New Van

I am writing this in the dark as I wait for the kids to wake up and find that Santa came last night. I have already met my running group fairly early, showered and put my pjs back on and still no one is ready ..... sometimes being the only morning person in the house is a bummer :).

Two paintings I was commissioned to paint for a new office building in town.

At the office I toned down the bright yellow a bit since their walls are stark white.

Santa came really early for Adam and I..we bought a new Mini van yesterday. It was time, our old blue one was unreliable and we didn't feel comfortable taking it on another long Alabama road trip. We ended up getting a 2015 Toyota Sienna and we owned that purchase!!! We did the whole walk away thing and we ended up getting the price we wanted and the trade in value we wanted. We wrote a check and drove away with a sparkly new van.....that scared the every loving snot out of me!!! Its fancy so it has bluetooth. Well when I left my house this morning at 4:45 I was not thinking about the fact that my van now speaks to me and as I rounded a very dark corner my van said "Im coming"...in the deepest, non excited voice ever and I almost wrecked. Apparently it reads my text messages out loud to me so that I am free to drive.....that feature should save some lives as long as it doesn't scare the tar out of you the first time!!! I told my girlfriend who sent that text message to me about it and she laughed and laughed...she said she almost sent a text that said "Kinzie, wait for me"...hehe, hearing my car say my name would have definitely caused an accident...in both my pants and on the road!!!

Advent....celebrating the fact that Abraham was promised as many descendants as there are stars.

We have added Goober into the Advent Reading schedule too...the littles love to hear him read!

Last night was eventful too as we set out to have a very special candelit Advent dinner.....we talked about Isaiah the prophet calling Jesus the light. We talked about how light exposes our sin and guides us. It reveals things and it gives us hope. We were having a great conversation and then asked Little Man to take his turn in hanging our "lightbulb" ornament on the Jesse tree. As he sweetly carried his candle and ornament to the tree we were all loving the glow of the candlelight when we saw a FLAME. Little Man's hair had caught on fire and fortunately his older brother blew it out.....Little Man was in shock, he didn't know what to do, Adam was mad at me for letting him hold a candle. I took one look at Goobers face and had to throw myself on the table to keep from exploding in laughter. We laughed and laughed which may have angered Adam even more....it was just too funny. So, then we did the next logical thing and cut Little Man's hair so that it was even all the way around....:).

At school two of my 7th grade boys had so much fun recreating this scene from Elf....they were laughing so hard!

Do you see that? My Ceramics kiddos SWEPT the 3D category at a recent art competition. Not listed here is the Presidential Award that also went to one of my 11th grade Ceramic students..I was a happy art teacher!!!

I wanted to write about my sweet times with Ribbit lately in church. She does so well in service and has her own routine. She sings her heart out and waves her arms in worship. Then she sits down and eats the small snack I bring her. Then she draws on her notes and writes several words such as Jesus, God, Bre, Love..anything that has to do the sermon. Then she fills out a guest card and practices her "cursive". After that she is ready to snuggle. She lifts the armrest between our chairs and gets as close as she can to me or crawls in my lap. Towards the end she gets antsy and turns to face me. She considers all of my jewelry, touches my hair and eyelashes. She puts her nose against mine and we make silly faces (we CRACK UP) and of course Adam is there to remind us to behave. The last two Sundays though have been my favorite as I have worn a scarf. She uses it to make a tent around our two heads and she whispers to me. She loves to press her little warm cheek against my cold one and say "girl time". She loves to wrap us up when the pastor preaches and then whisper "shhhh, daddy can't see us" when the prayer is over and she doesn't let our tent down. I know she won't want to snuggle forever but I will take it while I can.

Some really good eats lately..pork roast stuffed with apricots, cranberries and walnuts...and sauteed kale!

Roasted sweet potato topped with shrimp and PUMPKIN salsa!!!

Goober also signals me sometimes at church....he knows if he sits beside me and leans forward to take notes I will rub/scratch his back and neck....he loves that and will stay in that position the whole sermon. I sometimes even get some snuggle time with him during church....but it has to be very well orchestrated on my part :).

Another reason I love our church is the fact that they provide so many opportunities for us to serve as a family. We spent one morning packing meals to send to Zambia. Adam is covering his beard as well :)

This sweet girl helped weigh the packages and box them.

Everyone was happy except Little Man...I made him wear the "weird hair cap".

Finally, our nephew and cousin, Baby Levi should be here tomorrow! They are inducing Aunt Micah tonight and we can't wait to see him! We are so anxious to meet this new little man and watch our family grow!!!

He was so proud of his outfit that he put on to wear to ride bikes in. Baseball pants, a PJ shirt, a vest, his spider man hat and his sisters toy :).

Merry Christmas, He is coming!