Cousins came

My sis-in-law and her 2 kiddos came through on their way home for Christmas this weekend! It was wonderful to see them. The kids had a blast playing with each other, you can imagine. The weekend went very quickly. There was lots of laughing, lots of good food, and some shopping too. Always makes for a nice time right?

Belva and the kids arrived on Saturday. Sunday Mike came home from Vegas. Yeah for that! We hung out and had a good time. On Monday Michael didn't have to work so he stayed at home with our nephew Logan and Gabriel while Luke and Kaden went to school. Belva and I took Josie and Aurora, we went and got Josie weighed and then went to Target, picked up Kaden and came home. From there Belva and her kids ran errands. I took Kaden and Gabriel to get much needed haircuts. (yep, Kaden's is way short again---what's with these people?! Why don't they understand when I say I want him to have hair left! He looks adorable though, so I can't complain too much) Then Monday night Mike stayed with 5 of the kiddos while Belva and Josie and I went to dinner with 2 of my friends. We were having a 30 celebration. Belva turned 30 in Aug, Shannon in Oct, me Dec 2nd and Michelle Dec 16th. We had so much fun, laughing and eating very well at the Elephant Bar and Grill. What a fun time! Belva left Tuesday morning and I have been in a mad rush to get things ready for our St. Louis Christmas trip. Wonder if I will be ready to go tomorrow?!

Here are some pics we took of the kids. It started out pretty crazy:

Then we got this one, pretty good I think. Josie 8 months, Luke 6, Gabriel 2, Logan 5, Kaden 4, and Aurora 3 years. Good looking children!

Here are the 2 girlies together, Aurora was very interested in the TV, but we got a photo anyways:

Homework Boys

Remember Luke's garbage turkey we made back in November? Well we got another crafty assignment to do. (I am so not good at these, my poor children) He had to decorate a stocking to hang up in their hallway at school. We decided to make it a Christmas tree stocking and decorated it with paper bulbs and stickers complete with a Dora-the-Explorer star on top. Luke was happy with it so I figure it's a job well done!

Here's a pic of Kaden-man doing his homework. Check it out, he has got that Gienke tongue. Grandpa Gienke would be proud!

Kaden loves school so much. He gets homework on Thursday that is due back on Friday. He loves Thursdays and is thrilled to do his homework. Any bets on how many years that will last???

Tough break

So as most of you know we have been having some pretty nasty weather here in Oklahoma. Praise God that we did not ever lose power through all of this. Let's go ahead and say a prayer for the hundred's of thousands that are still without power and let's pray for the workers who are doing their best to get everybody warm again!

The trees are such a problem right now, they have split like crazy all over Oklahoma and have downed power lines and closed streets. I wanted to show you the progressive loss of our poor side tree. Bless it's bark. When we moved in our neighbors said that this tree was sick last year and the old owners did a lot to try and save it. I hope the tree makes it through this winter.

Mid-October:

Monday Dec 10th:

Wednesday Dec 12th:

On a side note, the boys returned to school today. They were glad to get back! Their school district was the only one in central Oklahoma to have class today. I have to admit, I am very thankful because 4 days of house arrest was enough for all of us!

Thanks to everyone for sending such sweet notes about Michael's promotion! We are still on cloud nine! :)

CONGRATS are in order!

Michael called me this morning to let me know that he has made MAJOR!!!! He is very happy as you can imagine! Just wanted to take this opportunity to tell Michael:

I am very proud of you. You make many sacrifices to give your all to the Air Force. You are an amazing officer and your dedication is awesome. May God continue to bless your career! What an adventure you have started for the both of us. I'm honored to be your wife. I love you!

Celebrate with us. Congratulations Michael!

Jack Frost, Jack Frozen!!!

Our first ice storm hit. All the Churches closed yesterday and today the schools followed. I went out and took some pretty cool pics this morning. (Some of them might even make you proud Becky!!) It's supposed to continue to rain today and tomorrow, I'm wondering how many school days the boys will miss... I'm praying for my own sanity and patience while we have these days IN together.

Ice causality. We lost 2 limbs off this tree.
The icicles from the Christmas lights look cooler then this picture shows:
My frozen berries at the front door:

This is the one I thought you would like Becks:Frozen light cord on our bushes:This is the grass--isn't that cool??Frosty seems at home in this weather:
Whoever is sharing this icy weather with us I pray that you stay safe and warm! Be SO careful if you have to go anywhere!!!

Worn out!

Wow! It's been quite a week and it's only Thursday! Like the title says: we are worn out! Mike left again on Sunday as you know and so I have been single-momming it again. We've hardly had a chance to rest so we are catching up when we can! Let me give you the run down of yesterday, Kaden gets in bed with me at 5:55, Gabriel joins us about 6:50, I don't actually get out of bed until 7:30, breakfast and get the kids ready, out the door at 8:30, load up in the van, wait for Luke's bus, go to Kaden's school, go to the store (kinda have to have break and milk around these parts), come home for 25 minutes, go back and get Kaden, get Luke, home, lunch for everyone (except Mom, not enough time), at 1:15 head to Luke's school for Mom's PTA meeting--yep, with 4 kiddos, they were good though (thank God for that answered prayer), home at 3:45, everyone relaxes a little, at 5:30 we have dinner, rush out the door to AWANA, kids bible program at church, I help lead, they go to their classes and nursery, pick up the kids at 4 different classrooms, load up the van, come home it's already 8:55, we are pooped out! Time for bed!!

I guess I should be thankful, I am blessed with happy and important things to do :) And it makes the time pass while Daddy is away. (he'll be home in the morning on Sunday the 16th---don't think I am not counting the days!)

How cute do my precious kiddos look???

ThIrTy YeArS yOuNg!!!

I've crossed over. Bye-bye 20's, HELLO 30's! Sunday was my happy, happy birthday! It would have been a perfect day except my Michael had to leave again. He came home last Friday evening and left again Sunday night for 2 weeks. Bummer. But at least I got to spend part of my day with him! Thanks so much to everyone who called, sent cards, presents, and flowers! You certainly made me feel special and loved! Thanks to our friends who watched the 4 munchkins so Michael and I could go on a date before his plane. We went to see the movie "Enchanted", the adorable new Disney movie. The star, the princess, Amy Adams, is friends with my brother and he actually spent some time on the set of that movie visiting with her on the Disney lot. That's so cool to me! Thaddeus doesn't get star struck anymore but I do through him. He was with McDreamy for crying-out-loud!!!!! :) After our movie we had cupcakes with our friends:

Cute, huh? And here's some photos of my many birthday wishes:

And poo-poo the powers of be that set the BCMess bowl games! They stink! My Tigers lost on Saturday night, I would love to say that it was a good game but it really wasn't. But I will say that my boys had a great season! They should be going to be a great bowl game but were handed the cotton bowl instead, it's a good bowl but we deserved better. Maybe next year we will get some more respect! Until then--Go Tigers, crush those razorbacks!!!!! MIZZOU-RAH!!! (I hope some of my college friends make it to the game to cheer for me! :)

M-I-Z...

Blessed beyond belief

Here is my world:Thanks Grandma Harmon for this picture! It's the best, I love it so!

AND today is the big, big, big day!!!!!

MIZZOU-RAH! GO TIGERS!!!

Girly leftovers

Here are some more fun pictures of us ladies at Thanksgiving. Mom and Grandma Short we are so glad you got to come and celebrate with us. We had a GREAT time, just look at this happy baby!!!

Decorating

Yep, still on Saturday. In mid-day we worked on decorating our house for Christmas both inside and outside. The boys were excited about helping with the tree, unfortunately they are still excited about helping with the tree even though the tree is done. They are moving ornaments, spinning it, plugging it in, etc, etc. Hope the interest drops soon or our tree won't survive December!!! I think our tree turned out beautifully!

By-the-way look on the wall behind us, the top bear head on the left is my Mom's 30th birthday present to me, it's from my favorite booth at the Affair of the Heart craft fair (Walter Works). Isn't it gorgeous?? I LOVE it Momma, thanks again!Here is the outside, looks pretty cool.

We love our inflatables. Yep, Christmas is in full swing at the Harmon house. I love Christmas time. What a glorious feeling I have. Christmas music is playing non-stop in my van now. I highly recommend Josh Groban's Christmas album. WONDERFUL, but listen to it with a box of Kleenex for the first time. Trust me. Also everyone should go and get a copy of John Denver and the Muppets. It's just not Christmas without it. Right Thaddeus? You remember, I know you do. Merry Christmas to all! Happy decorating!!!

Beautiful family

My whole life I have always wanted 4 children. I think it's because my Granny had 4, 2 boys and 2 girls. I thought how perfect, each can have a brother and a sister. I knew I would end up with 4. Obviously my gender speculation was wrong but my number held firm. Michael and I have been blessed with 4 amazing and adorable children and we make a good looking group too:

Here's my sweet Josie. What an adorable picture. She does not actually sit up yet but she is getting close. And give the girl a week or so and she'll be crawling everywhere!!! Now if I can just get her to gain some weight...

Oh yeah--in case you forgot: my TIGERS are number #1!!! #1 in the country that is. Ranked #1, as in no one team is higher. #1 baby! MIZZOU-RAH!!!!

GRRRRRRRRReat Saturday!

Oh yes, my Saturday was awesome to say the least!! But first let me address the fact that my Tigers are #1 in the AP Poll AND my Tigers are #1 in the BCS Rankings. So this is what it feels like to be on top...SWEET! (For those of you who didn't hear--Mizzou beat kansas, like I predicted, 36-28.)

Back to the weekend---Saturday morning we headed to Sears to get some family pics done, to redo Kaden's school photo and get some of Josie by herself. (her much needed 6 month photos now that she is closer to 8 months--I am SO bad). The session went well and we got some good pics out of it! Then we came home and Mike and his Mom finished decorating the outside of our house. We then decorated our tree and put up our Christmas houses. We were trying to fill up time waiting for the Missouri-kansas game to start. It is so nerve-racking to wait all day for a football game. Finally it was supper time and then game time. WOW. What a game. Way to go Tigers!! We will have to wait again this Saturday as the Big 12 Championship doesn't start until 7 again. Ugh. Oh well, playing at night in a national spotlight worked for us this past Saturday and it will work for us again this weekend! MIZZOU-RAH!!!

For my faithful everyday blog checkers I am not going to post pictures of everything we did this weekend today--I'll break it up so there will be new stuff to look at :)

Here's one of Josie and Kaden's new 'school' photo:

So thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had way too much amazing food, we'll have leftovers for a week I bet! I asked the kiddos what they were thankful for at dinner and Kaden said 'Ms. Marcie' (his Pre-K teacher), Luke said 'PlayStation and games', and Gabriel just looked at me--so obviously he is thankful for his sweet mother :)

**(I hope no one takes this the wrong way but...) This year I am incredibly thankful for my Josie. I have wanted a daughter so badly, I knew growing up I would have one and we would be close just like my Mom and I. I have dreamed about her my whole life. But then I was quickly 0 for 3. I was a little nervous. And we all know that I would have adored my 4th boy but God blessed me more then I could realize. I now have my angel baby girl and she is my joy. I love you Josie Claire!

**Cute outfit from Grandmom:

**Seems Josie is getting her top teeth (we think anyways, no visual evidence yet). Grandma and Grandma Short found out that she enjoys sucking on an ice cube. It's adorable! Just look at these photos:**Mike and I went out shopping today. It really wasn't that bad. We had to get a couple of things and were not really Christmas shopping so there was no pressure for us. We treated it like a date and it was fun to be out together with no kiddos. Thanks Grandmas! Mike is leaving for 4 days next week, 27 to 30th and then from Dec 2nd (yeah, my 30th b-day) until Dec 16th. Bummer drag. We can use all the dates we can get! We started putting up Christmas decorations---we usually decorate on my b-day but since the hubby is leaving we decided to do it earlier. I'm excited. Pics to come soon!

******Now everyone remember to watch tomorrows crazy important wow of a football game, Missouri vs. some other team. It's on at 7pm CT on ABC!!!!!!! Now I am not good at predicting scores or anything but in the end the score isn't really what matters it's the W that's important. So my prediction is easy---MIZZOU wins! GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!

It Is Well

I have had something on my heart for the past week or so and I wanted to share it with all of you. It seems God has been teaching me a lesson and like He does, I am receiving reminders of it every time I turn around. God I want you to know that I am learning, I am hard-headed but I am learning. So here's my story:
A while ago I was in a Christian bookstore and I was captured by the CD they had playing. It was just a man and guitar singing the "old" hymns. Beautiful. I asked about it and bought the CD for myself (it was Chris Rice---Peace Like a River). As I listened to the CD I realized I knew almost every word to all of the songs. The church I went to in elementary school sang every Sunday from the Baptist Hymnal. When the song "It Is Well with My Soul" started playing I remembered always enjoying this song. I listened to it over and over and it made my heart sad but I really didn't understand why. Then last week I bought myself the new DVD "Amazing Grace" and it came with a CD with songs from the movie. Guess what was on there? Yep, "It Is Well". I listened to it and it really started to take hold. Then on Sunday morning, the last song my church sang was "It Is Well". My church sings 90% new praise and worship songs and rarely goes back to the old hymns. I got teary eyed as I sang the song and I knew that 3 times was much too much a coincidence---there was a lesson coming. I have been listening to this song over and over while driving my van and singing it in my head nonstop. I have learned my lesson that I was believe was meant for me and would like to share with you. But first, the lyrics:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

(Chorus)
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, tho trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control;
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed his own blood for my soul.

(Chorus)

My sin--oh, the bliss of this glorious tho't:
My sin not in part, but in whole
Is nail'd to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

(Chorus)

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be roll'd back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
"Even so," it is well with my soul.

It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul.
--------------------------
Now, by no means am a theologian, I actually have a very simple Christian mind, I don't think God wanted things too complicated. Before I tell you my lesson you need to know about my faith. This is what I know: God loves me, He sent His son Jesus to die for me, by accepting this truth and at the same time realizing I don't deserve such a sacrifice, I have asked for forgiveness and have allowed Jesus to take hold of my life. Through this I know have a place in heaven with Him forever. My sin keeps me separate from God but Jesus has wiped my sins away. What grace and mercy we all have received!!!
The beautiful lyrics from this old hymn (1873) have really touched my heart. This is what I learned. It the actual words used in the song that made me think. It is SO important the author chose the words "it is well WITH MY SOUL". It is not, "it is well with my heart" because we know that our emotions can lead us into temptations and can cloud our judgement. It is not "it is well with my mind" because we all know that we think we know what is right for us, for our family, for fill-in-the-blank, but in truth it is God that knows and He is in control not us. Our hearts prompt us to ask God why? To get upset with Him when things happen that we can't understand. Our minds think they know too much and challenge God, allowing us to think we could 'run' things betters then Him. Our pride gets in the way. Our emotions get in the way. But the author used the word "SOUL". To me, the soul is the eternal part of your body. It is not clouded by judgments, emotions, or pride. It is our true self. The song says tho trials should come, it is well with my soul. We can and will be upset when 'bad' things happen, we are allowed to question God and ask why. We are NOT ever going to understand why things happen the way they do. But that is what faith is for. Faith that God is in control and we do not need to worry. "Tho trials shall come/sorrows like sea billows roll...it is well with my soul" My peaceful soul knows that ALL things happen for the good of those who love Him. My peaceful soul knows I am to be heaven forever. My sins have been taken away, my soul is cleansed.
My emotions will go up and down, my mind will second guess, wonder, and wander, but my soul knows. I need to start thinking like my soul. Rest in the assurance that God is with me. Know He loves me. Believe in His promises. Wait for His return. Remember all things on this world do not go on: no hurts, no sorrows, no regrets, no problems. So no matter what I am faced with----all is well with my soul.

Watch out turkeys...

Luke had an assignment at school to disguise a turkey so it wouldn't be caught for Thanksgiving. (from a book they read) So we decided to make a garbage bird. They boys enjoyed it because they got to eat Halloween candy to get some of the wrappers. I think it turned out really cute:And here it is time for Thanksgiving, I can hardly believe how fast this year has gone. Wow. Everyone have a blessed holiday and those who are travelling--be safe! Mike's Mom and Grandma arrived safe here yesterday. We are ready for our big feast. Mike wanted to have ham this year and we thought we would just get a little turkey to go with it, you know 7 pounds or so. Well, at the commissary the only little bird they had was still almost 9 pounds. Then they announced over the loud speaker they had turkeys on sale for 40 cents a pound so we went and got one of the last ones. We ended up with a 17 pound turkey for some $6!!!! Isn't that nuts? So we have PLENTY of food if there is anyone who wants to join us! :)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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A reminder that college footballs biggest game is Saturday night.
Mizzou-rah!!!! Rock those chickenhawks!

Ready, one, two, three...

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Jackie,

Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Good lookin' sisters, don't ya think? :) Love you Jackie. Have a great day!!!

He likes to move it, move it

Are you ready for this? Last night was Luke's soccer banquet. We had a great time, it was at church in the atrium. Josie and Gabriel were in the nursery so it was just the big 4. We had dinner, dessert, a speaker, and then all the players received duffel bags. Luke was a pretty happy guy. Kaden was our entertainment for the evening. This is hilarious. Thad and Jackie I am afraid you might cry when you watch this!!!!! Enjoy!!!

Kaden is so funny. Here are some more pics of the evening: