VACATION MOMENTS

A few favorite vacation moments: 

1.When Willow announced during the car ride that she wished God would take the sun away because it was in her face; then proceeded to praise Him five minutes later when clouds covered the sun,
"He did it, He took the sun away!" 

2. When Jeremy made me laugh and I spit iced tea on Ryan. (Sorry Ryan.)
3. Jeremy was very upset that one of his brothers purposely farted on him, as I consoled him, Willow climbs up and hugs Jeremy then whispers in his ear, "Jeremy, everybody farts."

FATHER'S DAY PICS

For Father's Day, I was supposed to have a girl from church take them, but our schedule got so busy, I canceled So, my mom offered to give it a try right before and I am very happy with the way they came out! I played around with the photos a bit in Fireworks, then framed them with frames from Walgreens! Simple. Hubby was very pleased. He has wanted framed pics for his office for a long time.

Seafood Mykonos & A Chocolate Heart

VALENTINE'S NIGHT...My hubby and I went out for a bite to eat while Grandma babysat. We went to our absolute favorite restaurant and as we sat down I was so excited. My husband had made reservations and I knew exactly what I was getting, Seafood Mykonos. We've just recently changed our way of eating so we can get healthy. We eat very strict, but it just so happens mediterranean is great for us. Seafood Mykonos is my favorite--shrimp, scallops and lobster with mediterranean spices and FETA cheese!!! over a bed of broiled tomatoes. I couldn't wait!!! As I sat down to eat, the kind waiter placed a piece of paper over my plate...and announced that he would be back for our order momentarily. I looked at this paper and said to my husband, "where is the menu?" Really I meant, "uh what the heck is going on, where is my Seafood Mykonos???"

Well, our pleasant waiter informed us that "this" is the menu for the evening and he has strict orders not to take any other orders. "OK, thank you" we responded. As he walked away, we looked at one another and said, "wanna go to Chili's?" and giggled. It was pretty funny. Neither of us wanted to stay as there were no more than five items listed on a piece of paper and no where did it say seafood or mykonos...so we politely thanked the waiter for his time (he brought us water) and excused ourselves. He didn't seem surprised at all, the poor guy. Perhaps this is custom, but not for us. So...we actually went to a fantastic seafood place about five minutes away and had a great meal, we had to wait all of five minutes for a table. On the way to restaurant numero dos, I thanked my husband for his efforts and told him that it was really sweet. He had no way of knowing.

Once we got home, we all sat around the table and had chocolate-dipped strawberries. As you can tell...the baby doesn't like chocolate AT ALL. Weirdo! And boy I wish he'd learn to use a spoon properly!

My blonde hunk discovered some of the chocolate that missed the strawberry and it was in the shape of a heart which he so lovingly presented to me. All my sons are little romancers and can have me wrapped 'round their fingers in a matter of seconds.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas with family and friends, and a renewed love for Christ--remembering how God became man to show us how to live, only to die for us so that we will have eternal life...

Thank you new bloggy friends for your time and friendship...! It is a blessing to me.

Dear Friends and Family,

Please help us, we (the poor family) have been affected by a terrible disaster. Many of us spend our entire lives working and putting so much effort into our houses. If you are one of these people, you will find the following to be quite distressing. Thankfully, everyone made it out OK. Please help us pick up the pieces of our sweet, fragile lives.
If you think you can help, don't hesitate to contact us.
Your friends at Gingerbread Lane.

OK, so we were a little overly dramatic about our poor gingerbread house. It was quite funny. Hubby dotted on little circles of frosting to hold up the house and forgot to put frosting in the base (heee heee) which I found out when I went back to decorate and the walls and roof were sliding all over! It was pretty funny.

We have been less than faithful with our Jesse Tree for the past few nights, but we have been doing it, just night every single night. The times we do it, we enjoy it and the conversations are great. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Here are some pics we did for our Christmas card...I can never get that one perfect shot so I always make a collage--allowing everyone to have fun viewing the process we went through in trying to get "that perfect photo!"

Ooh, one more thing, our Christmas pageant is tomorrow night at church...I'm so excited. It's a contemporary comedy called, "The Surprising Christmas Pageant." The script is very funny. We've used all our Children's Church classes on Sundays and Wednesday to prepare the set, make the programs and practice. It's been a wonderful six weeks of all of us working towards the same goal of the pageant. Tomorrow it all plays out...!!! I'm excited!

On to the interesting part of this post:

CHRISTMAS PICS

As requested...

THANKFUL

I am thankful for so many things. This Thanksgiving feels so different. I truly feel like it is a time when I genuinely am celebrating the blessings God has given me. I am thankful for my salvation and all that knowing Jesus entails. A life of abundant grace, knowing that I have the Holy Spirit who can help me to learn and know the scripture that can lead me. I am so thankful for the scripture that God has provided. I am thankful for the wisdom God has given others as they speak it to me. Thankful for a husband that knows and lives out the Word of God. I love when we talk, that he will say "The bible says, the Lord says" or is always referring to a Biblical principle. I thank God that I am in a church where the leaders are grounded in the Word, the Truth and they live it. Thank you Lord for that. I've lived it out differently before so I am thankful for the truth now. I am thankful for friends who lovingly correct me because they love the Lord more than me. Besides having shelter, meals everyday (too many actually) healthy family, a great school system and the many things in my life that are privileges--it's almost shameful at how great life can be. I am thankful for contentness in life because of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he gave for me. So completely undeserving, but thankful me.

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

2Pe 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence

THE LITTLE PUMPKIN

Although we were "The Fly Family" for the Costume Ball, to hand out candy, I put J in D's old costume just to keep warm here in New England. J was actually grabbing candy and throwing it out the front door when I would open it up to trick-or-treaters. He's a crazy little pumpkin!

MY FAMILY--we attended a charity COSTUME BALL