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Jude and Cael piano duet............

Gavin and Dax......

Haven's ballet move.......

Jadon and the 30 year old Lionel.........

New stocking holders..........

Merry Christmas 2009!!

This post is going to be a recap of the month of December, at least since I wrote about Cael's birthday. As usual, it was a very busy month.

We were privileged to participate in Springfield's Live Nativity Pageant for the 32nd year. These pictures' quality are not very good, but Haven was the little boy Jesus and Jadon an angel this night. Gavin got to practice on Sunday afternoon, but we had to cancel the Sunday evening performance because of rain. So I didn't get a picture of him this year.

On December 13th we had our Connection Group Christmas dinner at Pastor Kevin's house after church, and the Deacon's Christmas Supper at church in the evening.

December 20th in the evening was the children's Christmas play, "A Legacy of Love". Gavin and Jadon were both in the choir. They did some really cute songs and both did a great job! Gavin is 3rd from the left in the middle row and Jadon is 2nd from the right on the bottom row.

Monday, December 21st goes down as one of my favorites. I had a "Spa Day". Gary gave me a gift certificate to Clip Joint for my birthday in October. It was enough for a Spa Pedicure, Restoration Facial with Eye Treatment and a 60 minute Massage. I was there for 3 hours. It was all WONDERFUL!!

Then Doug and Wendy and kids drove in on Tuesday, December 22nd. I fixed Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, etc for supper Wednesday night and the others all came over and we had a great pre-Christmas get-together! Lucas, Micah, Gavin and Jadon stayed all night. The electricity went out for a couple of hours. We only had two flashlights in the whole house so Gary had one and I had one. Here's the boys in our bed playing with the flashlight. They were turning the flashlight on and off and jumping around acting goofy.

Matt picked up Gavin the next morning and the rest of us met them at the theater and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakual.

Christmas Eve Candelight Service is always a very special time. We take the Lord's Supper at that time, too. Then we went over to Todd and Heather's house to eat and play games with family and friends. So fun! Gary and I usually open our presents to each other on Christmas Eve, so I gave him his to open.....the usual Lowe's gift card....and a new belt buckle. He had already given me mine. He took me shopping for a new camera. I love my new Canon PowerShot SX120 IS. As you can tell from the pictures above, I couldn't zoom in or out with my little Kodak without the pictures being grainy. He let me keep my new camera so I could practice before Christmas instead of wrapping it up for me to open Christmas Eve.

Christmas Morning!!!! 9:00 am - Brunch - Sausage, gravy, biscuits, eggs, ham, breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake..............mmmmmmmm good stuff. Here's the Wallace/Bischoff Bunch posing so sweetly under the Christmas tree.

After they opened their presents, I handed each one an envelope with a clue to where they could find their stocking. While they were hunting, I gave the big stockings out to the parents.

Then we played a game to determine who gets to pick the gift card first. I had each adult fill out a survey sheet of some of their favorite things, i.e. vehicle, cereal, sport, holiday, etc. Then I asked them to guess (for example) who's favorite holiday is Easter? They have to decide who said that in their survey answers. They get a point for each correct answer. We played to 20 points. Donna Bond won and got to pick first and last. I think she ended up with Lowe's and B.J. ended up with Hobby Lobby....so they traded.

Some people stayed a while. Some people left for other get-togethers and came back later for games and supper.

Bailey, Ruthie and Haven spent the night with us. On Saturday Bailey, Ruthie and I went to see "The Princess And The Frog." We stopped by the mall (it was madness) so Ruthie could shop at Justice, then stopped at the $1 Jewelry store before I took them back to Mimi's. Here's the girls watching "An American Girl" movie in our bed.

The Bischoff family went to church at Springhill on Sunday morning, then lunch with Mimi, then came over to our house for supper. Wendy and the kids, and Karla came over Monday morning for a while. Heather and the kids came by and visited.

Wendy and the girls were going to the movies with Carlene, Gina and Allison, so Karla and I took Lucas, Micah, Gavin and Jadon to do some fun stuff. We went to Bass Pro, Burger King and Petland.

The Bischoff's left for home on Tuesday. Doug and Wendy had a surprise waiting for the kids when they got home......a chocolate Lab puppy! We were all so excited for them and couldn't wait for them to get to see her.

Gary and I were invited to Steve and Cozy's house on New Year's Eve, Thursday, December 31 to eat and play games and wait for 2010 to arrive. Curt, Amanda, Jackson and Annabeth were here and Curt's birthday is January 1st, so...another reason to celebrate. John & Beverly and Kylah, Roy and Belinda and Erin, Charles & Wanda, Matt, Lindsay and Cael, Todd, Heather and Jadon, Haven and Jude, and Gary and I joined Steve and Cozy for a great New Year's Eve party. There was quite a spread of delicious food to eat and fun games to play.

I wonder if I have forgotten anything.....such a packed full month.

I know one thing I have not written about yet and that is the day that Micah called us to tell us that he had asked Jesus to be his saviour. I think it was December 8th. Another precious soul added to the Kingdom. I have no doubts that Micah will grow to be a tremendous man of God.

Love you Micah Steven,

Mema

Happy Birthday Number 1 to Cael!

Saturday night we celebrated Cael's First Birthday! One year ago Thursday, December 3, we welcomed Mr. Cael Steven Wallace into this world. There were about 30 family and friends at his birthday party at his house on Saturday. Erin made this carnival cake for him, and Matt & Lindsay fixed hot dogs, nachos and popcorn for everyone to eat.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Sweet Cael, happy birthday to you!

He was beginning to get a little sleepy, and we were afraid he wasn't going to stay awake to open presents. But.....the remedy for that? Cake and more cake.... Love that sugar........

Then....time for presents!

And time for Papa to help put them together............

He'll be walking in no time..........

Pappy and Cael............

Oh, Cael, you are already so much fun! Can't wait to watch you grow into a toddler this next year...

Love you, Cael Steven,

Mema

Gavin the Reader

Saturday was Gavin's day to participate in a Reader's Theater at Barnes & Noble Bookstore. He and several other second graders from Willard South read the story about Stone Soup to a group of children and adults in the children's section of the store.

Trying to wait patiently for the thing to start............

Okay....you're on.....

Great job, Gavin!! I'm so proud of you!

Love,

Mema

Bailey's Birthday

Well, I'm a little late with this post. Bailey's 9th birthday was Sunday, November 29th. Karla and I flew to Houston the weekend before Thanksgiving to celebrate a little early with her. We got there on Thursday afternoon in time to go pick the kids up at school with Wendy. Then Friday, while the kids were in school, Wendy, Karla and I did some shopping at an outlet mall.

Saturday morning, we all went to Target so Bailey could pick out some presents from Aunt Karla and Mema and Pappy. Then we took the boys home to Doug and we girls went to the mall.

Beautiful Bailey picked out this beautiful dress.

But she looks so grown up. Aaaargggh!

That night we roasted hot dogs on the firepit and made smores. Mmmmmm! Great choice, Bailey!

Then she opened her presents.

Sunday we all went to church, played and visited all afternoon. Karla and I had to be at the airport at 7 pm, so we said our good-byes and headed home. The one not-so-bad thing about saying good-bye this time is that they will be coming home for Christmas in about a month.

What a wonderful time and what a wonderful 9 year old girl!

Love you Bailey,

Mema

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet..............

Here's some pictures of the cutest little trick-or-treaters around.

First was the Cael the bear........

And Gavin the Pirate.................

Then came Caleb and Lindsay Mires, but I didn't get pictures of them this year....I don't know why....I just forgot. We were having fun digging through the candy tub.

Then came Jadon, the boxer......

Haven as Snow White........

And Jude the Indian...........

I always buy enough candy for 100 kids, and we usually have these seven. Oh well, it gives us a good supply until time for Christmas candy. I had the hardest time finding my favorite, Sixlets, this year. They were nowhere to be found....WalMart, Walgreens, convenient stores.....nobody had them. Finally, I found some at Dollar General. They were red, white and green and in the Christmas candy, but at least, we had some Sixlets. Our stash was complete!

Mmmmmm...candy....

Donna

Scare Those Crows!

Each of the children's Sunday School teachers were asked to prepare a game for Springhill's Fall Fest and set it up in their classroom. This is the scarecrow game I used in my classroom. I found the scarecrow at Hobby Lobby and Gary fixed a stand for it with a support to keep him from falling over. Then he made a ledge to hold up the arms and set the crows on. I made the crows out of felt with pipe cleaner legs and stuffed them with poly-fil and beans and put those wiggly eyes on them. Then I made four bean bags out of black and orange felt.

The goal was for each child to have 4 tries to knock the crows off of his arms. They got a piece of candy for each crow they knocked off. Good idea for the kids.....bad idea for the one who had to pick up those crows each time and set them back on the arms (me).

We only lost one crow to injury. He got beaned so hard, it tore his stomach stitching and his beans fell out. So we were down to 3 crows and 3 bean bags and making the big boys just toss the beans underhanded instead of pitching as hard as they could. Just a tip in case you try this game.

Oh, and I dressed up like a scarecrow.....fortunately I don't have a picture of that.

Donna