Guitar Lessons

Levi went to his first guitar lesson today. He was super excited all day. When 4:00 finally got here Levi walked in with his shoulders squared. When we picked him up he was all smiles and ready to play for us what he learned. Watch the video.....do you know what he is playing?

So from now on every Tuesday at 6:00pm Levi will be at the guitar shop taking his lesson with Shawn the guitar teacher.

Music to my ears,

Leah

Mom can we do science?

One of Levi's Christmas gifts this year was an electricty science kit. So last night Levi came to me and asked if we could do science. We put Millie Bug to bed and started our experiments. Levi loved the whole process. The instructions were written at a first grade level, so Levi could read and follow the directions all with hands on interaction. Levi loved it! He learned about "loops," energy, conductors, and opened and closed circuts. Check him out.

This is our closed circut loop. The energy comes from the battery, it flows through metal alligator clips and releases electricity and lights up the light bulb.

Learning is fun!

Leah

Beautiful Children

I know I am a little biased, but I believe that I have the prettiest children out there. What do you think?

I took many pictures over the past couple of days, they are all on snapfish. Check them out if you want to.

Leah

Hopefully I will be able to post more tomorrow about our Christmas adventures.

Car, Car

Mille received a little First Steps car and a kitchen for Christmas. She was very excited about both. While Scott was trying to put together the car she kept trying to get in it. When she first saw the kitchen she let out a squeel and ran over to it and "washed" her hands.

Baby Taylor

Levi has been wanting a guitar for some time now, and has been saving every dollar he earns to buy one. Well since his pap had enough since to not let us just go to Target and get one we all went in together and bought him a Baby Taylor. (He will start Lessons in January / February). Now Levi has a real guitar.

After he opened all of his gifts this morning I asked him what his favorite gift was and he said the guitar and the new CD's (Levi loves music). I asked if I could take everything back and he made sure I knew that he loved it all.

This is my favorite picture. Look at Levi's eyes. He truly loves HIS Pap!

Whatever Pap says is the gospel truth which reminds me of a funny story. A couple of years ago Levi was telling me that he knew everything, so I was testing his knowledge. I asked him what 7+7 was, he thought a minute and replied, "um I need to call Pap." Because ofcourse Pap knows everything!

I wouldn't have it any other way!

It is now 11:30pm on Christmas Day and Levi is still up playing his guitar. He is trying to conquer the little spanish tune Pap taught him.

The Best Christmas Ever!!!

I can honestly say that this was the best Christmas ever! It was a great time spent with our families, playing games, laughing, and just being together. This was the first Christmas that we opened gifts with our kids at our house on Christmas morning. This was also the first year that Levi truly appreciated what he got. He opened each gift slowly taking in each present to see what it was. He kept saying, "Oh, my goodness" and "thank you," I know he is a burger, but today he was precious and was excellent all day long.......except for when he had to take a bath to go to mamaw and papaw house.

I have been trying to get a family picture of all of us in coordinated outfits for some time now. I had all of our outfits picked out for Christmas Eve, but Scott brought the wrong shirt / sweater. So I came home and washed our matching brown outfits and we wore them again on Christmas Day. Here are our attempts at a family photo.

Christmas is coming...

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.
It's time to put a penny in the old mans hat.
If you haven't get a penny, then a half penny will do.
If you haven't got a half penny, then God bless you.

It is Christmas Eve......We get to open presents tonight!!!!!!!

Love to all and to all a good night!

Leah

Christmas

Well because of Scott's work schedule, mom drove down to Columbus today to pick the kids and myself up. This way we don't have to have to drive two vehicles home late Christmas Eve night. Scott will just work Christmas Eve and when he gets off he can drive up to Marion for all of the festivities.

With making these arrangements this morning with mom, I totally forgot that there was a ladies prayer meeting tonight at church. Sorry ladies after last week, I just totally forgot.

So I am now in Marion at mom and dad's until Thursday.

I wish you all a very blessed Christmas and hope you get to spend time with your families and play games and have a good time. I know that I brought the Phase 10 cards!!!!!!!!!

Who's ready for a smackdown?

Leah

The results.

The votes have been read and there is a tie between the live fish ornament and the cupcake. We did not make Miss Kit and Miss Debbie compete in a fire building competition though. We just gave them both a gift card. I hope Miss Kit gets hers. (She is the director and said she didn't want one). For everyone else the tribe has spoken.


Way too much Survivor,
Leah

Gingerbread House

Levi came home from school today with this gingerbread house. The whole class got to make one to take home. He was very excited to show me and also ready to eat it as you can see.

Ornament Contest

At work this week the employees are competing in a competition. Our director gave us all an empty plastic ornamet, use of all the CMO supplies, and asked us all to create an ornament. The parents then will get to vote all week long. The winner will receive a $25 gift card to Target. Here are the ornaments created.

I made number 11, the snowman with the red hat.

There are actually live fish in this one

Miss Holli came by to wish everyone Merry Christmas.

We wish you a Merry Christmas

A couple of years ago some of the girls in our old youth group gave me the "Halmark" singing snowmen. It has become one of Amelia's favorite.

Check her out.

I got the camera on a little late, but you can still see her moves.

Christmas presents....Check

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......This is the Living Room Tree....

and this is the family room tree.

I would just like to announce that I am officially finished with my Christmas shopping and wrapping of the presents. It is such a good feeling. This is the first year that I am actually done on time, and not shoping on Christmas Eve. After last year I vowed never to have an unorganized December again. It just goes to prove that a little organization will go a long way.

Suprisingly enough Amelia isn't even interested in the presents or the trees. She looks at them says, "preeeeety" and goes on her way. Now Levi on the other hand is having an emotional breakdown just about every day claiming that he just cannot wait until Christmas to open the gifts, and I don't know what it is like to have to wait for something." as my mom would sing, "I remember the days" He is a little burger, but I guess he gets it honestly.

waiting for Christmas,

Leah

Welcome to Bible Land

As most of you know I am the sunday school teacher for the 5-7 year olds. This theme this quarter is "Bible Land." This is what I came up with to help my students learn about the birth of a savior and his life here on earth.

The room is complete with the manger, sea of Galilee, a market, and even a fireplace to tell stories around.

We are back in the nap business

I am happy to report that Amelia is back on schedule with her naps. Today she went down at 12:45 and did not get up until 3:30. Sweet Bliss. :)

Here's to sleeping babies,
Leah

ice ice everywhere

This morning, after a night of freezing rain, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation has closed the schools for today!!!!! We have spent the day in our pajamas. Levi has been conquering new levels on his Star Wars Wii game, I am catching up on laundry and getting the family room/ play room/ office cleaned, and Millie bug is climbing everything. The stairs on top of the table, getting up on every chair available. This is her newest perch.

No Nap Day 2

Again today Amelia did not get her nap. She did sleep for about an half an hour each way to and from Madison, Indiana. Hopefully we will get back on schedule tomorrow. Suprisingly she didn't do too bad with three services in one day of course we spent service number 2 in the nursery and skipped out a little early on service number 3. :)

Leah

No Nap

Today on our way home from Wal-Mart, Amelia fell asleep in the van for about 10 minutes. When we got home we laid her down but she woke up and did not want to go back to sleep. Thirty minutes later she was still awake and Daddy would not enforce tough love. Well he got her up and let her play for a while. Every time we would try to lay her back down she would scream. Finally about 5:00 she fell asleep for 30 min. We got home around 9:30 pm and she was still awake. We laid her down and there were no screams. She fell asleep....or so we think. I am not going in to find out.

This cannot become a trend. I need nap time!!!

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I have my doubts since we are going to be gone all day. See last post.

Leah

I named my blog for a reason.

If the posts are a little far apart here is why.

December 10 - First Steps Training, church, childrens skit practice, ladies choir practice
December 11 - work at cmo, christmas shopping, banquet decorating,
December 12 - preparing for banquet, buying supplies, sign practice 7pm, preparring food for banquet
December 13 - catering banquet, preparing games for banquet, banquet
December 14 - Church am, Scott preaching in Madison 2pm, Church pm
December 15th - work, First Steps Training, sign practice 7 pm
December 16 - work
December 17- church, childrens skit practice, ladies choir practice
December 18 - work
December 19 - work, Children’s Christmas Skit Practice – 4:30 pmLadies Choral practice – 7 pm
December 20 - sign practice 1pm, youth party at my house 5 pm
December 21 - Church am, program practice 4pm, candlelight service 6:30 pm
December 22 - Ladies Prayer 7 pm, pack to go to moms
December 23 - Leave for mom and dad's (hopefully) Christmas Eve, Eve what gift will we open tonight?
December 24 - Christmas Eve at Home, come home to Columbus
December 25 - Christmas at our house, Christmas with Seniours 2 pm
December 26-30 - rest at home hopefully!!! and pack for holiday youth conventions
December 31 - New Years Eve service at church
January 1 - Holiday Youth Convention - I am going with our kids to Indy and Scott is preaching Ohio's
January 2 - Holiday Youth Convention
January 3 - Holiday Youth Convention
January 4 - church am and pm
January 5 and 6 - rest
January 7 - return to work and school
January 8 - Happy Birthday Mom!
January 17 - Leave for Because of the Times!!!!! Only Scott and I our going - Thank you Mom

Not to mention I must be preparred each week for Sunday School, get bulletins printed, and the music schedule ready for January. Oh and there is such items like laundry, cooking, cleaning, and my kids need to see me and be with me sometime.

So if I don't post everyday, I hope you understand.

Love to you all,
Leah

Christmas Came Early

Because Sara Jane and the family will not be in Indiana this Christmas we exchanged gifts a little early with our kids. I gave Gideon a cute little monkey toy that is supposed to help him crawl and I gave Judah a Thomas the Train belt with cargo holders. Judah loves Thomas and is always carrying trains around. Well his Momma tells him that he can only carry two trains at a time, now he can haul more. He wasn't for sure about the gift when he opened it so I hope he will eventually wear it.

Millie received a Melissa and Doug Food cutting set and Levi got a Wii game. Lego Star Wars.

Thank you Aunt Sara Levi now gets up in the morning, gets dressed, brushes his teeth, eats breakfast, all in record time, just so he can get a little Star Wars Wii action in before school.

I wonder how long it will last.

Not Sure why the pictures are so small.

Leah

To Make You Feel My Love

When the rain is blowing in your face,
And the whole world is on your case,
I would offer you a warm embrace,
To make you feel my love.

When evening shadows and the stars appear,
And there is no one there to dry your tears,
I would hold you for a million years,
To make you feel my love.

I never imagined that we would end up here,
But we will never let you go.
Your love has brought us through a million tears.
And oh how strange to know your gone.

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue,
I'd go crawling down the avenue,
There is nothing that she would not do,
To make you feel her love.

Your pain is gone and now you've been set free,
from all the suffering in the world,
But in our hearts we will always be,
Our Grandma Jo's little girls.

There is nothing that she wouldn't do,
Go to the ends of the earth for you,
Make you happy, see your dreams come true,
To make you feel her love.

I will always be my grandma and grandpa jo's little girl. I am already missing her so much.

Grandma Jo

Today as my brother and his wife heard the heartbeat of their precious baby for the first time, Grandma Jo' heart made its final beat.

I am still in disbelief and I am having a heard time accepting it. Death does not scare me, but it is just too hard to fathom that Grandma has passed. It is hard to tell your seven year old that his Grandma Jo has died. It is hard to hold you baby boy and let him cry on your shoulder as he experiences death for the first time and knows what it means. It is hard to try and not cry so your innocent one year old doesn't get upset. It is hard not to get home as fast as I can to be with my dad...It is just hard.

Grandma Jo will be missed.

Momma's Shirt

At CMO (where I am a teacher) we are having a secret santa gift exchange for the next three weeks. My secret santa left me this tee-shirt that has reindeer on it and lights up when you touch it.

Of course I wouldn't ever buy this shirt for myself, but to let my santa see me wear it, I wore it today to school, plus it is almost Christmas!!! Now I was very popular with the students. I mean how often does your teacher's shirt light up? and of course Millie Bug loved it too.

Check out her response.

She started this earlier in the day at school without any prompting from me. All the other teachers were dieing laughing.

Santa's Watching U,

Leah

P.S. Millie had just gotten up from her afternoon nap.....but her hair usually does look like this because she will not keep her bow or bands in. (Read Pony-tail blog below)

I can do it

Just to prove to all of you out there that I do know what to do in a kitchen we, Levi and I, baked a Christmas Cake. Levi was very excited to mix, and stir, and add ingredients. If you have a piece of cake and get a little bit of egg shell in your mouth......well lets just say that Levi needs a some more practice on cracking eggs. He likes to sqeeze them and not break them into. But we pressed on and have a pretty good tasting cake. Of course it is hard to mess up a Betty Crocker Boxed cake. All you need is oil, water, and eggs. :)

Levi wanted to do all of the mixing without help. What is a cake without sprinkels.....

or icing?

Our finished product.

The Proud Mr. Levi.

We also baked cookies for the Ladies Christmas Tea at church, and I would like to tell you that I made them from scratch, but you would know that wasn't true. They now have this premixed cookie dough that all you have to do is place on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 min. It is wonderful. The cookies are good too.

Always looking for a shortcut, (in cooking)

Leah

The New House

Finally after months of planning, building, and decorating. Max and Chris have the house of their dreams. A house that fits their family of six.

Friday after Thanksgiving we took Levi over to spend the night. He has been wanting to do this for months now.

Here he is with his buddy/cousin Christopher.

Amelia tries her hand at vacuming with the

central vac system. I want one of those.

Scott Relaxes in the new orange leather chairs. They are really cool and look neat with the brown leather sectional couch.

When we arrived Chris was in the kitchen painting music note cookies that she had baked for her musical themed christmas tree. What is it with my sisters and cooking and craftiness. I am sure that I could have bought musical ornaments somewhere.

Before we could leave Scott and Chris had to get in agame of ping pong. The Seniours are very serious ping pong players. Forest Gump has nothing on this family.

Black Friday

It all starts at 6pm Thanksgiving evening at Aunt Toots house. The family gathers bringing all their ads. First you must say the pledge with Uncle Joe. Then a note taker is assigned and the planning begins. Uncle Joe will take the notes this year. Third you must go figure out what times the stores open. 4am, 5am, 6am, 7am. Finally you go through the ads one store at a time a tell the note taker, uncle Joe, what you want from that store. Razor, jeans, digital camera, game, crockpot, lcd television, crayola beginnings were just some of the items on our compiled list. Finally you must decide your plan of shopping action. Tammy will drop Joe off with Andrea at Staples while she goes to walmart then she will pick them up head to sears and finally off to Kokomo or Muncie to get to Menards before all the bargains are gone.

Here is Tammy beatting the crowd. No hip action or door beating down needed this year. We were the only ones there.

Happy Turkey Day!

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! May you spend the day with loved ones and feel blessed.

We are now off to Grandma Smiths house for some delicious sweet potatoes!

Enjoy the turkey,
Leah

A little sad

Tonight, the eve of Thanksgiving, I can't help but feel a little sad. Today the doctor stopped the chemo and radiation treatments on my Grandma Jo, and hospice was called in.

Back in October, the doctors found a tumor in her brain. Please pray that there is peace for our family as we go through this difficult time in the midst of the Holiday Season.


A couple memories. Going to the lake on the weekends with her and grandpa jo and going out in the paddle boat. Before we ever got there we would have to stop at the grocery store and buy two weeks worth of groceries for just two nights. Spending the night on Friday evenings at their house on Lawson and getting to go to breakfast on at Jim Dandy Restaurant and eating biscuits and gravy on saturday morning. Sneeking into the pantry with my sister sara jane on those Friday nights and eating "Club" crackers. :)

Sad, but very thankful and blessed for my Grandma Jo.


Leah

We tried.

Last night at church I wanted to get a picture of Levi and Amelia. They were semi - coordinated with both wearing brown and having hats. Well this is what we ended up with. Amelia will not sit still, especially if it is Levi trying to hold her. At least you can still see that they are beautiful children.

During church my mother-in-law and I had Amelia corralled in the pew so that she could not escaped and run to her dad on the platform. Millie went up to her grandma pushed her legs and said, "move." We both cracked up laughing.

I'd say he is dead!

I am very happy to report that we have successfully caught and killed the mouse that decided to make our house his home!!! I love all creatures that God made, but I have decided that I will not share my home with any bug, spider, ant, mouse, cat, dog, crickett...you get the point.

I was having an emotional breakdown, because we had not yet caught the little creature that was leaving droppings everywhere. I went to the store bought some more poison to put out then I came home and started cleaning out my cabinet. Everything washed and cleaned just in case. When I went to put the poison behind the couch in the basement, this is what I found. I hope I didn't wake up my neighbors, and thank goodness Scott was home.

A warning to all mice out ther. If you decide to move in there is poison and traps all over and you will get caught!!! See picture above.

Rodent free once again,

Leah

I am thankful...

Today, I am very thankful for insurance. For 9 years Scott and I bought our own insurance. It was expensive and covered very little. There has never been a time in our marriage that we have not had some kind of medical bill that we were making payments on. We are currently still paying for Millie Bug. Hopefully by her third birthday she will be paid for.

Now that Scott is out of the self employment business and works for Veolia Water we have insurance. With Levi's recent tests and procedures we didn't know how much would be covered, but we knew it would be better than what we had before.

Today I got an email from my insurance company giving me the details of the claims. They are as follows.

$6,624.73 - hospital expenses.
$2,095.oo - Doctors bill
$1,100.00 - pathologist
$850.00 - anesthesiologist
$340.00 - consultation fee

Our cost $23.77.

Today I am very thankful for Scott's job and the insurance benefit!

Sweet potatoes

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, my mom has been planning and preparing our ever so delicious meal. She asked me what I could bring. This has got me thinking. If you read my sister's blogs you know that they both enjoy cooking and exploring new recipes. So I have thought about this.

Sweet potatoes, this is something that we always have at big family dinners where my mom or grandma will peel sweet potatoes and drench them with butter and brown sugar and then bake them. Mmmmmmm, they are good.

If my sister Sara Jane would bring the sweet potatoes this year we would probably get...

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Purée

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1 3/4-pound butternut squash, halved lengthwise, seeded
2 pounds yams (red-skinned sweet potatoes; about 4), halved lengthwise
1/2 cup (or more) canned beef broth
1 teaspoon Ras el Hanout
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1 3/4-pound butternut squash, halved lengthwise, seeded
2 pounds yams (red-skinned sweet potatoes; about 4), halved lengthwise
1/2 cup (or more) canned beef broth
1 teaspoon Ras el Hanout
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon sugar

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray large baking sheet with cooking spray. Place squash and yams on prepared baking sheet, cut side down. Roast until very tender, about 1 hour. Cool slightly. Scoop out flesh and transfer to large saucepan. Mash with potato masher until smooth. Stir in broth and ras el hanout. Season puree to taste with salt and pepper. (Puree can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, bell pepper, and sugar. Sauté until onions are golden brown and tender, about 15 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm before continuing.)
Bring puree to simmer, adding more broth to thin if necessary. Stir in 3/4 of onion-bell pepper mixture. Transfer to serving bowl. Top with remaining onion-bell pepper mixture and serve.

If my sister Susan would bring the sweet potatoes, we might get...

Sweet Potatoe Casserole

4 lbs. sweet potatoes

1⁄2 cup evaporated milk

1⁄2 cup sugar

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt

1⁄2 tsp. ground allspice

2 eggs, beaten

3⁄4 cup roasted salted cashews

1⁄2 cup light brown sugar

3 tbsp. flour

2 cups mini marshmallows

1. Heat oven to 400°. Place sweet potatoes on a parchment paper–lined baking sheet; bake until soft, about 1 1⁄2 hours. Let cool.

2. Reduce oven temperature to 350°. Peel potatoes; pass them through a food mill into a bowl. Whisk in evaporated milk, sugar, 4 tbsp. of the butter, vanilla extract, salt, allspice, and eggs. Transfer to a 2-qt. oval baking dish.

3. In a food processor, pulse together cashews, brown sugar, flour, and remaining 2 tbsp. of butter until coarsely ground. Crumble cashew mixture over half of casserole; top other half with marshmallows. Bake until marshmallows are golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Now if i were to bring the sweet potatoes we would more than likely get.......wait for it......

Canned Yams.

Open can

place candied yams in serving dish

place in microwave and heat until warm.

throw some marshmallows on top.

Who do you want to bring the sweet potatoes?

How did three girls end up so different?

I love them both and will leave the cooking up to them.

Here is to easy meals and quick clean up!

Leah