Merry Christmas

Riley and Nick, what a great couple!
Ella-the Rock Star..loved her guitar.

The boys and their matching robes! One day they will hate that I buy them matching clothes. Until then--the more the merrier!

Ella performing at Christmas Eve service. She wore a dress that I had saved from when Riley was 5 years old, still looks brand new and it's 10 years old!!

She was so proud to wear it.

Oh man, the boys got a train table..they loved it.. It took all of about 3 minutes for them to tear the track apart and start throwing pieces...Jermey will be glueing or screwing the pieces down very soon!

Merry Christmas to all. We have already enjoyed 2 great Christmas gathering and have one more to go. This year we really cut back on buying. buying and buying. Not just because of the money issue but because of the 'reason for the season'. We are trying to teach our children the real reason we celebrate Christmas and what it means for our lives. Drew kept saying "Jesus Birthday, Jesus Birthday" We have little toy Nativity set that we go throught the Christmas Story with them..

We spent Christmas eve at my aunt Shirley's.. It was great seeing a lot of my extended family and my new baby cousing, Dane. Ella sang in the children's choir at the Christmas Eve service..she did great and is a natural performer. Today (Christmas Day) we had a great morning with the kids celebrating and exchanging gifts. I got a snuggie (which I'm wearing now)..then we had dinner at our house. We have been blessed to have a big enough home to hold our family and we get to host family events now. I love it--and I always get to make the turkey ... We leave tomorrow for Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Missy's house.. the kids are totally pumped to see everyone. And Jeremy and I are going to have a little mini vacation in Chicago for a couple days.. Grandma and Grandpa agreed to keep the kiddo's so we can have a much needed get away. So excited-even though it is going to be like 10 degrees, it is going to be nice to go ice skating at Millenium Park!

Emmanuel "God with us"..

Merry Christmas to you all!

Some fun pics

Ella and Carder at Grandma and Grandpa's.. they collected crickets in the jar.
Jeremy hate this picture, the outfit and the hat. I think it's kind a cute...Seth loves hat's, any kind, any style, any color...he loves them all!

Uncle Garrett and Drew at the parade...they ate about 20 suckers between the both of them.

Riley and her BFF's Faith and Emily. This year we took Riley to St Louis for the weekend for her b-day..and she got to bring along her friends. It worked out great for me and Jeremy too.. they wanted nothing to do with us, so we had our little weekend away :)

I love my "Dork" (see his shirt)

Some Africa pictures

Jermey and I standing at Project Canaan. This is a beautiful 2500 acre farm that Heart for Africa recently purchased. This land will be a life saving gift to the country of Swaziland. It is going to have dairy farms, fish farms, crops, schools, churches, medical clinics. This is also the land that the orphanage we are raising money for will be built.
What a sweetie!! Is this little boy not the cutest thing you've ever seen? Doesn't he deserve a chance at a great life just like you and I do?? We believe he does!!

Oh how the kids loved Jeremy. There is not a big male influence in Swaziland. Most of the men have either abandoned their families, died or are very abusive. So they loved playing with the guys on our team.

Angel and I loved on this sweet little girl. She and her 7 siblings live at a local junkyard. No plumbing with no water. This is not right!! We must choose to care enough to make a difference.

This is the first African child I held when we got to Emmanuel Children's Home. She was so sweet and but very quiet. She would not let me put her down. I sat and held her for a long time.

We have lot's more pictures to share...and lot's more stories. But you can have your own pictures and your own stories travel with us in July 2010 back to Swaziland!!

It's been so long

Wow! I 've got to get back on the blog bandwagon. It's been a long time..and lot's have happened in our house.

We made the journey and back to Swaziland Africa-wow! lot's more to come on that subject
Riley started high school and is a high school cheerleader.
Ella is in pre-k, Drew is in pre-school and Seth started a program at SEMO.

And there are lots more in between that! But I did sound out Christmas Letters this year instead of the traditional cards and I wrote that people could keep up with our family on our blog so now it's time to keep up with the blog!