Merry Christmas from Ella

Humbleness

So I was driving my car the other day with my sweet daughter in the backseat. I was singing (maybe a little bit passionately) to my new Third Day Christmas CD (which is awesome), when all of the sudden Ella says quite frankly,

"No Mama, no."

There's nothing more humbling than your 21 month old baby crushing any illusion that I actually might sound like the singer on the cd.

Santa On The Roof

Santa On The Roof is a tradition in the family of Kristin. It was started years ago by her mom and now continued on by Kristin and her sister. It's kind of like a neighborhood block party, plus other friends and family. Kristin invites us every year, but this is the first year we've been able to make it.

The tradition goes like this: Everyone gathers in front of Kristin's sister's house and sings carols so Santa can find his way to that house. Then Santa comes over the top of roof and hands out presents to all the boys and girls. It was really fun! Hopefully we will be able to take part in this tradition every year.

Just so you know, these are Ella's ornery eyes! And by the way, I had to look up how to spell ornery.


HERE COMES SANTA!!!


WHAT?!


Joshua's dinner came with him. Unfortunately he had two other begging babies eating most of it. In all fairness, he did bring french fries with him. They are impossible to resist.


I believe I can fly!




Santa throwing Ella's gift down to her.


Okay, so we're not so much into Santa this year!


Unlike last year when she loved him! How is she so grown up? I can't look at this picture for too long or I might ruin my keyboard by soaking it with tears.



I tried and tried to get a cute pose from Ella on this cute chair. Not happening, until...


...Todd, Kristin's husband, came around the corner. Then she turned on the charm.


and wouldn't stop.




We thought we would try Santa one more time. And now we get it, we don't like Santa. Sorry Ella and Laney, we hope you are not permanently scarred.


Love,

MANDISA!

We had such a great time at the Mandisa concert last night. The whole event was a women's Christmas dinner and concert at my parent's church. So we started with a progressive dinner. How they did it was they had several rooms in the church decorated really nicely for Christmas. The idea was to start in one room, eat the food in that room and then rotate to another room and eat that food all the while enjoying the different decorations. Some rooms had main meals, some had appetizers and some rooms had dessert! It was a very cool idea.

Me and my mom! Thanks mom for a fun night!


I was so excited because my good friends, Cassi and Pat, came with us!! We had so much getting out together and having a fun girls night.


I was also so glad that Heath's mom and sister Cathy came too!!


Then after dinner, we all headed to the sanctuary for what we had been waiting for...
MANDISA!!!


This is her singing "Shackles"! It was the second time I've gotten to hear her sing this song in person and it is AMAZING!!! Really words can not describe how ridiculously talented she is. If I wasn't so concerned of what people thought of me, I would probably run up and down the aisles dancing and pumping my hands in the air because after all, He broke the chains now I can lift my hands!


Love,

A Christmas Concert!

In one hour I will be sitting down to listen to a Christmas concert featuring MANDISA!!! That's right, I get to be blown away, AGAIN, in person by Mandisa. I can't wait to tell y'all how it is! Maybe I will get to take another picture with her. Okay, I must finish getting ready.

Love,

Tiffani is doing well!!

I just talked to Sunni and read on Tiffani's blog that Tiffani's surgery is OVER and everything went GREAT!!!! The Lord has proved victorious once again and I know many of us are giving God praise and glory for what He has done today.

The family gets to see her in about an hour! I can't wait to hear that update on how she is. They are SO excited it's over!!

Prayers for Tiffani!

Hey y'all! I just wanted to write a quick reminder to pray for Tiffani, Sunni's (my wonderful friend) sister! She goes in at 6:30 A.M. Thursday for open heart surgery to replace a valve.

If you want specifics to pray for and amazing verses to pray over that family, please go to Amanda's blog. She wrote an incredible post with the perfect verses in the perfect way for them.

I love you Sunni and I am praying for you, your family and your sister!!!

Love,

Thanksgiving Festivities!

This Thanksgiving was amazing, but a little different. Ella and I probably did something that most families wouldn't do, we separated from Dada for the day. Heath's dad, who he doesn't get to see very often, came in town for Thanksgiving. So Heath stayed in Dallas. However, 22 family members on my mom's side, some of whom I haven't seen in a while, all gathered together in Kansas. It was a touch decision, but I decided Ella and I should take this opportunity and go to Kansas, but we were only gone for Thanksgiving day and we met back up with Heath's family on Friday. So we missed having Dada around, of course, but we had an amazing time catching up with some far away family!

We started the morning watching the traditional Macy's Day Parade!!


Every year on Thanksgiving, my mom's family has a tradition to go to a tree farm and cut down their Christmas tree. We always get to take part in this fun tradition the years we spend Thanksgiving in Kansas. I always love it because it's always really really cold! The temp got down to 19 degrees!



My sweet Grandma Angel.


Ella had so much fun playing chase around all the trees! The cold air drives her energy. She loves it. She is her father's daughter!
















My sweet mom! Your prayers are working big time! Her face is almost back to normal!! It's even better than when I took this picture! It's remarkable. We are so thankful.


Ella and my little baby cousin David! They got to sit in Santa's Sleigh!




This year, instead of cramming lots of people in my grandma's house, we decided it would be better and mentally healthier for us to find a bigger place. So we had Thanksgiving dinner in their church gym that has a kitchen connected to it. It ended up being SO MUCH FUN. We played basketball and volleyball and were just plain crazy.

My Grandad and Grandma Angel (my dad's parents) came with us to Kansas this year!! It was wonderful to have them along and have both sides of my family celebrating a holiday together.


Our game of volleyball!


My committed and competitive spirit led to this: Me diving for the ball with no knee pads. Some might think that's stupid, but I think it's taking one for the team! Plus, I was trying to one up one on Heath. It didn't really work.


Our Thanksgiving Feast!


My grandad has so much fun with Ella! Isn't he so cute?!


Friday morning we put up my grandma's tree to decorate. Ella needed to add the finishing touches.


My sister Michelle and her husband Bradley!


So that's it. I don't really have any funny stories. And FYI: Heath is doing better. He's still hobbling around. The x-ray results came back negative, so there is no break. He may have to do an MRI to see if any ligaments were torn, but we haven't scheduled that yet. Thank you for all of your prayers!!!

Love,