Christmas Party: Jones Smiles Style!

With this being my first year at Dr Jones office, I wasnt sure what to expect in terms of Christmas party, etc. But man, I was pretty stoked when I found out that we do a Christmas party at a restaurant and a white elephant ornament exchange. Sounded like yummy fun to me!

We had the party on a Saturday evening at a little place in downtown Buford called Aqua Terra. I remembered Liz holding her bridesmaids luncheon there and it being really great so i was pretty excited! Plus, Jeff and I dont get out on official dates (especially with other adults!) very often so we were like teenage kids all excited to get dressed up and go out :-)

It ended up being a drizzly night and pretty chilly so I kind of dressed for warmth. I had also just found out that week that I'm PREGNANT! So in general Jeff and I were just excited to be celebrating so much!

When we all arrived we just mingled for a bit. Which turned out to be funny because as it turned out, all the girls were on one side of the room and the boys on the other... like a middle school dance. HA! Then, we got seated and started with the appetizers! Oh goodness, they had 2 or 3, I think, and all of them were so yummy! I'd love to go back and try it again!!!

Dr Jones and his beautiful wife, Margaret. I am so blessed by these two wonderful people!

Laurie and Todd

We had such a great time at dinner hearing all about the last 2 years of Christmas parties at the office. Dr Jones and Margaret literally opened the office towards the end of 2011 so it was just the two of them working that first year. Then they added Kimberly at the front desk. Then an assistant. Then a hygienist. And last year they added our patient treatment coordinator and ME! I'm so grateful to be a part of this group!

Steve, Shae's boyfriend (we're gonna make sure he makes her a Mrs again one day, though! ha!)

After dinner we had a great time at the white elephant ornament exchange!

Angela had brought this hilarious ornament of this curly headed guy lifting weights and had it personalized with "Dr Jones". Laurie lucked up on this little jewel, which promptly got stolen! LOL!

Doesnt Todd seem thrilled with his pretty ornament?! ;-) Btw, he and Jeff got along great all night!

Can you believe that THIS ornament got stolen from Jeff?! Seriously!HA!

Stolen by Angela and her hubby Jason! (Angela is trying to mimmic the ornament)

Angela got one ornament that we brought... Justin Beiber ;-)

After Lauries got stolen, she got this jewel... Kiss. Oh my

Shae!

Kimberly (with the ornament I brought to exchange)

And Nick (who is interning with us and going to Dental School this summer) got the best one of all; an Obama ornament! LOL!

After the exchange, we presented Dr Jones and Margaret with their gift basket from all of us. Complete with a gift certificate for the cheesecake factory, a movie giftcard, a giftcard for the mall (visa) and some little goodies along with $50 cash for a babysitter... Date night in a basket! :-)

And then, we all enjoyed dessert. Which wasnt just enjoyable, it was insanely good. Chocolate godiva cheesecake. Oh my! Jeff and I shared one but my word, it was yum!

And then made an attempt at a couple of group shots!

Jeff and I. I was literally about 5 weeks preggo and not telling a soul yet! ;-)

Jason and Angela

Dr Jones and Margaret!

Idk why I didnt get a couple pic of Kimberly and Jackson or Shae and Steve or Laurie and Todd. Or solo man Nick ;-) Guess I snapped away at whoever volunteered?!

Dr Jones and Margaret also gifted each of us with a very sweet card and giftcard. Last year he gave gift certificates to Chateau Elan's spa but said that with Nick working there this year he didnt know if he would appreciate that like the ladies do ;-). That Dr Jones is a smart fella! HA!

We really did have a great time getting to spend time socially with my coworkers. When we left Jeff said "man, they are all really really nice! i can see why you like working there". And its true. We have the best group of kind, genuine, caring people I've ever known. And I cant wait to work with them for as long as they will let me :-)

A Frozen Night

Basketball season leaves the kids and I with a good many open Friday nights without Daddy around. So on occasion, we have to find something fun to do outside the house! When we saw the trailer for Frozen, I knew Rhyan would want to go see it so we planned it for one such night... and we LOVED it!

My mom has actually taken the kids back to see it again and I personally am so excited to own it. The movie has great music, a sweet story line and of course who doesnt love Olaf?! We all loved the movie!

After, we headed to Chick Fil A for a little dinner. And it was (appropriately so) SNOWING! Ok, not real snow... more like bubbles... but the kids had a great time sitting at a window and staring out till we were done with dinner. Then they were all about playing in the bubble fuzz! HA!

The kids had a BLAST running around and being silly. Luckily, it wasnt too cold outside that night so we could have some fun in it for a little bit before heading home. They definitely enjoyed the entire night and it really was a great to have a fun night out with my babies!

Walk Through Bethlehem

We are so blessed to be a part of such a great church! We love Bethlehem Church and love the people! We led and hosted a small group this past semester, as well, which was also a huge blessing to us. One of the coolest things that we did together was to serve together in something called "Walk Through Bethlehem".

Our church has committed itself to serving our community over ourselves. During the Christmas season, one way we choose to do this is by investing money into it via giftcards for gas, buying someone's groceries or buying Christmas for someone. We could do a Christmas show of some sort but our leadership feels strongly in making sure that we are ministering to others outside the walls of our church by going to them on their terms rather than inviting them to come get to know us on our terms. I love this about our church!

So one sunday night in December, all of our sunday night small groups met at the church for dinner (soup and sandwiches) and then to break out into groups and head out to stores/gas stations to bless people.
I randomly got this pic of Nick, one of our group members and it turned out so well I had to post it :-)

After dinner, we grabbed a group shot, as well. Our associate pastor, Adam Bishop, photobombed our pic (the one with the raised arm). LOL! This is a serving opportunity for the whole family, hence our crazy kids!

Our small group ended up dividing into 3 groups to go out and bless people. We made a plan to meet up at a froyo place after to share our experiences!

For our group of 2 families, we headed to Bethlehem Target. Derek and I are the most talkative and so Lisa and Jeff kind of watched the kids while Derek and I (separately) walked the isles looking for someone to bless. We just prayed about it ahead of time, asking the Lord to lead us to someone. Turns out that Derek found a grandmother who was buying some gifts for their neighbors kids. The parents were both out of a job and she was trying to help out. Derek told her to continue shopping and that he would love to help with the purchases and he would meet her up front in just a bit. Then he came and talked to us. We were all excited!

He met her up front and ended up buying about $48 of toys for her. Which left us with $2 which I gave to a lady in the starbucks line.

Heres the thing about a walk through Bethlehem. We dont tell people "hi, i'm from X church". We just bless them, period. We show them kindness and love of Christ without feeling the need to advertise our church. This, after all, isnt a marketing scheme for our church. We genuinely want to help others with no expectations in return. I'm telling you, Bethlehem is different than any church I've ever been a part of :-)

So I'll shamelessly invite anyone who wants to find a church like ours to come visit! We have 4 services: Saturdays at 5pm, Sundays at 8:30, 9:45 and 11:15.
www.bethlehemchurch.us

(the very expensive, neverending) Backyard Project

It seems like it has taken FOREVER to get our back yard to where we want it to be! When we first bought our home back in 2005, the backyard looked like this, minus about 20 huge stones along the burm (bump). Jeff took a sledgehammer and broke them all up and got rid of them (quite a task) leaving us with this:

About a year or so later, we decided it was time to put some trees in the yard and pretty it up a bit! So in went 5 maples and 5 river birch trees along with a bunch of shrubs! It looked something like this:

Then, a couple of years later, we decided it was time to put in a playset (this was when Rhyan was 3 and Mack was 1). We had originally planned for those 3 river birch trees to be the shade for a playset and it really did work out perfectly!

That same summer, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and put down sod! So now, our finished yard!

 

What an amazing transformation huh?! OH, and we added an irrigation system, as well. So, about 10K and 7 years later, we have a beautiful green yard for us all to enjoy :-) Landscaping is expensive. HA!