' two turkeys and a deer. =)



Highlight--Having a delicious Thanksgiving lunch at my Grandma Barnett's house. Hey Neal, did you notice that you cut my head off?



Highlight--Sitting around after lunch and getting a family history lesson from Aunt Carolyn Jean and then hearing stories from her and grandma about how mischievous my dad was when he was little.

Highlight--Having a Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house that night and getting to eat some of my mom's delicious dressing.

Lowlight--Being so stuffed from two big meals that I could hardly move that night.

FRIDAY

Lowlight--Waking up to a cracked windshield. Apparently the cold weather had upset the rock chip that we got on the way to NC and sent a crack up each side of it. So now it looks like our windshield is smiling.

Highlight--Going shopping with Aaron and my sisters Kristie and Melissa, and Melissa's husband Jacob.

Highlight--Eating Krispy Kreme's 'hot now' doughnuts. SOOOO GOOD!! (I know--pretty sad that half of my highlights are about delicious food I ate. Can you tell I'm pregnant?)

Highlight--Riding back to my parents house with the van loaded down with our loot and a baby crib for Kristie. Poor Jake could hardly move in the back seat, but he was such a good sport about it. So wish I had a picture!

Highlight--Spending our last night there at Meadow looking at the Christmas lights and buying overpriced, but delicious candy from the little country store.

Lowlight--The line to ride the train was ridiculously long, so we just walked around to look at the lights.

Lowlight--Having elephant feet from apparently being on my feet entirely too long for the day. They haven't been like that since I was pregnant with Katie. I was going to take a picture, but you would just be grossed out.



SATURDAY

Lowlight--Left to start the long ride home. It was a very sad day. It rained almost the entire time we were driving, which seemed to fit my gloomy mood perfectly.

Lowlight--Slow driving because of the rain, and because apparently everyone else was going home from their Thanksgiving travels as well.

Highlight--We had a safe day of traveling.

SUNDAY

Lowlight--I woke up with a headache that wouldn't go away.

Lowlight--We ran into traffic almost as soon as we crossed the state line into Louisiana. Thank goodness for cheap gas and the DVD player.

Highlight--We stopped to eat at Applebee's because my sweet husband wanted to treat me to something better than fast food on my birthday, and because Applebee's is one of my favorite places to eat and we don't have one in Lake Charles anymore. The food was delicious!

Lowlight--The service was horrible. It took us an hour to get our food, and they weren't even busy.

Lowlight--It took us at least three hours longer to get home from two different traffic delays. It seemed like we would never get home. It was a LONG, LONG day.

Highlight--Although we came home with a cracked windshield and a broken plastic thingy on one of our seats, the van did great and we traveled around 2500 miles without any major problems. We are grateful that we were able to go to NC for Thanksgiving and spend time with our loved ones there. We love and miss you already!

Parent Visitation Week

This week was parent visitation week at the studio where Katie and Sarah take gymnastics, which meant that we were able to go sit in on their classes and see what they do each week. Sarah for some reason has not been wanting to go to class lately, but was so excited when she found out that me, Daddy, Katie, and Maw Maw were going to class with her this week.



She's so cute. Every time she would do something new, she would wave and smile at us when she was done.



She make a really good 'bridge' and all of her classmates crawled under.



She really has great form for her age, I think. But I may be a little biased.

Katie's class was tonight, so Sarah and I didn't go so we wouldn't spread our sick germs with her class. But my sweet husband did get some pictures so I could see what Katie does in her class.



She is doing really good with her splits, and practices all the time at home.



Another position we see her in a lot at home.



She is pretty flexible. Believe it or not, I used to be pretty flexible too, back in the day.



I wonder how high up she made it. I'm impressed that she even got off of the ground.



This is her teacher, Mrs. Amy, who she loves. It's probably the closest thing I'll come to a picture of the two of them, since Katie thinks she is too old for posing for pictures these days.

Our Thankful Turkey

We finished our 'Thankful Turkey' tonight, since we won't be here for the next week. He turned out pretty cute. We are thankful for.......

1. Brownies
2. Lollipops
3. Families
4. Jesus
5. The Earth
6. Aunts and Uncles
7. Food
8. Heavenly Father
9. Our Country
10. Our Bodies
11. Flowers
12. The Gospel
13. Our Home
14. Friends
15. Katie
16. Sarah
17. John David
18. Mommy
19. Daddy
20. The Spirit
21. Temples
22. Family Home Evening
23. Prophets
24. Doctors
25. Medicine
26. Home Teachers
27. Priesthood Blessings

We are truly blessed and are so grateful to our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ for all that we have been given.

Just Our Luck

Just once it would be so nice for us to go to NC without anyone being sick. It seems like most times we go, we have someone get sick just before we leave or just after we get there. On our trip last year for Thanksgiving, which also happened to be my sister's wedding, Sarah was sick almost the entire time we were there. She had a high fever and was throwing up. We thought to begin with that it was a virus, but we finally took her to an urgent care when she just wasn't getting better. A few hundred dollars later, we found out she had an ear infection. And unfortunately, this time is more of the same. We thought we had nipped it in the bud because we took Sarah to the doctor last Friday and got her on an antibiotic for her ear infections. I called yesterday to schedule a follow up appointment for this morning just to make sure her ears were cleared up and she would be ready for our trip. After she didn't sleep well and ran a low grade fever last night, I wondered if she was not quite well. I was also not feeling well when I woke up this morning. So after the doctor looked at Sarah's ears, she said they were better, but not well. She then looked at her throat and said she found the cause of her fever--strep throat--which explains why my throat was hurting pretty bad when I woke up this morning. So I called my doctor and they are calling out an antibiotic for me. Thank goodness, because I am so tired and didn't feel like going into the office. So instead of leaving this afternoon like we had planned, Sarah and I are going to try to get some rest and get our antibiotics going and hopefully we'll be able to leave in the morning. I don't think it's asking too much for us not to be sick for just one trip. Maybe someday.

Sewing Projects

With my sweet little Sarah being sick today, it gave me the chance to work on some sewing projects while she hung out on the couch watching movies. Since the second time RaeAnn came over, Sarah has been begging for us to make her a 'baby pouch.' We started on it last Friday and finished it up yesterday. When we first finished it--or thought we had finished--it fit Sarah snugly, with no room for the baby. Being the beginner that I am, I thought we would have to start all over. But RaeAnn just cut it, cut and pinned on some more fabric, and told me to sew it. And, voila, a cute little 'baby pouch' for my baby's babies. She loves it, and so do I.



Whenever I have my stuff out, Katie has been asking to learn to sew too. So we made these cute blankets and pillows out of scraps for her barbie beds. I cut and pinned the fabric, and Katie did the sewing on the machine. She did really good and she really liked it. I'm going to have to find a new project for her. I love that she wants to learn to sew now, instead of at age 35.



RaeAnn also showed me how to turn these cloth diapers into cute burp cloths. I was actually pretty frustrated after doing the first two, but I kept trying and I think I've got it figured out. I made these for my sister who is having her baby boy in January. I get to go to her shower next Saturday. I can hardly wait!



I also figured out how to make taggies. I actually made this little one out of scraps, just for fun and to see if it would work. And it did! It matches the baby blanket I made.



And this one I made for my sister. It matches the burp cloths I made for her. And I got to use the left over minky, which I love!