Parents Night Out.....

Our Care Group organized a second "Parents Night Out" where people sign up for us to keep their kids, they donate a minimum of $10 per family, and they get a couple of hours out. This time, is was a longer time frame and LOTS more kids!! Donny had done his job and "marketed" the night to a couple of different groups at church who where having their adult Christmas parties that night, and we ended up with....gulp....over 35 kids who signed up. At the time that he told me that number, we only had one other couple that we knew of from Care Group who was available to help us out. Double GULP!! Thankfully, we ended up with 2 other couples who were able to come help out and it really was a fun night. We shuttled all the kids up the stairs with name tags on as soon as they got there to watch a few minutes of a movie until everyone got there, then divided the kids into 3 groups and put colored dots for each group on their name tags. We had a "toddler area" with 6 little ones that were 2 or under who played in the living room for a bit until they got bored, then we herded them all upstairs for a change in scenery. The groups rotated every 20 or 30 minutes between a coloring station, a cookie decorating station, and an upstairs musical chairs station. After everyone had rotated, they all came together for some "indoor Christmas caroling" and a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Kevin. His nice low, relaxing voice got everyone wound down then we let them pick a movie upstairs or downstairs to sit QUIETLY and watch (with lights down low!) until their parents came to get them. It was a lot of work, but a GREAT night...and we raised a lot of money to help a sweet single mom out with some pretty dire financial straights.


Come in the door, get your name tag, line up your shoes and head upstairs!

Donny had them see if they could line up from biggest to smallest, then had them put hands on shoulders, turn around, spread out...all sorts of things just to eat up some time! ;)

That is ONE long Conga line of kiddos!

The coloring station...thank you Hills church for all the copies! Notice the table was covered in a plastic liner....

One of the cute babies...little June!

The cookie decorating station! So fun!!

Donny got kids to help him lead us in some Christmas carols...we had wanted to go caroling to a neighbors house, but with that many kids plus pretty cold temps, we opted out of that one.

All the babies got to eat a cookie...no decorating for them!

Mr. Kevin works his low voice magic on the kids!

All I Want For Christmas...

Tyler was in the church Kids Christmas Show this year again - he's been in it every year since he was in kindergarten and always loves it. Hard to believe my baby only has one more year in the elementary class at church....YIKES!!! The show was precious. The premise was about girls who come into a department store with their mother and are focused on all the things they want to get for Christmas. While the mother shops, the girls fall asleep and have a dream where the toys come to life on the shelves and the girls share the Christmas story with the toys. Long story short, the girls are reminded of the true meaning of Christmas, and that the season is about giving, not receiving. There were over 200 kids in the show - the biggest group ever! Tyler was in the group of toys that were Woody dolls - there were also Jesse dolls, BoPeeps, Aliens, and clearance toys. So precious! I'm thankful for a church leadership who make this happen for the kids - it takes SO much work on their part and they give of themselves selflessly every year.

Yes, my kid is ALWAYS on the top riser...but he looks really like a GIANT in this picture - there was another taller kid that wasn't beside him at the time, and his neighbor to the left was sitting down. Made me giggle.

Some of the kids who had speaking parts....they were so cute!

The opening song by the whole cast before the groups went back for costume change.

I took pictures at the dress rehearsal, but for the performance all the kids got makeup - little circles on their cheeks outlined in black. Cute!
Kim and I have been doing "backstage duty" every year together....through all the rehearsals and especially performance day we have a GREAT time being together and catching up on our lives!!

At the end of the show - all the characters on the final number. I really love those little aliens!! Hysterical!

Dave (aka "The Elf") is a natural at the role he had....acting extremely goofy and entertaining many. And then there's his beautiful, talented wife, Lisa!

Woody boys getting into character backstage...

Buddy Kayla Yowell - we always have to have a Tyler / Kayla picture to document our time!

Don't tell Colby, but I'm planning on convincing him to be in the show next year. He did it the past 2 years (albeit reluctantly - it's just not his thing to be on a stage). Next year will be Tyler's last year and Brady's first year to be in it. Surely he will let his mama have all 3 of her boys in a show together, right?? It would be so cute.....

Giving Thanks...

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed to Mom and Dad's in Midland. Since the boys had off all week, Monica and I headed out there Tuesday morning (she had to work on Monday), met our hubbies there, and stayed until late Saturday before coming home. Funny: Donny flew but could only get a Rapid Rewards flight out on Tuesday afternoon instead of Wednesday when he was hoping to come. The man got to fly by himself just about beat us into town...after we had traveled the whole way with 5 kids and a completely LOADED car! Not bitter, but there was some grumbling going on for sure!! ha!

I always love being with my family, love watching my boys form memories with my parents, and love being back in the town I grew up in. I LOVE Midland. For lots of reasons. It was a sweet time!

One of the sweetest parts of the trip was having our Grandmother (Mamaw) come down from Amarillo with her son, her other granddaughter, Christina, and her son, Eli. What a treasure to be with these sweet ones! They came on Saturday and stayed for lunch and some visiting before they headed back and we started our journey home. I love seeing my boys (especially Brady) play with my cousin's son...may their relationship form strong so our family tie won't be lost!

Mom and Spencer exploring the airplane at "Dennis the Menace" park...oh, the memories at that place!!

Makin' music on Nonny's keyboard...

Me and my honey cookin' up some Thanksgiving yummies!

Annie mixing it up with the cousins in some wrestling time!!

Choking??? I think that's a penalty, little lady!

Nonny cooked a great bird...now if she could just get the wires off....
Sitting down to Thanksgiving lunch (notice Mom still has her apron on!)
This totally reminded us of the scene in Christmas Vacation where Clark carves the turkey...except we had better results!

She is just the cutest thing ever, don't you think?

Relaxing with PawPaw

Colby made, I mean asked PawPaw to throw the football with him...like all the time.

Playing Uno with Nonny, Brady and Annie (and all the babies)

Enjoying some desert with Mamaw!

These 3 were so cute running around together....Christina's little boy is a sweetie!
Cousin football game! Tyler was the self-declared referee and told everyone what to do (surprise!)

Mamaw with her grandaughters

Mamaw and all her great-grands!

We always wonder if perhaps Tyler got his height from Uncle Don...he's got long legs like Don, and he's the only man in our family tree who is taller than average!

It's a Fourth Grade Musical!....

Tyler was SOOO excited to be a part of the 4th grade musical at his school this year. He has always loved being a part of musical shows and is dreaming about the day that he can have a speaking part in a show. He had to learn a hard lesson this year....just because you audition for a part in a show doesn't mean you automatically GET the part in the show that you try out for. He and his good buddy, John, had auditioned together for parts opposite each other. John got his part (VERY gifted musician and singer!) but Tyler didn't get the one he tried out for. The heartbreak was rough for him, but he recovered, learned how to deal with disappointment and that he IS good at lots of things even if he doesn't get to do everything he tries out for. He had a great time performing!

Sweet Mrs. Wyly, Tyler's teacher, was at the performance. We.love.her!!

On the back row...as usual!

John performing a solo....he did GREAT!!

The show was called "Reading, Writing and Rockin' " and had the kids playing the roles of different teachers in their school. VERY cute!
Nana and Papa were in town for the weekend, and came a day early so they could see Tyler's show. And of course, Super Aunt Moni (and Spencer) was there!

Tyler and his good buddy, Zachary before the show began