Christmas Traditions

I know it is a little early to be talking about Christmas, but it is only 39 days away, AHHHHH! I have several traditions I like to do with the kids during the Christmas season, but I would like to do a few more. After all, the kids will only be little once and Christmas only comes once a year! My boys have always loved going to visit the Cottrell Farm (only a few miles from our house), they have 1000's of lights and it is FREE to drive through and see all of them. They also love to go to TPA Park for the Festival of Lights, which is here in town, it is FREE too. I try to make it to Lafayette to see the Living Nativity at the First Baptist Church (SR 26 --where Michelle & Rodney Krick attend), which is an AWESOME production and is FREE! There is always the Frankfort Christmas Parade that is on the first Saturday of December, and yep, it's FREE. Do you get that I like those events that are FREE? HA! Anyways, I would like to take advantage of some more events and add them to our traditions. Jerry DOES NOT enjoy these types of things, so I feel it is my "motherly duty" to do them with the kids, so they will have "traditons" to remember. I don't have too many tradtions that I remember while growing up, but I do recall the beautiful house in Mt. Pleasant we would always go see, and...Dad would drive is through the sub-divisions to see all the pretty lights if we begged him enough : ) My point is... I would like to know if anyone knows of any other Christmas events within an hour of us, that would be FREE or inexpensive? I would love to take the kids to the Brownsburg Living Christmas Tree, but couldn't find the details on their site yet. If you know of any events that we would enjoy, please pass them on.


P.S. Frankfort is having its first "Christmas Around the World" take a look at what all will be going on!

Christmas Around the World Will Be On the Square Downtown Frankfort
Come join all of the Holiday Fun Downtown Frankfort Saturday December 1st from 3:00-8:00pm. It all kicks off with the Reindeer 5K Walk/Run at the Courthouse. You will run or walk out to and through the beautiful lights of the TPA Park and then back downtown. The race starts at 4:15 with the "Rudolph Romp" a race for kids starting right after the 5K begins. Then make sure you stay for our first ever night time "Expressions in Light" Parade beginning at 6:00pm.You will see floats celebrating the traditions of Christmas from around the world. The downtown merchants will greet you with special savings and sweet treats. You might as well plan on eating downtown that evening. Restaurants will be serving dishes representing the different taste of the world. A living Nativity will also be on display and don't forget jolly ole Santa will spark your holiday senses. Live music and strolling Carolers will top off the evening. So don't miss it Saturday December 1st.

Happy 76th Birthday Dad

Dad in FL 5/07

I know my Dad will probably never see this (since he has no clue how to even turn a computer on), but I would still like to wish him a Happy Birthday! He is the BEST Dad in the world as far as I'm concerned! I am very greatfull to have such a wonderful father that has taken the way of Holiness and that has passed that heritage onto our family! He is a very loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather! There's no doubt he loves God and his family! We are so proud to say we "belong" to him and that he can say the same about us. He has a crazy streak to him, as well as, a stubborn streak in him. I guess I come by my stubbornness rightfully : ) We love you Dad and want to wish you the best birthday ever, we wish we could be there to celebrate with you! We hope to see you in a couple weeks!

Love your baby,

Niece

Mom & Dad with me and Kallee-FL 5/07

Papa helping Kallee play golf
Mom & Dad waiting with us at the airport (their first flight ever)!

Papa & Keegan watching fireworks 7/06

Talon, Papa, CJ & Keegan at Papa's "sugar shack", making maple syrup 3/06!

Papa and his girls, CJ & Kallee, they are wearing the dresses he bought them for Christmas '05 (he bought all the little girls matching dresses that year)!

Dad acting silly at Keegan's kindergarten graduation party 5/07!

Meeting Baby Maverick

Today was my day off this week, the kids were out of school and feeling well and the weather was absolutely beautiful! So...after our Parent Teacher Conference, we headed to Anderson to meet baby Maverick (my nephew)! He is so tiny and sooo precious! His skin was so soft and sweet smelling, there's nothing nicer to smell than a baby that has been bathed in baby lotion : ) Of course, my kids couldn't wait to hold him and fought a little to see who was going to get to hold him first. We started with Kallee because she was so patient on the 1hr.+ drive, so she got to hold Mag-gick (as she first called him) first. She thought he was pretty special! Next was Talon, then Keegan and finally I got my turn : ) Mary & CJ hadn't ate lunch yet, so we all loaded up and headed to Mc D's. The kids had a blast in the play area and me and my sis got to catch up some. Of course I got a little more "baby holdin' time in" too, LOL! After taking them home, we decided it was time to head back to our home and so we did. We no more than got out of the city limits and it started to rain. It rained and poured the whole trip home, which didn't make for a fun trip. Oh well, we made it home safe (thank the Lord) and we sure enjoyed meeting baby Maverick. Ya did good Mary & John ; )

Precious baby boy--Maverick
CJ and her sweet baby brother!

Kallee holding him for the first time!

Talon and his baby cousin

Keegan thought he was pretty sweet!

I don't know if he enjoyed meeting us, as much as we did him, or not? HA!

Kallee and Ronald

CJ takin' a break to pose with Ronald McDonald

Talon acting like a goof-ball, AGAIN!

Keegie enjoying his time on Ronald's lap!

P.S. Parent Teacher Conference went great, the boys are doing just fine!

Fall Fun

Last weekend was a very busy weekend, but once my bazaar was done and the cleaning was under-way for fellowship, I looked outside to see this...

Kallee LOVED playing like she was asleep in
the leaves!

Talon started all the fun, but it didn't take long before they all were out jumping in the leaves!

This was Kallee's first time playing in the leaves, she had so much fun she wouldn't hardly stay out of them long enough, for the boys to play in them.

What a goof-ball!

Kallee thought Oreo would enjoy the leaves, but...she didn't : )

Keegan was the last one out the door, but he was also the last to come in!

Keegie Gets Glasses

My little man, Keegan (AKA Keegie or Keegie Weegie), got glasses a couple weeks ago! I took him to the pediatrician to have his year exam and she told me he was seeing 20/40. She told me if he was having any trouble with reading, I might want to take him to the eye doctor. As many of you know, he doesn't enjoy reading and is kind of slow at it. I thought it was all because he was being lazy! So much for that theory, HA! Needless to say, I took him to the eye doctor (Dr. Samuel Powers) the very next week. Dr. Powers was AWESOME!!! He was very patience with him and did a ton of tests on him. The end results --- blue, oval shaped, wired rimmed glasses : ) I tried to talk him into gold or silver, but NO he wanted the blue ones. Now I'm not a parent that gives into my child's every wish or demand, but I wanted him to be TOTALLY happy with his selections, so it would make him feel good about having them. I know some kids get a real complex over these kind of things, so...He loves them and says "everything is bigger when I read", YEAH!!! He is doing some better on his reading too, thank the LORD! We talked to him about other kids making fun of him at school and I told him to talk to his teacher if anyone made fun of him, because "IT WOULD NOT BE TOLERATED" by us or her!!! Jerry gave him some advice too, "punch them in the nose if they call you 4-eyes". Thanks Dad for the reinforcing what I had to say : ) UGH! Wouldn't you know, his Daddy and brother were the first ones to call him 4-eyes, so I held them down so Keegie could get a couple good punches in! So far, only a couple kids have made negative comments, so I think that is pretty good. He said DaNae Durgan said she liked them, so we told him that he needed to stick with her and the others in his class with them, cause they understand how it feels and how much better they can see with them : )

Here is "Miss Hollwood Kallee" showing off her new glasses that she got from her Great-Grandpa Hysel! She seen me taking a picture of Keegan and his new glasses and she said "me too"! I think she looks adorable in them, if I must say so myself :-)

Indianapolis Children's Museum

Yesterday was Keegan's 1st field trip for the year, so I made sure that I could go with him. I know I probably won't be able to go on all his field trips, but I want him to know I am interested in him and the things he is involved with at school. We went to the children's museum in Indy, it was a pretty fun day! Of course it wasn't as calm this time as it was last year, there were tons of school groups there, ugh! All in all, the day went fine and the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves. I rode with my friend Sara and her little girl Kerrigan, Keegan and his friend Samuel rode too. That was supposed to be our group to keep our eye on, but we welcomed Beth Wilhelm and her gang (Ethan Wilhelm, Dylan Waggoner & Jeffery Durgan) as well as, Tamra Gray and her 3 children (Hannah, Hayden & Holden). It was quite exciting to keep up with those rambunctious kids! Us ladies sure got our workout running after them : )

Keegan enjoyed playing with the trains!

This is what Keegan's name looked like when using hieroglyphs!

L to R: Samuel, Kerrigan, Hannah & Keegan

Ethan & Keegan enjoying the carousal!

Emily

Kerrigan enjoying tea with the 3 bears!

Baby Maverick is Here

Introducing...Maverick Bryant Baker

Some of you know my sister Mary, and her husband, John Baker. They welcomed their 2nd child into this big world, this morning at 3:37. She wasn't due for another couple weeks, but she went into the hospital yesterday afternoon and they decided to induce her. All went well and little Maverick Bryant Baker was born! He weighed 8 lbs. and 12 ozs. and he measured 21" in length. I talked with my BIL, John a little while ago and their daughter, CJ hadn't seen him yet. Her Mamaw Baker was going to take her up to the hospital in awhile he said. I don't have any pictures yet, but I will post some as soon as I get some. Congrats Mary & John on your baby boy, we can't wait to see him and hold him!