Target conspiracy

What is it about Target that makes it impossible to just buy the Shampoo you went to get? You know what I am talking about. On your list: Shampoo and Toothpaste, and check out those cubical things for Kaitlyn's room. Then you come out an hour and a half and $145 later. I mean they have everything and then the purse that you have been eying for quite some time is half price ($4.98) and then it would probably be a good idea to have a couple more of those pens for Kaitlyn's Nintendo, and of course the Christmas stuff was 75% off and on and on. I really need to use the buddy system when going there.

And for the 4th time now

For someone who had never been to Starbucks I have now been 4 times in a week. I have many more suggestions of things to try so I am sure I will make many more visits. I have had the Hot Chocolate (twice), it is real good and I had a double chocolate chip frappuccino, it was good too but now is not the time for cold drinks. Keep the suggestions coming.

Guess who wants a Nintendo DS now

Not to mention John wants one too.

Christmas Morning

So I am sure many of you are wanting to know how the Nintendo went over at our house. Well here is what Santa brought to both my children:

Kaitlyn basically had a Hannah Montana everything Christmas. Santa brought a Pink Nintendo DS, Hannah Montana game for it, and a Hannah Montana pillow with a microphone along with several dollar spot items.


Kaitlyn was busy checking out her little stuff and then she sees the HM game. I said "What is that?" She said "I guess it is a game for a DS, (then long pause) but I don't have a DS". I said "well what is in that box?" She said Ooooohhhh. She has not put the thing down. She even went to the bathroom yesterday and I saw her playing it. My brother got her Super Mario game and she likes it much better than the HM game, who knew.



Kyle's Christmas was all about Transformers and Power Rangers. Santa brought Hot Wheels spin city, power rangers and some dollar spot stuff.


Kyle's favorite thing seems to be this Transformers helmet that my mom got him. It even has a voice thing on it and when he talks in it he sounds like Optimus Prime.


We ran from house to house unwrapping lots of great things for two days. The kids are loved every minute of it though.

12 days of Christmas

Okay so I am a little late but this was too funny not to share, watch all the way to the end.

Confession

Okay so I might shock some of you or you might think this is a crime but I had never been to Starbucks. I do not like coffee (I realize there are other things there) and I did not need something else to have an addiction to. So the other day one of my classes and I were having a conversation about me having never been to Starbucks and they of course were shocked. One of my students got me a gift card for there and yesterday when John wanted to go to Target I used my gift card while waiting on him. My students recommended I try the White Chocolate mocha. Since it is Christmas time I decided to go with the Peppermint White Chocolate mocha. So not impressed. I wasn't real thrilled with it. I don't know if it was the peppermint or the mocha but I did not care too much for it. I still have a little bit on my card so I am sure I will try again. Any other suggestions on what to try?

Friday Feast

I joined this thing called Friday Feast because it looked neat. So I was all excited to do this on my blog today and when I get there today it says "no feast today, join us next week". So I thought I would do the feast from last Friday.

Appetizer
Make up a word and give us its definition.
Fractophobia -- the fear of fractions, 98% of all teen-agers have this

Soup
What is currently your favorite song?
Tattoo -- Jordin Sparks

Salad
What’s at the top of your Christmas wish list this year?
Peace and Quiet (and scrapbook/stamp stuff)

Main Course
Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life.
Anything homecooked reminds me of my Grandma

Dessert
Who is someone on television that you feel probably shouldn’t be, and why?
Donald Trump -- he is so not attractive, just b/c you have money does not mean you can be on tv

Diaper Free

We are finally diaper free at our house. Kyle has been potty trained for a while but still slept in a pull-up at night. Well last Friday night he did not have anymore. This was purely by accident, he usually ends up in our bed which is the main reason he was still sleeping in a pull-up. Hey you can pee in your own bed but not in mine. Anyway I told him he would just have to sleep in his underwear and not potty in the bed. Then I meant to get some on Sat. and we just got busy and I forgot again. But he woke up dry again Sunday morning. So he has now gone almost a week without peeing in the bed. Of course now that I write this I am probably jinxing it.

My brother and I and our presents

I thought I would entertain some of you who read this (all 4 of you) with some stories about my brother and I and our Christmas presents in years past.

First of all I must preface this with letting you know that my brother and I are 5 years apart, I am older. We usually did not get along growing up until Christmas when it came time to scheme and search for our gifts (and when making fun of our mother, we do that well together).

One year Justin and I searched and searched and finally found our gifts hidden in a suitcase in my mom's closet. She was so mad at us that the next year she did not even bother to hide the gifts, she just sat them in a corner. It was so not fun. So we did not search for our gifts anymore.

My mom usually spends a good amount on us at Christmas. She is one of those people that spends the exact same amount of each of us down to the penny. If she has $20 to spend for each of us and the thing I want happened to be on sale for $10 then she would get me another $10 gift so that things were even. Because of this I always end up with more presents than my brother. He likes expensive things (as most males do) whereas I seem to prefer little things and the things I want can always be found on sale. So I usually end up with about 12-15 presents and he has about 8-10. It has become somewhat of joke now and Justin always says "so how many presents do you have this year" (read that very sarcasticly). Even Kaitlyn said the other day "Gran buys you too many gifts mommy". I quickly corrected her and said um, no she doesn't.

We open gifts with my mom on Christmas Eve. After opening she always has several stories about her good buys. She says "well the only reason you got that sweater is because it was on sale and then I had another 20% coupon so I only paid $6.50 for it". She is so proud of her good buys. I must admit though that I am so becoming her in this way.

My dad and stepmom always tried to think of clever ways to disguise our gifts. We would go over there and figure out what our gifts were before we opened them a lot of the time so they devised a plan. Our gifts were never labeled To Jennifer or To Justin. One year mine all said To Mom and Justin's all said To Dad. The next year mine all said To Pat (my stepmom's name) and Justin's all said To Fred (my dad's name). We should have caught on to that one because they didn't typically buy each other gifts and certainly not that many. Then the next year they said To Jennifer and To Justin and we thought oh good they have finally given up on this trying to disguise the present thing. So we get them all passed out and we are ready to open. Nope we had to trade. Mine all said To Justin and his all said To Jennifer. The next year they were labeled correctly but we were so used to different labels by then that we were looking for a pattern of who's were who's so we didn't get it.

Maybe this will give some of you some funny things to try with your kids when hiding or wrapping presents.

you little stinker

Yesterday when Pat came over to go get a tree she brought over all the presents for Kaitlyn and Kyle. They asked at least 50 times yesterday if they could open the presents and we kept telling them it was not Christmas yet. So today I left to take Kaitlyn to the Christmas party at church and then to try and find some more gifts. John was half asleep watching tv. Kyle proceeds to unwrap two of the presents. Here is what I came home to find:



John said he found Kyle with the presents in his room trying to hide them in his closet. At least the ones he opened were in boxes and he still doesn't know what they are. One of them was actually Kaitlyn's. I guess I will be re-wrapping those later.

Artificial Tree or No Tree

That was the question that had to be answered earlier today. We had planned to go get a Christmas tree today. We have not put a tree up in 3 years (the reason for that is another blog post entirely) and it irritates me every year. So my stepmom decided no more of not having a tree. However it poured down rain this morning and drizzled all day long. Rain and real trees that you are going to bring in your house don't mix so we decided an artificial tree would be better than no tree at all. I don't like fake trees at all but I have to admit the one we bought looks really good.

Putting the tree together was not an easy task especially for someone who has never had an artificial tree.
Here it is in stages:






And finally it was time for the star and ornaments. Kaitlyn wanted to put the star on but she could not reach high enough so I had to do it. Then Kaitlyn and Kyle put the ornaments on it.






And here is the finished tree. It is a very full, tall, and pretty tree even if it is fake.

Addicted to blogging?

77%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Looking for payday loans?

This quiz was fun. I have to admit I actually thought my percentage would be higher. I love blogs. I love reading them, I love thinking about what I am going to write on mine. I think everyone should have one and those that have them should update them often. It makes me feel better about falling behind on my scrapbooks (which I think everyone should do also, that is more fun than blogging). It is just fun. I have my friend Carrie to thank for this new love of mine. She got me hooked on a couple of things over the summer but I am glad.

Classic Cartoon Christmas

My father loved Christmas, I guess you would say he was a bit of a fanatic. When he died I 'inherited' all his Christmas stuff. Not that my stepmom doesn't like to decorate and stuff, she just doesn't go all out and crazy like he did. So I have boxes and boxes of Christmas lights. I also got about 30+ Christmas cd's in this collection. Some of them have never been opened. I already had my own Christmas cd collection at this time so I have a ton. In this collection are 3 A Classic Cartoon Christmas cd's plus one empty case. Here is the story behind why there are 4 of these. My Dad bought this cd in about 1996. He loved and I loved it, I was at college so I had to go and buy my own copy. Then my Dad took mine because he lost his. So I had to go buy another one. In the meantime my dad bought another one. Somewhere along the way we must have lost the cd because I have one empty case. This cd has the songs from the classic Christmas cartoons, Rudolph (even the misfit song), Frosty, Santa Claus is coming to Town (including Put One Foot in Front of the Other), The grinch, etc. I listen to it daily now and I have it downloaded in my itunes so there is no chance of me losing it again.

Notes for Santa

My kids acted awful all weekend. During the month of December we parents have a tendency to use the "if you don't act nice, Santa won't come see you" tactic. I don't know why we tell our children this, Santa will come. There is a man at church that tells the kids don't worry, even if you don't act nice Santa will still come. Anyway Kaitlyn writes Santa a letter that says this:
"Dear Santa, Im sorry I ben bad. I think I need a nother chance"

There are several boxes of stuff that belongs to John in front of our fireplace blocking it. Kaitlyn says "how is Santa going to be able to come down the chimney if Daddy's stuff is in the way? I said I guess we will have to leave him a note telling him to come through the front door. She said "well will have to put the note on the roof because that is where he lands and he won't see it if we don't". Great, now I am going to have to be out on with the ladder climbing on the roof taping down a note to Santa Claus on Christmas Eve when I am sure it will be about 10 degrees.

Santa's Solution

Really I should say it was God's solution because He clearly had a hand in this. I seriously have the best friends in the world. Tonight was our bunco Christmas party. We played dirty santa. I ended up with this cute snowman sleigh thing that jingles and plays music, so cute (it is an Avon thing). Anyway when we were done playing the game Cheryl says she has one more game. She pulls out this redish colored bag and says the game is this: Does anyone want to trade her gift for what is inside this bag, you have to do it sight unseen. We all sat there quietly, no one really wanted to give up their gift (they were all of course so good). So even though I did like my sleigh thing I said I would trade just for the fun of the game. I had no idea that I had fallen for their little plan. So Leigh kicks my gift over to Cheryl quite quickly now that I think about it. We were asking all kinds of questions about it and Cheryl says it is pink and sized for anyone. Leigh says jokingly "is it underwear?". I thought 'Oh no, what have I done, is this a gag'. One reason I was willing to trade was I thought well if Cheryl got something it must be good, maybe it will be one of those lessons like if you give up something you like you will get something better in the end and everyone else will be jealous (not that I am into making people jealous but you know). Anyway, so I look in the bag and there was a brand new shiny pink Nintendo ds. Yes my bunco girls had all gone in together and conspired to get me this. Leigh says "Santa was not going to have a dilemma this year" I could not believe they would do this. I teared up immediately. Then I thought I cannot believe I fell for their plan so willingly. Had I known I would have made it much more difficult for them to get me to open that bag. It is funny that I wanted to trade when really it was for me all along.
And then now that I think about some things that happened all night there were so many clues that I should have picked up on. First of all Leigh called me yesterday and wanted to know what I had decided about the ds, if I had found one. I did not think anything about that. Then she called me tonight about an hour before the party (she was probably at Wal-mart or on the way there with others when she made that call), again I am completely oblivious. Jen W even spilled my drink and I was on the floor right next to the gift helping to clean it up and I had no idea it was there. Then no one else even volunteers to play the extra game. When I volunteered Leigh kicked my gift real fast over to Cheryl.
I do wish I had a hidden camera of Leigh and Wendy (and maybe Cheryl, did you go to?) at Wal-mart. They said they almost had to fight some woman for it. It was the last one.
Kaitlyn will be so excited and I am still crying about the generosity and wonderful friends God has blessed me with.

Santa's Dilemna

So we are low on money this year for Christmas presents. Normally it would not matter, my kids are still young enough not to know how much Santa spends on them for Christmas. I have bought each of them about $15 of stuff from the Target and Michael's dollar spot and a couple of movies so they already have what looks to be like many presents. Kyle would be happy with that and a couple of Hot Wheels, he is real easy. Typically Kaitlyn is too. However this year she really wants a Nintendo DS (the hand held one and of course she wants the pink one). These cost $130 plus you have to buy at least 1-2 games for it. Whether I have the money or not I usually do not spend more than $100 on each of my kids for Christmas, they get so much other stuff there is no need for me to add to the clutter. Kaitlyn is 8 and in the 2nd grade, this may be the last year for her to believe KWIM? The other day I was trying to talk her into wanting something else (and it was not going very well). I told her that she might not get the Nintendo thing. She says "Well I told Santa I wanted it and I know he will get it for me". How do you argue with that logic. She has seen all the magical movies, she knows Santa brings kids what they want if you just tell him. I don't know if I can stand the disappointment on her face on Christmas morning if she does not get this, it will not matter what else she gets. But then again I don't want to run up a bill that will have to be paid off later just to please my kid. I have not done any Christmas shopping (for anyone) because I don't know what I am going to do.

Rock Band

Luke got the rock band game for the Xbox 360. It has drums, two guitars, and a microphone. You play and sing along with the game. It is not an easy game but hilarious to watch. Here are some pictures of our Luttrell rock band.

Best of Both Worlds

The other night at the Hannah Montana concert I took this video. It was at the end of the concert and had I known it would have turned out so good I would have videoed more. If you listen real close you can hear Kaitlyn singing in the background.

Breakfast with Santa

Yesterday was our annual Breakfast with Santa at church. Here is a picture of my kids and Santa.


There are a lot of people who work on this breakfast to make it possible. Here is a picture of Phyllis, Laura, Leigh and me with Santa. This was our 4th year for the breakfast. We raised almost $6200 for Agape.


Our pictures with Santa all turned out great thanks to Penny and as always our "Santa" is top notch. He loves doing it and loves seeing all the kids. Everything went very smoothly this year.

God put a rainbow in the sky

Yesterday I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few last minute things for the Breakfast with Santa. As I was driving there I noticed this rainbow in the sky. I stopped and rolled my window down to take a picture. It just made me smile.

Hannah Hysteria

I really have no words for what Kaitlyn and I experienced tonight (even though I am about to write several). We went to the much anticipated hottest ticket around Hannah Montana concert. My stepmom found us some tickets. Kaitlyn did not think she was going to get to go. Pat brought over the tickets at 5:15 and told her she got to go. We left at 5:30. She was so excited.



I don't think it really hit her until we got down there and we drove in front of the forum and she saw the big pink Miley bus and the crazy crowd of people.





It really was a good concert and the pictures I took look better than I thought they would. I did video part of it and that turned out real good (I should have videoed a lot more.









The Jonas Brothers were first. Then Hannah Montana, then the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana, then Miley Cyrus. It lasted for 2 and a half hours. Kaitlyn was asleep before we got out of the parking garage.

Tetris Master

I don't normally brag. Around here I am usually just known as the Scrapbook Queen. However in the last couple of days I have moved to be known as the Tetris Master. I am unstoppable. We have the original Nintendo (yes the one from 1985, we got it in 1988 and it still works) hooked up in our bedroom. Kyle loves to play it. Well John and I have Tetris wars. He cannot beat me to save his life. He says the game is not fair because I always get the pieces I need and he never gets the ones he needs. Um no dear, I am just smart enough to use the pieces I get in the right way. He has now become obsessed with beating my score. The other day I got 119 lines. I am on a roll.

Stressing

So I don't normally get stressed about things. I equate stressing with worrying and my mother worries enough for the both of us. However this week I am stressed. I can always tell that I feel this way because I can't sleep. I just lay there in the bed and my mind races of all the things that need to be done. And then to top it all off I was sick today. I stayed home from work but layed around in the bed all day and did not get anything done. Well hopefully this feeling will all go away in a couple of weeks.

Other Blogs

I do have several other blogs that I write on. One of them is a blog I have for the things I made. Mainly stamping and scrapbooking but there are a few paper crafts too. I have really gotten into making these paper trees this weekend. I have not written much on that blog but I am getting better about updating that one. So go check it out. It is the Created by Jennifer on the right side.

Friends don't let Friends shop on Black Friday morning

I must have lost my mind this morning. I decided to venture out at 5 am to Toys R Us. What was I thinking? In my defense I had no idea what I was in store for. I am 30 years old and my kids are 8 and 4. I have never gotten up on the Friday after Thanksgiving to go shopping. I have always looked at the deals but always waited until about 8-9 pm to go shopping. Last night at midnight I tried to get these deals online. Targets deals did not begin until 6, even online. Toys R Us had some of their deals but not all of them online. Plus I could not get the shopping cart to do right. I think that was a conspiracy against me to lure me to going out this morning. So I did not go to bed until 1:00 then I got up at 4:30. So I get to the Wolfchase area about 5:15. The parking lots were completely full. Chili's, On the Border, Pier One, everywhere there were no places to park. People were parking behind Sports Authority and Toys R Us. I found a parking place and went in to Toys R Us. They had the front right side of the store blocked off so you had to walk all the way to the back and around to get to the electronics section. I could not even get to that section. The line was already backed up the where the puzzles are. People had their baskets so full they could not see around them. I just left. So I drove down to the Trinity Target. They opened at 6 am. I got there about 5:45. There was already a line backing up almost to the Walmart. I waited in my car for a few minutes. While waiting I saw a man take some blankets and a sleeping bag back to his car. Seriously it is 30 degrees outside. Anyway, so I go get in line. And we began to walk in. Once in I went to the movies and got the movies I wanted (yes Abbie I got you a copy of the Polar Express, you owe me $60. That is $6 for the movie then times ten for inflation, ha!). There was a mob by the cameras. People were holding up there hands and yelling for cameras. At least there was no line at the checkout.
So what purpose did I have for going out this morning, apparently just to have something to write about on my blog today.

I got elfed

This is hilarious! Click on the link and laugh away.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9544089346
My kids laughed about this for at least 15 minutes. We had to watch it over and over.

Scrapbook Birthday party

Kaitlyn's birthday party was today. She turns 8 on Tuesday. She decided to have she wanted to have a scrapbook birthday party. So I talked with my friend Amy (who is also my Creative Memories consultant) and we worked out a plan. There were 8 girls which was a perfect number. Only some of you who read this will understand it but I cannot wait to do the scrapbook page about the scrapbook party.

Each girl brought some pictures of friends and we made a scrapbook card. They were all so creative and did so well.







She also had a Hannah Montana cake. The cake was real good, of course it better have been for how much it cost me.





Kaitlyn got many cool gifts at her party including a Barbie scooter, polly pockets, a Hannah Montana barbie doll, some moon sand (I will be sure and thank Wendy for that one), beads and a groovy girl doll.







The party went great and I think all the girls had a good time. I even heard one of the girls lean over to Kaitlyn while they were making their mini scrapbooks and say "hey Kaityln, I didn't know your birthday party was going to be so fun!".

Couponchief

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, won't you please put a penny in the old man's hat. Well I don't have any geese but I for sure need some pennies in my hat. We are really going to be looking for great deals and not spending as much this Christmas. I found this great site called couponchief. They have all kinds of great coupons that will help me save money. Many of these are coupons that I have not see on other sites. One that I am particularly fond of is Target. They have several different coupons that can be found here: Target coupons. They also have several coupons for Kohl's that can be found here: Kohl's coupons. Maybe I can buy gifts for everyone on my Christmas list at these two places. It is highly possible. This site also updates their coupon links often.
CouponChief.com

Thankful for...

Kyle had a paper with a leaf drawn on it that he brought home from school the other day. We were supposed to fill it out with things he was thankful for. So our conversation went a little something like this:
Me: Kyle what are you thankful for?
Kyle: Ummmm, animals
Me: okay, what else? (at this point I thought we don't have any animals, what about mommy and daddy, but I didn't want to prompt him)
Kyle: Ummm, God (long pause) and Jesus
Me: okay (I thought good at least he is learning something I want to instill in him)
Kyle: And all the mans in the bible!
Me: okay
Kyle: And toys!

I am so taking a nap this afternoon

I was up so late last night. I had one of those nights where I cleaned up my house so that the cleaning lady could come and clean up today. Sometimes I think it is more difficult for me to have her come because I spend all day and night the day before picking everything up so that she can actually see the surfaces to clean them. So you would think after staying up so late that I would have fallen asleep right when my head hit the pillow. Nope. My mind was racing with all the things I have to do in the next 2-3 weeks. Kaitlyn's birthday party is Sat., Thanksgiving is next week, I have gotten behind on my grading, Breakfast with Santa is soon and our bunco Christmas party is quickly approaching as well. I am tired just thinking about it. I have got to start making myself lists of things. I suddenly cannot remember all the things I need to get done in a day. Is this a sign of old age or just kids making me crazy? Who knows.

Family pics

We had a fellowship meal today after church. It was one of those rare occasions when all the family (except John) was there. I need more family photos of us so here are some I took today.







I wanted to get a picture of all the kids but Cohen was sleeping (and when that child sleeps you do not want to risk waking him). So we said we would wait til later that afternoon to take that picture. I tried twice and this was the best I got.

Changing leaves

I usually do not notice things like this but today while driving to church I noticed all the leaves on the trees changing colors. My Grandmother was one of those who always noticed the leaves changing in the fall and flowers blooming in the spring. She and my Granddad would take drives up to east Tennessee and I would say what are ya'll going to do up there and she would answer me, oh we are just going to see all the trees and mountains. I need to learn to slow down more and not worry about little things and notice more of "the trees and the mountains".

Ladies Retreat

Tonight was our ladies retreat at church. We had it at the same place we always do in Millington. The speaker this year was Sheila Butt, she was really good and insightful. Then we played games and had snacks.
Here is me and my mom on Friday night.

I signed up for PPP!

I recently signed up for this opportunity called payperpost. I found out about this from a local mommy board I am a member of. It took a while for my blog to be approved but once I got approved I have all these opportunities that I can choose to write about. I am still trying to navigate through this but you will probably be seeing some different type posts. Take them for what you want but I signed up to do this because I figure I blog often enough I should start getting paid for it. There are all kinds of opportunities to write about. Once I was approved I immediately had over 180 different things I could write about. Most posts will pay you about 5 to 8 dollars. You might see several of these in the next few weeks. This might prove to be some easy Christmas money and with John taking a recent pay cut this, every little bit will help. If anyone else out there wants to sign up for this easy money just let me know and I can help you. There is also a link now at the bottom of my blog that should take you to sign up for this. I will continue to let you know if this is as easy as I believe it to be.
payperpost

Little Bull Rider

Kyle and I went to the Arlington festival today. It wasn't supposed to be over til 5:00 and we got there at 3:00 and there were a lot of the vendors packing up. Oh well I didn't need to spend my money anyway. I did get a University of Memphis purse for my mom. They had several games for kids to play. Kyle played a plinko game. It was not built very well. The pucks kept getting stuck. He also wanted to ride this mechanical bull. I didn't think he would be able to get up there and hold on for very long and I was right. He got to ride twice and of course it was slow but it was worth the 5 bucks.

New job already

Both my kids were sick today. Kaitlyn woke up in the middle of night with a high fever complaining of her stomach hurting. She has not thrown up though. Kyle is still coughing his lungs up so I had to stay home with them today. John was off today but he had an interview at Lucite (which is where his brother works). He just started a new job at Buckeye a couple of months ago and he had to take a pay cut to go to this job because it would be better in the long run. Well if he gets this job he would have to take another pay cut again because it would be better than Buckeye in the long run. Well we are not in the long run we are in right now. And right now we have no money. It might be wrong of me but I am really praying he does not get this job.

Trick or Treat

Kyle was sick today. John had to go get him from school. He laid around all day, coughing his lungs out. When it came time for us to go trick-or-treating I asked him if he was too sick to go. He of course said no. So we went to my mom's house, this is where we usually go for Halloween. Kyle did not want to wear his mask and Kaitlyn did not want to wear her wig. We went to about 7 houses and they both decided they were done and ready to go home. I mean what kind of kids are you anyway.



We then went to church for a short devotional service and then they had trick or treating outside with the left over candy from the fall festival. They have more candy than we could ever need.

Souja Boy Dancing

Kaitlyn is so proud of herself that she can do the dance to the Crank That Souja Boy song. I don't think proud is quite the word I would use for how I feel about that but it is entertaining. Here is a video of her somewhat doing the dance. Kyle even gets into it too but he really just jumps around.

Glorious Day

Today was our first worship service in our new auditorium. We had so many visitors. Kevin led the singing and the first song sung was "We have come into His House". All three of our ministers preached a little sermon. Stann Phipps (our youth minister) spoke first. He should really write a blog. He is the kind of preacher that tells you several funny things and is very animated. He really knows how to hold the audiences attention. Then at the end he ties it all together with something powerful. John Simpson was next. He is our traveling evangelist (or at least that is what he calls himself). He is one of those short, sweet and hard to beat preachers. I think he knows everything. I have never heard him debate but he would be very good at debating. He always leaves you with a provoking thought. His messages are always to the point. Last (but definitely not least) our main pulpit minister, Derek Williams, spoke. He is very knowledgeable. His thoughts are well organized and for those who take notes on the sermon, easy to take down notes and follow them. He does not sugar coat things but speaks the truth with great conviction. He wants all people to leave feeling spiritually filled.
We had several visitors today. We have anticipated this new building for quite some time. There is so much that we will be able to do know that we will not have to move chairs in the other building.
Here is a link to some photos of us in our new building (they are very posed as you can see)
Pictures in new building

Fall Festival

My kids were so excited today to go to our fall festival at church. They wore their costumes all day. I even took a Power Ranger to Wal-Mart (as opposed to just taking Kyle). Of course everyone stared at him and he says "why does everyone keep looking at me?"

Kaitlyn wanted to be Hannah Montana (along with every other little girl in the universe) and Kyle was the blue power ranger.






We decided last minute to go to this place in Bartlett called Once Upon a Time. They were having a little carnival type thing and it was free. The kids got to play some games and jump in the moon bounce. The only thing you had to pay for was the moon bounce and of course my kids wanted to get in that, even though we were going to the church building after that and they would have two that would be free. Oh well it was just a dollar. They also had several characters out. They were really cute and Kaitlyn wanted her picture taken with all the princesses. The princesses were very happy to take a photo and I was grateful. After all, it will make a cute scrapbook page.








Then I took Hannah Montana and my Power Ranger to the church for the fall festival. They got to trunk or treat and play some games. We won a cake doing the cake walk. I picked out a Reese's dessert bar that I thought had some M&M's on it. Upon closer inspection I discovered those weren't M's on the candy but S's. Who puts skittles with Reese's?