Crazy Christmas!!

A White Christmas?!?! We couldn't believe it!!

The weather was predicted to be bad on Thursday, Christmas Eve. We normally don't see a lot of snow in Oklahoma & the chances of a "white Christmas" in OKC ( or anywhere in OK) is 3%!!

So dad & mom came down on Wednesday. Dad left mom at our house Wednesday night & went back home. By Thursday morning (Christmas Eve) it was sleeting, then by 10am, it was snowing & then it quickly turned into blowing snow & "white out" conditions! The interstates were CLOSED!! It was wild!! I was SO glad that we were not out on the roads!

The sun came out Christmas morning! It was beautiful, but DEEP & the roads were still dangerous!

The girls were so excited that it snowed!!! Lydia got a bike, but she had a ride it in the house!!

Dad couldn't make it back for Christmas morning, but Tori & Russ were able to make it over for Christmas brunch.

The girls played in the snow & over the next few days, we had a snowman, snowdog & snowfort! They had a great time!

But the snow did put a damper on our plans to go to Woodward. The girls were upset, but Scott took them to the Omniplex on Saturday. I decided to stay home because I thought the roads were still too bad. Dad was able to come on Saturday & take mom home.

14 inches of snow is crazy for Oklahoma. It will be a Christmas that we will always remember!

2009 in review

Wow! What an amazing year!!!

Let's see if I can remember ALL the things that happened in the year of 2009 (I'll have to look in the scrapbook!):

January: Caraline turned 2 & got a "big girl bed"
Tori & Russ found out they were pregnant!

February: Katy turned 33 & Scott turned 38

March: Lydia bottle fed a calf for the first time

April: Easter was rainy this year so we hunted Easter Eggs at grandma's on Saturday.
Caraline was sick this Easter...so was my mom!
Lydia went to her first movie in the theater. We saw Earth. She loved it!

May: Lydia "graduated" from Preschool at Peace Preschool.

June: Lydia & Caraline went swimming for the first time in a "big" pool at Tori & Russ's house.
Scott's dad, Elwyn, turned 70.

July: This was the first 4th of July that we went to see the fireworks...Lyida wasn't sure she liked it!
Tori & Russ had a baby shower in Perry for Sadie.
We went on our first family vacation to Red River, New Mexico. We went with Scott's family. The girls loved it so much Lydia wants to live there!

August: We got to tour the Braum's dairy plant in Tuttle.
On August 25, Sadie Laine Furgason was born @ 1:10pm at 8 pounds

September: Lydia started Pre-K at Peace Preschool in Ms. Teri's class.
Katy took a photography class through Franis Tuttle with a friend, Sharon Schwidder. She got a new camera, a Canon XSi, and started taking pictures of friends & family.
Nana turned 60 this year! We surprised her at school & then all her family surprised her at Pizza Hut in Perry.

October: We went to Storybook Forest to trick or treat with the Cox's, Churchwell's & met the Schmidt's there to roast marshmellows. We had SO much fun! Lydia was Cinderella & Caraline was Fern & she carried the pig, Wilbur. Later on Halloween, she decided she wanted to be a princess too. So when we went Trick or Treating in downtown Edmond, I took TWO Cinderellas! Sadie was a Little pumpkin!


November: Lydia turned 5!! She had a costume party with friends on halloween & then a party with family at Nana's on the 1st.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Papaw's side of the family, whom we don't get to see that often.
We had Thanksgiving at Grandpa & Grandma's in Pawnee. We took tons of picture while the girls played on the hay bales & swung on the gate. I took picture of Amber & Adam & the Furgason family for their Christmas card. It was a beautiful day!

December: We went to see the tree lighting in downtown Edmond. We also watched the light parade.
The girls & I went to Perry to Nana & Papaw's church & had breakfast with Santa. We ate pancakes & got to talk to Santa. Then we ran downtown Perry to Santa's house to see him AGAIN!! The Santa's looked a little different & Lydia thought the one at church was the REAL Santa because he had a long beard!
We wrote letters to Santa & mailed them.
We had a WHITE Christmas!! More like a BLIZZARD of a Christmas Eve. 14 inches of snow!! We couldn't go to Woodward like we had planned, but we are going the following weekend.

So that was our year in a nutshell. As I look back on the last 12 months, I KNOW God has blessed us beyond what we deserve! Time together & health is a blessing that I thank God for everyday! I pray for more blessing of God's protection for our family.
Thank you God for loving us, being faithful to us & dying for our sins so that we can live forever with you in heaven!

This girl "gets it!"

Lydia is SO funny!! She is growing up SO fast!! She knows ALL her letters & sounds & I've been working with her on reading three letter words & simple sentences.

Now she has really taken off with it! Last night, she came in the living & said, "Mom, I think I can read some of the words in this book." I said "Ok, let's see." It was a first grade book with simple sentences & she tried & got a lot of the words right!! I was VERY impressed!

Then the next day at church, she wrote a card to baby Jesus. She wrote " i lib ppl" She said "Mom, look at what I wrote in that card." I looked at it & I said "Does it say 'I like purple'?" "Yep!" She said! She was SO proud of herself!! (Since I taught first grade for 6 years, I've become an expert at reading inventive spelling!)

Lydia KNOWS the real meaning of Christmas! We were reading a story about Christmas & Santa one night. It was about a family named "Kringle" and it said "The Kringle family loved Chistmas so much that they named their son after you-know-who."

Lydia looked puzzled & asked "They named him 'Jesus'?!" I was rolling!!

sweet prayers

Caraline really enjoys praying..she prays about EVERYTHING, which is what God wants us to do!

For example, she had a little bit of a cough a few days ago. Scott watched her cough once & then pray to God, "Dear God, please help my cough. Amen." The next day, she never coughed!!!

WOW!! Maybe that is what God meant when he said to come to Him with a "child-like faith."

Awesome!

"Let the little children come to me." Matthew 19:14

How do we know the Bible is true?

Yesterday as we were driving to school, Lydia asked me, "Mom, is the story about baby Jesus a real story or make believe?"

God gave me this answer: "Well, we know two things: that is says in I Timothy that 'All that the Bible says is from God.' and we know that God never lies, so if we know those things, when we know that the story of baby Jesus is true!"

She said "Ok" Then we go on to talk more about God & Jesus & how God is everywhere all the time. We said "God is with Daddy at work, Mimi & Papa in Woodward, Nana & Papaw in Perry, Sarah & John in Guymon, ALL of our family where ever they are!"

Lydia responds with, "That's A LOT of Jesus!"

I'm so glad that I serve an awesome & BIG God!:)

Thanksgiving 2009

I LOVE fall!! Thanksgiving is at my grandparents' house in Pawnee. The girls' favorite thing to do is stand on the gate, play on the haybales & ride in the back of the pick up to feed the cows! We have done this the last two years! I was SO glad it was a nice day out because it can get really crowded in my grandparent's house!!

I'm so thankful for my wonderful family!

Lydia Claire is FIVE!!

What?!?! Yes, my "baby" Lydia is five!! She is growing up TOO fast!!

She is in Pre-K at Peace Preschool in Ms. Teri's class. She was having some trouble with crying & not wanting to leave me lately. On her birthday, she brought snacks for the class. She walked in all by herself without a sniffle! She brought cupcakes & her class sang "happy Birthday" to her. (That was her favorite part of her day!) Ms. Teri said "Lydia, I'm so proud of you! You didn't cry today!" Lydia replied, "I know! I'm big! I'm five now!"

We celebrated by having a birthday party on Halloween with all her friends. It was a costume party! She had a pumpkin cupcake cake. She picked it out herself! (She wanted a pumpkin cake & wanted me to make it, but when she saw this cake at target, she decided on that one...THANK GOODNESS!)

Then on Sunday, we had a party with family at Nana's house. Nana made her a princess cake. Nana also got everyone wax lips!! Grandma & Grandpa were SO funny wearing their wax lips with zest!

That girl can swing by herself, go across the monkey bars on her own & likes to be places early.

She can act so grown up one minute & turn around a throw a fit the next! She likes to pick out her own clothes.

This year she got a "real" purple Bible for her birthday. She likes to read in Acts 16 about "Lydia".

At her birthday blessing at school, she stood up & said the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) in front of the WHOLE school! I was SO proud of her for doing that! She was pretty talkative up there & felt VERY special!

She is a sweet big sister to Caraline!

I can't wait to see what the next year brings for her!

I pray that God will open the eyes of her heart & she will accept Him. The Holy Spirit is working on her life & God has BIG plans for Lydia!

"It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us." 2 John 4