January Random Pics

January was full of lots of randomness.  Lincoln played basketball through the Bryant Parks and Rec this year because there wasn't an Upward team out our way.  It was very different.  The competition was more and it was full court with 10 foot goals as well.  This was a big difference from last year for Linc.  He wasn't on an especially great team either, so it was kind of a hard year.  However, he still loves basketball, worked hard, and seemed to have a good time.

He still enjoys making things all the time.  I wish I had a picture of all the things that he has duct taped to his bicycle lately.  His mind is always moving.

Hannah has become quite the little seamstress.  She has enjoyed using her new sewing machine and made herself a little purse for her IPod one day.  Super proud of her.

I took this cute picture one morning before school.  Layton has given Dash a bit more attention lately which makes me happy.

We are still loving our Life Group.  I love how our guys put a lot of effort into teaching our kids.  We are still on the Fruits of the Spirit.  I don't recall which one this was but Jason did a great job as always!

I snapped this picture of Mrs. Tata reading to Layton's class one day while I was waiting to take them to my class.  She is such an awesome teacher and Layton sure has been blessed to have her this year.

I think this particular week was L week and I told the story of the Lost Sheep.  We had a relay race to see who could find a lost dime in a box of rice first.  The first team to find 10 dimes won.

They had a lot of fun!

Later that week we played the Limbo.  I got lots of cute pics of the kids having to go under the bar in different ways like doing the crab crawl or crawling on their bellies.

We celebrated Jeff's birthday in January with dinner at our house with Mimi and Pappaw.

I got him a few little knick knacks to help decorate his house.  He had just gotten new living room furniture and he needs a bit of a woman's touch!  Ha!

More sewing by Hannah.  I think this time she made a pillow out of some old fabric that I had used years ago to make a diaper bag for her.

Movie day at school for M week.

Somewhere in January we had a snow day.  The kids ate it up while they could and were so excited to get to test out the new sleds they got for Christmas.

More fun Life Group Lessons.  This time is was by Joe.

Layton led the prayer that night.  :-)

Pregnancy Pics: Weeks 20-23

Well, I have hit half-way through this pregnancy!  I still can hardly believe this is even happening.  The excitement is definitely building day by day as we get closer to meeting this little guy.  Oh, I just can not wait!!!

My coworkers surprised me one day at work.  We ordered food in for my birthday which is something that we do for everyone.  But while we were sitting there eating they handed me what I thought was just a birthday card, but ended up being a baby gift.  I was so shocked and oh so thankful.  I seriously love these ladies so much.  They have been so good to me.  A couple of weeks after this they came in with 2 big boxes of diapers, size newborn and 1's.  They are amazing and I have totally been blessed to have gotten the chance to work with and know them these past several months.  I fully believe that God knew exactly what he was doing when he put me there this year.

They had dessert to go with it!  Yum!!

I recently found my baby book.  It is similar to the rest of the kids' books.  I can't wait to start filling it in.

We had gotten rid of pretty much everything baby, but I have had several wonderful friends that have been kind enough to give us some things.  My friend, Kelly, gave me some great clothes, blankets, and a boppy and my friend, Tara, gave me all the stuff in this picture plus a car seat, diaper genie, and mobile.  Unbelievably grateful for such giving friends.

I am feeling pretty good this month.  The baby is moving a lot.  You can see my stomach move and I am loving feeling that again.  It is really so cool because I totally thought that I was done getting to experience that feeling.  So, to feel it again is such a blessing!

I feel like I am huge.  On my January 14th appointment, I had gained 6 lbs for a total of 17 so far.  I am done with maternity clothes (I wish).  My craving for sweets this pregnancy has been crazy!

We are starting to clean out the office and the playroom so that we can prepare for this little guy.  We are combining the playroom/t.v. room into the office.  Then, the playroom/t.v. room will become the nursery.  Kris sold his nice big executive desk that he had and downsized to a smaller one with a hutch on top for more storage.  We have moved quite a bit of stuff up into the attic to be stored, but to do that Kris had to add some more lighting up there and shelves.  Kris wants to scrape the ceilings in the office and nursery so that will probably be the next thing we do.  Then, we plan on painting and getting new carpet for the nursery and our bedroom.  They need it badly.  We have lots of work to do around here!!  I can't wait to see it all come together!

Reflecting on 2015 and looking ahead to 2016

Well, 2015 is over.  Looking back is SO much easier this year than it was the year before.  2015 was full of all kinds of good things.  Here are some of my top moments by month:

January:

Lincoln turned 8!

February:

Kris and I started and made it through the Daniel Plan.  I still can't believe we did that.  We ate clean and healthy (absolutely no sugar) for 6 weeks and lived to tell about it.  We definitely slimmed up which was awesome.  It was also really helpful to me and really made me think about what I put in my body.

The kids enjoyed several snow days and made some really wonderful memories with their neighbor friends.

March:

Lincoln read scripture for the first time in front of the church.  This was a precious moment for us.

We completed our kitchen remodel!  We had the cabinets painted and did the counter tops and back splash ourselves.  LOVE how it all turned out.

We enjoyed a great date night.  This is a highlight for me because we just don't do this often enough.

April:

Easter.  Always love pictures of the kids for Easter.

May:

Lincoln did Swim Team again and just had a great season.  He was so fun to watch!

On Mother's Day I got to be with my wonderful mom.  Love her so much.

June:

School finally came to an end in June.  We had several snow days to make up.

Layton turned 6 and had his first big party.

Tim took Hannah's picture and she was on the cover of Kids Directory.  I love this picture of her.

We spent hours and hours at the pool.  Definitely one of our favorite things to do during the summer.

Mom and Dad celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.  We took them out to eat, Wes surprised them by coming in, and we gave them a gift card to go see Jonah.  ;-)

One of the highlights of our summer every year is picking berries.  I look forward to this all year long.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing doubles tennis with Jeff.  

July:

We celebrated the 4th by watching fireworks with some of our favorite people.

We went digging for crystals with the Stephens clan.  The kids had a blast!

This guy learned to dive and boy was he fun to watch in the water!

Cousin Lindsey got married and the kids were in her wedding.  They looked so sweet in their outfits.

Lincoln and Hannah went to Camp Tahkodah.  It was Hannah's 3rd year and Linc's first.  Fun times.

August:

We had our First Annual Life Group Silly Olympics.  What an absolute blast!!!  Can't wait to do it again!

School started back up.  

We served at SCH with our Life Group.  Such a great experience.  One that we hope to continue.

I worked on getting my room ready at First Southern and officially started that part-time job in September after having not worked at all for over 10 years.  Big change and BIG blessing.

September:

Hannah and I spent a wonderful weekend just the two of us sewing, hanging out, and having a pretty important talk.  We made bags and she really made me proud at how hard she worked.

I caught this picture of Hannah teaching the kids one night at Life Group.  Love her so much.

Kris and I went to an awesome Pentatonix/Kelly Clarkson concert with the Dockerys.

October:

We celebrated Hannah's 11th birthday in Dallas at the American Girl store.  We also told my family that we were expecting baby #4!!

Gotta love Halloween.

November:

Finally made it up to KC to tell the Keims about the baby and then announced it on Facebook.

Hannah participated in the Girls on the Run program and ran her first 5K with Uncle Jeff.

We had a fun reveal party with our Life Group and family and found out that we are having another little boy in May!  We are so excited!!!

December:

I made it through the Christmas Program at preschool.  Yay!!!

We got a healthy report on this little guy at our big ultrasound.  So very thankful for that.

Finally, we had such a blessed Christmas this year.  God is so good.

Last year I made 10 goals for myself.  Here they are and how I think I faired:

1.) To be more thankful. I had planned to keep a daily running list of the things that I am grateful for.  I started out good, but fell behind.  However, I definitely think my mind has been more focused on being thankful and I find myself thanking God often because I notice and can really see what he is doing in my life.

2,) To read more books and watch less t.v. (2 books per month).  I read a total of 32 books.  There were only 2 months that I didn't read two books.  I have really fallen in love with reading and have been so excited to start a Book Club with friends from church.  I would say I have watched less t.v. but could still watch even less than I do.  

3.) To eat healthier and get my family involved as well.  The Daniel Plan really helped me with this.  I make better choices and I haven't had a coke since February!  The kids often talk about and ask what is healthy and what is not so I think that they have gotten somethings from this as well.

4.) To exercise regularly.  I did great at this the first half of the year.  However, once summer hit it was harder to get to my class with all three kids and then I got pregnant and didn't feel like it for a while.  Hopefully, when the weather gets nicer I can start walking more and get back into exercise in the fall when the kids get back in school.

5.) To read the Bible all the way through.  Did this!!  I used my Bible app to keep up with it and chose a bible reading plan called "The Bible in a Year."  I loved it.

6.) To print out at least 2 years worth of this blog.  Did this as well!  I used Blog2Print and had the first 2 years printed out.  

7.) Have more date nights with Kris. I started off good but need to do better at this.  We had a few and they were great!

8.) Be more of an encourager.  I planned on doing this by sending people cards, but wasn't as great at that as I was at texting.

9.) Take a photography class.  Didn't get this one done!  Still would love to do it though.

10.) Be more organized.  Having my planner has helped a lot with this.  It helps me keep things straight--what's going on when.  Can always improve by de-cluttering though and hope to do this before the baby comes.




Now to look ahead:  

Here are my goals for 2016.  Most of them are the same.

1,)  Eat healthy.  Make good choices.

2.) Exercise regularly.

3.) Have more date nights.  Try for 1 per month, but if I make 6 all year that would be awesome!

4.) Organize and fill out completely all the kids' baby books.  They are okay right now, but I want to get them completely updated.

5.) Read the bible all the way through.  Using "Read through the Bible" plan on bible app.

6.) Read at least 2 books per month OR read more than 32 books to beat last year's total.

7.) Blog more.  Keep up better.

8.) Print out at least 2 years of my blog.

 My prayer is that when 2016 is over and I look back on it, I will be able to see God all through it--through the ups and through the downs.  Maybe an even bigger prayer is that I can help the kids to do the same.  I think about that a lot.  I want them to KNOW God.  THAT is my ultimate goal.