Turkey Day 2010

Our little navigator on his first road trip to Kansas.

After the turkey at Uncle Roy & Aunt Renee's House in Kansas City.

My cousin Tony's little boy, Jake.  He is my little buddy and I wish I could be around him more.  When we got to their house, he was outside and was yelling, "Kayla's here!  Kayla's here!"  Warmed my heart.

 

Every year on Thanksgiving night, we head down to the Country Club Plaza in KC.  A massive crowd gathers.  Christmas music blares.  Everyone is bundled up.  A celebrity comes out on the stage.  They grab a random child from the crowd.  The countdown begins...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...and....

 

That's what you get.  At the flick of a switch, 80 miles of Christmas lights (about 280,000 bulbs) light up the plaza.  This is what marks the beginning of my Christmas season and I was so glad that Luis was there to share it with me this year.

 

We even took Tanner.  He liked being so warm and cozy.  Pretty sure he was the warmest one out of the five of us.  However, he did help to make a memory that I won't share on here.  :-)

 

The celebrities that turn on the lights are people who are from the KC area.  Some of the ones from the past have been Tony Gonzalez, George Brett, Kate Spade, David Cook, Trent Green, Chris Sadakis, and so forth.  This year we got to watch two running backs from the Chiefs: Thomas Jones and Jaamal Charles lead the countdown.  That's them up there in the picture in the leather jacket (Charles) and on the far left (Jones).

 

After the lights come on and the Christmas spirit has filled all of us, we head to my absolute favorite KC BBQ place...GATES!!

Then it's home to Topeka.

Ambience Floral Design

I have our florist and I am thrilled!  I met with the caterer the other night and she mentioned Ambience Floral Design.  The owner of this in-home floral business is Liz Ash.  The cool thing?  Liz is a founder of my school and  also did the flowers for my cousin Mandy's wedding (that was actually her first wedding to do flowers for!).

She is so talented and understands EXACTLY what I want.  I am so thankful that we are going to be able to use her.

Check out her gift here.  I think you'll see why I love her so much.

Catch Up

Oh brother!  I am NOT good at this blogging thing!  I will be posting some pictures soon from Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Here's a little taste:

Life with a Capital "L"

Today at church marked the final day of Pastor Matt's series on the book of John.  It was an incredible series that lasted 4 years.  Yes.  4 years.  A total of 71 sermons and 9 series within that series.  Church started off with the worship band rocking out to "The Final Countdown" as they wore rock n' roll wigs and head banged to the music.

They did a little skit in which they talked about what our world was like in 2006 when he started this series.  For instance, gas was $1.78 a gallon, YouTube had just started getting popular, and Carrie Underwood's song "Jesus Take the Wheel" was at the top of the charts!

I started thinking about how my own Life has changed since the series started,  I was still in my 20s. I was in my 5th year of teaching at CMCA and teaching 3rd grade.  I went back to teaching 4th grade.  I became Assistant Principal.  I became extremely sick and went through 2 surgeries in 4 months.  I was diagnosed with a pre-existing condition...Crohns Disease.  I dated and went through unspeakable heartbreak that I thought I would never have to go through.  I turned 30.  I met a man who loves me more than anything in the world.  He has seen me at my absolute worst.  He loves the Lord and he has asked me to be his wife for Life.

As we sang a song called "Everything," (by Tim Hughes) tears started welling up in my eyes as I recalled all of the above and how it related to the sermon series we were finishing up.

God in my living 

There in my breathing 

God in my waking 

God in my sleeping 

God in my resting 

There in my working

God in my thinking 

God in my speaking 

Be my everything 

Be my everything 

Be my everything 

Be my everything 

God in my hoping 

There in my dreaming 

God in my watching 

God in my waiting 

God in my laughing 
There in my weeping 
God in my hurting 
God in my healing 

Christ in me 
Christ in me 
Christ in me the hope of glory 
You are everything 

Christ in me 
Christ in me 
Christ in me the hope of glory 
Be my everything

Here is something that Pastor Matt wrote in our bulletin today...

"Life.  It's defined by many people in many ways.  Is it merely when cells are reproducing and a heart is beating?  Every one of us has a deafening hunch that there's more to the depth and dance of life than mere physical and scientific definitions.  But where do we turn for a greater, fuller, more accurate and credible understanding?...Through John's first-hand observation and experience of Jesus Christ...through his relationship with Him...through His inspired words, we meet Jesus, the Author of Life and the Redeemer of our lives.  He beckons us with an invitation.  With a call.  With a summons:  "Trust Me and you'll taste LIFE as it is meant to be lived."  And as we trust Him, we discover that receiving the LIFE He promises is impossible without following Him on a Path that is anything but easy."

This really hit home to me and made me realize what He was doing in my Life and what he wants to continue doing in my Life even though at times it will NOT be easy but because He loves us he will cover us under His umbrella of Grace and walk with us side by side in the sun and the storms.

Here is our Life Math:

   Jesus Christ (the object of our faith) 

+ Believing (the step of our faith) 

 LIFE with a capital L (the result of our faith)

Go ahead...start living your

LIFE 

with a Capital L!

It's totally worth it.

Reception Site...Check

We have the Fine Arts Center's glass corridor and courtyard set for our reception!  Check out the pictures.  We are THRILLED!

Random

So right after we got Tanner, Luis took off for a 2 week training mission.  We sure did miss him, but Tanner and I got SUPER close.  He follows me EVERYWHERE and will sometimes whine when I'm not holding him.  He's getting better on that...shew!

I took him to school with me one night.  He really enjoyed being my little helper.  His favorite place to lay was on my desk between my arms as I was typing on my computer.  He was the hit of the school that night.

He also had his first doctor's visit where he broke the scales at a whopping 3.4 pounds and got some shots.

One night we went to Uncle Jon and Aunt Sandi's for dinner.  Avery and Ashton were there in their Halloween costumes.  They LOVED playing with Tanner all night long and he LOVED playing with them too!  Ashton jumped right into Tanner's crate with her Tigger costume on and all.

This little girl LOVES the little Tan Man.

New Goal

Ok...so I've been pretty bad with this blogging thing.  I really do want to be good at it.  There a lot of fun times coming up that I need to document to share with my family some day.

New goal...be a better blogger.