So Very Far Behind...

Okay so it's been WAY too long since I last updated my blog. And honestly, it's not that we haven't been doing things, we have. I guess it's just that every time I had time to sit down and blog, I thought of 20 other things I should probably be doing instead. So, here I sit, still thinking of 20 other things I should be doing, but I'm going to at least get on here and say "hi".


Our family had such a busy month of December and January hasn't started off any slower. I will try to update about everything.


We had a fantastic Thanksgiving and a great Christmas season as well - it was VERY music oriented. December started off with both girls Christmas performances at church. Lily performed 3 songs with the Little Shepherd's Choir and Madison had a couple parts and a solo in the Kings Kids Choir at our church. They both did such a great job!! I just love watching the little kids perform in the Little Shepherd's Choir. It is a group of 4 year olds through Kindergarten and they are all so funny!! Lily has no fear and just gets up there and sings her heart out while doing all the motions. She just LOVES it!! Madison just amazes me every semester. Each time the choir has held try-outs since she joined, she has tried out and received at least a solo. I can't imagine at her age being able to stand in front of all those people and sing without any hesitation, but she does it like a pro. (She must take after her Daddy!)

Madison performed again at her school for their Christmas program and did a great job! They all look so cute up on stage and you can definitely tell they are getting better every year! Lily's preschool also had a Christmas sing-a-long. It was her first year and she had so much fun!! It is so cute to watch them all. Our church choir that Don sings in also performed 5 times (3 of which required them traveling somewhere). Add in fun school parties, celebrating Christmas with friends, our Christmas traditions of the TBC Light Show and driving around Topeka looking at Christmas lights and we had a fun (very busy) Christmas before Christmas even got here!

We traveled to Carthage for Christmas this year. My parents were so excited that our whole family, including my brother Eric and his wife Tiya, could be together at their house! My mom out-did herself with tons of homemade goodies, our favorite punch (everyday!!), lots of great games to play and wonderful meals! It is so nice to go relax with your family and enjoy their company. We had a FANTASTIC Christmas day!! Everybody got everything they wanted (and more)! It took our van, my brother and his wife's SUV and my parent's truck to get it all back here! We are truly blessed with such a great family! The girls got DSi XLs from my parents (their favorite gifts), Fur Real pets from Santa, a Barbie Dream House from us (my favorite gift of theirs!) and lots, lots more. Taegan got a huge train table and train from my parents, a ride-on train from Santa and about a zillion other train things!! Don and I got a new 50" TV for our living room!! Now you understand why we needed help getting it all home!

The night we got back we got together with Don's parents to exchange gifts. Again, we are so blessed with such terrific family! Madison got a new, bigger bike. Lily got a Razor scooter and Taegan got more Thomas stuff!! (I hope he doesn't outgrow this phase any time soon!) Don took off the week between Christmas and New Years and we traveled to Blue Earth, Minnesota to see Don's sister and her family. The girls were SO excited to go see their cousin and spend lots of time outside playing in the snow, sledding, and riding on the snowmobile!! The kids were great on the drive there and back and we had a great time visiting with everyone.

We celebrated the new year with some great friends. We always have so much fun and honestly you would never know we had 8 kids running around the house. We ate some terrific food, played games and laughed until midnight.

This new year is bringing a big change for our family. Don is starting his classes to become a minister and has taken a volunteer position of becoming the music minister and campus pastor for a new satellite church Wanamaker Woods is starting up in Osage City. We have been SO busy working on it. It is set to open on Sunday, February 6th. Don will lead a live worship service and then we will watch our pastor via a live feed from our Topeka campus of Wanamaker Woods. There will be a wonderful children's service called "JAM" (Jesus and Me) and a great youth group called "The Hub". We are so excited for it and are praying that it just takes off!! So, beginning in February we will no longer be attending Wanamaker Woods in Topeka on Sunday mornings and instead will be driving down to Osage City. The great part about this whole opportunity is that it gives Don great experience at being a music minister and at the same time we don't have to move or change jobs!! Plus our kids will still be involved with their choirs and everything else in Topeka on Sunday nights.

I think that about catches you up with our lives. I will post lots of pictures next!! I hope you had a great Christmas and are starting a great 2011!!!