Christmas for the farris'

Here are a few photos of our Santas. They were pretty cute- well the little  one was anyway!

Christmas is almost here. I cant wait to travel home. I can wait, however, to work Christmas  Eve 7pm- 7 am. Oh well, thats life. We will go to my parents on Christmas Day to do presents with them and my brother and his girlfriend. Mackenzie cant come home, she has to work Christmas eve and then after Christmas. Then we head to the Farris' to do gifts that night. Friday, my parents go to the lake so we hang out with Daves parents and are going out with Danny and Karie on a date that night. Saturday is wide open but may include Macados or poker. Sunday we are going to NC to Bridges Church and lunch with our old crew from Winston. Yay- that will be fun. Then to the lake for Christmas with my cousins Sunday night. Monday is open but may include a basketball game. Tuesday we are having Christmas at the lake with my grandmother, aunts and uncles and more cousins( the other side). Then we have new years eve and day, which is unplanned as of now. Sounds like a busy trip. When we get back, Alyse is coming to visit, which we are stoked about. Yay- Christmas is fun! 

Safe travels to you all and Merry Christmas!!!

we have good kids here

I am so proud of our kids. We had asked them to bring $25 of their Christmas allowance to buy for a needy family in our area. They came through tonight. They brought close to $500 to buy the family of 9 outfits and toys. We had a very generous person donate $600 to fill up the oil tank at the families house so they could have heat. She also donated a huge bin of really nice clothes. Another family bought shoes for all the kids, one family bought all their socks, one bought all the underwear. That made it nice for the kids to be able to get clothes and toys. It looked so awesome to see all the presents all wrapped up for the family. They will be so excited to see all the goodies, that we hope to deliver Christmas eve.
Thanks for all the time and energy and of course the money!

Elfyourself with J's teachers

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Eastside staff pics

Here are some pics i took of our staff at the Christmas party!

mike lee
sandra & cameron
nancy & tom
tim & roxanne
denise & pasquale
rj & misty

jonathan & lori
craig & amy
dave & mandy
wayde & terrie
barbara & jeff
jason & tera
nathan & edie
nick & jessica
jessica & brandt

J is awesome!

I am so proud of Jeremiah. He has been doing so great in school. His teachers both told me he is like a new kid. He doesn't talk back anymore, he isn't hitting or getting into trouble, he is using his manners. It is so nice to finally have a little payoff for all our hard work with him. He has been a really difficult kid and it has been hard for me. I think it is because he is so much Dave and so little me that i found him so challenging. It is just now that i really enjoy him consistantly. The past 3 years have been really difficult. He is really good with Thomas. H eplays with him and is usually gentle. He shares with him. I love it now that he gets it. A friend really complimented his behavior the other day as a few kids were being really rough and hit him and kicked him. He handled himself really well. She said she would have had a hard time blaming him if he did haul off and hit them back because they almost deserved it. He said to me "they didnt make good choices mom, but i chose to not hit them back". Finally, he gets it! That is awesome and makes Dave and I so proud. He is getting to be so grown up, which i love and hate at the same time. It makes life so much easier but then again, he will never be 5 again. I just wanted to brag a little on my sweet big boy J.

Fireproof

http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/main.php

I hear great things about this movie. If you or someone you know is struggling in their marriage or even if they have a great marriage, there is something to be learned from this movie. I havent seen it yet, but from the reviews, the trailor and my friends reactions, it sounds amazing. Encourage your friends to see it and/or buy it in January.
Let me know if you have read the books, fireproof or love dare, or if you have seen the movie. How was it?

crazy hair

Thomas has some long hair. I do think it is cute so i havent cut it yet, since Dave begs me not to but it is getting long. That last one looks a little like Cindy-Lou-Who.

Our Christmas party

Last night was our staff Christmas party for church. It was nice. I took pictures of everyone and got some good ones. Here is the one of me and Dave and the one of 4 of the staff wives who are pregnant. It is obvious the water is tainted so I am NOT drinking it!

Barbara, end of Dec, Tera, first of Jan, Jessica, mid april, Edie, mid may

Hip-T

I just came across this as I internet search at work at 3:40 in the am. I think this is very neat. I like the long T-shirt or tank look but that adds another layer of clothes which sometimes adds bulkiness. These cover all that needs to be and stay covered without adding the bulk. Ingenious!
http://www.myhip-t.com/

Our Elf Movie

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Trip to VA

We had a great trip home for Thanksgiving. We were there a whole week. We got to see a lot of old friends we haven't seen in a long time and it was great. Thomas turned one and we had his party with family. We had 2 Thanksgiving meals in 1 day. It was a lot of fun.
On the way home, our van, which we just spent $1200 on the past few weeks started acting up again. It is so frustrating. We went to church at University Christian Church downtown this weekend because we had the weekend off and the van stalled out at every stop light on the way home. It was very scary and frustrating to us. Anyway, despite the van troubles, we have so much to be thankful for.
We will be shopping tonight for our adopted family. I cant wait. We decided this year to cut way back on what we spend for each other and our families and focus our spending on a needy family. We got our family and it is a single mom with 2 boys, 4 and 6, from a domestic abuse situation who relocated to Cincinnati recently and doesn't have a job yet. I think it will be so awesome for Jeremiah to pick out what he would like and then give it away. I kind of wish i could see him give it to the kids, but we chose to do it anonymously. I'm excited. I really want to instill a trait of giving in my kids. It is so rewarding.









Here are a few pics of them in front of the Christmas tree in their Christmas jammie's. I am a PJ-aholic if you didn't know. I love pajamas. I love buying them and dressing them in them, esp Thomas' age. I thought this may be the last year I can get Jeremiah to wear footed pj's so I jumped on these cute matching ones.