Tis the Season!

Kendall and I just returned from an all day cooking adventure with my friend Kedra. We made The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and Kedra and I thought they were every bit of delicious as the PW herself says. It was truly a fun way to spend a day. Kendall seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself as well. I hope Kedra will soon post the precious shots she got of the kids licking the butter, sugar and cinnamon off the counter top.

After all the key drama, we ended up still having to call the locksmith to have new keys made. Thursday afternoon turned out to be almost as crazy as Wednesday evening. However, on Friday, Evan received a call a guy at one of the Toyota places that said they were able to find the key code for us after all. I asked Evan if he thought Toyota would reimburse us the $68 we spent on new keys...

Evan spent his lunch today getting new phones for us. Thanks, Ryan, for the kick in the pants Evan needed to get that ball rolling! :)

Isn't it sort-of crazy that Christmas is Friday? Kendall has been a JOY this season, and I'm not sure how she's going to take it when we put away Charlie Brown, the Christmas trees, and other holiday decor in a couple of weeks. The last few weeks have had so many moments that I just want to tuck away forever...

-Kendall is absolutely in love with A Charlie Brown Christmas. She would watch it all day long if we let her. It's really funny to watch her pick up on certain things. At the beginning, Lucy stands up in her chair, and Kendall ALWAYS calls her out on it. Kendall also loves the scene where Lucy asks Snoopy to be all the animals in the Christmas play and when Charlie Brown says, "Stop the music!" It's all really, really cute.


Evan's mom sent Kendall this Veggie Tales Nativity set, complete with the creche. Kendall likes playing with it, but doesn't really understand what it is/represents. Her favorite thing to do is to take all the characters and turn them to the back of the creche and then say, "He's in the corner" like they are in trouble. We get really tickled watching her do this.

She does know that Christmas is Jesus' Birthday, that Jesus was born in a manger, Mary is Jesus' mommy and Joseph is his daddy, and that Jesus is our Savior. She can answer all those questions when we ask. Very sweet. I love watching her learn things of the Lord and just pray it will become truth to her, not just something that mommy and daddy tell her.

Y'all know Evan cracks me up all the time, right? A couple of weeks ago, our church choirs did a Christmas celebration service that was really great. Heather Payne, former member of Point of Grace, is a member of our church and her husband was Evan's preaching professor last semester. (BTW, stellar family. We just love them.) Heather sang several songs in the service that evening. After she finished singing One King, Evan leans over and very sarcastically says, "She's alright." I said, "I'm going to tell her you said that." He quips back with, "Wait until my grade posts!" I laughed so hard. I saw Heather this past Saturday, told her, and she was rolling! On a side note, Evan made an A in the class! :)

I posted on my mom's blog about Kendall being really sweet with the Christmas ornaments. She also likes to get that wooden solider ornament and play with it. She always says, "You played with that when you were a little girl?" I kept Christian last Monday night and he had fun playing with the soldier ornament, too. Every time he would get it, Kendall said, "My mommy played with that when she was a little girl!" Precious, precious!


The last verse of O Holy Night really speaks to me this year. It says, "Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love, and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother and in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy, in grateful chorus raise we, with all our hearts we praise His holy name! Christ is the Lord, Then ever, ever praise we, His power and glory, ever more proclaim! His power and glory ever more proclaim!" We are not just celebrating a birthday, but the birthday of THE Savior and King who lived so that he could die FOR US! We simply cannot think about the manger without thinking about the cross. I'm so thankful that HIS law is LOVE, HIS gospel is PEACE, and in HIS NAME oppression shall cease. What can I do but praise???