Merry Christmas!

I'm sitting here in bed on my laptop, listening to praise music on my new mp3 player. :) Blu loaded a bunch of songs on it and he put a lot of old hymns--my favorites!! Anyway, I digress...

We got snow for Christmas!!!! On the 23rd, I was in a tshirt and shorts playing tennis with Blu...not 12 hours later we had 2 inches of snow!! We built the biggest snowman in the history of Bangs, Texas, in my opinion. :) The funny thing was, the kids were inside out of the cold and me and Blu were so excited outside building the snowman!


My sweet Mom and Dad. This was a tough Christmas for us after losing my Grandma just one week ago today. And my Jessica is celebrating Christmas without her mom for the first time. This year opened my eyes to the grief people experience at Christmas.

I got new dishes! Sadly, they will stay in the boxes and arrive in April or May in Zambia for me to use!

Blu used a miniature nativity to share the Christmas story with the kids.

Cason really enjoyed the wrapping paper this year. And he has one ornament on the tree that he loves, so he kept going for that ornament! He was like, forget the presents!! Give me my ornament!!

Cambree got her favorite book from Uncle Blake and Aunt Dawni in Zambia. She left her first one out in the rain and it got ruined, but it's her favorite!

Caedmon got his own Bible!

Blu, my stud of a man, got some camo boots and a shirt after killing his first deer on Wednesday!


It's Christmas night and my decorations are all put away and boxes are starting to pile up. We have just 27 days before we leave for Zambia, and only 20 days until our container leaves! It will be a busy few days but I'm glad we were able to relax and celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Children's Museum

This past Friday, we were in the DFW area, so we took the kids to the Children's Museum at the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. We had heard good things about it online, but no description could do it justice!! The upstairs had really neat exhibits that kids and adults of all ages would love and learn so much from, but the DOWNSTAIRS was a museum designed for kids ages 0-6!!!! That's like heaven for us!!! It was all about role-playing, so there was a complete farm where kids got to grow a garden, gather eggs, milk a cow, ride tractors, check on crops, harvest, etc. There was a fire station, an insect/spider room, a theater with dress up costumes, a house with all of the toys necessary to "play house", etc. It was incredible. We could have stayed there for hours and hours and it was well worth a 3 hour drive!!!
Cambree getting on her "tractor" to go check on the corn growing in the field

Me trying to make it through the spider web!

Look at Caedmon go!

Me and Caedmon working on the puzzle in the fire station

Practicing for Zambia.. :)

The Girls

Driving the firetruck (which had slides going down the back!)

They even had a play area for 0-2 year olds! Cason loved it!

The boys

Baby Cason Turns One!!

It's tough having a Thanksgiving baby!! This week I have two Thanksgiving meals to prepare for and a birthday party to throw for Cason! He enjoyed his "Curious George" party...and today he started giving kisses!!

Firemen

We live in an old house with hardwood floors that gets COLD. We have a space heater in the center of the house that is fun to try to keep the kids out of!! This morning I smelled something burning near the heater. I looked all around it before I finally realized there was a half-eaten granola bar IN the heater, causing the burning smell. I proceeded to call my kids in there and give them a huge lecture about putting things in the heater--the house could burn down, we could all die, it was a pretty gruesome lecture!! Cambree's eyes were SO wide as I told her, but Caedmon just looked at me calmly and said, "Mama, the fireman came to my school and he told me if there was a fire that I had to 'jump, rock, and roll'." :)

Fun pics :)

A cute pic from this summer

Baby Cason is almost one!! I finished his cake tonight - my first Rice Krispie cake!

Family Tae Bo Session

When he's sixteen...... ;)

Alex Brown

This was a strange week. On Wednesday, our little girl, Cambree turned 3 years old. We found out the night before that 17 year old Alex Brown was killed in a car wreck on her way to school. Her mom, Mrs. Brown, was Blu's teacher in high school and was one of our prayer supporters when we were in Zambia. We first met Alex when she was seven years old at G.A. camp when we worked at the camp. We didn't know her well, but a couple of years ago when she wrote Blu on myspace we looked at her page and said "wow...this girl is different." Here is a quote from her page:

"Everyday i rediscover how amazing God is. He's telling me new things all the time. i thought i knew how my life would be, had it all planned out. but God has this way about Him. He knows what is best and how you can live your life to the fullest. He speaks in ways my human mind will never be able to comprehend. i have to follow, just follow. i want to please Him in everything i do. my greatest desire is for everyone to be able to know Him and have a relationship with Him. recently He has changed my life, no surprise there. i have been called into the ministry. i have no idea where this road will take me, but i know that wherever God sends me, that's where i'll be, and He'll be right there with me. i have been ruined. God has absolutely ruined my life and i can never thank Him enough for doing it."

As we prepared for our little girl to turn 3, I realized that it probably seemed like just yesterday that Mrs. Brown's little girl was turning 3. I can only pray that one day my little girl will love Jesus like Alex did.

Princess Party!

Princess with her Princess Cake

She LOVED opening her presents!

A random picture of Cason's first haircut--a buzz!

Silly kids..

LOVE this pic!! Love my mama!

Princess Pinata!

Caedmon took his job of handing out presents very seriously!

The Royal Spread

Let the Waters Rise...

I've been wanting to blog about this song for a few weeks now, but sometimes it's hard to put the depth of what you're feeling into words. I'll try.

A few weeks ago on a Sunday morning I heard a new song by MikesChair. Here are the lyrics:

Don't know where to begin
Its like my world's caving in
And I try but I can't control my fear
Where do I go from here?

Sometimes its so hard to pray
When You feel so far away
But I am willing to go
Where you want me to
God, I trust You

There's a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I will follow You

I will swim in the deep
'Cuz You'll be next to me
You're in the eye of the storm
And the calm of the sea
You'll never out of reach

God, You know where I've been
You were there with me then
You were faithful before
You'll be faithful again
I'm holding Your hand

There's a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I will follow You

God Your love is enough
You will pull me through
I'm holding onto You
God Your love is enough
I will follow You
I will follow You

Ok so it's the chorus that really hits me. "There's a raging sea right in front of me, wants to pull me in, bring me to my knees." I feel that way a lot preparing for our move/life in Zambia. Sometimes the sea changes--it is usually a sea of fear, sometimes a sea of doubt, sometimes a sea of panic. And it does want to pull me in and bring me to my knees. But God is already in that sea, and I'm going to follow Him through. So let the waters rise, God. I will follow You.

Halloween 2009

Cambree giving it all she's got throwing the ball!

We went and saw Big Maw's play, Willy Wonka!

My Boys at the Fall Festival

Pretty Cambree

Case in the recycled pumpkin outfit! We can finally retire it!

Shade, Caity, and Andie Lyn

Big Maw and two of her boys, Blu and Shade

Princess Cake

Cambree is having a "pink and purple princess party" for her 3rd birthday! I finished her cake today!

To Infinity...and Beyond!

A weekend back home!

We spent last weekend in Alvarado!! It was great to be back at our home church and with our close friends. We spoke at two different churches so it was pretty exhausting but we still had an awesome weekend!!
We took the kids to the Waco Zoo on Saturday on our way to Alvarado. I was pleasantly surprised--what a nice zoo!

This was the end of the zoo trip--everyone was so tired!


Caedmon checking out a snake up close!

In Alvarado, we stayed with "Ms. Telly" (Mrs. Kelly) and the rest of the Baxter family. The kids took hikes, cooked mac n' cheese, baked and decorated cookies, watched movies, and had an awesome weekend getting spoiled!

Lauren, Lindsay, Jessica, and me :)

This is what we did when we got bored..

Lauren and Baby Cason

Lindsay being crazy!

Me and Jess :)