Happy Birthday Jesus!

I trust this post finds you well! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas with family and friends. We had a very nice Christmas. The kids made out like bandits. Lots of clothes which they needed desperately. Charlie and I got a deep freeze from my parents!!!! You don't know how excited that makes me!! I wish I had pictures to post but somehow all my photos were deleted or erased. I'm so sad!! Hopefully my mom gets me some of hers. Thankfully I did video the day. In a few days we leave to head out to Maryland to visit my sister and her family. We are so excited!! I'm sure I will have lots of pictures when I come back. Until then Have a Happy New Year. See you in 2009!!!

Christmas Music

I love Christmas music!! Granted I can't listen to it 24/7 day in and day out but, I do like it. I wanted to share a song with you by Todd Agnew I absolutely love the lyrics. So, bear with me as a put them on my blog!! It is called Did You Know (song to Jesus) "Were Mary's the first eyes you saw or did you remember choosing that shade of brown? Were you suprised at the shepherd's crazy story or did you know you wrote the song the angels sang? What was this life like for you? Did you know? Did the cross cast its shadow o'er your cradle? Did you know? Did you shudder each time Your hammer struck a nail? Did you know? How much heaven and how much earth Were in this baby at His birth? Did you know? Or did you wonder? Did you remember the brightness of your glory or did you just notice it was cold and dark here? Did you know your name or did you have to be told? Were you just a baby or were you as old as time? What was your life like? I just love the words to that song. Every time I hear it I get goosebumps and sometimes I choke up. I hope you all have a very blessed Christmas and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!!

Christmas Gifts

It is that time of year were everyone is telling you what they want and they have to have an box 360 because it entertains them!! ( Ari's great quote last week!!) I thought I would share what my daughter wrote at school and ended up in The Paper. Quite a few kids at King School wrote such cute things but I can't share every ones! The whole premise of the articles are what they would give others. The kids' generosity really shines. Here is Molly's article: I would buy a gift for a soldier because the people in Iraq fighting the war don't get a Christmas. Sometimes, they get to fly home, but sometimes they don't. My gift would be plane tickets for as many soldiers fighting in Iraq as possible. That way Iraqi soldiers could spend Christmas with their families. I know I'm her mom but I thought that was really sweet.

A King is Coming

Well she did it again! Molly has become quite the little actress! She just finished a great performance with God's Kids. She had quite a few lines to memorize. Molly's part was a news reporter trying to find the information of what King was coming to town. I was very proud of her. I'm kind of sad that this is her last year in God's Kids. Thanks for listening. Sorry about this photo didn't realize what it was and didn't mean to put up.

Making Cookies

Do you ever feel that when you have several kids it is hard to keep up on things? Not that I have a ton of kids but Ari has gotten slighted. I wasn't as faithful with the pictures and having parties. Granted I don't feel like they need a party for every birthday but once in awhile is fun. This year I had a good idea at least I think it was cute. I decided that she could have several girl's over and make cookies. They helped roll the sugar cookies out, cut them, and then decorate them. For there little gift I decided to give them aprons with their names embroidered on them. We have a mom at our Mom2Mom group that has an embroidery business she does out of her house. She did the aprons for our m2m food team. They turned out so cute. Sorry about the bragging but they are so darn cute. It was so cute watching Ari while she waited for her friends to come. When they came up the walk with presents she was so shocked Mom she exclaimed they brought me presents!! I don't think that even crossed her mind she was just so excited to have friends over to play. Enjoy the slide show I couldn't decide on just a few photos.

animals

Here are the cute animals at Grohmans Tree Farm.

Oh Christmas Tree

It has been a tradition in our house that for Christmas we go out and cut down a tree. We have gone several places such as Alpha, Monmouth and Knoxville. For the past two years now we have gone to Grohmans. They have had really great trees. A fun thing they have is a little petting zoo. This year they had Alpacas. They were so cute. This year we had one of Molly's friends with us and they don't have a real tree and she was enthralled with the fact that we go out and cut one down with a saw. We had a good time. This year it was Ari's turn to pick out our tree. I think she did a great job. We got a 7.5 foot tall tree and it only cost 31.55 not to bad for a tradition.

more birthday photos

Here are some pictures of when my parents came in for supper and cake and ice cream. My mom has started a tradition of taking the girls out to shop for there birthdays. They look forward to doing that. Mom hasn't done that yet but she did bring her a little something. Enjoy

Happy Birthday Ari

On December 3rd Ari turned 6!! It is hard to believe six years ago she came into this world. She was 3 days overdue and I was induced since her sister was 10 days late. Ari came into this world weighing 9 lbs. 5 oz. at 5:09 in the evening. She has been such a blessing and we are so blessed to have her in our lives. We started her morning with a birthday muffin. We let her open one present that morning which was a new outfit she was able to wear to school that day. Ari was able to take snacks to school that day. Usually they want healthy snacks when it is there turn but on birthdays it is a little different. She wanted to bring little Debbie snack cakes shaped like Christmas trees. That evening my parents and Caleb came in to help celebrate some more. Enjoy how cute and thankful she is.

ARI

I don't have a lot to say about these pictures. Ari just likes to be silly.

Chicago Shopping Trip

I've done it know I'm out of order. In November our church takes a charter bus to Michigan avenue to do some shopping. I have gone several times with some adult friends it is always a great time. Last year when I went Molly asked if she could go the next year, I said probably. Well she went with me. It worked out that a friend of hers was able to go with us. They had a lot of fun. They loved riding the bus, going to the American Girl store and going to Barnes and Noble. They did very well and did not complain at all. Here are a few pictures of the girl's.

Family Fun

Over Thanksgiving break we enjoyed some much needed family time. I love hanging out with my family. There are times we all need a time out but, I love them a lot!! We decided to get my little fondue pot out. I say little because it just uses a little tea light candle. I had some really good chocolate. We set it up and enjoyed dipping marshmallows, pretzels, and homemade cheesecake that was the best!! Here are some pictures of our fun.

I'm still here

It has been a month since I have graced you with my presence. It has been a crazy several weeks. We have had Thanksgiving which was a lot of fun with family and friends. This weekend I hope to update with pictures. Ari celebrated her 6th birthday today which is hard to believe. That is all for now and I will chat with you later.

Family Pictures

Several weeks ago a friend of mine who takes pictures, did a photo shoot of our family. We went to Lake Story. The day was beautiful the leaves were perfect. The kids didn't do too bad. We had some issues at first with one child but, then she turned her act around. If you need a photographer I recommend Becca Rodeffer. Thanks Becca! Enjoy the photos. I need help on deciding which ones I want to print so if you have any input it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. I will be adding them momentarily.

Questions

This past weekend Molly, a friend of hers and I went on the Chicago Bus trip. We had a lot of fun. On the bus ride there the subject of babies got brought up. You can probably guess where this is going. Molly asked where do they come out at? Does your stomach just split open and they come out? I said no they come out that way if only you need a cesarean. I said they come out down where you go to the bathroom. of course she replies they come out where you go to the bathroom? I said no. Of course she is persistent. I told her I would tell her later. I didn't want her friend getting the lesson from instead of her mom. So I told Molly I would have to show her a picture since that would describe it better. Oh the joys of kids. I would rather they learn things like that from her me!!!

Words of wisdom from Ariann

This morning Ari crawled into bed with us for a minute. She then proceeds to talk a little randomly (she comes by it naturally) . She told daddy he needed to get up then she said he was a strong boy and felt his muscle. This is where it gets cute. She then asked us who was stronger. I was getting ready to answer and say I was. I'm glad I did't because her answer was way cuter. She said I know who is stronger it is God and Jesus. He knows everything about you, he knows if you are going to eat a pop tart, he knows where you are going, he knows if you are naked, he knows if you have jammies on, he just knows everything. I thought that was pretty cute so I had to share.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Thirty-seven years ago on November 12 my husband Charles Thomas Bailey was born. His mom says it was 75 degrees when she brought him home from the hospital. If I would have been on the ball I would have scanned in some picures of my beloved when he was little. Who knows I still might! Last night we had some cake after Molly came home from AWANA. Charlie's family isn't big into celebrating birthdays so we didn't do anything super special. For lunch Charlie and I went to one of his favorite places to eat ....Sully's the hot wings are really good. I will not torture you with a slide show this time just a few photos. I love you honey!

Happy 17th Birthday Caleb!!

November 1st my son turned 17 years old!! Let me tell you that seeing that makes me feel really old!! We went out to my parents house on the 2nd and celebrated. My mom knows how to entertain. The weather was great and we ate outside. Caleb got an amazing gift a paintball gun. I can't wait to play with it. He has grown into such a fine young man I am so proud of him. We had fun and we were silly. Enjoy yet another slide show. Next time I will just add a few photos.

Fall Fun!

On November 1st some friends of ours the Petersons had a party. We started the fun by going on a family scavenger hunt around town. We were given a list of clues and had so much time to find them and take a picture. It was called a digital dash. We had to find lots of things like the big blue chair, a cow, where the village people hang out,a car wash just to name a few. There was four families that participated in the game. Then a few more families joined us and we had hot dogs, smores, and lots of other goodies. It was a lot of fun. Once again I couldn't pick just one picture so enjoy the show.

Halloween

I'm behind on my blogging, so bear with me. I'm sure you have all been anxiously awaiting my return!! HA-HA. My friend Carmen and I got together and decided to make some poodle skirts. We made a total of six. We are cheap so we decided to use the same pattern even for ours. The biggest it went was a girls size 14. Needless to say we improvised. It worked out really well. I think they turned out really cute also. At the girl's school each grade was a different theme. Molly's grade did presidents,first ladies, or candidates. Molly chose Sarah Palin (she has been raised right) They had to research there person and write a report and present it to the class on Halloween she did a good job. Ari's grade did nursery rhymes or fairy tales. She chose to be princess Belle which worked out well because that costume was from last year. I helped with her class party which was a lot of fun. The kindergartners were so cute. I couldn't narrow it down to only 5 pictures so you can enjoy a slide show.

Guess what more pictures

I think this is it! Enjoy, now go do something with your family!

More Pumpkin Photos

I'm feeling a little lazy so I'm not going to do a slide show. You all like to read my writing anyways HA-HA. Ari is getting the gunk out of the pumpkins and I'm saving the seeds so we can bake them YUMMY!

Carving Pumpkins

Last night after supper we did a family activity!! We carved some pumpkins. The girls drew the faces on the pumpkins and daddy cut them out. First we had to get the guts out as they kept reiterating over and over. The comments they kept making of what the inside of the pumpkin felt like I will leave to your imagination. Needless to say a good time was had by all. We definitely need to do that kind of stuff together more often. I love my family.