Our Story: January 2012

January 23, 2012

Christmas morning 2011

You won't believe it, but I think this will be the last Christmas post for a few months! lol

I didn't want to leave anything off the blog since I use it as a digital scrapbook for my kids.

Our tree on Christmas morning.....

Josh gets up extra early on Christmas morning and makes a big breakfast for our family. When the kids wake up, they are allowed to start looking through their stockings while we eat breakfast. Then Josh reads the story of the birth of Jesus before we open gifts.

Santa brought his i-pod!

My favorite gift this year.......a bracelet made by Kendall

Our living room right after all the gifts were opened.

Reagon and I did participate in Christmas this year..not sure where our pictures are! lol We were a bit rushed this year with Christmas being on a Sunday and Josh pastoring a church. We had to get out the door early so I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do. After church, we made a trip to Josh's grandparents home to visit more family and eat MORE food and open MORE gifts. We are truly blessed.

I wanted to post a few of my favorite ornaments.

Jed's Razorback football ornament

A picture from our Make-A-Wish trip to the beach with my favorite "Jed" scripture.

The ornament I bought for Josh 7 years ago when he started pastoring his first church

An ice cream cone ornament from our GiveKidsTheWorld village in Florida

First plane ride for the kids

I love this one! This is my "Kendall" scripture.

I love all the handmade ornaments the best!

Jed's little Charlie Brown tree. He rearranged it several times a day. I don't know how the ornaments made it through!

And since I try to be completely honest with you all on my blog, my Christmas tree finally made it back to the garage TODAY. Yes, Jan 23rd. Please tell me I'm not the only one! lol

Christmas 2011 at Goosey's house

I just realized that my last three Christmas posts did not publish to the blog! ARGGGHHH! I know you are all sick of Christmas posts right now..especially since we are nearing February!!!! lol

Hang on folks. Let me get the last two or three posted and then we will get back to real time! Hopefully! lol

We love going to Memaw Goosey's house for Christmas Eve! The food is great and the kids just have a ball. The living room ends up looking like a big toy store by the end of the night.

The kids are all growing up too fast!

Jed and Papaw Jas

I had to post a few old pictures of Christmas time at Goosey's. Look how much the kids have changed!

There is nothing better than spending Christmas with your family! Looking forward to many, many more years at Memaw Goosey's house!

January 13, 2012

Christmas in Newhope 2011

After delivering our gifts to the hospital, we made our way to Josh's parents' home for our annual Christmas Eve Eve sleepover. I look forward to this every year. We eat, talk, sing (ok, THEY sing and I take pics!), cook, watch Christmas movies, and stay up way too late! It's a fun night of sitting around in our pjs and having the kids ask a million times if they can open just one gift. lol

Papa and Jed playing a tune on the piano

Nana cooking while Josh is taste testing

Nana is going to kill me but I LOVE this picture!

Up early for waffles and opening gifts

Poor Nana and Poppa...and I mean that literally..they were probably broke after this year's gift buying. The girls are getting older so the gifts have gone from barbie dolls to MissMe jeans and NorthFace jackets.

Surprise visit from Jed's girlfriend, Montana. They were also visiting family in Newhope so they came by. Jed was super excited to see Montana!

The kids always get several craft gifts from Nana. This year they loved their new "bouncy ball" maker set. I think they made a pretty big mess in Nana's dining room with the gel and glitter but they had fun.

Jed's favorite gift...his new rod and reel!

This will probably be our last Christmas at Newhope. Nana and Poppa are selling their home to move closer to his job....and it will be closer to us. I'm sure the fishing pole will be put to good use this spring!

January 12, 2012

Children's hospital gift delivery

One of the best things this past holiday season was being able to be a part of the Christmas delivery at Arkansas Children's hospital. Two foundations were allowed to go into our cancer unit on Christmas Eve Eve and personally deliver gifts to the patients. I was so excited when SHARING JED Foundation was allowed to be a part of this!

Our family, along with another rhabdomyosarcoma cancer survivor family, met in Benton with a "wish list" from the patients and began a fun night of shopping!!!

At the end of the night (around 11pm) and $1800 later, we had completed the shopping! This picture was taken outside of the hotel we stayed at that night.

Our little survivors shopping for other cancer patients!

Trinity and Jedidiah

We made it to the hospital early the next morning and met up with the other cancer foundation "BIG LOVE" to deliver all the gifts. Tanya's husband works at the hospital so he took our kids to his office lounge to play while we delivered gifts. Thanks, LJ!

This was such an emotional day! I don't even have the words to explain.

We made our way through our cancer unit and everyone knew that "Santa was in town!" We had wagons full of gifts! The kids' faces lit up as we entered each room.

As soon as the nurses opened the door to this room, I almost cried. Little Michael was covered up in a red & blue striped blanket that we had donated from the JED Foundation. A sweet lady in our church, Missy, makes these warm and cozy blankets for the patients.

This experience is something we will never forget! I thank God every single day for healing our precious son. I also thank Him for giving me a ministry that I love and pray that the JED foundation will shine the light of Jesus to all that we come in contact with.

January 11, 2012

Christmas 2011

I had several random pictures from Christmas that I wanted to post before moving on to all my 2012 posts. Man, I can't believe how far behind I am! We are right in the middle of ball season with both of our girls so we are home usually only one night a week. We are eating lots of popcorn and hot dogs for supper! Yumm! lol

Jed making a craft for Nana...

Kendal and Jed love hiding under the blankets and then letting Slick (the weenie) in the house to find them. They scream and squeal the entire time. Little Buster was in on the action, too.

Jed drew this picture of our family. Reagon asked him why her face was scribbled out. Jed said "Reagon...it's not scribbled out. That is your noxema that you put on your face at night." I seriously laughed until I cried!