Some Christmas Things

Is it as FREEZING cold at your house as it is mine??  This morning Luke woke up and ran downstairs, asking where the presents were.  Somehow he had it in his head that snow=Christmas morning.  Andrew was enamored with it as well.  He has said "no" (snow) and pointed to the nearest window about one hundred million times today.  Ellie has begged to go out in it, somehow I've managed to avoid it by just saying "maybe later."

Tonight I am taking dinner to a couple in our church who have recently had a baby.  I am so very thankful that this was planned, because it forced me to buy some groceries on Saturday (which I didn't want to do at the time), but now I have a crockpot of soup ready to go for them and for our family tonight.  Which means I didn't have to get out and go to the store today.  It's the perfect day to have soup in the crockpot and not have to go to the store.  I still haven't had a shower (it's 2:00, although that isn't super unusual) and I don't know when I will get to it because I don't know if I can manage to take off my sweatshirt, or my warm, fuzzy socks.  Andrew is asleep, Ellie and Luke are playing quietly (for the moment) and I just thought I would say hi and give you a Barber update.

Because of the way I have been feeling, I am giving myself a "Christmas pass" this year.  I certainly want this Christmas to be special and fun for my children, but we will just do the main Christmas things.  Number one being-- pointing them, and myself, to why we celebrate.  I know I have said it once, but I so love our Jesse Tree devotional that we are doing.  I also don't think it is Christmas without Christmas music.  My two personal favorites, "O Holy Night", and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".  I have a version of "O Holy Night" that Celine Dion sings and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" by Selah.  Powerful words, with powerful voices.  One thing that saddens me to no end is to hear such powerful gospel truths sung by someone who does not profess what they sing.  (Not necessarily referring to Celine Dion, although I don't know that I have ever heard of her publicly professing faith in Christ).    

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Although, the best part of that last line, is that he HAS come!   

Rejoice, indeed!!

Moving on...Christmas cookies are a must, right?  My mother has always, always used the same butter cookie dough recipe.  So, she helped me out this year and prepared some and had it in her fridge and on Monday of last week, we went over and made those.  Paired with buttercream icing from Southern Living, they are THE BEST.  Laura Beth also did the same thing at her house and you can click here for the recipes.  Here are some pictures of our cookie day, thanks to mom's camera.

Before I go, I have to give you my soup recipe.  It's called White Chili and it's by Paula Dean.  But that name doesn't really do it justice.  It should instead be called The Best White Chili Ever.  It's easy, and so very yummy.  It's also one of those great soups that is best eaten with Tostitos Scoops.  You can't go wrong with that!  Also, it makes a lot, 10-12 servings.  And it is great re-heated.

5 cups chopped cooked chicken ( I don't actually use that much, just pull apart one rotisserie chicken and it is plenty)
3 (15 oz) cans Great Northern beans, drained
1 (32 oz) box chicken broth
1 (16 oz) jar mild salsa
1 (8 oz) package Pepper Jack cheese, shredded or cubed
2 tsp. ground cumin

You can garnish with cheese and sour cream if you like.

In an electric slow cooker, combine chicken, beans, broth, salsa, cheese, and cumin.  Cover, and cook on high for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to low; simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  


*Basically, dump everything together, stir, and wait!!!*

War Eagle and Disney Princesses on Ice

I'm sending out the biggest fattest WAR EAGLE ever!!  The SEC championship game tonight was amazing and now we are going to the national championship.  Actually, more specifically, I am going to the national championship game if I can get a ticket.  Last night we were sitting in Subway, (eating out, are you shocked?) and Steven said, you know, if Auburn goes to the national championship game, I'd like to try and send you.  WHAT??!!  I think I dropped my turkey sub.  So... I desperately  need two tickets, one for me, and the other for my friend, Laurahelen. 

You might be thinking, hmmm...she must be feeling better if she's thinking about flying across the country.  And the answer is I am.  I really think I have turned a corner.  However,  I am now dealing with a semi-bad head cold.  But I will take it over the nausea.  I am thanking the Lord for each day that I am able to get out of bed and not first run for a trash can.  

I'm happy to report we have a Christmas tree and some lights on the outside of our house.  We also have a Jesse tree and Ellie and Luke are enjoying our advent celebration each day.  However, I think Steven and I are enjoying it more.  Mom sent me the link to one of her favorite blogs, A Holy Experience, and the author, Ann Voskamp, is giving away a copy of her book, A Jesus Advent Celebration.  It is really, really good.

On a much more superficial note, Ellie and I went to see Disney Princesses on Ice on Thursday night.  A friend had already purchased two tickets and was unable to go, so she gave them to us.  It was a treat.  Ellie was giddy as it was approaching show time.  I was not so excited as we walked through a sea of Disney princess paraphanelia(sp?) for sell.  What they were doing was almost cruel to parents and children and should be illegal. $20-$15 for the rinky-dinkiest little toys.  I'm not kidding.  Ellie was almost in tears, because it was temptation beyond all temptation for any little girl at that age.  Thankfully they had these flags on sticks with all the princesses on them for $6.  I gave her the choice of that or some candy at the concession stand.  She picked the flag and waved it the entire show.

No camera for me right now.  It is not working again.  So updates shall remain pictureless for awhile.  Hopefully we will change that soon.  Please don't forget to hurry back and let me know if you hear anything regarding tickets.  I know it's a long shot, but I have to try.

Shutterfly Christmas Card Promo

It's Christmas card time again.  I really look forward to doing Christmas cards every year.  It's my little Christmas treat.  It's a little stressful, but once I got three good shots, I headed over to Shutterfly to see what I could find.  Lots, actually.  Endless options.  And because I am doing three different headshots of Ellie, Luke, and Andrew, I was skeptical of what I could find.  But there were actually several that I really liked.

 Obviously not my family, but cute card, right?

 Shop for some more Christmas cards here and here.

I was also glad to find plenty of options that said Merry Christmas.  Check it out this week because there are quite a few Cyber deals.  Not to mention, if you blog about it too-then you can take advantage of their special offer-50 free Christmas cards for bloggers who promote Shutterfly. Click here if you want to know how.

Happy Christmas card making!

First Trimester Woes

So here I am trudging through the first trimester.  I was thinking today that I am very grateful for this pregnancy, but I am not enjoying it.  Those can be two separate things, right?  Because I just really don't love pregnancy.  I love what it means.  I love that God has given life again.  And I am truly grateful for that.  But it is SO not fun.  For example, today we were making our way to a drive-thru for the one millionth time in the past 3 weeks.  I let myself get too hungry and I just couldn't get there in time, so as I was stopped at a red light I reached for a chip bag that was in the car and started throwing up as the light turned green.  I then proceeded to drive through a busy intersection and pull into the parking lot while simultaneously throwing up in the chip bag.  That was a first for me, although I'm sure there are plenty of moms who have done that and much worse.

Steven has been a trooper. He really has picked up the slack.  I think there are parts of it my children prefer, such as eating whatever.  And I really mean, whatever.  On a particularly bad night I was lying down for a bit around dinner time.  Steven said, "What should I feed them for dinner?"  I told him, "I don't care."  He asked if he should try and make it healthy and I repeated, "I don't care, I mean really don't care what they eat."  Just make sure their tummies are full.  So I think in some ways I am a little more laid back and they enjoy climbing in bed with me reading books and watching movies.  Steven is the one to get up every morning and take care of everyone's needs, including mine.  And at night, he is the bath man for now.  I take full advantage of every second he is at home and he has not complained once.  

We enjoyed a few days of some cousin time.  Here are a few quick snapshots from a dress-up session last night.  My camera is broken right now so any pictures on my blog will be stolen from my mother.  

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Great Report

Just wanted to report great news from the doctor's office yesterday.  Little baby was measuring right on at 8 weeks and 3 days.  We listened to a strong heartbeat as well.  Praise the Lord!  Steven, Luke, and Ellie were with me and Luke said the baby looked like a little boat.  He also showed me the stirrups and explained that "Mom, these are for your feet to go in."  Yikes!  Maybe he's been to one too many doctor's appointments.  Hopefully no permanent damage done.  Thanks for all your kind comments and of course prayers. 

Spilling the Beans

Wow.  Alright, two weeks can go by really quickly.  I can't keep up with my constantly blogging family.  There is news to share, and close friends and family already know.  But I will let you in on it too, blog friends-I am pregnant again.  And this time it is looking quite different.  The nausea has hit in full force.  I am so very grateful for it.  But as my dad said, "The good news is you're sick.  The bad news is you're sick."  I was going to wait to announce it until after we had seen a strong heartbeat.  And while I am still very anxious to see that, I am taking the sickness as a good sign. My first doctor's appointment is on Thursday of next week.  I will check back with you for a report then.

Every single time I do this (meaning do a pregnancy and take care of other children), I think, how am I going to do this?  Well, the answer is you just do it, but also, I have a lot of help.  If you check out my mom's blog, you will see that we had crashed over there for a couple of days while Steven was gone to a missions' conference in Ohio.  Oh, I am so thankful for my mom on lots of days, but especially days when my husband is gone. 

Because...you just never know what the day holds.  Last week, we had the privilege of having the Roells' here in town.  Remember this post,  and when we traveled to Ohio in July, for their son's funeral?  Well, Kendra, just a few short months later, traveled here to speak at a women's luncheon we had at church.  She was phenomenal and we had the best time with them.  Anyway...We hadn't been at the luncheon long and Ellie said her tummy was hurting.  Long story short, Ellie threw up while Kendra was speaking.  I froze for a second and it was one of those "You have GOT to be kidding me" moments.  Got that situation under control(Ellie ended up being pretty sick with a severe cold).  And then on Monday, early around 5 a.m., Luke is screaming from his bed.  I assumed he had already thrown up.  I made my way up there, with the garbage can in hand, sat down on his bed, and threw up myself.  He ended up being fine.  All that to say, when Steven is gone, for obvious reasons, I need back up.

I am well aware that there are so many moms with little ones, who have not much help if there husbands have to be gone, or even if there husbands are not gone.  There just isn't anything like help from your mom :)  

Alright, so that is what is going on.  I look and feel like death warmed over.  My kids are getting cereal or fast food for just about every meal.  But I keep telling myself it is just a few weeks of my life. This will not last.  And I've been thinking about how spoiled I am.  How I hate to be uncomfortable.  And when we are in the midst of any type of suffering we just want "out".  I have not once stopped to ask God to teach me, use me, and show me how He will be sufficient during my time of need.  Although, He already has been sufficent, every minute of every day.  Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of life and for your patience with me!

A Happy Halloween

Here is a quick recap of our Halloween weekend mostly in a few pictures.  I stole these from my mother's blog.  Sorry to any family who were hoping for some different pictures.  My camera is not working.  Maybe Santa will bring me a fabulous camera for Christmas  :) 

I tried to do the Wizard of Oz thing this year.  Andrew and Ellie cooperated.

But Luke insisted on being a superhero.

We went to a party early in the day and for that he was Buzz Lightyear.  But for the second go-round, he went with batman.  I guess it was like a bride who wears one dress for the wedding and another for the reception.

 Mom set up a table in her driveway for the trick-or-treaters.  Ellie and Luke had almost just as much fun handing out candy as they did trick-or-treating.  Mom ran out rather quickly.  Her street is definitely one of the happening ones in town.  And it is one of the streets that people bring trailer loads full of kids and just drop them off.  Not cool.

We had pizza and then lots of sugar.  I ate entirely too much caramel corn.  I made it knowing what I was doing.  But what other day of the year is caramel corn more perfect for than Halloween?  Now we have gobs of Halloween candy and I am constantly having to decide "yes or no" when the kids ask if they can have a piece.  A little while ago I asked Ellie what she had already had.  She said, "Just a small piece of chocolate.  It was only 2 feet."  

My children are really into naming things in measurements or numbers these days.  (And are almost always wrong)  Luke compares everything with 18.  I'm not sure why he is obsessed with that number but he is.  For example, if he asks, "How long until we go to church?"  before I can answer, he will say, "18?".  Not 18 minutes, or hours.  Just 18.  And another thing, a way I remember my mom explaining time to me.  I will give them time frames based on TV shows.  One hour would be like watching two Max and Ruby's.  Then they get it.  Or like sitting through a church service.  Of course, then they think that is forever long. 

Hope your Halloween was happy!