Snack bowl!

My friend Gabe has this awesome snack bowl on her counter. She fills it with stuff and the kids know that when they get home from school, approved snacks are in the bowl. I have always thought this was brilliant, and I guess I mention it at her house a lot.

Today when I got to the church office, my friend Gabe presented me with my very own snack bowl! What a great, unexpected gift! She made my day, and Kate's too, as evidenced in the picture.

This is brilliant. Everyone should have a snack bowl!

Sweet babies

We've had the privilege of befriending a few families with babies lately. It's so fun to love on them and then send them home!

Our neighbor's kid is a little over a year, and he comes to me on purpose now when he sees me. It's great. He's the one below in the dog crate. (his idea, not ours!)

And another dear friend had her first baby last week. He is so handsome and Kate got to hold him yesterday. So sweet!

Hot dog!

We went to the Royals game today. It was HOT-- more than 100 sweaty degrees. And unlike Vegas, it was so humid. Really.

We had a great time though, and no one was sunburned! A success. It's hours later and I've finally cooled off.

Christmas Eve

Had another great Christmas Eve with the Whortons and Wilkersons. They did all the work this year and we just showed up and mooched off of them. It was so nice to just sit and be with them. Luke and Lindsay were both in town and they watched Elf with Sam and Kate. I'm not sure they are really equipped for wrestling with the kids all night, despite their big city lifestyles and fancy degrees, but we had a great time watching. Lindsay and her bossy friend Kate organized a rousing game of Celebrities, during which we learned about obscure public figures and watched our budding actor and actress at work.

And Christmas Eve isn't the same without a birthday cake (ice cream). Kate blew out the candles early, so we had to go through a couple of rounds to get everyone together. Happy birthday Jesus!

I wish this were a better picture, but the faces were too cute to leave out!

Cute, IF

Amy and I took our kids to Fazoli's one night over the summer. Sam wasn't there-- I'm not sure where he was at-- so it was just Evan and Kate. When we sat down, Evan says to me, "You know, she [looking at Kate] would be pretty cute IF she wore some makeup." He seemed to warm to her as the night went on and they ended up chasing each other up and down the sidewalk in front of Marshalls (anything for a few minutes of adult conversation, right?)

As you can see, they hit it off marvelously, and we had to break up a little proclaimed kissing threat by Evan later in the evening. Hilarious. (Oh, this picture was taken shortly after Evan broke his arm at school-- pushed off a swingset of some kind by a "Friend")

Christmas Eve

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is one we glommed on to from someone else. Our friends the Whortons and the Wilkersons were getting together after Christmas Eve services for years, and a few years ago, we tagged along and have never let up since. It's one of my favorite times-- a casual Christmas celebration with friends, so enjoyable. We always cram some of our kiddie traditions in that night too.

We hosted this year and had the Whortons and the Lunsfords over after service. The kids opened their Christmas Eve pjs (adopted Wilkerson tradition) and blew out candles on Jesus' birthday cake (we've done this since they were little but the Whorton's use an ice cream cake-- yum!) Then we play games. Now that the kids are older, they were able to join in some and it was a really great time. Nanny was there for a bit, but left before we ate to rest up for her company tomorrow.



Nanny gave the kids new bikes for Christmas




Kids help Nanny open her presents




Serious gaming



Learning a new game with Doug and Luke



Adella reaches for a new piece




Non-game-players