Christmas Lights on the Bentonville Square

Every year Dan and I have taken the kids to see the lights on the square and then we drive around Bentonville to some of the bigger sub-divisions to look at their lights. So we did just that! It was a great evening because it wasn't too cold so we didn't need heavy coats!

Making Christmas Fudge

Who wouldn't want to make Christmas Fudge with this boy? My goodness, I love his smile! He helped me make this fudge for our family in Dallas and enjoyed every moment!

Connection Group Christmas Party

I am not sure if all of you know or not, but Dan and I are stepping down as leaders of our Connection Group and becoming Coaches for various groups in the area. This is a nice change since Dan and I have been leading for at least 4 years in a row. It will be nice to be able to just simply show up to a group for a while!

William and Casey Lewallen have become the new leaders of our group now. They are so excited about this opportunity and I know that God has great plans for the group. Their co-leaders are Cecil and Beth Weddle.

We had a Christmas Party last Sunday and we also informed everyone of the changes that will be made. Everyone seemed excited and are willing to except the new changes. Dan and I were not able to be there at the same time though...Caleb had a fever so he went for the first 45 min and I went for the last 45 min...that is why Dan is not in the picture with the whole group together. We had the traditional turkey dinner with all the fixins....and once again TONS of dessert! Good thing January is coming soon...I can't eat like this forever!

Toddler Toes

Last Friday, a bunch of mom's mainly from our church and a few from local areas, and all of our toddlers gathered together at the Bentonville Manor Nursing Home. Mandy, who is the main coordinator made small hand bells and printed off christmas carols to sing to all of the sweet people who aren't able to be with their family this year. I made 25 foam crosses to give out and each child made three cards to give away as well.

Caleb was at his Granny's so he wasn't able to join Ariel and I but Ariel thought it was great giving away the things that she had made. We hope to instill this in Caleb and Ariel each year, that it is far better to give to those who do not have much than it is to receive. I think Caleb is getting it this year. The other night we were watching Home Alone 4 on tv and he noticed that there were tons of presents under their tree. As our tree sits right now, we have no presents under there. He thought that it was crazy to have that many. He asked me "Mommy, why do they have so many presents?" and I told him that some people take the meaning of Christmas the wrong way and all they care about is the gifts. Then he proceeded to tell me that the reason why we celebrate Christmas was because of Jesus, not because of the gifts. Like I said, I think he is getting it and we haven't even really had a huge discussion about Santa this year...we are celebrating Santa but we aren't making it a huge deal, we have been talking more about Jesus than anything else.

Here is a picture of the big group...about 20 or so kids.

Christmas in Harrison

Recap of Christmas in Harrison...they are loaded backwards so if you want to start from the bottom you can!

Sweet Girl with crazy hair!

Aunt Amy's house...this was the remodel that Dan's parents and Amy (Dan's sister) have been working on...doesn't it look cozy?

Great Granny Phyllis, Granny and Ariel

Caleb sitting by the fire...big cheesy grin!

Granny and Ariel praying...so sweet!

I caught the kids actually playing well together...that lasted for all of two minutes!

Granny's dinner table...we had steak, potatoes, salad, shrimp cabobs, french onion soup, bread and TONS of desserts!

Aeryk eating Granny's fudge ..see pic below

This is Amy and her boyfriend Joe...he is very sweet to my kids and has become a great addition to our family gatherings and he has a son who is 12, pictured above who is precious as well!

Caleb and his snow globe.

Caleb and I

Caleb with a bow in his hair!

Ariel with a bow in her hair!

Ariel enjoying her cupcakes!

Caleb enjoying his cupcakes!

Picking the perfect cupcake!

Ariel and I

Ariel in front of the tree.

Ariel sleeping on the way to Granny's house.

I got my new camera a week ago this past Monday. It is so nice! That day I took some pics of the kids for their Christmas Cards...they were not up for pictures but I managed to atleast get one of them smiling together! Here are a few with the new camera.

Dan and I took part in the Christmas Dinner Theater this year at our church. We had a blast but it took away a lot of time with the kids. We were at the church all last week every night Sunday-Thursday. Dan and I danced in the opening act and then I sang in the choir while Dan was able to help with setting up and taking down props. Here are a few pics from the week.

Camera Issues

I have a few pics from Thanksgiving that I will post but honestly I have been out of the picture taking mood. Especially with my current camera. I am just so fed up with always catching the back of my kids heads and them being blurry.

I had a huge saga with getting a new camera, I will spare you ALL details but I ended up ordering a total of 4 cameras in all before I finally got one. This is the short version: The first one didn't have a battery or charger and I just wasn't knowledgeable about the camera that I wanted yet so I ordered it and then changed my mind. The second didn't come with an automatic lens. The third one was an INCREDIBLE deal but they were all out of stock till mid January and since I am leaving to go to Dallas in two weeks, I wanted my camera for the trip. The final one, I paid a little more and I had to buy the bag, the memory card, the uv filters and the battery and charger all seperate, but all in all I am still excited about it. I got an email a few days ago from the company and has been shipped and I am tracking it via UPS Tracker and it is in route to my house...been stuck in NJ for a day now so it's killing me needless to say! I should get it by Tuesday. Oh, I ended up getting a Nikon D40 with two lenses, the 18-55 and the 55-200. Should give me more than I ever need, but some pretty darn good pictures! Beware, you might be overwhelmed with the amount of pictures...consider yourselves warned!