Christmas Eve/Day

Christmas Eve tradition for us starts out with the Curriers coming over for dinner at 5 - we order pizza from fremont pizzeria. I don't know how that part started, but i sure do love it!! Since we are so involved in the planning and running of the Christmas Eve service, a stress-free dinner is so helpful! The Christmas Eve Service goes from 6-7 and then we come back to the house to have Christmas with the grandparents and the curriers. Me and Adam have the boys open one present that night (pajamas) and then the chaos begins!! It's a tad loud and crazy with 8 kids and all of us adults, but we love it! This year was great and we got the Curriers all patriots shirts - they LOVED them!! Christmas morning the boys get up (adam said they could get up anytime after their clock said 6-they got up at 7. Yay for us!!) They open their stockings on our beds, and then we go downstairs to have Christmas with my parents and my sister mel and her husband Chad. We read the Christmas story, and this year AJ read it! He did such a great job, and we were very proud! While Riley and Nanny act out the story with the Nativity scene. Then we pray and then start opening presents! It was a great Christmas this year all the way around, and there is nothing like just being around family. I feel really blessed and happy this year. Our church family has been such a blessing to us, and we were again amazed at the outpouring of love from everyone! I am looking forward to my brother and his wife coming on Saturday night, and doing Christmas with Adam's side of the family on Saturday morning.

snowed in

things have been crazy here, and i haven't blogged in a million years. 2 thursdays ago, me adam and the boys all went christmas shopping. i thought we might be a little crazy, because i figured it would be packed out. there was probably 12 people in kohls - including the workers. ok, maybe not that bad, but it was so empty!! it was rainy, and i knew that we were supposed to be getting a storm, but it didn't seem bad. i guess i was wrong. we lost power that night at 11, so we brought the boys into our room (since the bunk beds are new, i didn't want them getting up in the dark to try to find their way!) friday was cold, and although my parents have a small woodstove, we don't have any wood! we put a couple picture frames and some cardboard in, but it only did so much! we found out that there were thousands of people with no power so we had to make a decision! my sister (in concord)had power still, so we went there friday. we ended up staying until monday when we finally got our power back!!! i couldn't believe it was so long!! the kids LOVED it, and i have to admit that i felt like i was in high school again, staying up late talking to my sister and enjoying late night snacks! one morning, i went into bri's room and found ali and aj dong their devotions - made me proud!!
we now are getting about 16 inches of snow (on top of the 7 that we got on friday!) so things are so strange...we cancelled church tonight, and it was cancelled last week because there was no power!! it's hard to remember what day it is, and to try to stay focused with school!!
i have so much more to say, but i will leave it at that for now. we are a happy little family and are all so excited for my mel to come on tuesday, then ron and bobbi on saturday!!! life is good :)

not pottery barn

who doesn't love pottery barn? i admit that i have drooled over a catalog on more than one occasion, but realized that i will probably never be at the place where i could justify spending 2 weeks of grocery money on 1 sheet set!! even if we did have that kind of money, i would still find it questionable. anyways...that being said, i still love what the little boys rooms look like in the catalog, and hope that my mansion in heaven will be fully sponsered by pottery barn :) (i know that God's design will be a billion times better!) well, the boys have a good sized room, and we decided to put their beds back in bunk-bed form to give them more room to play (particularly during the winter!!) it came out really great, and i know that no one would put these pictures on display anywhere, but i am truly happy. even as i type this, my 2 healthy little boys (who have already gotten up, brushed their teeth, made their beds and done their devotions) are playing tackle football in their "new" room!! we are so blessed and i am so thankful for the 50.00 football toy box that i got for 5.00 at salvation army, and for the bookcase that i got for free from my in-laws, and more importantly for my relationship with Jesus. for the fact that i have the word of God that teaches me everything i need to know about how to be a godly wife, and how to raisly godly men for God. and i need to remember this feeling of what i really have the next time my pottery barn catalog comes in the mail...or maybe i should just tell them to stop sending them! be reminded of what's really important the next time you start wishing you had more!!

thanksgiving

this year we decided to make a trip to our beloved lynchburg and enjoy thanksgiving with adam's aunt and uncle and the rest of his family (minus sarah). back in our college days we just made the trip all at once, but now that we have 2 boys, (and 2 aging bodies) we decided to break it up a bit. we stopped at mel's on the way down and ron's on the way back. the way down was ROUGH. it is normally only about a 5 hour drive, but we thought it would be fun to get a really good look at the tappanzee...so we stayed there for about an hour. then we thought, hey, let's go towards albany! i mean, i know there are only exits every 700 miles, but no big deal, right?? and we really didn't NEED to get to mel's right away even though it was nearing 8 and we hadn't eaten supper yet!! ok. a little sarcasm there, but we finally got to mel's at 8...just in time for charlie brown's thanksgiving! the boys were thrilled. it was so warm and welcoming with candles and the smell of a dynamite shepherds pie!! it was a quick visit to say the least, since she left for work before we got up in the morning!! anyways...we left the next morning and made the 8 hour trip to virginia. it was very smooth and the boys did great!! we got there and were escorted into the huge, beautiful home of the gordons. we stayed there from wednesday until sunday. it went by way too fast!! we all had such a great time together!! if me and adam could have a second home, it would be in lynchburg...we really love it there. anyways...i loved watching aj, jeremiah, riley and lilly playing so great together, and there was LOTS of laughter...can't say enough about it. we got up sunday morning (my birthday) and aunt jackie had made cinnamon rolls and even had a candle in one for me. she is so sweet :) and we went to thomas road for church - loved it - then left for pennsylvania to see ronnie and bobbi. we stopped at panera on the way...yummmmy. we did get stuck in some traffic on the way, but got there late sunday. bobbi had made me an awesome cake, and they had amaaaazing balloons :) and a couple presents. it was really great. well...that night ry got up throwing up and so did i. grr...it was a ROUGH night, and an even rougher day the next day! we decided to stay an extra night so i could recover. i was much better by tuesday and we made the trip home. well, i just kind of went on and on and i didn't do anything justice by what i said, because it was the best to see so much of our family in one week...we miss them all so much! here are a few pics of our amazing week!!