Happy New Year!

2016 is here! Wow! This year has gone by so fast! But it has been an amazing year. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in this new year!

On New Year's Eve we have a big tradition that we always do. For dinner we eat Fondue. Mmmm.... We normally do just one fondue pot and boil the meat and stuff (not exactly sure what it's called) :) But this year we did that and also tried a cheese fondue. Which was amazing! I think one of my favorites was dipping the bread in the cheese. So good!

   
     We are always so stuffed after the meal, that we wait awhile and then have our desert. Which is a chocolate fondue. I think the desert was everybody's favorite part!

     To dip in the chocolate we have pound cake, strawberries, marshmallow, bananas, and normally cheesecake.

  I think Callie was the one that liked it the most! :) You should have seen her when we were done, she had chocolate everywhere!
                                  I hope everybody has an amazing and fantastic New Year!

Cookie Fellowship

Our first Christmas with our church family, and we wanted to make it special. So what would everybody like better than to have a Cookie Fellowship? It was going to be a very fun and enjoyable service with skits and prizes!

   My mom had been practicing with the little kids some songs to sing in church. It was going to be just the little kids, but several of the kids were sick or out of town. So us older girls got up and sang with them too!

   

   Dad thought to make the service a little more enjoyable, him and Josh would do a skit. It was hilarious! They were both pretending to be rednecks doing a commercial. Josh was Earl and Dad was Bubba. Everybody couldn't stop laughing when Josh (oops, sorry...I mean Earl) :) came out in that outfit!

                              (I love the look in both of their faces in this picture!) :)

    And after church we got together and had cookies and hot cocoa. Even though it's not even cold down here. :)

                  So many ladies brought cookies! I love our church family!

                     Me and Beth are SO excited to finally have someone our age start coming! Can't wait to see what the Lord has for us in the future!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has always been a really special time for me and my family. This is when we read the Christmas story, open stockings, and beg to open up the presents! (though my mom would never let that happen) :) Thankfully, this Christmas my Grammy and my Uncle Marc were able  to come up from Fort Myers and spend some time with us through the holidays. 

         As my friend put it...."Only a big family has the problem of not fitting all the gifts under the tree!" :)

      A couple of years we started the tradition of having tons of snacks on Christmas Eve and not having an actual meal. All of us really enjoyed that and got to pick some of our favorite snacks to have. And lots of sodas and sweet tea, of course!

   Another tradition we started was a Jesus stocking. Every Christmas we give gifts to Jesus. It could be something like reading your Bible through in a year, or giving up a habit, or keeping your attitude in check, ect. Then the next Christmas we open up that stocking and see if we have been indian-givers or not. Several times it has been discouraging when we haven't done what we said we would, but then other times we are so excited to share what we gave to Jesus and haven't taken back!

Youth Christmas Party

I have been loving this Christmas season! So much has happened, I feel like I can't just sit down and enjoy this happy time! :) Thursday we had our teen/college Christmas party. It was so much fun!

   Beth came up with a great idea of having a Hot Cocoa Bar.  There were many toppings to choose from....like white chocolate chips, candy canes, marshmallows, whip cream, and lots more! Some of the teens brought snacks and finger foods for everybody to enjoy!

    One part that I was really excited about was the gingerbread house competition. Dad had announced a couple of weeks earlier that the church would have to judge which house was better...girls or boys....and then that team would get to go out to eat! (you'll get to see pictures of the finished product in just a second)

                    Of course, at a Christmas party, you have to have a gift exchange, right?

    Christmas trivia......whoever won would get three extra votes for their gingerbread house. Sadly, it was a tie :)

    Okay, I'll show the boys house first. And just to let you know......they kept looking over at ours and copied us! :) How dare they! :)

                   

                                               And the finished product!

    Now for the girls.....

 Even if us girls didn't win...we had tons of fun! And made lots of memories! :) Please comment to tell me which you think is better! :)

Let's Have a Tea Party!

Hmmmm......when Mom's not feeling well, Dad's working, and you need a way to keep the little ones quiet......what do you do? Well, you have tea party of course!  After the hard work of cleaning their room, Silas, Callie, and Micah needed a little treat. Thankfully we had some sweet tea still left in the fridge. But you have to have a snack, right? So I grabbed my stash of M and M's and we had a tea party! :)

    I had them close their eyes while I got them M and M's, and they were absolutely thrilled when they saw them. What kid doesn't like chocolate? :) I know I do!

     And you also have to talk very proper at a tea party. (at least, according to Callie) :)