Christmas Decorating!

December is here! Time to pull out the Christmas decorations! :)


We found a box of my Grandma's old Christmas decorations. (She passed away one month before we moved to Zambia in 2009.) It was strange to unwrap the things she had so lovingly wrapped 3 years ago. It was an amazing feeling though as the smell of her house filled the box. I took a few things out but left most things inside so that we can smell it year after year!
Here is me opening Grandma's box



After answering "How long until Christmas?" about 17 times today, my mom had the bright idea to make a countdown Christmas chain for the kids to keep track of it themselves!! ;)

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BANGS, TEXAS

We are blessed to be supported by FBC Bangs on a monthly basis! We are more blessed to know that the Wednesday night crew at FBC Bangs prays for us every week and mails us letters they have signed letting us know they have been praying!! We are blessed again by the fact that they are helping to send Diana to New Day as a full-time teacher in January! They are the perfect model of a church that is PRAYING - GIVING - GOING! :)

Here I am with Stephanie Bond and the pastor, Pepper Dill. Stephanie's 1st-2nd grade class put together backpacks filled with goodies for the kids at New Day! THANK YOU!!

Crates!

We spoke at FBC Bangs last Sunday, and it was great! I forgot my camera, but we speak again there on Wednesday night (more of a question & answer time and showing videos), so I will TRY to remember to take it then!

Meanwhile, we have been BUSY loading up 2 crates for the 3 American ladies who are coming to New Day with us in January! Crating is NOT fun, although it is fun to open them when they arrive 4 months later in Zambia! :)

Mrs. Carolyn, Mom, & Blu's mom sorting through things!

Dad & Blu trying to compress the mattresses down!

Dustin, Blu, & B-Maw making it fit!

Cambree liked helping me sort through clothes! "Mama, I need this! Save this for me!"

Sorting....

Cason turns 3!

Cason LOVES getting birthday cards, but I have to say his one from Abigail in Zambia was his favorite, because it was his favorite color! He said "ORANGE!!"

He also loved his card from Isabel!

And his card from Mama Dee...

At the cake table!

Cason loved his pinata!

Cason's Woody car and "Monkey George" movie from us!

Mama and her baby boy Cason :)

Cason's birthday party table - racecar theme!

Cason loved his "kuh-kuh-kuh-kuh-choo-choo!"

Cason's present from the Kimbroughs in Zambia! His most favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Somewhere amidst all of this chaos, little Cambree (who just turned 5!) lost her first tooth! Yes, that is very early!!

The boys love watching Power Rangers with Paw!

A mean game of horseshoes...

Cambree helped me make 2 pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving! She did a great job!

Cason LOVES his Aunt Sammy! I think he has a crush on her :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving in Brownwood with Blu's family, plus my parents! We have had a great day so far! Here are the first round of the pictures - more will come later as we all shift to Cloud's house for football and Cason's 3rd birthday party! :)

Cambree, Cason, & Andie

The girls

My mom & dad

The original Tidwells

Our family

Only in Texas can you eat your Thanksgiving meal outside...in shorts..oh wait you can do that in Zambia too!

The whole family

Field Trip!

We are taking this week off of school due to Thanksgiving, but today we took the kids on a field trip to the Science Spectrum in Lubbock! We all had a blast (though nobody as much as Blu!)

Slumber Party!

We spent Sunday night with my best friend from 4th grade, Whitney & her family! We reenacted our slumber parties of days gone by.... :)

1) Put the kids to bed

2) Be silly

3) Drink coke floats

4) Things our husbands do become hilarious

5) And the night ends with happy feet :)


I am so blessed to have Whitney's friendship for the last 22 years!!!

Fellowship Church Lubbock

If you live in or near Lubbock, Texas, you should check out Fellowship Church! It was an awesome worship service, and the people treated us like family!

Here is the 2010 and 2011 teams to Zambia, reunited! (missing Debra, Beth & Johnny Boy in this pic!) You can see that our kids remember our teams!

When I saw Denise, i said 'Oh you look so different!!" She laughed and said "no..this is what I look like in America!" If you've been to New Day, you understand!

We love Johnny Boy :) We had a great time staying with John, Pat, & Rachel in Lubbock!

Our kids have been to 7 different churches in the 7 weeks we've been back in the USA! They are troopers! :)


Fellowship Church faithfully prays for us, financially supports us, and will be sending their 3rd team to New Day in 2012! Thank you FCL from all of us at New Day! :)

The school must go on!

We are still homeschooling Caedmon & Cambree (grades 1 & K) while we are in the USA! We do school Mondays-Thursdays, wherever we happen to be! Here we are during History class making an American flag!

Ocker Church!

We love Ocker Church! As Baby Cason says, "Me go Ocker Church! Me eat goldfish!!" :) My dad has been the pastor at Ocker for almost 11 years! His first Sunday as pastor was the day after Blu and I got married, so we feel like Ocker has been there since the beginning of our marriage for us! We have been so blessed by this church - they have prayed for us, given New Day over $28,000 in the past 2 years, and now they are sending Ms. Carolyn full-time to New Day in January to serve as one of our teachers!

Blu preaching and sharing about New Day

The church presented Ms. Carolyn with a "Texas" quilt for her room at New Day!

The 3-6 year olds made a wall hanging for the Luyando House!

Caedmon & Cambree helped with the children's sermon by singing the Zambian "abc" song!

Here are the Noah's Arks New Day is presenting to our supporting churches!


We have a busy week here in Temple, and we head to Lubbock next weekend!