Two From Galilee

What a better way to kick off the Christmas season than by telling the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus.  Back in August, our music minister told our church he wanted to do the musical Two From Galilee.  He needed lots of help from lots of people in our church to pull it off.  I was bummed because there was no way with our 5 kiddos and AWANA meeting on Wednesdays that I could make it to choir rehearsals.  So around October, I went in to talk to Les and told him that Cory and I could be extras, I could even do a small speaking part if he needed me to.  He told me to get a CD and start learning the music.  I was SO EXCITED!  This is right up my alley!  The older two boys were also working on some of the songs in children's choir and they could be in it if I was.  So that left Cory.  I told Les, he could act a little and he got 3 lines as the Inn Keeper!  He wasn't thrilled at first, but he enjoyed it!  He did a great job too!

So things got a little hectic in November with all the long practices.  Our kids were up late some nights.  We are at church late some nights.  A baby sitter had to be hired more than once so my hoodlums weren't in the nursery ALL night.  We got Baby R and that too complicated things.  It seems like when you are trying to serve the Lord, the devil will use any chance he gets to knock you down!  But we survived and it was a GREAT show!  God used many people to get His message out and we were just blessed to be a small part of it!


Here are a few pictures from the church's facebook page from the rehearsals...

The set was AMAZING!  Many people were involved in building, painting, etc.  It looked so great!

 This was taken by Larry Brown one night in rehersals.  Carter and Caden are up front on the left of Mary and Joseph.  Carter is the last kid on the left in brown and Caden is next to him in blue.

 This was taken by Molly Brooks the night of one of the performances. 

 I snapped this on my phone one evening during intermission.  Cory not only played the innkeeper, but also a king's servant.  He was GREAT!

Although it was hectic at times, we were all blessed to be a part of it and would do it again!

UPDATED with NEW PHOTOS: These were posted on our church's facebook page, taken by Larry Brown and Jim Shearhart.

 Cory as a King's attendant!

 In action as the Innkeeper.

 A great view of the whole cast and the set!

Carter's Spy Party

Carter is our Christmas baby!~  But it is so hard to celebrate him on his actual birthday with his friends, since many are still with their families on December 26th.  I always try to do his birthday a couple of weekends before school is out.  But this year, it completely snuck up on me!  Thank goodness he is low key and laid back like his Daddy!  We just had several for pizza and cupcakes, then he got a couple of boys to spend the night and he was totally satisfied with that!

 

He is really into spy gear, so I tried to quickly throw together a spy party.  The invites were no problem, but the cake and party favors stumped me for a bit.  But all seemed pleased!

 

Here is Carter posing by the magnifying glass cupcakes!

Carter is fine as long as his best friend Ben is around!  Love these two boys! 

 He LOVED all the attention during the song!

 In the goodie bags, I put a pair of disguise glasses and they were a HUGE hit!

 Carter was BEYOND thrilled at the gift his brothers got him, I mean who hugs their brother like this!?!?!

 Caden helped me create a few secret code questions about Carter that his friends had to decipher with a decoder disk.  It was a little hard, but fun!  Also the perfect party game at a restaurant!

 Daddy even loved the glasses!

 Half the kids were too embarrassed to wear their glasses, but the rest LOVED them!

 Movie time for the birthday boy and his buddies!

 These three were angels!

They were so tired the next day, they all slept in church, then went home and took naps too!  Carter slept for a total of 5 hours that afternoon!  Crazy boys!  So glad Carter's friends helped make him feel special!

Cole's Thanksgiving Program

Another Thanksgiving Program at Free Spirit PreSchool!  Love this one!!!   I have always enjoyed this one and here is a look back at the other two...Carter is here and here and Caden is here.

 

 

Cole didn't disappoint with the cuteness :)  He acted bashful but sang all the words and almost did motions.  He got a little distracted!

 

Here he is with his friends Anna and Ethan.

 Daddy and Cole enjoying the stew.

 We always say the kids won't ever each much stew, and Crosby chowed down...two pieces of cornbread, two pumpkin bars, and a bowl of stew!

 Our little two, not so little anymore...

 Here are two videos from the day.  First is the brown song, then the indian poem. 

 

 

Caden's Veterans Day Program

Now that Caden is in the Grade School, they do their programs differently.  All students 2-5 from all three grade schools come together to perform at the high school.  I wasn't prepared for not being able to see him most of the time and I didn't get that great of a video, or any pics, but here is one that I got! 

Carter's Veterans Day Program

On Friday I had the opportunity to attend Carter's Veterans Day Program.  It was great to go with just one extra kiddo :)  Carter has the BEST teacher this year, so she let Crosby and I invade the class early and take a few pics.

 

Crosby wanted to color with Brother but got a little distracted.

 Mrs. Stone kept the class busy by reading and discussing a story before heading down to the program.

 Carter was chosen to say the Pledge for the entire Kindergarten Assembly.  He was introduced by this sweet little girl!

Here is goes...I was beaming I think :)

 Here is his class singing.  They sang really cute songs this year and did a great job!

 Crosby was good, but got up really early that day and decided to just lay on the floor!

 After the program, we headed back to his class for a few more pics.  Here is Carter with a couple of his buddies...the three amigos!

These two boys LOVE each other!  They get along so well!

 Carter is really quite the ladies man!  Cory says he takes after him HA.  But Carter wouldn't ask any of the girls to take pics with him.  One girl was crying because her Momma was leaving, so we couldn't take one with her, but Cameron wanted one with Carter so he was happy to do that!

I wish our family Veterans could have been here so Carter could honor them personally!  Thank you Matt and Ty for your service :)

Happy Halloween

This year was another wild and crazy one!  We hit the neighborhood a little more than last year and the kids got TONS of candy!  I have 4 Walmart bags full of candy!  I am a fun hater, Cory says, and I think that is WAY too much but oh well, they had fun!

This is also the first year I have purchased costumes.  We usually make do with some dress up costumes that we already have, but the kids were begging for a superhero theme and since we are Batman OBSESSED around here, I went with it. 

 Cole was Batman, or blue Batman, as they call it...not to be confused with Dark Knight :)

 My Dynamic Duo

 Caden was going to be the Flash to complete the Superhero theme, but saw this in a catalog and wanted it desperately. 



 My Little Robin ready for action...he was too cute!  All night if we would say Crosby, he would correct us and tell us his name was Robin.  He totally got into character.

 Boy Wonder :)

 My 4 little men, ready to defend!

 Carter being Green Lantern

Here is the best shot I could get of Croby and our friend Cason.  Cason used our elephant costume and it was SO CUTE on him! 

 Here is Crosby's loot...see what I mean...TOO MUCH CANDY!

This is one of my FAVORITE shots from today.   My caption on instagram said something about why wasn't this a scene on cartoons?!!?!  I thought it was a funny site to see all those costumes hanging on the line outside!

Halloween Parties and Piano Perfermances

Cole had a great time at school on Halloween!  They were able to wear their costumes to school and go to a local retirement home to "trick or treat"  He had so much fun!  He said he was one of three Batman at school that day, but he was excited about it!

I took this picture of Cole and his best friend Jarrett.  They were so cute together.

A couple of days before Halloween, Caden had the opportunity to preform in a little piano recital.  His teacher is so good about finding ways for the students to play in front of others.  They preformed at the same retirement home Cole went to.  Caden has performed there twice this summer and so he knew what to expect.  Several of the students dressed up, so of course Caden wanted to do that.  I was really proud of him!  He worked hard on this piece and memorized it well!  He has only been taking since March.  He is a natural :)

October Phone Photos

Here are several photos from October.  We have been pretty busy!  We had soccer, my half marathon, my surgery, Fall Break, and Halloween!  So between all that we didn't have much time to relax.  Here are the photos I snapped from my phone.

Caden was given the opportunity to start mowing.  He does pretty well for an 8 year old!

Crazy Coley Bear!  He got vampire teeth from somewhere and thought they were SO COOL!  We went to Weatherford on the way back from my half marathon to see Becca and Cole wanted to scare her with his teeth.  He is so cute!

Another cutie of Cole...loves dressing up!

Crosby loves being goofy too!  He kept saying "where's me?!?!"

Carter Andrew is crazy just like his Daddy!  Always getting up way too EARLY!  He was up several times this particular week before 6am...YIKES!

After my surgery, GiGi took the boys home for Fall Break, we drove to meet them halfway and pick them up.  Cory did all the driving and I guess was particularly tired after the trip.  I was supposed to be resting but I guess these two were tired!  So funny!

After a week of recovery and not being around much, and Cory doing more of the care of the little guys, Crosby has changed his Momma's boy tune...he is in LOVE with his Daddy!

 

This day, he wanted to work with Daddy...so cute!

Here is Crosby's working project.  I love that he colors with is left hand!  He is so precious.

Crosby, like Carter, has decided to be an early riser some this month.  So this was my breakfast date one early morning this week.

Cory let the boys stay up late one Monday evening.  "This is how memories are made" he said, "Watching the 49ers on Monday Night Footballl!"  So crazy!  Cole was beyond exhausted and had already fallen asleep. 

I tried all summer to get Cole interested in learning his letters.  I joked so much that Caden and Carter were so advanced, but Cole was going to college on an athletic scholarship.  Now before you judge me, if you really know our Cole...academics just didn't matter to him yet and he is one rough and tumble boy!  But week by week he is learning his letters in preschool and on this day, he BLEW me AWAY!  He wanted to write his name and I was SHOCKED at how well he did.  He is making HUGE progress!  Good thing his name is only 4 letters...lol!

Crosby became obsessed as it got colder with his cute little houseshoes.  He even suckered Daddy into letting him go to sleep in them.

Caden won an art contest at his school for Fire Prevention Week.  They chose one boy and one girl from the WHOLE school.  He was really excited!  They gave him a $20 gift card at Walmart.  He purchased a Lego set, to no surprise!  He came home and spent lots of time in his room, putting it together...so proud!

Like I said, busy busy!