Christmas Day (night)

We always spend Christmas night with Gran and Grandad... we head over after kids naps and have dinner and do presents...

This year, we had steaks! Man, what a yummy Christmas dinner! I think we were all about Turkey'd out so it was  nice to have a break from that and have some other yummy foods!

So since Mack had been running a fever for 2 days (totally viral but still... contagious), we just didnt know what to do. We considered having me stay home with him but Ronni wanted to do it when we could all be there (sweet of her!). We considered rescheduling to Sunday but knowing my family, I figured Lainey or Rhyan would have it by then (which, btw, Lainey did!). So we decided to keep Mack separate as much as possible, get there later and leave as soon as presents were done.

Fast forward, Riley and Avery didnt get the virus (which btw was symptomless except for a fever... he already had a bad cough/runny nose but all the other kids already had that too, including Riley). Whew.

But he did well playing games on my phone. Guess there are real perks to not ever letting your kids have your phone unless you REALLY need to, huh ;-). It totally kept him entertained. AND, he "hid" under a table to play it! ha! Talk about isolation!

The kids love to help bring in the presents and pass them out!!!

Some sweet pics of all of us opening gifts. And a quick run down of what they all got!:
Rhyan- a disney shirt (for our trip in april! woohoo!) from Jason and Liz. And Frozen bedding from Gran and Grandad
Mack- a disney shirt from Jason and Liz and tinker toys and BOB books from gran and grandad
Lainey- a disney shirt from Jason and Liz and a grocery cart and food for it from gran and grandad

I also want to mention that Liz suggested that we open gifts one at a time so everyone could see what each person got etc. GREAT idea! Made it last a little longer, was way less chaotic and I got pics of each kid! Brilliant!

This year, I had a photographer take family pictures for all of us back in October as a thank you to Gran and Grandad for all they do for us (hello, we lived with them for 7 weeks last year which is just a taste of how they help!). Well I thought some framed photos would be a great gift :-)

Our family also gave Gran a gift card to Brighton which she also loved!

I had the idea, too, to get Andy a YETI tumbler for his coffee. Um... they were ridiculously hard to find! Apparently it was THE hit item for Christmas this year! But thanks to Jeff, we scored one!

We also gave Grandad a gift card to Bass pro shop!

After gifts, we tried to get a few pics in front of the tree! Of course Rhyan was a stellar model (btw, it was like 73 degrees here on Christmas day so Rhyan thought that meant sundresses were appropriate!)

Mack refused to participate in such shennanigans as picture taking, though. Shocker ;-)

Can you tell that Jason loves picture taking??? HA!

We had a great time! After gifts we had planned to leave, but Rhyan remembered that last year the kids had decorated gingerbread houses on Christmas day. Well, Ronni had bought them for the kids to do so of course they insisted we stay for that, as well. I was just worried of Mack spreading sickness. But he was pretty confined with his own house so i guess it worked out...

 And finally, a sweet pic of these two cousins playing together! With them being only 4 months apart in age, I expect they will have lots of fun at family gatherings for a while to come!

What a great evening! OH, and my sweet in laws spoiled us with tons of giftcards for us and the kids, too! Looking forward to using those in 2016 for some DATE NIGHTS! :-)

New Years Eve...

We havent really done anything on New years eve in YEARS... like pre-Rhyan. Once we had her and started living on sleep schedules for kids, it just became not really worth it to try to go out much in the evenings in general... much less staying out till MIDNIGHT?? No thanks! I mean, Jeff and I dont even stay up that long! HA! But this year, we got Stone mountain passes and while Jeff isnt the biggest fan of Stone Mountain, the kids and I love it! We went over spring break (which is when we got the passes) and then again for the Christmas lights/show the week of Thanksgiving. Well, when I got an email about their New Years eve celebration countdown at 8:59pm, I was STOKED! I told Jeff I'd love to take the kids. Yes, it'd still make for a late night for them (Lainey goes to bed at 7pm and the big kids at 8pm) but since Lainey is SO easy going about being out and about and having bedtime messed with, I thought why not!?! Jeff wasnt thrilled with the idea. He thought it'd be super crowded. BUT! He agreed to give the kids the choice between grilling out steaks and doing a marshmallow roast over a fire outside OR go to stone mountain. And my party animal kids voted with me, so it was decided :-) I called Mama and asked if she'd like to join us... she never has plans on New Years eve, either. So that worked out, too. Plus, it was nice to have the extra set of eyes on the kids! We headed out about 5:30 with plans of just eating dinner in the park, spending some time exploring the Christmas area again and then being ready for the NYE party!

 The beautiful lights!The blue trees were Rhyan's favorite!

Cutie Lainey chowing down on pizza. Girlfriend LOVES pizza!

Me and my big girl!

Rhyan and Grammy. Side note: I showed Mama this pic for her to approve and she said "gosh i take terrible pictures" to which rhyan replied "why do you say that grammy? I think you have a nice smile! We took a great picture!". Such a sweet encourager.

Simply for proof that the boys exist... particularly Mack. He would not participate in pics all night :/

Even though we had seen the 4D movie in November, the kids loved it! So we decided to see it again so my Mom could experience it, too. She had never been to a 4D movie and she loved it!

 After the movie, we headed over to watch the glass blowers... there were a bunch of people watching already so Jeff and I put Rhyan and Mack on our shoulders so they could see while Mama kept up with Lainey for a few minutes. Then, we explored the glass shop which they thought was pretty cool!

Then we saw BUMBLE!!! From Rulolph! I was stoked and wanted a pic but the kids werent interested. I told them we could do it as a family and that got Rhyan on board, but Mack refused. He also proceeded to run away from us when we got to the front of the line and hid at the back of the line which scared me to death. I thought I'd kill him when we found him. LOL! Gosh thats the worst feeling. We had a big talk about staying with Mommy and Daddy even if you dont want to do the pic so we can make sure you stay safe, etc. Ugh. So this pic of Jeff and Rhyan was taken while I was searching frantically for him.

And of course I snapped one of Mama with the girls.

After the picture, we headed over to listen to Mrs Clause tell a story. The big kids loved it! After, Mrs Clause hung around for pictures! So nice of her! Unfortunately, Lainey wasnt having that! This was the ONLY time she showed the least bit of displeasure all night!

We had a few minutes to kill before the Snow Angel show so we thought we may do putt putt or something but decided instead on getting in line for a funnel cake while Jeff and Mack watched the train go by. Well, the fc line was WAY long and the gathering area for the snow angel was getting crowded, so we just headed on to get ourselves as spot, which turned out to be a good thing! The snow angel appeared just a few minutes after we got settled in a spot!

I wish I could have gotten a picture of Rhyan's face while she watched the snow angel. She was enamored! And the kids loved the fireworks! It was Lainey's first time seeing them! At this point it was 8:50. Everyone was doing great!

Then they had to DJs come out and do a dance party for the kids. They played some good dance music (Totally kid friendly) and Mrs clause, Bumble and Ruduloph all made an appearance! Super cute!

Last, but not least, they did a 10 second countdown to "midnight" (really 9pm!!!) and then said Happy New Year, gave kisses to kids etc and put off fireworks! The kids seriously had a GREAT TIME!
It was crowded  for the show, yes. But overall, it wasnt crowded earlier in the evening. I think a lot of people were doing snow mountain leading up to the show instead of exploring the Christmas area (which was great for us!)

I had packed the kids pj's and had them all go potty before we left. Lainey fell asleep before we ever got out of the parking lot and Rhyan was close to follow. As usual, Mack stayed awake till we got home (he doesnt sleep in the car much) and they all went straight to bed when we got home around 9:45. It was such a fun night for all of us, but the best part was seeing how happy Rhyan was. She loves this kind of thing!

So Happy New Year everyone! May 2016 be filled with fun, family and a growing faith in Christ!

Redeemed

We lay my uncle, Jonathan, to rest today. His birthday was Monday, Sept 28 and he turned 52. Just hours later, before the sun could break on the next day, he was already gone.

Jonathan was not married nor did he have children. He had spent the last 19 months of his life in jail and had he lived, he would have spent another 8.5 years there. It all sounds so sad and tragic, I know.

And truthfully, parts of his life are sad. The way it ended, specifically, was incredibly heartbreaking and something I dont think i'll "get over" for a long while... if ever.

But what some people dont know about Jonathan is what I want to share. Because tonight, as i've thought about the sum of his life and the choices he made, I cant help but to be grateful that there is no limit to how many said "bad choices" we make that make us unworthy of Gods love and grace and salvation. And likewise, there are no number of "good choices" that we can make that make us easier to love or more worthy of the same grace and salvation. In fact, often times it can be the people who have made all of the "right" choices in life who can be most difficult to love because their own sense of justification can cause them to lose sight of just how great their need is for a savior.

That was not true with Jonathan. Jonathan knew he needed to be saved. Both from himself and to Jesus.

Shlaine spoke at his funeral today. And wow... what an AMAZING job she did. She shared about his tender heart and how, as his little sister, she had often been protected by him. She shared a story in particular that I think tells a LOT about who Jonathan was. She was about 9 and he was 11 and they were riding on his dirt bike when they wrecked and she was hurt pretty badly on the leg. They were a little ways from home and he, being only 2 years older than her and "scrawny", carried her the whole way home... crying the entire way and telling Shlaine how sorry he was that she was hurt. That was Jonathan... always wanting to have a good time, always hurting when others hurt, always wearing his heart on his sleeve.

Through his life, Jonathan made many bad choices and found himself in and out of trouble much of his adult life. But in the last years of his life, you could see that the same 11 year old boy's heart was still the same... tender, compassionate, loving, kind, caring. The last 2 years of Mommie's life, Jonathan spent caring for her day in and day out.

But most people already know that about him. What you may not know is that the last 19 months, while in jail, Jonathan spent his time in Gods word. Leading bible studies. Completing bible course after course, stacking up certificate after certificate from Campus Church.

In Jonathan's belongings that we got back from the jail was stacks of letters from other inmates, thanking him for the bible studies he led, the prayers he had prayed for them, the encouragement he had given them. This is something we just found today... the day we said goodbye.   One in particular stood out as a young man told Jonathan that he knew that God had called him to ministry but that he had ran from that calling, feeling unworthy and like a failure. The young man had turned to drugs as he ran from his calling and through this had found himself in jail... with Jonathan. And it was through the bible studies that Jonathan was conducting that the young man was drawn back to the truth of Gods word and who he is (and who we ALL are) in Christ... Redeemed.

Today, at the funeral, we played the song Redeemed. I'll end with the words of the song as i just dont know any better words to speak to Jonathans life. He was created by God, for God, to bring glory to God. And while parts of his life did very little of that, other parts (specifically the last 19 months leading up to his death) were full of those things... And for that, I'm grateful.

Seems like all I can see was the struggle
Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past
Bound up in shackles of all my failures
Wondering how long is this gonna last
Then You look at this prisoner and say to me “son
stop fighting a fight that’s already been won”

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I’ll shake off theses heavy chains
Wipe away every stain now I’m not who I used to be
I am redeemed

All my life I have been called unworthy
Named by the voice of my shame and regret
But when I hear You whisper, “Child lift up your head”
I remember oh God, You’re not done with me yet

I don’t have to be the old man inside of me
Cause his day is long dead and gone
I’ve got a new name, a new life I’m not the same
And a hope that will carry me home

I feel confident that Jonathan is in eternity with his Savior... fully Redeemed.