FULL…

The girl’s picture this year makes me feel so FULL!  Full of joy, full of many, many thoughts of battles overcome, full of anticipation of what their futures hold, full of excitement because we have been given the wonderful priviledge of taking care of these girls on this earth, and mostly full of responsibility of making sure these beautiful girls know not only how much we love them but how much more that once little baby who we celebrate at CHRISTmas loves them and not only that He loves them but that He wants all of them no matter what that may mean.  I am afraid that not only do we lose sight of CHRIST at CHRISTmas but that we lose sight of Christ every day.  A preached one of the most powerful sermons I have EVER heard on Sunday and it was not the sweet story of a precious baby being born but it was the realization that we romanticize Christ and His story and our responsibilities as Christians and we sugar coat the gospel and in the meantime people around us die and go to a real place called hell every day.  Why celebrate the birth of Christ if we don’t live like His birth has any effect on us or this world?  That same baby died a terrible death on a cross so we can live eternally with Him if we choose HIM.  Do we live like we choose Him? Really choose Him in everything we do? Do we live like we care if others choose Him?  So, I want my focus this year and every year to not just be the birth of Christ but what that birth really meant and how I live my life every day to celebrate His birth, His death and everything he requires from us.  I pray that we will live so that our girls know it is not easy to be called a CHRISTian but it is worth every minute and it is necessary! 

WE LOVE YOU ALL AND MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HALL’S!

Life is a Party!

And I’m too tired to party to much at this point in my life!

Here’s the rundown:

Wednesday:  Happy Birthday Jesus Party for Awana in conjunction with the Awana store.  The kids earn points each night of Awana and then receive Awana bucks for their points and we do a store 2 times a yr for them to spend their bucks.  I think next time will be easier but shopping for and pricing that much stuff was a job!  It went really well though and now we are on a 2 week much needed Awana break!  Last night when I gave our numbers at Business Meeting I realized that every month our avg has gone up by 4 each month.  Praise the Lord!  We also voted last night to do some renovations to our upstairs and create another classroom.  We have a committee looking at additional options for space as well.  Exciting times but we covet your prayers because these can be trying times in a church as well.  Pray for unity and for us to follow God’s direction and not our own.

Thursday:  Awana Leaders Christmas Party at our house.  We had Veggie Soup and White Chili along with bread and for dessert oreo truffles, chocolate chip cream cheese dip with pirouettes and Paula Deen’s Red Velvet Cupcakes.  I was about as stressed as I have ever been!  A had a meeting for most of the day out of town so he was not there to help me and because I was working on the Awana stuff the days before and we had a death in our church so we had that Tues nt and Wed so it was hectic but I LOVE having people in our home and it all worked out fine and we had a great time.  I had asked everyone to have a testimony from Awana and it was a sweet time of sharing what God has done in our church. 

Can you believe I have NO pics from either of these events.  Believe it!  NONE!  I wish I did though:(

Friday:  I am Sallie’s room mom (one day I will learn to say no!).  No, really I enjoy it and somebody has to do it!  So, I was in charge of her Christmas party.  Ell’s school decides to have their UIL awards ceremony on that Fri as well.  The ceremony starts at 12 and I have to be at Sallie’s school at 12:30 to get ready for her party.  Thankfully Ell’s award were in the beginning so I saw her and left A and the girls there to catch a ride and I jetted to the Elem School.  Can I just vent for a minute?  I just can not understand parents sometimes!  There were so many parents and grandparents and you name it in that classroom you could not move!  However, when I collected money for the party I got a whopping $10!  My tired ugly mind thought I know they are not about to want to eat!  Yes, I thought it and yes, I am documenting it!  Just being real!  I have to say though that none of them tried to eat!  Probably a good thing cause this party woman was TIRED and I told Ell I might have been slappin’ hands!  They ate and went through their stockings which had gifts in them from each classmate and then we played a game which I planned for them (and of course did not work as planned!)  Maybe I can do better for our Valentines Party!  We did manage to get a few pics of Friday’s events and it is a good thing because it all seems like a blur! 

Total of 3 medals and 1 ribbon!

Sallie, Hanna, and I am not sure of the other little girls name.  She jumped into the picture with them.  Sallie had been crying.  She gets upset if we come to the school and do not leave with her and I guess she thought we were going to leave her.  Notice the reindeer noses.  These were part of the game.  Sallie began to cry when we started playing the game.  Maybe she was crying because her mama was in her school telling her what to do! 

Whew!  Glad all that is over!  We have a busy week this week and I am not finished shopping.  In fact, I have a good bit left to do which is unlike me but it is what it is.  However, I am determined to not get too stressed and to focus on what CHRISTmas really is and to make sure my children are not warped by what this world says Christmas is!

Keepin’ Up With Little Sis!

Elleigh could not be outdone by Sallie with the awards so she had to go win a couple!  On Thursday she competed in her first UIL competition.  UIL stands for University Interscholastic League and it is a program in Texas in which students try out for different academic competitions and 4 from each grade are chosen for the various competitions.  They then prepare and compete against students from other schools.  The competition our school was in was made up of about 10  schools.  We took 1st place overall!  Elleigh won 2nd place in Listening.  She is a good listener (most of the time!) and that is a very good thing to be!  She also placed 4th in Spelling.  I can say, she got that from me!  A would agree!  In High School the top 6 places go on to compete at the regional and state level.  We are very proud of her!  She has experienced some huge transitions at a very tough age and she could have easily said she didn’t want to do any of this but she jumped in there and gave it a shot and did really well. 

I got this shot after she got home.  No awards in hand.  They do their awards ceremony for this at the end of the year. 

Toddlers Thoughts Thursday

Millie: "You know how you say flip flop in Spanish?"
Us: "How Mill?"
Millie: "Flip Flop!"

Conversation in the car this week (Millie has a play phone that Lizzie wants):
Lizzie (after begging a while for the phone): "Millie, I will give you $10 for that phone"
Millie: "OK"
Lizzie hands pretend "$10" to Millie
Millie takes it
Lizzie: "Give me the phone"
Millie: "No, that was only a 4 dollar"

I overheard this last night at Awana while Millie was in class doing her memory verse:
Millie: "For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son John 3:16 when are we eating those cheetos" ALL IN ONE BREATH!
She knew her verse but apparently had the cheetos in the room on her mind!

New Girls and THE Tradition

Apparently for years and years and years the banks in our town have a Christmas Open House on the first Friday of December.  EVERYONE knows about it!  Part of that tradition is that the dancers dance in the bank lobby during that time.  So because of Lizzie and Millie taking dance we learned about the tradition.   Once again, we looked very NEW as we tried to figure out how all this worked! 

The girls had practiced their Christmas dances for a while and were excited to “dance at the bank.”  Because I know them, I knew the excitement would last until the front door of the bank.  Actually Lizzie is hard to judge because she is not as shy as she was but she can be.  Millie has done great in dance and loves it but she is still really shy in a crowd so I expected her to not dance. 

We had rehearsal the night before.  Lizzie was very quite and had a really somber look but she danced (although not very into it!) and Millie got up there and about 3 seconds into the first dance burst into tears.

Waiting to start on rehearsal night.  No tears YET! Millie with her group.  Tears are beginning to form!  BUT she is PRECIOUS!!!Lizzie dancing   She likes tap best 

    Taking her bowMillie did get her picture made afterwards.  She is the youngest who takes dance and since she was just beginning her teacher wanted her to start with ballet only first and then see if she could progress to tap.  So last week when I picked her up from dance class she had tap shoes on and her teacher said she was ready for tap and that she knew the tap dance the entire group was doing and was welcome to do it with them.  At rehearsal after she cried during ballet, I asked if she wanted to do the reindeer dance (tap) and she said no but when she realized after they did it that she did not get reindeer antlers she told me she would do it on Friday and for me to get her reindeer antlers.  OK!  We’ll see about that!  Lizzie with the somber face On the way home, Millie says, “I cried tonight because I didn’t want to dance but I want to dance tomorrow and I am not going to cry”  Bless her!  She didn’t want to cry!  Fast forward to Friday…  Same scenario and crying.  Didn’t do ballet or tap.  Oh well…   BUT she is PRECIOUS!!!

And then there was Lizzie!  She got out there and first started picking her nose!  Yes, my child was THAT child!  I still can not believe that Lizzie of all my children did that!  It was like she was zoned out from all the people and her nose was running and well….  Then she started scratching her leg so people were laughing and she burst into tears.  SO here we are in the middle of the bank lobby consoling 2 crying NEW girls!  Lizzie got over it and then wanted to do tap and she did it but she was still not herself. 

     Group shot.  Millie smiling because she could leave and Lizzie, well not smiling!  The bank gives them gifts and I knew this so Thursday nt I told them they could get their gift on Friday after they danced.  We got in the car to leave Friday and Millie says, “I got a gift but I did not dance!”    All of us but A have had a ferocious stomach bug so I wonder now if Lizzie was not herself because she was not feeling well.  Millie, maybe but that’s just our Mill Mill-very reserved in a crowd, never hushes at home!  I love them no matter what!