The Holmes Family

Valentine's Day Party

2012-02-17T11:32:00.000-05:00

Last month was Gymbucks redemption time and I had some bucks I wanted to use. It was not at the beginning of the redemption period and I knew that all the good things go really fast at my nearby Gymborees, so I decided on one of Faith's school days to make the trek to the Wheaton mall to shop their fully-stocked Gymboree. I found some great things and it ended up being a quick shopping trip, so on an impulse, I chose to go check out the Target that's in the mall. It was my first time to visit this Target, and Anna and I had a good time (and productive too) wandering through Target picking up a few things.

I was on the second floor when I finished my shopping and thought about checking out my items upstairs but thought to myself, "It's not crowded, I'll just go back downstairs." Well, when I got back downstairs to the registers there was a fairly lengthy line. I stood in the first line for just a few seconds before I decided the line next to it would be faster. So I moved over and was waiting in the second line behind three or four other people when I looked back over at the first line to see how fast it was moving (I have a knack for picking the slowest line!) when I saw a familiar face. I wasn't absolutely certain because I didn't have a clear view of her face but I thought it was my friend Joanna. So at the risk of looking like an absolute fool to the people around me, I said in a loud voice, "Joanna!" And wouldn't you know, she turned around and it WAS my sweet friend Joanna! :-)

Brad and I moved to the Washington D.C. metroplex mid- July of 2005 (for the first time). It was a bit of a scary time for me, I was 7 months pregnant with little Jillian, and I really only knew two people in the whole area. I had only met our new friends, Todd and Carol a couple of months before when Brad and I had come to apartment hunt together and they invited us to stay with them during that trip (Brad's parents introduced us to Todd and Carol and knew them because they were members of Brad's Dad's newly married class a decade before at Park Cities Baptist).

Todd and Carol were very gracious, and helped us get involved by inviting us to their church 4th Presbyterian. After visiting the church, we were able to get plugged in to the Newly Married Class at 4th. Josh and Joanna were in our class and were two of the most welcoming and kindest faces we met in those first few months. To make an already long story a little shorter, Josh and Joanna invited us to their home for an enchilada dinner for a Friday evening. We excitedly accepted their invitation, not knowing then that we were going to have a change of plans. On Friday morning at 2:30 AM, my waters broke and four hours later, at 6:30 AM, I gave birth to Jillian at Shady Grove Hospital.

We still didn't know many local people well, so we didn't have a long list of people in the area we wanted to tell our news too. But one of the first things I told Brad was that we needed to call Josh and Joanna and tell them that we couldn't come over that night for dinner! Josh and Joanna, of course, completely understood the conflict, :-) and much to my surprise and delight, offered instead to bring us dinner to the hospital. It was a wonderful treat to have Wendy's that night and was so special that our new friends were two of the first people to meet our daughter.

Josh and Joanna continued to be faithful, encouraging, supportive friends, even babysitting Jillian, attending her baby dedication (photo above) and inviting us to their home with a crawling infant who might inadvertently knock over and break a designer vase! :-)

They also have incredible servant hearts. When only a little more than a year later after meeting one another, it was time for us to move to England (we moved to the UK three days before Jillian's 1st birthday). they readily helped us with all the moving. This is a photo of Dad Holmes, Josh, Joanna, Celine, Nils, Rani, me, and Brad on moving day (my little brother, Daniel, was also there to help but he is missing from the photo). They were two of the people we were most sad to leave and so our reunion was a BIG reason to celebrate....

We decided it would be appropriate in month of February to have a Valentine's Day party. Faith helped me ice our white cake with white icing.

Then she helped put sliced strawberries all around the border of the cake.

I love her smile of pride and accomplishment in this photo!

And then, I, with my skilled hand (LOL), wrote a "Happy Valentine's Day" message.

When Jillian got home from school, I thought it would be fun to include her in the preparation for the surprise Valentine's Day party for our friends. So, the two of us, went on a mini-date to pick out four balloons, one for each little girl who would be in attendance at the party!

Faith excitedly waiting at the set table for our friend's arrival.

Our family with our friends, Josh and Joanna, and their beautiful daughter, "Little M" at our dinner.

After dinner, it was time to serve dessert....

The little ones ate their dessert on the kids table in the foyer.

While the grown-ups enjoyed our cake and Jello strawberry "cheesecake" on the couches! I promise I didn't notice the bunny ears when I took this photo but I think it is super cute. Josh and Joanna have a beautiful marriage and family and both Brad and I are so thankful to have them in our lives! They are a blessing.

The Sleepover Party

2012-02-15T14:46:00.003-05:00

This past month, Jillian went to a birthday party at a well-known party place for kids. It was a "deluxe" (aka pricey) birthday party and had all the bells and whistles, but our six-year old wasn't too impressed. While Brad was driving Jillian home that day, he asked Jillian if she had fun, and she responded by saying, "I was a little disappointed (her real words!). I wish we had played more games, like the birthday parties mommy gives us."

When Brad retold me this story, it melted my heart. It reminded me that what children appreciate most is our time and the love we pour into the things that we do for them. Theia's birthday party given last month by her mom was a LOVED-filled birthday party and it was one of my girls absolute favorite events.

Jillian loved it so much, she wrote a book named "The Sleepover Party" during her free-time ( indoor recess, etc...) at school. It is a super sweet story and Jillian asked her teacher if she could read it to the class the following week. The next Monday, Jillian read her story, one that she had written and illustrated all by herself, to her Kindergarten class! She came home beaming that day and told me it was one of her favorite days in all her life.

Here is the story of "The Sleepover Party" in my words:

"Happy Birthday Theia": Theia requested her mom make her a pink blanket for her birthday cake. I love the bright pink icing!

Faith giving big hugs to her friend Theia when we arrived at the sleepover party!

Shortly after we arrived, it was dinner time. The kids had Capri Suns, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and clementines for their dinner (all of Theia's party pickings). The mommies had Papa John's pizza... yummy!

Then it was time for some Zingo! Mrs. Trisha made sure that everyone won a turn (without it being too obvious).

Then we took a much needed group photo of the kids. From left to right: Faith, Andrew (aka "Buddy"), Madeline, Theia, Jillian, Ava, Xandra, and Aliyah.

Then we sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday girl, Theia!

And then in celebration of Julie's birthday the next day and Trisha's birthday a couple weeks later, I brought some yummy Cheesecake Factory for the moms to share!

Naomi and I both sang to Julie and Trisha. Then our sweet friends blew out their candles and made a wish.

Naomi with sleeping Lucy

Then it was time to go to bed.... Faith very happily laid down on her sleeping bag with her party hat on her head.

Jillian cuddled with her jaguar from her trip to the Dallas Aquarium with Mimi and PawPaw.

And Ava cuddled with her little bear. It was a great evening but already it was time for the lights to go out and the little ones to sleep....

NOT!!! :-)

It was only 7:45 PM and the girls were just "practicing" going to sleep (at least that is how Jillian described it in her "Sleepover" book that she read to her class).

It was GAME TIME! First, the kids were numbered off. You can see Ava and Andrew holding one finger up for group #1 and Jillian holding up two of her fingers for group #2.

First the kids participated in a relay race in which they had to put on slippers, a robe, and quickly lay down on a pillow! I love Ava's enthusiasm for her little brother in this photo. :-)

Faith was super excited when her big sister, Jillian tagged her for her turn at the SLEEPOVER RELAY!

Faith is my gifted child at getting dressed (she was doing it nearly all by herself when she was only two!) and did a fantastic job of putting on her slippers and robe all by herself!

Then the kids played Musical Pillows (I like that name, after all, I just made it up, but I don't think that is the real name!)

but the kids walked & marched in a circle around their pillows while the music played

and then they rushed to lay down on a pillow. The kids LOVED this game.

Then the kids went to the girls bedroom to wait while the mommies hid the kids' lovies!

I hid Andrew's doggie and he found it really quickly! I thought we were supposed to make it fairly easy...
little did I know, some "other people" were going to hide the lovies in super hard places. :-)

In the end, all the kids had a great time discovering the hiding places

and very sweetly helped one another too.

Then it was time for Theia to open her birthday presents. After that, all the kids watched the new Winnie-the-Pooh movie with popcorn, and then the next morning the kids enjoyed pancakes! It was a wonderful party and celebration of Theia's life with the friends that love her so much.

Our "Not Boring Guests"

2012-02-10T08:43:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago, Brad's best man, his wife, and daughter came up to see us. Last time we saw them, we visited them at their home in Norfolk, and went to the beach. They came to hang out for a few days over the three day MLK weekend. They left Norfolk Friday afternoon, and didn't get in until after all our kids had gone to sleep.

So the next morning, when Anna woke up (she got up at 6AM as she usually does), Chris kindly also got up to spend some quality time with Brad. No sooner did Chris come downstairs, than Anna crawled up into his lap (from her Daddy's!) and put her head down for a cuddle. Did she have an innate sense that this guy must be a lot like her Daddy? Was she attracted to the bright red shirt that is 10 years old? We may never know the answer. (Photo Commentary provided by Brad)

We enjoyed a deluxe breakfast at home, then all of us attended Jillian's first basketball game together (More to come about Upward Basketball). Then after the game, Rebekah and I went to Germantown to have some girl time together. We enjoyed Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then went to the Amish Market to pick up some cinnamon pretzels! Yummy! (And no, we didn't let Chris eat two! :-))

Chris did some reading with Faith ...

... while Rebekah played some Gobblet with Jillian.

Rebekah really did not want the girls to remember she and Chris as being the "boring guests". So in an effort to make it a memorable time, Rebekah created a choregraphed dance routine for all the girls & moms to show the dads when they got back from picking up our Baja Fresh dinner! The girls had so much fun as they ran around in circles, clapped their hands, and did all kinds of awesome "dance moves"! :-)

I love Faith and Anna trying to mimic Rebekah's moves.

Then we had some free, interpretive dancing. Notice how Faith is really feeling the music, deep in her soul.

Ballet twirl.

Clapping.

and some more clapping!

We wanted to do something special before our friends left for Norfolk, and it being so hot and steamy recently (well, ok, about 35°), we decided some frozen yogurt would do the trick. So we went to our favorite frozen yogurt place: 16 handles!!

And as it would turn out, this was little L's first ever ice-cream/frozen yogurt experience! (What good parents Chris & Rebekah are!)

We were so happy to have brought so much joy to their little girl!

And best of all, we got our one and only group shot the whole trip, taken by the 16 handles staff. What a wonderful memory we all shared together, and we hope to see them again real soon.

A Maryland Winter

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

The day after New Year's, Brad had a federal holiday and spent the day home with the girls and me. We took advantage of the weather and enjoyed some relaxing time outdoors as a family.

Little Anna is bundled up, but believe me, it wasn't that cold, because otherwise, we wouldn't be out there! (As native-born Texans, Brad and I don't have a high tolerance for the cold, unless it is snowing, and then we venture outside solely to experience the novelty of it all!)

Faith had a wonderful time riding the balance bike with her Daddy's help.

Jillian loved riding her bike with training wheels. (I feel a little bad that we are behind on the two-wheel bike ride training, but Jillian is a very cautious little girl and does not like the idea of falling! The good news is Brad is slowly raising the training wheels, so Jillian is gradually finding her own balance!).

She is a fast bike-rider, and to keep up with her, I had to jog and/or briskly walk! :-)

We made it around the block. And since then, we have enjoyed many more bike-rides with the double stroller in our neighborhood as a family.

And we continue to enjoy the amazing, mild winter (even though you can not see by the girls' attire)! :-)

New Year's Day

2012-02-08T12:47:00.001-05:00

My sweet Anna and me in the New Year! Happy 2012!

A family photo of the girls. The girls loved their time with Aunt Leigha. Jillian told me just yesterday,

"Mommy, why don't we get to see Aunt Leigha more? I don't want to only see her at Christmas-time. I want to go to her house soon. I miss her SO MUCH." I thought that was sweet and am thankful for the bonds that my girls strengthened with their Aunt Leigha during her visit.

Back to New Year's Day, we were invited to share lunch with our friends! When we walked into our friend's home, Anna ran as fast as she could (with squeals of delight) to the kitchen to find Michelle in the kitchen.

Lindsey was given a super cool magnetic bead bracelet/ necklace for Christmas and she was showing us one of her new tricks (do you see the spoon "flying" in mid-air?).

Jillian having some cuddle time with her Daddy.

We shared a delicious lunch of potato cream soup and chicken tortilla soup and then for dessert we devoured Michelle's famous CINNAMON ROLLS!!!

After lunch, it was game time. Here Brad is explaining the game Tower of Babel (one of my Christmas presents from Brad) to everyone.

Faith was concentrating very hard on the game and was a good helper to Chelsea.

Meanwhile, Anna was playing peek-a-boo.

"Peek-A-Boo! I see you!"

Michelle is always prepared for our little ones to have a good time at her home. On this day, they busily worked on some coloring and crafts in the kitchen together.

Reed and Leigha cheerfully played the new game and were great competitors, but the ultimate winner was Jesse (Chelsea's boyfriend visiting from Colorado).

Then we moved onto a new game for us and a much beloved game of our friends... QUELF!

"Quelf is the game that gives random a new name! Use your creativity and imagination to answer crazy questions and perform ridiculous stunts. There’s only one rule – OBEY THE CARD! If a player obeys their card they get to move ahead! You’ll laugh until you cry with this outrageous, unpredictable, and fun filled party game. Be the first person to cross the finish line and you win! Enjoy a non-stop hilarious adventure with Quelf!"

In the photo above, Chelsea is acting as a flight attendant while Michelle gave safety instructions.

I am not sure what card Leigha was reading at this point but I know it had to be funny!

Before we started to play the game, my only hesitation to play was that I heard there was snort when you laugh card. First off, I am not a good snorter (I don't know who IS "good" at it, but I certainly am not!) and with my sinus infection, I knew any added pressure on my cheeks would hurt a little bit.

Michelle assured me that it was VERY unlikely that I would draw that card, because there were well over 400 cards in the deck! But wouldn't you know, the first card I drew was a "Roolz" card and I had to snort like a pig every time I laughed. The consequence of me not snorting when I laugh was that I had to move back on the board. And wouldn't you know, I am far too competitive to let that happen. So I spent much of the game trying NOT to laugh, while some CRAZY stunts were occurring....

First, here is Brad as a cowboy riding an ostrich trying to rescue a beached whale....

He was an incredibly enthusiastic cowboy...Yee Haw!

He nearly fell off the ostrich trying to rescue that whale! It was a grand old time!

Lindsey drew a card to be a ballerina. So, she and the little girls dressed up in tutus and danced for us! It was a perfectly sweet performance.

Then Leigha drew a card to be a luau dancer, she did a great job. I love her expression in this photo of absolute tranquility. I really felt like I was in beautiful Hawaii enjoying the soft sound of the waves crashing on the beach! LOL! :-)

I honestly have no recollection of what Prescott was doing for this task but it was very entertaining! He was very theatrical and could have a future on Broadway. :-) The game was a huge success in our books! We were sad to leave...

But it was time to take Aunt Leigha to the airport. The girls were tuckered out from all the excitement from the day, Faith almost immediately fell asleep in her car seat with her sunglasses on.

Anna was right there with her! Jillian was the only one who stayed awake (and needed to go to bathroom too), so the two of us took Aunt Leigha into the airport to say good-bye. It was a wonderful 8-day visit with my little sister and I am so happy that she joined us for the holidays!

On our way to the airport, we spotted this rarely seen sight in Maryland: a car with a Texas A&M University sticker on it! Whoop! Go Aggies.

After saying good-bye to Leigha, we stopped by Little Caesar's for $5 pizzas and went to the Pull's. The girls were extremely hungry and gobbled it all up.

While the boys conversed on the most recent news.

Little Anna enjoyed every LICK of her pizza! :-)

(I feel a little bad Anna wasn't wearing a bib, especially because this dress was a gift from Aunt Leigha. The good news is that Leigha gave it to JILLIAN nearly 5 years ago and all three of my girls have worn it.)

Then the girls set up their own game of ZINGO, while the adults played Agricola. It was a wonderful beginning to 2012!

Book Reviews

2012-02-08T08:36:00.000-05:00

Book Description:
"When her father orchestrates a surprise trip to the summer house of her childhood, Bailee Cooper is unprepared for what follows. What is intended to be a happy reunion for Bailee and her sisters, Geena and Piper, quickly becomes shrouded by memories from the past.

Together again, the three sisters sift through their recollections of fifteen years ago...of an ill mother, and of their father making a desperate choice. They vowed, as children, to be silent--but one sister believes the truth must now be revealed. Yet can they trust their memories?

Mark Delahunt arrives in the wake of this emotional turmoil. Determined to win Bailee's affection, Mark becomes the strong fortress for her in this time of confusion, and what was once a tentative promise begins to take root and grow. Caught between the past and an uncertain future, can Bailee let God guide her to heal the past and ultimately to embrace love?"

My Review:

Tracie Peterson is one of my favorite authors. I have read many, many of her books and in my journeys through her writing, she has taken me to the West, Alaska, Southern cotton plantations, colonial Philadelphia, as well as New York and Montana! She has an incredible gift for transporting her readers to another place in another time but this book was set in modern times. Not only that, it did not give me the "happy ending" I normally go for in my reading for pleasure. And yet, I am really glad I took the time to read it, to put myself in the place of someone who is grieving and experiencing something beyond my understanding. Because of the raw emotions her characters displayed, I really empathized and was haunted by the characters in this book. As always, she did a remarkable job.

Book Description:
"Many Christians have an impending sense of doom about our country and the world. But are their fears based on reality or myth? In this book Wright examines issues of concern to Christians, including poverty, sickness, sexual morality, the environment, and the global church. Did you know that global poverty has been cut in half over the last several decades? That infant deaths have decreased dramatically in recent years? That Christianity is a growing and influential force in Asia and Africa? Maybe the world isn't in a downward spiral after all. In an age of pessimism, this book offers good news to Christian readers looking for glimpses of hope."

My Review:
I was absolutely intrigued by the book description for "Upside" and wanted to know more of what the author had to share. It was a very quick read and extremely reader-friendly (even with being filled with lots of statistics). Not everything Bradley shared was on the "upside" (it was an honest, balanced view) but it gave me a new perspective and thankfulness for the things that I have NOT been appreciating day to day (education, health, etc...). It was a worthwhile, encouraging read.

Book Description:
"When society's elite spends a glamorous summer in Newport, the lives of three young women--and their unlikely suitors--become entangled in a complicated web of secrets. Will any of them find true happiness? A compelling tale of friendship, devotion, and sacrificial love from award-winning author Nancy Moser."

My Review:
I enjoyed this book. I really felt as though I could relate to a couple of the characters and their dilemmas. Unfortunately, it wasn't a super fast read for me, the story-line was predictable and there weren't too many surprises. But I thought the historical content was interesting and it was a entertaining, light-hearted read.

Bringing in the New Year

2012-02-07T19:26:00.000-05:00

On New Years Day, I made some yummy caramel apples for the occasion. I couldn't let my little sister visit Maryland without experiencing this "new" delectable treat!

Then New Year's evening, we joined our friends at their home for dinner.

Brian grilled chicken, and we had salad, and sweet potato fries (a new favorite for me!) and then afterwards, we played a game of Tower of Babel.

Anna had a great time playing with the kids computer! She loved that it was her size.

A photo of Brad and me together on New Year's Eve!

Anna giving Bennett his bottle! :-) She loved that he was a real life "baby" that she could play with.

Leigha felt right at home with our sweet friends and enjoyed their company immensely! It was a great evening with family and friends.

The next day, New Year's Day 2012 at Derwood Bible Church:

The next day, our friends Brian and Lindsey were baptized and joined our church! They have been followers of Jesus for some time, but had never made a public profession of faith as adults. All of the church was overjoyed with their decision...

and what was also very special was there were four little witnesses in the back of the church watching the event! It was the first baptism any of the four girls have witnessed and it opened up some great conversations at home of the symbolism of dying to yourself and being resurrected with Christ.

It was a super HAPPY NEW YEAR with our friends. (I love little Annie's face, she is trying very hard NOT to smile for the camera.)

Looking Back to November 2011: Annie and Bennett's Dedication Celebration

Also, this past year, we celebrated with our friends the dedication of their two youngest, Annie and Bennett. Brad and I had the privilege of praying for their two precious kids and family at the dedication service at church.

Both Brad and I spent time praying and preparing for the dedication.

This was (and continues to be) our prayer for Annie and Bennett:

Dear Heavenly Father,

We praise you for theprecious gift of Annie and Bennett. We thank you for how perfectly You have formed both Annie and Bennett intheir mother’s womb and the beautiful bond that you have created between motherand child.

Lord, I pray that you wouldstrengthen and bless their relationships.

I pray that both Annie andBennett would be life-witnesses to Lindsey’s love and devotion to you.

Lord,continue to give Lindsey your wisdom and grace as you have given her theawesome responsibility of training her children to love and be obedient toyou.

Our greatest prayer is thatboth Annie and Bennett would come to a saving knowledge of you and that theywould love you and serve you all the days of their lives.

Lord, I lift Brian up to youand pray you would bless him with wisdom and discernment as he leads and loveshis family. I pray Brian would runthe race well, dedicated to putting you above all else. I pray for Brian and Lindsey’smarriage, that their love and commitment to one another would be a shiningbeacon to their children, reflecting your love for their family.

We know that you haveentrusted these children to Brian and Lindsey and your love for Annie andBennett exceeds anything we can imagine. We also know You are a Mighty God andever faithful. Give Brian and Lindsey the faith to trust you when hard momentscome and the future feels uncertain. Remind them that the future is in yourhands and you will guide them and their children through the storms of life.

Lord, we commit ourselves tolove and support this family as they raise their children to be children of theKing.

Thank you for the sweetblessing of Annie and Bennett.

Then afterwards we had a lunch celebration at our home for them. I bought little Bennett this little lamb that plays "Jesus Loves Me"; Mimi and PawPaw bought this same lamb for Anna and she loves it too. Lindsey tells me Bennett loves to sleep with it at night.

And then for little Annie (this is her big sister, Ellie), we gave her a little cross with a praying little girl on it and a DVD of Gigi, God's Little Princess by Sheila Walsh. Ellie was given a VeggieTales Christmas DVD (and we also pray for her!).

The girls immediately wanted to watch the new movies, while the parents visited and Anna had some tickling time with Mr. Brian. I am truly thankful for friends and how richly God has blessed us.

The Holidays in Downtown D.C.

2012-01-31T20:21:00.002-05:00

Some of you may know this about me, but others of you don't, so I will tell you I LOVE planning trips/ vacations. I get super excited about planning the "perfect" (LOL, it rarely/never happens, but I keep trying) trip for my family to enjoy!

I had super ambitious plans for our family's time with Leigha while she was visiting. I had dreams of us going to at least three amazing destinations for day-trips: Hersheyworld, PA, Annapolis, Baltimore, and/or D.C. Yes, I realize, I am nearly insane, but my family was spared from enduring my ambitious itinerary, because I was feeling under the weather nearly the entire time my little sis was visiting.

It was a still a great week, it consisted of us going to SAM's for grocery shopping and lunch, game night with the Pull's (that was super awesome, we had Trisha's delicious home-made pizza), Montgomery Mall for Family Fun Day with Chick-Fil-A, and Cheeburger Cheeburger for dinner one night. Overall, it was a "lower-key" week but my sis enjoyed it and was just happy to be with us!

Also, I am happy to say, the day finally came for one of my many day-trip "dreams" to come to fruition on Friday, the eve of New Year's Eve! Brad took off a day of work and we travelled down to D.C. on the Metro for a day of adventures.

All the girls outside the entrance to the US Botanical Gardens.

As you can see from Leigha's tongue sticking out, she could hardly contain her excitement!

'
A beautiful photo of Jillian with her Aunt Leigha in our nation's capital.

A Holmes family photo inside the gardens before seeing the "seasonal decorations"!

"During the holiday season, the U.S. Botanic Garden presents "Season’s Greenings", a unique exhibit featuring model trains and incredible replicas of Washington, DC's most famous buildings and monuments.... The exhibit is truly amazing with all of the buildings made of real plant materials! Adults and children will be fascinated by this special Christmas-time treat in the nation's capital."

Anna and Daddy enjoying the trains around the Christmas tree!

Brad and I with the plant made Capital Building.

Leigha with the Smithsonian castle

"The dome of the replica of the Jefferson Memorial is made from a dried gourd."

"If you look inside the Lincoln Memorial, you'll even see a statue of Abraham Lincoln."

The "Season’s Greenings" Christmas display at the U.S. Botanic Garden was expanded for 2009 to include an amazing replica of the White House highlighting the Obama children's swing set and Michelle Obama's Garden."

All six of us enjoyed the gardens immensely, and we hope some year to get to see all the trains on exhibit. So we'll definitely be back!

Then, we went to the Modern Art Museum, the Hirshhorn.

This oil paint on canvas is entitled "Landscape with Poodle" (1955-56) by Jean Dubuffet. Do you see it? This one was actually one of my more favorites. :-)

(Somehow, whenever my sister Leigha is visiting, it seems that we end up going to a modern art museum. While Brad, Jillian, and I were living in Cambridge, Leigha came for a visit over the holidays. One of her days with us, Leigha and I spent a day/night in London just the two of us, and we saw the Tate Modern.

Our favorite "art" at the Tate was the white room with crumbled pieces of white paper with black writing on it glued to the wall. It was INTENSE ; especially because only four to five people were able to view "the art" at a time and there was a guard assigned to the room. :-) I am not serious about it being "intense", BUT it was a memorable experience to share with my little sister.)

After the Hirshhorn, we made our way to the Smithsonian Castle, the first museum in the Smithsonian complex. Leigha had read on-line about it's architecture and wanted to experience it for herself. There wasn't much to be seen inside but as to be expected it was a beautiful "castle".

"The Castle" History According to Wiki

"The Castle was the first Smithsonian building, begun in 1847 by architect James Renwick, Jr., whose other works include St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, also in Washington D.C. Renwick was selected by a unanimous vote following a design competition in 1846. A cardboard model of Renwick's successful design survives. Renwick was assisted by Robert Mills, particularly in the internal arrangement of the building.

Initially intended to be built in white marble, then in yellow sandstone, the architect and committee finally settled on red Seneca sandstone from the vicinity of Seneca Creek in Montgomery County, Maryland. The sandstone was substantially less expensive than granite or marble, and while initially easy to work, was found to harden to a satisfactory degree on exposure to the elements. The East Wing was completed in 1849 and occupied by Secretary Joseph Henryand his family. The West Wing was completed later the same year. A structural collapse of partly completed work in 1850 raised questions of workmanship and resulted in a change to fireproof construction. The exterior was completed in 1851. By 1852 Renwick's work was completed and he withdrew from further participation. Gilbert Cameron took over responsibility for interior work, and all work was finally completed in 1855. "

After the castle, we briefly visited the The National Museum of African Museum of Art while Brad ran back to the Botanical Gardens to pick up the van and save the little ones the long walk!

We had nearly perfect timing with Daddy, and the girls were happily greeted with Christmas tree peeps!

Yummy!

While we were driving up from DC, we stopped at the National Zoo for their Christmas Lights. We lucked out and got an awesome parking spot about 10 minutes to sundown.

Jillian was so excited, that she grabbed her Santa Hat from the car and wore it. We got the hat during the Washingtonian Rio 2011 Christmas Tree Lighting Event earlier in the month. While there, each girl got to paint a Christmas Tree Ornament. :-)

Because I didn't blog about this earlier, and I want to capture this memory, here are the ornaments. From left to right, the artists are: Jillian, Faith and Anna (with help from Mommy).

The lights were fantastic, the weather was beautiful, and it was the perfect night to enjoy Zoolights as a family!

The stars hanging from the trees were beautiful.

Here they had a small light show timed with music.

We discovered most of our animal friends in the indoor exhibits...here was a gorilla enjoying eating some grass!

We walked all the way from the back entrance to the front entrance of the zoo!!!

It was an awesome day, but we were all started to get a little tired. Here Leigha and Jillian are taking a little break after walking through the whole zoo on top of all the walking downtown.

Meanwhile, Faith was enjoying the comforts of the stroller pushed by me (but a little later she traded with her big sis to give her a break too!).

We only had one last thing on our agenda and that was to see a 'panda show'. Jillian and Faith loved this bear who got in a over-sized snow-globe and danced to music. Mommy and Daddy were a little less entertained but enjoyed a good laugh! :-)

We had a great time at the zoo and enjoyed our special, day-trip downtown with Aunt Leigha.

Jesus's Birthday Party

2012-01-30T09:35:00.000-05:00

On Christmas day, we shared a wonderful late afternoon/evening with our dear friends Jen and Mike. Their friendship is such a blessing and we always just enjoy sharing their company. But for Christmas this year, they went above and beyond to make our celebration of Jesus's birthday incredibly special!

First, Jen and Mike shared their traditional Christmas Crackers (sent from England by Jen's "mum") with our family!

I love Faith's intense face, she was pulling her absolute hardest.

Jen came over to help Faith pull too! Inside the crackers were little horns, paper crowns, and silly jokes!! I was so happy we were able to share in the British tradition with our dear friends!!

Then everyone played a round of Qwirkle.

Then it was time to eat our birthday cake for Jesus! (I know everyone....please, don't be blown away by my amazing ability to decorate a cake! :-) )

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and we lit three candles...

one, for each of the girls to blow out!

In addition to our birthday cake, we also had Brad's favorite "Mrs. Smith's crumble apple pie" with vanilla ice-cream and some Cheesecake Factory pumpkin cheesecake (normally, I make a pumpkin torte, but I decided to take the easier route this year)!

Mike and Anna sharing some goodies together!

Then it was time for the much anticipated "Pass the Parcel" GAME!

Pass the Parcel is a traditional British children's birthday game (which is perfect for a birthday party for Jesus)!!!

According to Wikipedia: "Pass the parcel is a popular British children's party game in which a parcel is passed from person to person around a circle, somewhat similar in its logistics to musical chairs.

In preparation for the game, a prize (or "gift") is wrapped in a large number of layers of wrapping paper. Usually, each layer is of a different design so they can be easily distinguished. Smaller prizes or mottos may be placed between some or all other layers of wrapping.

During the game, music is played as the parcel is passed around. Whoever is holding the parcel when the music is stopped removes one layer of wrapping and claims any prize found under that layer. The music is then restarted and the game continues until every layer is removed and the main prize claimed.

The stopping and starting of the music is usually done by an adult who is not taking part in the game. While in order for the game to be fair, they should not observe the game, in practice they often do, to ensure that every participant has a turn, that prizes are well distributed and perhaps that the child whose party it is claims the main prize....."

Jillian was the first one to have the music stop when she was holding it...

She unwrapped the first layer to find chocolate coins, a lifesaver, and a candy cane!

Then when it was Mr. Mike's turn, he discovered LOTS of lifesavers to share with all of us! Jen also wrote a clever little note about how Christ is our life saver and the reason we celebrate Christmas!

The music stopped while Faith was holding it, she was in a bit of shock at first....

but then the realization hit her, it was her turn to open the parcel!!!

On the outside of the black case it said...."Open to discover who God Loves Very Much" and then in the inside was a MIRROR for Faith to see a reflection of herself!

We all opened a layer of the parcel and had a special surprise awaiting us ( I love my Little Kitty band-aids that I share with the girls when they have a boo-boo!).

But when Brad opened his layer of the parcel, he discovered that instead of there being a special treat inside, he had a task to perform! Brad performed a "CRAZY CHRISTMAS DANCE!" for all of us. It was very entertaining and gave all of us a good laugh. :-)

The final surprise of the parcel was opened by Jillian and it was a new game called Appletters! It is a fantastic game for the family, especially for our budding Kindergarten speller. :-) After pass the parcel, we put the little ones to bed, and then the adults stayed up to play a game of Tower of Babel.

Little did we know, that we had one more surprise awaiting us....the Glenn FamilyCAROLERS! :-) The Glenn family sang a beautiful Christmas song for us andcame bearing a delicious gift for us too! They had some of Naomi's famousbanana pudding left-over from their Christmas meal that day, and they wanted usto have it (they were leaving the next day for VA)! :-) The red bowl wasnearly full of their pudding and all of us enjoyed it immensely that night andfor days to come!

It was a wonderful Christmas 2011.

Christmas Day

2012-01-26T09:36:00.002-05:00

For months now, I have been so excited about giving Faith her new Corolle Nursery Carriage for Christmas. Not only is it a beautiful toy carriage, it is also super sentimental to her mama (and hopefully will be the same for her someday too).

While we were living in England, I was introduced to another American couple living in Cambridge who were both working for a pharmaceutical company. They were two of the most generous people I have ever met and were constantly cleaning out and giving things away (which was awesome for us!). So, anyway, on one of those cleaning out occasions, Natalie asked me if I would like to have her Silver Cross carriage, and I most gratefully took it! I didn't know much about it, but I loved the look of it and quickly discovered it is considered the most classic and elite of English prams! :-)

I did not get to use the pram for very long, because we were given it only a couple of months before we moved back to the States (and it wasn't the most practical of strollers to bring back with us), but I did take our pram to Paris with us! I had so much fun trotting along in Paris with baby Faith peacefully sleeping in it!

Our time in Paris with Brad's family and our two little girls seeing the beautiful sights is one of my absolute favorite memories! (To view our Paris Snapfish Album, click here and to see an abbreviated blog post from our trip, click here.)

And now we have a miniature version of that special pram for Faith to enjoy making new memories with her baby dolls.

After the special "unwrapped/ SURPRISE" gifts were discovered, the girls opened their stockings!

In their stockings, they were given new clips for their hair, some candy, and other little treats.

Then we enjoyed a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, egg bake, and clementines.

Breakfast Casserole Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package crescent rolls

2 cups cheddar cheese

2 cups hash browns- I usually do 3 to 4 cups and I love the Ore Ida hashbrowns that have red pepper and onion in it! :-) It adds a little Texas spice to it.

1 lb. cooked sausage

12 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Instructions:

Press crescent rolls into bottom of 9x13 pan. Layer the following on top of the crescent rolls: hash browns, sausage and 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese. In a separate bowl mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over layers in 9x13 pan. Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes or until nicely browned on top.

Then, we enjoyed some beautiful dancing from Faith.

And then in our continued Christmas tradition, we began our gift time by telling the story of the greatest gift of all...our Lord Jesus Christ.

This year, however, we did it a little different. We told the story by using Family Life's "All I want for Christmas". Each of the girls took turns picking one of the small numbered presents under the tree...

Then Brad told them the story of each Bible character.

And then they placed it on the manger scene.

I won't give away box #7, but it is a really sweet way to tell the story of the Gospel.

Onto the Christmas 2011 gifts.... I was given a new Babycakes Cake Pop maker! YAY!

Then, the girls very sweetly helped Aunt Leigha open nearly all of her gifts. :-)

Brad opened one of his gifts from me, three seasons of Lost along with a book called "The Gospel According to Lost". He was pumped!

Yes, I did just say I gave Brad three seasons of Lost. So, you may be wondering why is Anna holding season 5 of Lost? Well, its kind of a funny story, but we have some dear friends who LOVE "Lost" and have been saying for a long time that it was their favorite show. So, this summer while I was at a garage sale and came across the entire season 5 of "Lost" in great condition for $1, I jumped on it! But I couldn't very well give my hubby season 5 without a couple of other seasons too! So I used my favorite internet shopping site, Amazon to buy "very good" used copies of seasons 1 & 2 of Lost too. When I received them in the mail, they were in the wrapping and looked brand new and only cost $15! My husband Brad is delighted and always thrilled when I save money, so it was like two gifts in one for him! :-)

Anna opened her Tag. Jr.

Leigha with a special book of poems about the relationship of sisters with gifts cards to two of her favorite places.

Aunt Leigha made a beautiful pink and green frame with Jillian's name on it!

Anna giving big hugs and cuddles to Aunt Leigha to thank her for her Christmas present.

Faith was very proud of her fun purple polky-dot name made by Aunt Leigha!!

Whoa! Big Presents!

Anna received a Classic Corolle Bebe Doll from Mommy and Daddy.

And Jillian was given A Life of Faith doll, named Elsie Dinsmore

Jillian loves her new doll and is so proud of it. She told this story in her Weekend Journal at school: "I got a Faith dol for cimis hr nam is LC." :-) translated to "I got a Faith doll for Christmas her name is Elsie."

Jillian and Faith playing with Anna's new Melissa and Doug princess magnet set.

Faith created this cute snowflake wrapping paper at Mother's Day Out. Then Faith helped her Daddy open her gift to us. I love her face of shock and disbelief (I think she forgot what she had put in there!). It was an adorable ornament with a photo with our 4 year old Faith.

Then after presents, and while I finished prepping our lunch, Daddy and Jillian played her new game Qwirkle. It is a pretty tough game (as you can see from Jillian's hand to her forehead), but Jillian is really good at spatial games and did a great job.

Meanwhile Aunt Leigha (wearing her new Bath and Body Works hair band) helped Faith play with her new Lite Bright!

Then we enjoyed a delicious, late Christmas lunch as a family:

We had ham, with loaded mashed potatoes, berry mallow yam bake, squash casserole, glazed carrots, Sister Schubert rolls and two new dishes inspired by our Thanksgiving dinner:

A Brocolli salad: there are so many versions of this salad, but I chose one that included a dressing of mayonnaise mixed with balsamic vinegar and a little sugar, sunflower seeds, raisins, tomatoes, bacon, and chunks of Cheddar cheese! YUMMY!

And finally, we enjoyed the Pioneer Woman's home-made green bean casserole (I substituted the pimentos with cooked red peppers) . It is my new favorite dish for the holidays! It was a great beginning to a wonderful Christmas!

Our Christmas Day to be continued....

Christmas Eve

2012-01-19T06:23:00.000-05:00

We had the special honor of hosting my little sister Leigha for Christmas this year. She arrived in D.C. the afternoon of Christmas Eve; Jillian, Faith, and I picked her up from the airport. Then the four of us girls enjoyed the drive home catching up with one another before we were thrown into all the excitement of the rest of the fun evening.

First, we joined the Smith family for a yummy dinner of Chicken Tortilla Soup and Potato Soup.

Then we had a little time to play! Leigha and Prescott had a blast competing in some Wii Kinect game; it was really entertaining watching them (they got really into it!).

Then Lindsey and the little girls decided to give dancing a try!

My sweet friend and hostess, Michelle. It was a wonderful evening with friends.
Then both of our families made our way to the church for the Christmas Eve service. It was a beautiful service and I loved all the Christmas carols we sang as a congregation.

After the service, Leigha sweetly took this family photo before we opened our traditional Christmas Eve presents as a family.

First, as was our tradition last year (at Jillian's request), I opened Jillian's gift to Brad and me. It was a sweet poem about little Kindergarten hands with her gold handprint on it.

Then, we broke the tradition a little bit, and gave the girls new robes for Christmas instead of pajamas (but it is is still in the "nightwear" category and PLUS Grammie and Grandad gave us some adorable Christmas pajamas earlier in the month!). Faith was given this princess robe with a matching one for her baby doll; her ornament was a princess crown.

Jillian's face of excitement when she first saw HER robe!

Jillian received a horse robe with a horse ornament because of her new found love for horses this year.

Aunt Leigha was given new "nightwear"/ pajamas too! :-)

Then Brad opened his new game for Christmas, Dominion Prosperity. I love Brad's, Jillian's, and Faith's face of excitement!

(But as you can see from Anna's little face, she was very tired at this point and a little confused about all the excitement! So unfortunately, I did not get a great photo of little Anna with her new ornament but she got one with a sand castle to commemorate both her first experience at the beach and our camping trip as a family in 2011. )

Then we had the extra surprise of opening a gift from my sister. Leigha hand-created this wonderful "Welcome to the Holmes" plaque for Brad and me! I was so blessed by her thoughtfulness and the work she put into our gift.

Then it was bed-time. After we were sure the girls were asleep....

Brad got to work putting together the girls "unwrapped/ SURPRISE Christmas tree gifts".

Before anytime at all had passed, the girls presents were ready and under the tree for Christmas morning!

The Reason for the Season

2012-01-18T22:43:00.000-05:00

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Acts 20:35

A tradition for our family for the last three years has been to create gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child. My girls have so much fun picking out their favorite things: Polly Pockets, ponies, princess jewelry, crayons, toothbrushes, stickers, etc... for a little girl in the world who doesn't have nearly as much as we do.

On a Wednesday morning (of the collection week) Faith, Anna, and I went to a special MOPS play-date at the church to pack our boxes with friends.

Later in the day, when Jillian came from school, she helped complete her box by writing her "All About Me" page.

All about me pages:

JILLIAN:
There are lots of things I like.
My Favorite:
thing to drink is water.
color is red.
food is french fries.
thing to play is ponies.

When I have free time, I like to play with my sisters.

I love Jesus because He is great and powerful.

FAITH:
There are lots of things I like.
My Favorite:
thing to drink is lemonade.
color is pink and purple.
food is chicken nuggets.
thing to play is Polly Pockets.

When I have free time, I like to play with my baby dolls.

I love Jesus because He loves me very much!

On that Friday evening, we went to Redland Baptist to drop off our boxes.

Faith gave her box to a little girl aged 2-4 years old.

Jillian gave a gift for a little girl aged 5-9 years old. We found out a few weeks later that one of the boxes was sent to Gabon and the other to Iraq!

Dear ~~Jillian~~ Mom,

I love you Mom. I don't know what I want for Christmas.

Love, Jillian

(Jillian told me that afternoon, she wrote that because she has been given so much and doesn't need anything else! I was really blessed by Jillian's appreciation for all that she has already been given.)

Our plan for little Anna was that she would sponsor an infant from the Angel Tree this year. Anna and I went shopping together to buy a one year old boy a Christmas gift from his dad. We went to downtown Rockville and went to an adorable toy shop and bought him a saxophone! There were several different types of musical instruments to choose from, but that was Anna's favorite and I thought she was the best judge of what a one year old would enjoy in that department.:-)

It was a fun night to be in Rockville because it was the annual Christmas tree-lighting celebration! They were giving away hot chocolate and brownies, Peeps Christmas trees, and little Rockville coffee mugs! Anna and I enjoyed all the festivities and music and went home with our gift for our little Angel tree recipient.

The sad ending to this story is that after several attempts we were unable to contact the child's guardian. According to our church coordinator for the program, this is the only contact information that this man has for his child. On a positive note, it encouraged Brad and I to pray even more for this child who wouldn't be celebrating Christmas with his dad. I hope next year we will be more successful in getting to deliver a present for an Angel Tree child.

Another fun event was at the beginning of December, I had the joy of helping some of the Senior Higher girls from our church (at Michelle's house) make some goodie plates. I loved getting to know some of the young people from our church better and as always, I had fun baking at the Smith's house.

The girls made all kinds of goodies...red velvet cake, banana bread, chocolate cookies drizzled in white chocolate with crushed candy cane sprinkled on top, truffles, pretzel M&M treats, and more!
The best part was that all of these goodie plates were given to people in our church who had gone through a difficult time in the year 2011. It was our hope and prayer that the gift would be an encouragement to them during the holiday season!

Now on to one of the most anticipated events of our December, the Women's Center Christmas party at Derwood Bible Church! It was the first time that any of the ladies from the center had come to our church. We sang carols, decorated cookies, heard the nativity story from Bob, listened to a touching testimony from one of Jillian's Sunday School teacher about a time when she was homeless (Jillian was especially moved by the story and gave her beloved teacher big hugs afterwards), and enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Here's our friend Lindsey helping the girls decorate cookies (it was a "craft/activity" for the ladies from the shelter, but the Girl Scouts who provided them had extra cookies for the children to decorate too). Pictured are her two daughters, Ellie and Annie (the same age as Jillian and Faith) and our very own baby Anna, licking up all the icing she can while Lindsey's back was turned.

Anna was in a very outgoing mood that day, and cuddled right up with a sweet woman from the shelter. I loved learning about this lady. For one, she had an unusual name and she told me that her parents had thought for certain she was going to be a boy while they were expecting. Much to their surprise, they discovered she was a GIRL, so they decided to name her after the doctor who delivered her. I also learned that she is a mother, and has two children in high school now. Like most mammas, she enjoyed the cuddles with a little one again.

Anna was getting around that day. Here she is with her Daddy as he made some announcements.

This is the first photo we have taken of the ladies from the shelter!!! I was so excited to finally get a photo of these precious ladies. Not all the women wanted to have their photo taken and not everyone from the shelter was present for the party, but it is a good representation of some of the ladies we have been getting to know over the past year.

This is a photo of a few of the ladies from my table. Despite their difficult circumstances, they are an absolute joyful group of ladies. I really enjoyed my time with them at the party, especially as we talked about: our families, home-states (there was quite a discussion about Mississippi!), and the Lord!

At the end of the party, while we were cleaning up, our girls had fun playing with a scarf with their friends Ellie and Kaylee. They thought it was a hilarious game. :-)

It was a fantastic celebration of our Lord's birthday and His love for these ladies!

Christmas with Friends

2012-01-17T12:59:00.000-05:00

The week of Christmas we celebrated two early Christmases with some of our family's dear friends.

On Tuesday, our friends Jen and Mike (who we first met in England over five years ago) came to see us. Jen came over earlier in the day and spent some time with the girls and me (in this photo they are playing their new game Zingo) and then Brad met Mike on the Metro and they came home together in the car.

Tomato soup disaster....I cooked the tomatoes and seasoning on the gas stove and until it was done, but then my recipe told me to put in a blender & this is what happened (TWO TIMES...I didn't take a photo the first time. :-)) I like chunky tomato soup, so that's how we left it. :-) We also had one of my favorite salads, spinach salad with pasta caesar salad on top mixed with rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, and croutons! Yummy!

After dinner, we all went to the living room for Faith to tell us the story of Jesus's birth with our kid nativity set.

I video-taped her telling the story as well. It was so precious when she reenacted the angel saying, "Do not be afraid." I was especially blessed hearing the story of my Savior from the voice of my four-year old. I was reminded to "Not be afraid, because God is with us! He has a plan and is orchestrating all things together for our good."

Jillian listened attentively to her sister's telling of the story of Jesus's birth and then she had the opportunity to tell it too! Then all seven of us did the Adornament for the night, and said our nightly prayers for friends and family.

Then we gave Jen and Mike our Christmas gift to them as a family! (It is a really fun two player game that we discovered this year called Lost Cities! I highly recommend it.)

Then the girls opened their thoughtful Christmas gifts from Jen and Mike. The girls love their Scripture verse notepads with pens. They love to tuck it in their purse and use it to take meal orders for the "kid restaurant" in the kitchen.

Anna's present is an entertaining & fun counting book called "Hippos Go Beserk!" Mr. Mike read it to all of us that night and since then, we have read it several more times.

Jen and Mike also gave our family the book "Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A. Milne. We have read several chapters from the adorable British classic and have enjoyed every bit of it too!

Jen is an awesome tickler! I love Faith's face of delight! :-)

And Mike is a fantastically fun pilot of Anna the airplane! :-) Anna was super excited!!!

It was a blessed evening with friends. The most exciting thing about all of this is that are friends are no longer living in Norfolk, VA (a four hour drive) but now live in Alexandria, VA (about a 30 minute drive!). We are super excited to have our wonderful friends so close to us, so we can see them more often!

Then on Thursday afternoon, Miss Julie came over with a special gift for Faith. It is a crocheted candy cane ornament, a creation of Julie. As you can see in this photo, Faith was very proud of her candy cane!

Then when Brad got home, we all went over to the Smith's house, for ornament-painting!

The girls put the paint in the ornament and then Brad helped the girls shake it up. As you can see, it was a pretty intense work-out!

Jillian putting glitter on her ornament creation with the help of Michelle.

Faith decorating the outside of her ornament (her hair looks a little funny, because I gave her a bath right before we left, and it was still a little wet).

Chelsea helping happy Anna paint her ornament.

Then we placed all of the ornaments in the laundry room to dry!

Then the "girls" (big ones and little ones) went into the living room to play piggy back rides.

Then all ten of us (Reed and Prescott were there too!) went downstairs to the basement to exchange Christmas presents! I did not take any photos of the men but Prescott and Reed were given the strategy game Dominion Intrigue from us and Brad was given a Starbucks gift card for lots of Daddy/ Daughter hot chocolate dates!

The girls had all their dreams come true with NEW PRINCESS gifts! Faith received an Ariel water-play boat and a Sleeping Beauty doll, Anna was given a princess toddler CD player with Cinderella, and Jillian received a Cinderella carriage set with horses, the fairy godmother, and Gus and Jaq and an Ariel doll!

And I think I was the most excited of all with my new cook book of all Michelle's favorite family recipes! She typed over 80 PAGES front and back of AMAZING (tested and enjoyed many times) recipes. She spent many hours compiling this recipe book for her three kids and ME and I felt very privileged to be a recipient of such a wonderful gift. :-)

One of my absolute favorite things about Christmas is celebrating the gift of friends and family God has given to us. He is the ultimate giver of all good gifts!

Games Galore

2012-01-16T19:46:00.000-05:00

During one of the Pull's open houses, we watched their girls for them. While Anna and Aliyah took a nap, we read The Nutracker while listening to Tchaikovsky. The girls loved the story and ballet dancing to the music.

Then Brad played some Richard Scarry's Busy Town game with the girls.

Someone spinned a "Goldbug", so all the girls are looking for hidden objects with their mini magnifying glasses.

Faith hugging on her Daddy.

Then all the girls (except Aliyah) and Brad went on a walk to the grocery story! They shared lots of adventures together that day.

Then the week of Christmas, the whole Pull family joined us for dinner and gave our girls a new awesome (it's both fun & educational!) game for Christmas...Zingo!

The kids eating Stouffer's lasagna :-) and green beans at the kids table.

Little Joey with big smiles while eating his greenbeans!

Then we gave the Pull's their annual Christmas gift from us, a new game!

This one is called Agricola. It's a game for 1 to 5 players. I chose this one in particular because it's difficult to find a GREAT two person strategy game! Our dear friends are moving in February, and we wanted our friends to have a fun game to play when we are too far apart to play with one another.

It was a good choice; together the four of us have played it at least a half dozen times! It's a ton of fun and a little (okay....A LOT) addicting.

A synopsis of the objective of the game is: "In Agricola, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, create your farm from scratch to maintain your livelihood." :-)

The game is pretty complicated and was a BIG PUZZLE that thankfully we all were able to figure out together. It was a bonding experience! :-)

In In the end, there was only one victor. Trisha's face expresses the dual emotions she must have been feeling because I won (she's happy for me!) and she didn't (a little disappointed!). No worries though, she's beaten me a few times since then! Some would say I have beginner's luck. :-)

Dancing at Midnight

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

“Two are better than one. … Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9,12).

Anna has been a fairly good sleeper for us. That is.... until the second week of December. All of sudden, Anna decided she would like to take a two to three hour cat nap at bed-time, rather than sleeping through the night.

She then of course, would wake up her mommy and daddy. Brad and I alternated who got up with her. She was completely happy and content if one of us would just stay with her but would cry miserably for A LONG time if we left her alone.

This was one of my nights I was on duty. She told me she was hungry, so the two of us had a midnight snack of steamed green beans together. :-)

We laughed and played together.

She gave me some of her irresistible smiles!

\
Then she did a little of her dancing for me.

Round and round...

she twirled...

and galloped to the music.

And then she would push the button for more MUSIC!

After a few more nights of some not great sleep, we decided to "experiment" and see if something might help Anna sleep a little better...

What we discovered about our sweet Anna is that she didn't much like being all alone in her room at night.

So. after a conference with Jillian and Faith, and much to the delight of Anna (and her big sisters too), Anna has moved residence into Jillian and Faith's room! All three of the girls are bunking in the same room now and they are all loving it.

I especially appreciate how it is bonding our girls even closer together as sisters and friends AND though I am a little sad to no longer be dancing at midnight with Anna, I am thankful she and I are both getting better nights of sleep.

Winter Celebrations

2012-01-10T19:40:00.000-05:00

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

In the month of November, we celebrated with the Glenn family the 2nd birthday of Oliver. Naomi's mom is a gifted photographer (just like her daughter) and took this adorable photo of Faith at the birthday party.

She also took this funny one of Anna! I think this photo captures little Anna's little personality so well.

It was a fun day celebrating this adorable, little guy! Happy Birthday sweet Oliver!

Then in December, our family, being the Chick-Fil-A lovers that we are, went to a Santa Cow breakfast event. It's not every day you have breakfast with Santa cow, so we wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. :-) We enjoyed some chicken biscuits and a chocolate shake for BREAKFAST!!!

Jillian with her Santa Cow hat

A family photo with the "Eat Chicken, not Santa Cow"!

Little Anna doing some shopping at our favorite clothing store, Gymboree.

Then we headed to the Glenn's to celebrate Madeline's 4th Birthday. Here is a photo of little Anna being blindfolded to play "Pin the Wings on the Fairy"!

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is the girls dressing up in beautiful, festive Christmas dresses on Sundays! My girls love it too and Jillian wanted her photo to be taken in front of the Christmas tree before church!

Faith and Jillian, my little girls are growing up so quickly!!!

One year old Anna all dressed up for church in her Christmas dress!

One of the cold wintry days we were spending inside, I decided it would be fun if I shared "tea" (hot chocolate in my pretty tea cups) with Faith and Anna.

Anna was super excited about sharing tea with her sister and mommy!

We had apples, pretzel with melted kisses and M&M's in the middle, and a variety of fudge made by our friend Michelle (the secret ingredient of the chocolate fudge is 1/2 lb of Velveeta cheese)!

Anna enjoyed the yummy chocolate pretzel.

While Faith enjoyed daintily sipping on her hot chocolate.

Another evening, we had a family night of coloring princess ornaments, eating pizza....

decorating sugar cookies, and watching a Christmas movie! Fun, relaxed "family date nights" are some of our absolute favorite evenings!

Jet (Jillian's school bus buddy and classmate), Brad, Jillian and Faith "playing pool" at Jet's family's "Snowflake Party" at a clubhouse in downtown Rockville.

There were three or four iPads floating around and all the kids were playing (or watching) games while the adults visited and enjoyed the delicious catered dinner by Gordon Biersch.

Anna was a little superstar, doted on by many of the adults in the room. Jet's aunt took several photos of smiley Anna.

Then Anna would run over to have a look at herself in the view-finder! She cracks me up how much she is fascinated by cameras, phones, & music players!! :-)

It was a fun month of celebrations with our family and friends.

Adornaments

2012-01-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

For the second year, we enjoyed celebrating the 12 days of Christmas using the Family Life Adorenaments Book (with a little ornament). Each night, we read about one of the names of Jesus with a devotional and Scripture verse.

It was so wonderful getting to see our children connect the names of Jesus with the stories they have heard from us or at Sunday School. And it was especially sweet to see them express their love for their sisters as they encouraged and helped one another to hang the Adorenament, especially when it was Anna's turn. This first photo captures the wonder and joy we shared as we hung our first adorenament: the baby in the manger.

Name of Jesus: Immanuel
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means, 'God with us.'" Matthew 1:23

Name of Jesus: The True Vine

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5

Name of Jesus: The Light of the World

"Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12

Name of Jesus: The Bright Morning Star

"I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am...the bright morning star." Revelation 22:16

Name of Jesus: The Lamb of God

"Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29

Name of Jesus: The Lion from the Tribe of Judah

"....behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah..." Revelation 5:5

Name of Jesus: The Door

"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." John 10:9

Name of Jesus: The Good Shepherd

"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." John 10:11

Name of Jesus: The King of kings and Lord of lords

"He who is blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and Lords of lords...." 1 Timothy 6:15

Name of Jesus: the Bread of Life
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believe in Me shall never thirst." John 6:35

Name of Jesus: the Giver of Living Water
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked him, and He would have given you living water." John 4:10

Name of Jesus: Savior
"The Father has sent the Son (to be) the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. " 1 John 4:14-15

After we hang the adorenament for the night we spend some time praying for our friends and family.

Then the girls have some quality play time with Daddy. I think this night Daddy was a space ship that was giving a pretty wild ride.

Then some tickles ...

... and a few exercises ...

... followed by some Simon-Says. Anna was especially good at 'touch your hair' and 'tickle yourself!'

We had such a wonderful night as we hung our first Adorenament, and each night that followed. It was an awesome way to daily remind our children (and, I'll be honest, ourselves too) the meaning of Christmas is Jesus: Our Good Shepherd, Our Giver of Living Water, Bread of Life, Savior, Lamb of God (too name a few).

Countdown to Christmas

2012-01-05T18:02:00.000-05:00

Our friend Michelle blessed us with a wonderful new tradition this year. For the first time, the girls enjoyed a Christmas advent calendar.

She bought this Santa Clause Christmas calendar at Hobby Lobby (plain/unpainted) and then she personally hand-painted it for us. Didn't she do a beautiful job?

On the 30th of November, the day before the "25 day Christmas countdown" began, Lindsey and Michelle came over to deliver the surprise for the girls!

In the kitchen, Michelle secretly gave me my "Mom's guide", so I could give the girls a special surprise every day leading up to Christmas!

This was my box labeled with the numbered gifts (so I could hide them every day)!

The girls loved the Santa Clause calendar

and were even more excited the next day when they got to open the 1st box to discover a clue (we rotated who opened the box but everyone could look for it!). After this first day, every morning, the girls would run down-stairs excited to open another box.

"Go look where you keep your toys." Other clues were "Look under the place where Anna sleeps", or "Go to where you brush your teeth", or "Look in the bag where mommy keeps diapers."

The first day, the girls received princess journals!

Other days, the girls received Christmas mini-Barbies (as seen in photo), snowflake cups, play tattoos, princess markers, slinkies, pink hot cocoa, princess bracelets, punching balloons, candy, and MORE!! It was a really fun activity for our family and got all of us even more excited about Christmas coming!

Christmas

2012-01-02T19:17:00.000-05:00

Some of you may be thinking, "WOW! The Holmes family didn't do much between Thanksgiving and Christmas!" But we actually celebrated Christmas (for the 1st time) the day after Thanksgiving with Mimi and PawPaw! It was a wonderful day and I couldn't envision a more relaxing, enjoyable day to spend with family.

We began our early Christmas by spending a couple of hours at the mall. We first went to P.F. Chang's (Brad's absolute favorite) for lunch and then the girls and Mimi and PawPaw went on the train trip around the mall.Only when the grandparents are in town do the girls get spoiled so profusely.

I love how Faith is waving her hand like a princess. :-) Thanks Mimi and PawPaw for a delicious lunch and shopping time for Brad and me while you entertained the girls.

Then we came home to celebrate Christmas with Mimi and PawPaw, but they opened only one gift while Anna took a nap.

Hooray!!! The girls immediately recognized the Balance Bike as something their friend Madeline had and were very excited to try it out!

Daddy and PawPaw assembled the bike...

and then the girls went outside to take it for a test run (in Faith's fancy Christmas dress and all)!

Then we came back inside to finish trimming the tree.

I wasn't sure whose turn it was to put the star on top of the tree, but the girls had apparently already had this discussion and had concluded it was Jillian's year, because when asked, they both quickly agreed Jillian was up. :-)

Jillian had a little help of course, in the height department.

Then it was time for more opening of Christmas presents!!! Mimi got all three of the girls matching shirts...so cute! They also got a new Richard Scarry Busy Town game, kits to make their own kaleidoscopes (they love crafts), and some Berenstein bear books!!!

Anna helped her Mommy and Daddy open their new books, chocolate, cards, and checks for something special at a later time. In addition, Brad received a new sweater and I was given my favorite gift of all....

A beautiful new sterling silver charm bracelet with three girl silhouettes. Each of the silhouettes is engraved with one of my girls names and birthdate! It is so special to me and I have been wearing it all the time. Thank you Mimi and PawPaw for my beautiful, thoughtful gift. It means so much to me.

Anna got a pretty new dress.

She also got a beloved Calin Corolle doll of her own (both of her big sisters received one from Mimi and PawPaw when they were a one-year old too).

After gift-opening, it was time to make a gingerbread house! Anna and PawPaw got really excited about making it!

It was a really cool kit that made it super easy to assemble the house. Nonetheless, the icing became a little tricky to handle. Luckily, we had 10 hands to help hold pieces in place.

The house was successfully assembled. Then it was time to decorate.

The hardy construction specialists! I think Faith may have been flexing her muscles in this photo!

.... coming together ....

... team work everyone (Anna has joined back in, realizing there is candy to be had) ...

Ta Da!!! Gorgeous!!

We celebrated Christmas with a super-special treat: Papa John's Pizza and salad (on our wonderful Christmas china - thanks Brad for the 2010 Christmas gift!)

Then we cracked open the new game from Mimi and PawPaw. It was super fun. (Anna is learning what 'say cheese' means).

Everyone hard at work finding objects in the puzzle. This is a great game because it is a co-operative game. Either everyone wins, or everyone loses (to the pigs who eat all your picnic food).

The next day was their day to return to Texas, our time with them went far too quickly! But thankfully, they booked a late-afternoon flight, so we had time for one more special treat - some of the best Texas BBQ outside (and possibly inside) Texas, right here in downtown DC: Hill Country BBQ.

We decided to park at a garage 2 blocks away, in fear of not finding anything closer. They didn't advertise the price on the street, which is a bad sign. Because once you past the point of no return, you discover they charge $14 for the first hour!! NOT COOL!!!

Then, to rub SALT in our wounds (Brad in particular since he was driving and had picked the garage), we found an empty street spot RIGHT OUTSIDE THE FRONT DOOR of the BBQ joint. That hurts folks.

We found a table inside, and got set up. And then, we never took any photos of the AMAZING BBQ sandwiches and jalapeno/cheese sausage, because it was too yummy to stop eating. What's more, they had amazing BBQ chicken for the girls, fantastic sides like white shoepeg corn pudding, german potatoes and much more.

And best of all, they say "Y'all".

It was a fantastic ending to a wonderful trip. Thanks for the yummy BBQ and coming to see us Mimi and PawPaw!

A Day of Thanksgiving

2011-12-29T21:34:00.000-05:00

Psalm 100
"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

At noon, we descended upon our friends, the Smith's house! This beautiful fruit turkey awaited us when we arrived.

Mimi and PawPaw meeting the Smith's for the first time and the girls greeting their special friend Lindsey. (If you look closely, you can see Michelle rushing around in the kitchen. She had everything under control, it was just a little busy. :-) All the food was delicious; they have FOUR great cooks/bakers in their family. All three of Michelle's kids love cooking just as much as their mom!)

While we waited for the other guests to arrive, the girls had fun playing outside on the playground with Chelsea and Lindsey.

It was a beautiful day especially for swinging....

And for eating and conversing with sweet friends! It was a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch and we were blessed by our friend's hospitality.

Little Anna was tuckered out by the time we got to the van. She took a good nap when we got home.
-------------------------
Then after naps (for all of us), we headed to our friends the Pull's house for dinner!

We arrived in time to see Trisha take out her perfect Thanksgiving turkey from the oven!

Dad Holmes was happy to help with the carving of the turkey. I love the pleasure my father in law takes in serving others. It is a trait I greatly admire in him.

Anna, my sweet friend Julie, and me

Beth reading Anna a good book

Mimi and little Anna folding their hands in prayer on the couch. I love this photo of the two of them.

Mimi and Anna playing with the Etch-A-Sketch

Then it was dinner time! There was an entire table of little girls sitting together, so cute!

Brad, Niina & Chee Kin (friends from church), Mom and Dad Holmes, and I all sat at the same table. We enjoyed some wonderful conversations about different traditions from around the world and God's grace even in troubles. It was a wonderfully uplifting time and the food was amazing. I enjoyed two of Trisha's main dishes so much I adopted them for our Christmas meal for the first time this year! :-)

After dinner, it was time for relaxation in the family room. I got some cuddles from my sweet Jillian!

A little later we enjoyed Thanksgiving desserts! Do you think we had enough desserts to pick from?!?! We had Chocolate Mud Pie Dessert, Sugar Pie, Chocolate Cream Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Pecan Pie, and more Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hats (made by the Pull girls)

A self-portrait of Brad and me: I think this picture of the two of us is super sweet, even with my eye a little squished by Brad's cheek! :)

And then it was time for us to prepare for Thanksgiving Jeopardy.

Joe played the part of Alex Trebec! The questions that Joe prepared were fantastic; they were entertaining, challenging and all together fun.

Our fiercest competition in the game was the "Tangy ....

... Lockards"!

We played two rounds of Jeopardy (single and double) neck-in-neck and when it came time for FINAL JEOPARDY "Texas" and the "Tangy Lockards" were tied. It all came down to one question. Can you guess who won?

You guessed it! The "Texas" team won Final Jeopardy! I am giving a thumbs up for "Gig' Em' because the victory all came down to one question (a Jeopardy answer of course) "Who is George Herbert Walker Bush?"!!! It was a given that we had to know it, because our beloved Aggieland is the home to the George Bush Memorial Library! Whoop! (If the truth must be told the Tangy Lockards got the question correct too, but they just didn't bid as much as us! Another side-note, Trisha was not on our team she was "Jeopardy Vanna" :-))

As always, we enjoyed being in our dear friends home. This Thanksgiving was especially sentimental to us knowing that it was likely our last one with our beloved friends, the Pull's. In the next couple of months they will be moving to the Midwest. My heart already aches with how much our family will miss their family. In the meantime, I continue to give thanks to God for the time He has given us with their family! Their friendship is a beautiful blessing and we cherish them so very much.

It was a very Happy Thanksgiving.

A Turkey Morning

2011-12-28T09:31:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving morning, the girls woke up to yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast and watching some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade!

The Macy's Parade Turkey

Jillian working on constructing her Thanksgiving leaf hat.

Anna doing a little dancing on the cushion with BIG SMILES!

Then it was Faith's turn to create her own leaf hat for Thanksgiving!

Both of the girls did a great job! :-)

Meanwhile, I was making a big mess in the kitchen. I made three squash casseroles, two for Thanksgiving lunch at the Smith's and one for Christmas (I froze it). On this trip, I discovered from Mom Holmes that originally the squash casserole was Brad's paternal grandmother's recipe, Thelma Holmes. I think that it is super special that at least twice now this recipe has been passed down from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. :-)

Then I assembled the sweet potato casserole (the marshmallows aren't on top yet). I baked extra sweet potatoes and froze them for Christmas too!! Awesomeness! :-)

And finally I made some delicious Chocolate Mud Pie Dessert for Thanksgiving dinner at the Pull's! We also brought some of Brad's favorite Mrs. Smith's apple crumble pie with vanilla ice-cream.
Ingredients:
1 box devil's food cake
3 pkgs (3.5 oz each) chocolate jello pudding
3 tubs (8 oz each) of cool whip
6 Heath candy bars

First make chocolate cake (according to directions) in 13 x 9 inch pan and let the cake cool.
Cut cake into thirds.
Make three pkgs of chocolate pudding according to directions.

Layer:
1 third of cake- crumbled (on bottom of bowl)
1 choc pudding
1 tub cool whip
2 crushed Heath candy bars
repeat layers (I only did two layers to allow it to fit in my pretty trifle bowl)

Then Mimi and PawPaw came over to play and read with the girls.

PawPaw and Jillian

Anna enjoyed all the special attention from Mimi and PawPaw.

A Thanksgiving photo of Brad, the girls, and Mimi and PawPaw.

Thanksgiving Eve

2011-12-26T19:38:00.000-05:00

We were so excited to host Brad's parents, Mimi and PawPaw, for Thanksgiving this year. They arrived Thanksgiving Eve and they spent that night with us preparing for the big day, catching up on news, and playing with the girls. We had so much fun and the girls just adored their time with their grandparents.

Faith was immediately attached to her PawPaw!

He gave her lots of love and attention! He's a wonderful PawPaw!

In the meantime, Brad and Anna were lounging on the floor catching up with Mimi about all the latest news!

Anna and her daddy

Jillian showing Mimi her Weekend News Journal from school.

Little Anna giving me one of her mischievous smiles!

Then it was time for the girls and PawPaw to help me assemble the Pilgrim Hats.

]
Somehow my bag of marshmallows got a little smushed (I won't name names, but I think it was the one with the purple pacifier who did it), so the girls hand-picked the marshmallow that looked like good hats!

(My hats did not turn out as pretty as these, but they tasted just as good and we had lots of fun too!)
Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats:

Ingredients

24 chocolate-striped shortbread cookies
12-ounce package of chocolate chips

24 large marshmallows
tube of yellow decorators' frosting

Instructions

Set the chocolate-striped cookies stripes down on a wax-paper-covered tray, spacing them well apart.
Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or double boiler.
One at a time, stick a wooden toothpick into a marshmallow, dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate, and promptly center it atop a cookie.
Using a second toothpick to lightly hold down the marshmallow, carefully pull out the first toothpick.
Chill the hats until the chocolate sets, then pipe a yellow decorators' frosting buckle on the front of each hat.

Then while I finished getting dinner ready, Daddy and PawPaw talked to the girls about the first Thanksgiving using Family Life ThanksLiving Family Devotions Kit. In the kit there are several large postcards of famous paintings that depict scenes of importance to Thanksgiving. It also includes ceramic figures of corn, a cross and a ship, as well as a miniature ThanksLiving Bible to use in your devotions!

Faith showing me a postcard of the pilgrims praying in the Mayflower as they made their treacherous journey to the Americas.

Then we all enjoyed one of my favorite dinners, Skillet Chicken with Broccoli, Ziti, and Asiago Cheese
( an America's Test Kitchen recipe)!

I love these three little blessings and am so thankful that Mimi and PawPaw came to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family.

What Sick Baby?

2011-12-26T15:12:00.000-05:00

The week before Thanksgiving, Anna began running a low fever and had a runny nose. But we got really scared when we noticed two large, deep red rashes on both her legs. So we ran her to the urgent care doctors office the night before Brad's parents were flying into town!

And just how did our sick baby handle this difficult time in her little life : with laughter, dancing, and joy, completely oblivious to the real reason why we had rushed out of the house!

Her big sisters were so sweet trying to entertain their baby sister with ring-around-the-rosie!

Round and round they went. I think Faith is starting to look a little sleepy in this picture.

The three sisters. Anna has learned what 'say cheese' means. It means grimace and squint!

More dancing ...

Anna was jumping up and down at this point, mixing ring-around-the-rosie with doing the wave.

We really lucked out later on when we found a bench and a TV playing Mary Poppins.

I packed some light reading while we waited around in the exam room: House Mouse, Senate Mouse. (We actually have the whole series and have really enjoyed it!) Brad especially enjoyed the time reading to his girls and teaching a short civics lesson.

And a self-portrait of a weary, relieved mother happy that our 2 hour adventure was coming to a close. The doctor was a little befuddled, but as best as we could tell, the rash was viral induced. He said to keep an eye on Anna and come back if things worsened. But by the next morning, her rash had disappeared, and while I would usually say she was back to her cheery self, truth was, she never left her cheerful disposition for a moment.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T15:32:00.001-05:00

In the month of November, our family went to Butler's Orchard and took some family pictures with our friend Naomi! She did a beautiful job and we are so appreciative of the photos she captured of our family!

A photo of our family ready to decorate the Christmas tree with red ornaments! :-)

"I saw Momma kissing Santa Clause!" :-)

Our three beautiful girls

The best of friends.

Jillian helping decorate the Christmas tree.

Faith loved helping decorate the tree on top of her daddy's shoulders!

Anna was her momma's helper!

Anna looking at her reflection in the ornament.

We praise God for His many blessings, especially the gift of our Savior! Merry Christmas.

Forever in My Heart

2011-12-24T10:30:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, while I was still pregnant with Anna, I really struggled with missing my mom during the holiday season. Night after night, I had dreams of my mom and I would wake up in tears. It was an especially difficult season for me. But during that time, I was convicted by the Lord that more than anything I did not want the pain (God had allowed in my life) to be wasted.

Somehow I wanted God to use my testimony to bless and encourage others who were also hurting during Christmas time. I talked to my pastor Colin and he gave me the opportunity to share my testimony at church.

I was very nervous about it, but my sweet husband Brad stood by my side the entire time I shared. It was an emotional testimony for me, and there were a couple of times I was unable to speak because of the emotions I was experiencing, but God graciously got me through it.

It was one of the most healing things I have done in my life and the Lord was faithful and did touch others through my story. There were people in the congregation who had lost their moms at a young age and were comforted that they were not alone in their pain, there were teens who were struggling with being submissive to their parents and were convicted to honor them, and there were others who were hurting for entirely other reasons but were encouraged to hold onto hope even in their pain. Sharing my testimony was a beautiful gift from the Lord.

This is an ornament in honor of my mom that hangs on my tree and here is the testimony that I shared (complete with photos):

My name is Lauren Holmes, and this is my husband Brad. Weare the parents to two little girls and we have one more on the way. I grew up in the Dallas/ Fort WorthMetroplex and was blessed to be raised in a Christian home. Both of my parents were imperfect butwere incredible examples to me of what it is to have faith in Jesus Christ. Iespecially had great admiration for my mom. She was a strong, wise, generousand kind woman. I considered my mom my best friend and enjoyed being around hermore than anyone else.

Despite our closeness, in the year 1998, I was alsoseventeen and loved being around my friends and having a littleindependence. On the Eve ofChristmas Eve a friend of mine called to see if I wanted to go with her to theGalleria in Dallas. The Galleria was the most glitzy of all the malls and Ihadn’t been all that year. I really wanted to go and I expected my mom to say“yes”, but much to my surprise she told me that she didn’t feel comfortablewith me going. I assumed it wasbecause of the weather and I told her that my friend’s dad would be drivingus. She told me again, “Lauren,you can not go tonight”. At first,I was really disappointed and even felt a little rebellion in my heart towardher. But I can also rememberfeeling God convicting me that He wanted me to honor my mom (even if herdecisions didn’t make sense to me). So instead, I decided to enjoy the eveningwith her.

It was a casual night, we just sat on her bed, with thetelevision on, wrapping some last-minute Christmas gifts. She gave me control of the remoteand I randomly chose the old “dating game”. One of the prospective dates hadpink hair and had an interesting perspective on life. We got a good laugh from hearing hisanswers and I just remember her encouraging me that she was praying for theman I would marry. I felt veryself-conscious that I had not kissed a boy and was seventeen. My mom howeverencouraged me and told me that she was confident that the boy I saved my kissfor would be very honored. And she was right, my husband, Brad, was very honored that I had savedmy kiss for him, the gift of her encouraging me to guard my purity was just oneof the gifts she gave me.

Also that night I shared my admiration for her and the greatlove the three of her kids had for her.

I remember telling her, “Mom I don’t know any kids who lovetheir mom as much as we love you.”

She looked at me with surprise.

With complete humility, she asked, “Really?”

I responded with a smile, “Yes, really!”

Then I added, “BUT I don’t know any mom who loves her kids more than youlove us.”

She most exemplified the unconditional love that my HeavenlyFather has for His children. I wasalways amazed that my mom knew most all of my flaws, and yet she still lovedand accepted me. I am so thankfulto God for the evening we shared that night. I believe it was the Lord who gavemy mom an intuition that I shouldn’t go to be with my friends that night and mea submissive heart to honor my mom even when I didn’t fully understand. I told my mom good night that eveningand I told her I loved her.

The next morning, I woke up excited, eagerly awaiting allthe traditional festivities Christmas Eve held for my family! My mom had madeher famous divinity, fudge, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. We would have some of her chili thatnight before going to the Candlelight service at our church. Afterwards, wewould go look at Christmas lights and come home to play some family games andeat crackers and dip. We wouldthen open one Christmas Eve present, which was always pajamas and an ornament.

That morning I went downstairs to find my mom stillsleeping. My dad had already goneto work that day and I was really surprised that she was still in bed. Itwasn’t like her to sleep in and I knew she had some more things she wanted toget done before my grandparents got in that afternoon. At first, I didn’t know what to do andthought perhaps she needed her sleep. But then I decided it would be best if I woke her up, so she wouldn’t beso stressed that day. I tried towake her up and was unsuccessful, so I called my younger brother and sister tocome help wake mom up. None of uswere able to do it, so I finally told my brother to call 911, not reallybelieving there was anything seriously wrong, I just didn’t know what else todo.

While waiting for the ambulance, I remember crawling intothe bed with her, kissing her face, and begging her to “please wake up”. Wewent to the hospital that morning, following the ambulance and she waspronounced dead when we got there. An autopsy was needed to determine the causeof her death; it would be several weeks before we knew that, at the age of 40,my mom had died of arrhythmia of the heart in her sleep.

That day I felt like my world crumbled. As a young child, I, like many otherchildren, had a fear of losing my mom. But I always comforted myself that Godwouldn’t allow my mom to die, because He knew that I couldn’t handle it. But I was wrong; God often gives usthings that we can’t handle, so we can turn to him in our pain. He was my comfort in my grief, andday-by-day I chose to rest in knowing that HE loved me and had a plan for me.

Nearly four years after my mom’s death, I met Brad while ajunior in college. We began dating (some would call it courting) with theintention of getting married. During that time, we talked a lot about our hopes and expectations forthe future. On one of thoseoccasions, Brad asked me “Do you think Christmas will be a sad time for ourfamily?”. Initially, I was stunnedby his question. I had honestly not given much thought to how Christmas wouldlook for my future husband and children someday. Ever since my mom’s death, the Christmas holidays had becomea time I tried to survive. My momhad been the one who had made Christmas such a special time for our family andshe was no longer there to celebrate with us. Not only that, but because of her untimely death during the holidays, everything associatedwith Christmas, the carols, decorations, Christmas parties, reminded me andtook me back to the day that I had lost my mom.

But Brad’s question really stirred up in me the desire tothink about how I wanted my FUTURE Christmases to look like. My mom had lovedChristmas. She loved celebrating the birth of her Savior and I knew in my heartthat she would have wanted me to find joy in my Savior’s birthday too. So the first thing Brad and I did tostart building new, happier memories during the holidays was to commit ourlives to one another before our Lord, family and friends.

In 2004, we had a Christmas wedding on December 18^th. The processional song that we walked out to as husband and wife was “Joy to the World”. It was a beautiful day for me. Although I missed my mom, I felt it very special that I was able to carry down the same Bible covered with white lace that my mom had also carried down the aisle.

In 2005, we celebrated Christmas, with our 2 ½ month old honeymoon baby, Jillian Laurelee. Jillian’s middle name is in honor of her grandma in Heaven. J

In 2006, we were living in England, and this is a picture of us at Brad’s Christmas graduate college party. Jillian had just met Father Christmas and had gotten a lambie that sang “Jesus loves me”.

In 2007, we were still in England and we had a new arrival. This is Brad, Faith and me playing the nativity family at our church.

In 2008, we moved to Maryland and celebrated here. This is a family portrait of the four of us.

Finally, this is a picture of me and my girls from this year (2009). We were wrapping some special Christmas gifts for the Angel Tree. My two girls were my big helpers. J

Christmas, as well as all the other milestones of my life are still a hard time for me. I miss my mom and I wish that she were still here. Sometimes, I even daydream of what it would be like to be able to go home for the holidays. I can just imagine the joy it would have brought to my mom to have her grandchildren with her and to get to make some homemade cookies with them. But I know that will never be in this life. I find comfort in knowing that God is God and I am not. He knows what is best in His infinite wisdom and I don’t have to have all the answers to my questions. I just need to trust in Him.

This Christmas Eve and many before I have woken with Lamentations 3:22-24 on my heart:

Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, Therefore I hope in Him!”  

Celebrating 7 Years

2011-12-20T14:50:00.000-05:00

On December 18th, Brad and I celebrated being married for 7 years! Our awesome friends Joe and Trisha Pull gave us the gift of baby-sitting the kids on Friday night (the 16th...thanks friends!!!), so we could enjoy a special date together.

Brad made reservations for Clyde's, my new favorite restaurant. Everything we ate was INCREDIBLE (no exaggeration!). We had the Crab and Artichoke dip as an appetizer along with their famous Maryland Cream of crab soup. Both of the appetizers were very rich (delicious too) and extremely filling, so we knew that it was not likely that the both of us would be able to eat our own meal. So for our main course, we shared the Clyde's Classic, Trout Parm, a flash fried Parmesan crusted trout, with roasted red bliss potatoes, green beans and a ribbon of hollandaise sauce! It was fantastic as well. But more than the food, Brad and I enjoyed having quality time for just the two of us. I can't remember much of what we talked about, but we did a lot of laughing! It was a joyous occasion and a replenishing time for us.

(Brad and I went to extra lengths to get this photo taken of the two of us. I always try to carry a small camera in my purse (whether or not it has battery is another question!) but on accident I had left my camera in the van instead. Our van have been valet parked, so it was a little more complicated than just walking to the parking lot to get it. But my sweet hubby wanted to capture this memory for me, so he went outside and talked to the valet attendants. They told him it was parked down the street in a parking garage but they would get him there. So, Brad patiently waited around while they figured out the best way to get him over there. Next thing you know, there was an elderly couple who came up to get their car valet parked, and right after they were out of eye-sight, the attendant told Brad to hop in to get a ride to the parking garage! :-) They then drove our van back to the restaurant to a closer parking lot. It sure was a funny adventure!

Any one who has known me for any length of time knows that I am extremely sentimental! :-) So the night we celebrated our anniversary, I surprised Brad by wearing the same outfit I wore the night he asked me to be his wife.

He did such an amazing job to make the night of our proposal special. The day was January 8th, and I had worked a full day at my church in the baby nursery. It had been a long day, and I was pretty exhasted but I had a wonderful surprise awaiting for me in my car. When I opened the door of my green Ford Taurus, I discovered rose petals scattered all over my front seats and there was a poem awaiting me too. In it, Brad beautifully described God's plans for us and the journey He had planned for us.

I drove home to more surprises. When I got to my apartment and opened the door, I walked into the beautiful song by Christian artist, Cindy Morgan, "Make Us One" playing on my stereo. There were rose petals on the floor leading me into the living room where there was a heart of petals and the largest, most beautiful bouquet of red roses I have ever seen! There was a second poem that he wrote of his love for me and instructed for me to go to my bedroom where I discovered a skirt and blouse (what I am wearing in this photo) along with my mom's pearl necklace lying on my bed. (Several months before, I had wanted to wear my mom's pearls for a special date the two of us were going on but while Brad was helping me put it on, he accidently broke the strand. Without hesitation, Brad offered to take to a jeweler to get it fixed for me. He later told me that he decided that very day he was going to save my mom's pearls for the night he proposed to me!)

The last poem with my outfit told me he would like me to wear my mom's pearls and we would share dinner together that night. I was able to spend the next couple of hours preparing myself for a question that would forever change my life! :-) I took a bath, pampered myself a little, spent some time in God's Word, and wrote in my prayer journal. I was ready when my soon-to -be fiance came to my door to whisk me away for a proposal under the Century Tree at A&M's campus and a delicious dinner! It was one of my most favorite days of all of my life!

You may recognize this photo from Brad's birthday post for me, but here's a photo of us as young'uns the night before we were married at our rehearsal dinner! I wore the same dress that I wore the night he proposed here too! :-)

Back to our 7th Anniversary! We had a great waiter and he brought us this molten chocolate cake in celebration of our anniversary with a candle on top. :-)

It was absolutely delicious!

And it was the perfect ending to the celebration of our love and the gift of our marriage! :-)

I Heart Hot Cocoa

2011-12-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

Our little Miss Anna is very feisty and independent. She thinks she can do anything that big sisters Jillian and Faith do. She likes nothing more than to climb up onto Jillian's or Faith's bed and "read" books like they do, or climb up into "big sisters" car seats in the van (she no longer likes her "baby seat", but wants a booster!), or climb up the stairs to the second floor to do some mess-creating and exploring!

It is amazing to me how very much Anna is learning from her big sisters. She imitates them in nearly everything they do and then creates her own games to play too. She is entertaining to all our family and her big sisters are very indulgent toward their baby sister. They never like to see Anna sad, even when she needs to disciplined for being naughty, they tell me "she's a baby, mommy!" It's funny they call her a baby, because more often than not, she is acting like she's a SIX year old! I love my little, climbing munchkin! She brings so much joy and laughter to our lives!!

One day, I came upstairs to discover that Anna had created a bed with a pillow, blanket for three of her toys in my closet.
I love Anna's smile in this photo! She is so proud of herself and knows she has her daddy and me wrapped around her finger!

Anna giving sweet cuddles to "George", the monkey.

And some hugs too! She is a super affectionate little one.

"Uh, oh! Well this isn't right!" (Anna looks genuinely concerned for her baby.)

"All fixed now." (I am not sure what the problem was but she looks happy again.) She is a good momma to Mems, Baby, and George.

Then it was time for our favorite book reading! Anna has the longest attention span of any 20 month old I know. She will bring me over a dozen books for us to read in one sitting.

Another funny thing about Anna is I will tell Anna to say "thank you" and she will respond "welcome". Her talking has really taken off in the last month. She especially loves making animal sounds and calling her for her sisters by name!

After bath-time, reading our story, then we all had an indoor picnic in the family room on our beach towels (one of our girls all-time favorite special treats).

Caramel Apples

2011-12-07T18:26:00.000-05:00

I have had the pleasure of making caramel apples with my friend Michelle two times now. The first time we made them was the day of Jillian's field trip, the second time was last Friday. The first time we did it, it was a spontaneous decision and oh was it a good one! I had no doubt I would like them (I mean, who wouldn't?) but I was truly surprised by how much I enjoyed them! Brad was left speechless when he took a bite. All he could muster was, "I wasn't prepared...." :-)

The first step is to take off the stem of the apple and stick in apple sticks! The first key ingredient to amazing caramel apples are good apples. The Fuji apples pictured here were picked from the orchard (by Michelle's family) and were the perfect sweetness.

Then it is time to pick the toppings: Marshmallows, Almonds, Pretzels (that was my idea, Michelle had never done that before and it became her favorite!), M&M's, Reeses's candies, and mini chocolate chips.

Sweet Faith all smiles! On the 1st caramel apple day, Michelle and Lindsey had watched Faith and Anna for me from 8:00 in the morning until 2:30 PM. They had the greatest day together and it meant so much to me that the girls were with two people they love so much (Jillian was even a little tempted to skip her field-trip, she wanted to be with them too!).

Hooray! Dr. Smith made it home and gave the girls lots of hugs!

Michelle caramelizing the apples!

Then we put the candies on the caramel apples (including a couple of Rocky Road versions with chocolate chips and marshmallows). As a side note, I promise I helped make these, but I wanted to document the process too!

Then it was time to drizzle the apples with chocolate.

Meanwhile, Jillian and Lindsey were playing the piano together in the living room. I was so happy Jillian got to spend time with her beloved friend Lindsey!

The girls never tire of being at the the Smith's home! Faith was doing her best to be a helper as Michelle put the white chocolate in the microwave to melt.

They turned out amazing and tasted even better than they looked!

This past Friday, after recovering from not feeling well, I made my 2nd batch of apples with Michelle! I bought some Fuji apples from Safeway (that were not nearly as great as the orchard ones but still good), caramels, mini chocolate chips, almond bark chocolate and vanilla, and Michelle found some mini Christmas M&M's & Christmas Oreos for us to both use! They turned out beautifully. I Then I gave my 14 apples I made to ten Brad's colleagues, one to Jillian's teacher, and a couple for us to keep at home! Hooray for sweet treats for Christmas gifts and friends who allow me to use their great ideas (and kitchen too)!

Holiday Cheer

2011-11-30T17:50:00.000-05:00

I am NOT feeling well and I am praying that I will be better soon (I would appreciate any prayers from friends and family too). I am not getting much of anything done this week, except trying to survive each day, but even so, there have been some very special, meaningful gifts I have been given this week that I might not have experienced otherwise. :-)

On Monday morning, I made a doctor's appointment, and while I was leaving my house, I discovered this beautiful poinsettia on my front door step. My sweet friend Michelle (without even knowing how crummy I was feeling that day) brought me this beautiful flower for the Christmas holidays. It really brightened my day!

When I came home from the doctor on Monday morning, I found this note from Jillian on the floor. It says "Mom Fel [Feel] Better".

My sweet girls posing in front of the pretty flowers! :-)

I have continued to struggle with managing the pain, especially in the morning. So my amazing husband, Brad has been helping me get the girls ready and out the door and then has been staying later at work.

So on Tuesday morning, Brad dropped Faith off at Mother's Day Out and then went onto work. In the afternoon, I decided to leave an hour early (even though I was still not up to parr) to get a couple of errands done before picking Faith up. When I got in the car, I realized our van was completely on empty for gas (the light was on) but I thought I'll just go to Gaithersburg and fill her up there. Well, when I arrived at the gas station, I got my purse, opened it up, only to discover that I did not have my wallet in my purse.

It was an ugly, rainy day and according to my van, I could go only 5 miles more before I was going to be stuck on the side of the road. Thankfully, I found my checkbook and ran inside to the Exxon and asked the attendant if they took checks (of course I didn't have my I.D. to verify my name and address, but I look like an honest person, right?). Well, it didn't matter anyway, because the attendant told me that they do not take checks. I told him my predicament of leaving my wallet at home, being on empty, having my 20 month old, and not wanting to be stuck on the road (not to mention I was feeling super crummy).

So, much to my surprise, the nice man gave me $5 out of his pocket to pay for enough gas for me to get home! I called Brad a little later and told him the story and asked him to call the Exxon, so we could get his name and address. That very day, I sent him a Christmas card with our family's picture and a thank you note and re-paid him his $5. It filled me with a little holiday cheer to know that there are still strangers who are so kind! :-)

Jillian's 1st Field Trip

2011-11-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

The Friday after Halloween, Jillian and I went on her first school field trip together to Sharp's Farm!

Jillian, Sophia, and I sat on the third row. It was a great ride ( I was super nervous I would get bus-sick, but I didn't!). I especially enjoyed getting to talk Jillian's teacher during the bus-ride!

(This photo was taken from the kids classroom book about their field-trip! Mrs. C. had several books sitting out for parents to read while we waited for our conference time the following week.)

We made it to Sharp's Farm!

The first thing on our agenda was the corn maze. Here Noah, Sophia, Jillian, Daniel, Mrs. C., and John leading the way on our corn maze adventure.

We were given trivia questions about bats and bugs. And depending on our answer, we were told to go left or right on the trail. Did you know that bats are really NOT blind?

We completed the corn maze successfully! Hooray!

The kiddos I was assigned to watch over for the field trip! All four of them were great kids and the boys especially had me laughing!

It's a really blurry picture, but I love this photo of all the kids and me huddling together to try to stay warm! It was much colder day than we had anticipated!

I love being with my Jillian! It was a really special experience for me to get to go with Jillian on her 1st field trip.

Then it was time for us to get on the hay-ride. The kids sat in the middle of the wagon while the adults sat on the edge. I was so thankful that the teachers had that idea, because it was a crazy, bumpy ride!

It was a scenic ride...

with some unexpected adventures awaiting us. By far, of the MANY hay rides I have taken in my life-time this one was the most exciting!

Then the kids and I enjoyed a picnic on the blanket I brought along! I wish I had taken a photo of my pink lunch bag, because Jillian wrote "Mommy" on it for me. :-) We had identical lunches!

Then we went to go learn about the Pilgrims in the barn. First, we learned about "the three sisters" that the Pilgrims were taught to plant and grow from Squanto, the Native American. The three sisters are: 1) corn; 2) beans; 3) squash. We also learned that the Pilgrims drank only fermented drinks (wine and beer) on the Mayflower because water wasn't considered safe for them to drink.

Then we went outside to learn about the games that Pilgrim kids played!

Jett's mom took this photo of Jillian and Jett. Jett and Jillian ride the bus together and they are good friends. Jett LOVES Jillian and has told her several times now that he wants to marry her. Jillian good humoredly says, "NO!!! We're too little!" (P.S. If you look right behind Jillian's head, I am there smiling!!)

Then we learned about the Native Americans and some of their customs. Sophia was chosen to beat the drums for the presentation and did a great job. (She is wearing Jillian's hat because as I mentioned before, it was a C-O-L-D day and Jillian didn't want to wear it!)

Jillian really enjoyed her field-trip and learned a lot of things too!

Then we went to the final presentation of learning of what a woman Pilgrim would do in her home. We learned that she stuffed grass into duvet sheets every night to make "mattresses".

At one point, she asked the kids if they knew the one book the Pilgrims took with them on the Mayflower. I tapped Jillian because I thought she knew the answer (but didn't give her the answer!) and she raised her hand and said "Little House on the Prairie"! (We have been reading that together at night, but clearly that wasn't the answer the Pilgrim lady was looking for!) After a few more children raised their hands and got it wrong too, a little girl named Alexandra answered it right with the Bible! When we got home, it sparked a great conversations between Jillian and me. We talked about the Pilgrims seeking religious freedom in coming to the New World!

Halloween 3- Dressing Up with Friends

2011-11-21T13:30:00.001-05:00

We had an array of yummy goodies for Halloween night. We had apples with caramel dip, chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting (made by the girls and me), Nacho Cheese and Beef Chimis with salsa and sour cream, pumpkin cookies (made by Michelle), pumpkin pie, and chocolate peanut butter blondies (made by Julie).

We took a traditional group photo on our front steps. From the front row and left to right: Ava, Annie, Ellie, Faith, Andrew, Aliyah, Theia, Jillian, Xandra, Joey, Anna, and Bennett

They were an adorable group of kids!

Trick-Or-Treat! We went to a couple dozen houses in the neighborhood and the kids were thrilled with all the candy they got in their goodie bags. The Glenn family joined us while we were out and the Pull family had to leave shortly after we were done. Then we went back to our house to pass out candy to the other trick-or-treaters.

The kids took over the job of passing out the candy while the parents munched on goodies. I think they had more fun passing out candy than they did getting candy! And to add to the fun, Jillian even saw some of her classmates that night!

Ellie as Spiderman was a great entertainer to all the girls. They all got the giggles!

Faith enjoying apple cider and Jon enjoying some coffee

Brian ( I am a little disappointed you don't get to see Brian's Indiana Jones costume!), Jon, Brad, and Andrew hanging out

"Mems" (my birthday bear dressed up as a fall scare-crow), Naomi (and Lucy too), Lindsey, me, and Julie talking on the couch

Then we tried to get an indoor group picture of all the kids in their costumes.

Bennett hanging in the photo while Naomi tried to make room for Anna on the end of the couch

This is the best photo we could come up of all the kids together!

It was a fun 2nd Halloween for little Anna!

Halloween 2- The Jack-O-Lantern Gospel Story

2011-11-21T13:30:00.000-05:00

"On the outside a pumpkin looks good and strong and beautiful.But, after cutting off the top, we look inside and see that it is full of slimygunk. Similarly, on the outside, we may look good, but God can see inside ourheart. "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks atthe outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7b).

"All of us have "gunk" inside. The Bible tells us, "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). As we remove the inside of the pumpkin, we can share the Good News! The Bible teaches, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). God can make us clean on the inside! As we carve a happy face on the pumpkin, we are reminded that we should smile and be thankful for God's great goodness and love. The Bible says: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:5)."

While Brad was busy cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin, Jillian asked her Daddy, “How long does it take for God to clean us out?” How exciting to know that our 6 year old was understanding the symbolism of the pumpkin. Brad said, “I’ll tell you how long”. SNAP. Brad snapped his fingers and said “That long”. Jillian was AMAZED by his answer! It is the gift of Jesus’s life, through death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead that we are saved by His grace.

(Brad wants me to add that we interpreted Jillian’s question as “How long does it take to be right with God?” i.e. justification. Sanctification, where our words, thoughts and deeds really do become like Christ, is a life-long journey).

Anna hanging out with Mr. Jon and Miss Julie

As we place a candle or a light inside the pumpkin, we can explain that Jesus doesn't want to leave us empty inside; He wants to fill our hearts with His love and His light. "For God, who said, `Let light shine out of darkness,' made His light shine in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 4:6a). And remember, we need to let our light shine for others to see, so they too can know Heaven's eternity. "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

"I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19)."

Halloween Part 1- The 1st Trick-or-Treat

2011-11-21T13:00:00.000-05:00

Anna looking at daddy over mommy's shoulder with a big smile! So Sweet!

Mommy's little flower Anna

Mommy, our two princesses, and flower

Knock, Knock! Trick-or-Treat Please! :-)

Michelle invited us to come over for our 1st treat or treat house and made each of the girls a gift bag with a cute outfit, a mini princess doll, and some candy! The girls were so excited.

Michelle even got me a Halloween gift too! I got a French rolling pin for all the baking we do together. I love how Michelle makes every holiday so special.

Faith, Michelle, Anna, and Jillian

Faith smiling with her new Belle doll!

We had so much fun with the Smith's that we were a little late getting home for our expected trick-or-treat guests! Brad was a little anxious about it.

But then his determination kicked in, we can do this!

I was laughing so hard, there were tears running down my cheeks.

We didn't make it by 6:00 PM, but we were only a minute late. (Thankfully my van clock is 2 minutes fast). :-)

Washington D.C. Horse Show

2011-11-19T07:30:00.000-05:00

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
- G. K. Chesterton

The week after our wonderful experience horse back riding, I discovered that the Washington D.C horse show was coming the following weekend to the Verizon Center! So as a surprise for the girls I decided to buy our family discounted tickets to go Saturday on "family day". Little did I know at the time that it was going to be one of the coldest, and wettest days for us to make the trek to D.C.!

I thought Faith looked cute with her Hello Kitty coat and matching umbrella! :-)

We parked at the NIH and took the Metro from the Medical Center. Here are some fun photos of our family while we were riding down to the trains in the elevator:

Jillian wearing her fleece, coat, hat and gloves and it was still October! I am a little concerned what this coming winter is going to look like. I am guessing, it's going to be really cold!

Brad is such a good guy. Even if his face looks a little scared in this photo, he's always up for an adventure.

My sweet girls and I ready for the fun to begin!

The fun always starts for us on the Metro train! There were delays on the railways, but we we were prepared and brought Little House on the Prairie, and some reading flashcards to pass the time.

I love sweet Anna's smile.

The first thing we did when we arrived at the Horse Show was get the big girls tattoos for their hands!

Then Jillian took a photo with a "horse" and showed off her "I Love Horses" tattoo.

Faith was a little more serious with the horse but gave a small grin.

Little Anna did NOT like the horse at all! I am not sure if it was the horses's big eyes, her big nose, or what but she was not a fan.

Jillian and Faith gave the horse a big good-bye hug.

Then Jillian played a game of horse-shoes.

She did a really great job and even got a few in the basket.

Then it was Faith's turn to throw the horse-shoes.

She is a little shorter than Jillian, and it was a difficult game, so the sweet lady gave her a lift to help her try to get the horse-shoe into the basket. Both of them won prizes for their good effort.

Then it was horse-shoe painting time.

The girls enjoying their lollipops while walking to our seats! (It was a sweet tread day, because they also were given a complimentary Georgetown chocolate cupcake!)

Daddy and Anna at the horse show!

First, we watched a showing of horses. The horses did walking, trotting, cantering, and galloping.

Then we had a short intercession for the next competition to be set up. Anna had a good time just hanging out.

Here the riders are walking the course to see what their horses are going to jump in the competition.

It was really amazing and beautiful to watch the horses get all four of their legs off the ground at the same time. ( I am not eloquent at describing what the horses were doing but to learn more about horse shows, I found this web-site Horse Shows 101. )

Anna eating some caramel popcorn.

I really enjoyed seeing all the names of the horses. One of the horses for instance was named "Firework". I thought that was a great horse name.

After the show, we went and did some exploring of some restaurants (that were in walking distance) that we were given coupons for at the horse show.

It was a few block walk, but it was completely worth the cold walk, because we discovered the BEST BBQ place in all of D.C. (and we have been to several because of our family mission to find good BBQ in our new home).

The name of the restaurant is Hill Country after the Texas Hill Country (where Brad and I honeymooned)! It was a really nice, casual restaurant.

We loved all their Texas Memorabilia.

And their food was AMAZING! Already, I am looking forward to going back sometime soon! It will be worth the trip.

Then we made our journey back home on the trains. Little Anna was exhausted by the time we got on the train and took a little cat nap in her stroller.

When we got back to the NIH, I had to go through security to get back on campus, and the girls looked at one of their new My Little Pony books from the horse show.

It was extremely COLD when we got back to the NIH (by the way, the building above is where Brad works now). I love this picture of Faith running with her umbrella hanging down.

Faith had light sprinkle of snow in her hair.

And we got home we were in for a big surprise when we discovered there was snow all over our car....

and our flowers too! It was a fun adventure and one I would do again in a heartbeat. But I was thankful to get home to a warm house that afternoon. We had a pizza night that evening and played a couple of rounds of Sequence for Kids too. It was a good day of adventures and fun.

Frosting Surgery

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Tuesday night before Halloween, the Smith and Holmes girls performed "frosting surgery" on pumpkins with two gifted doctors (their Dads! :-)). Both men were extremely talented with their frosting knives and it was a super fun, memorable night!

The cookie bonanza was not just a one day event for the GIRLS. After school the day before, Jillian, Faith, Anna and I went over and helped bake the cookies with Michelle and Lindsey. We were all ready the next day to decorate our hearts out. It was a couple of really fun cookie days.

(A photo of the cookie decorating table with all the yummy goodies. Michelle has multiple pumpkin cookie cutters, so we had several different types of pumpkin cookies!)

Faith and Michelle

All ready for the cookie fun!

My daughter has amazing talent for stacking frosting up really high on a cookie. I don't think I have ever seen cookies loaded with more frosting than the ones Faith decorated. She is a girl after my own heart, if only I were four again! :-)

Faith was a happy girl in "cookie heaven". There were a couple of times when I saw her sticking her fingers into the frosting and then licking them! We decided Faith could have that whole bowl of white frosting to herself! :-)

Anna dropped a few sprinkles on her shirt and didn't want them to go to waste...they were yummy!

More sprinkles for Anna's tummy!

Jillian was very meticulous with her cookie decorating. She did a fantastic job making her pumpkin cookies look pretty.

Lindsey and Faith enjoying the camaraderie of decorating cookies together.

I love this photo of Michelle and Anna. Michelle had just finished decorating a really cute pumpkin cookie and Anna thought it looked really yummy. So....Anna decided she needed to rake her fingers all through the frosting to get a good taste! :-) Michelle loved every minute of it!

Brad was proud of his cookie creations!

Reed has had a lot of practicing decorating cookies over the years; he was THE cookie decorating speed-machine!

Lauren, Michelle, and frosting covered Anna

I was proud of of my simple cookie creations too. They were especially delicious with the white chocolate chips on top!

As always, all of our family enjoyed our time with our sweet friends.

Sugar Loaf Mountain

2011-11-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

Brad and Brian studying the map and deciding which trail we should all take.

They quickly got it all figured out! :-)

I am telling you this was the "easy" part of the trail. I didn't get any of photos of the treacherous parts. During that time, I was trying my best to help Faith climb up the rocks and praying to the Lord that He would keep us alive!

Back to the fun part, there were beautiful views while we were climbing the mountain.

Anna and Brad enjoyed the climb together, but Brad was super sore the next day! (For that matter, I was sore the next day too. While we were climbing, I didn't realize how much strength and endurance it was taking, but the next day I did.)

Bennett and Brian: The experts on this sort of thing!
The Pierson's continue to inspire us to do more and more outdoor adventures with them! It has been really great.

Faith and Annie had a little more trouble keeping up with their big sisters, but overall, they did a really good job. (You can see Jillian and Ellie resting on some rocks while they waited for the rest of us.)

The girls taking another rest together on a fallen tree. Faith fell down while we were in the parking lot, but thankfully, Mrs. Lindsey had her MOPS emergency kit with her and gave Faith a nice "purply- blue" band-aid. :-)

Anna wanted to be in the photo with all the girls too, so Lindsey and I joined the photo too!

Then some other people were on the trail and saw us taking photos and asked if we wanted a photo of our whole group. We said "Yes!" and we got this great photo! I could NOT believe that everyone, (even Anna and Bennett) was looking at the camera!

When we made it to the top of the mountain, the kids did not care about the view. Instead, they were ready for some snacks!

The dads helping the kids get something in their tummies.

Anna and Bennett

A view from the top, it was less dramatic than I thought it would be, but still very beautiful!

Mommy and Anna at the top

The easier path down the mountain included steep stairs.

I was a little nervous about Faith going down the stairs (especially with her having already fallen down a couple times that day), so Mrs. Lindsey offered to carry Faith down. I thanked Lindsey profusely when we got down for carrying Faith. Lindsey told me she really enjoyed the time she shared with Faith. She said Faith was such a sweet girl and they had some great conversations together. :-)

After we got down the mountain, the boys went to go get our vans (which were pretty far away, because we had taken another trail down than we had up). During that the girls and the mommies went and explored some rock castles with more beautiful views.

It was a beautiful fall day to explore Sugar Loaf Mountain with friends.

A Game of Uno

2011-11-16T07:30:00.000-05:00