SURPRISE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

I flew to Washington to surprise my Dad for his 70th birthday. It was quite the eventful trip. I arrived in Seattle around 10:45 p.m. on Friday. My luggage, however, didn't arrive until 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. We were supposed to leave for Yakima at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday...so we went through the whole "do we just leave now and just buy everything I need, or do we just wait." We decided to wait. The birthday/Christmas party didn't start until 6:30 p.m. and since my Dad didn't even know I was there, we just went back to the airport (after talking with someone from American Airlines, which invloved a few tears) and I got my suitcase as it came on to the carousel. Then I booked it out to the car before Ellen had to circle the airport again. Phew...then we were on our way.

Here we are an Snoqualamie Pass while Tom got a gallon of Pepsi :) Look at all that SNOW!!!

Here's me and Winona. It's good to know my long arms come in handy for picture taking :)

Here is my Aunt Shirley and my Momma, it was quite the feat to get this picture, my mom kept talking so we ended up with numerous pictures of her in mid conversation :)

My Uncle Doug & Aunt Shirley

Can we just take a normal picture? Oh...this is normal :)

Mom and Ellen dancing before the wonderful DJ started...OYE!!!
Michael did not get the "rhythm" gene. Here he is doing his asthma inhaler dance!Here's my Dad eating some of his birthday cake :)
OK, I hope you laugh at this picture as hard as we do. I mean we about can't breathe everytime we see this picture. Donald was taking this for us and so he's looking at the screen, then all of the sudden he looks up at us over the camera, and I knew exactly what he was doing...the other sisters didn't...sad that the youngest sibling is the smartest :)
Mom & Dad dancing up a storm.
This is my second cousin Janet K and her hubby Mac. She used to teach me dance lessons when I was little.
Here we are attempting to take a family picture. First of all...that's Ellen in the middle, and she's standing straight up...still can barely see her. Donald looks like he's about to grab that candle, and we don't even want to know what he's going to do with it. Focus People!!!!
This is more like it!

Christmas Program

" Christmas at Bethlehem Gulch"

The boys had their Christmas program last week, it was super cute. I just love to watch kids perform. You just never know what's going to happen :)

Here's Zeke in his spot.

It was hard to get this picture of Price, he was hidden by some other kids during most of the program from where we were sitting. You'd think on the front row that you'd be able to see a little better.

Here's Zeke singin' away :) Bobby leaned over during the program and said "he's just like his Momma" :) Precious...
With Mom
With Dad

Building a New Church!

Villa Oaks Baptist Church had it's ground breaking service today. The weather wasn't the greatest but God was just showering his blessings on us. Here are a few pictures of the mornings events.

This picture is of us with Mrs. Hale. Her husband Dr. Clinton Hale was the founder of Villa Baptist Church and Baptist Academy. She's a wonderful Godly woman and she's just as cute as can be :) And you've gotta love her hard hat...I wanna know where we can get one :)

Here's Pastor Willis doin' some diggin'! He just learned how to run this a few days ago :) He's a quick learner!!
This is some of the Deacons and Pastor putting some muscle behind those shovels.
We are so excited to see what God is going to do at our new property. We're praying that the school will be moving not far behind.

Circle of Lights

Since we decided to stay in town this Thanksgiving we finally got to go downtown to the Circle of Lights. Our downtown has "Monument Circle", they always have cool things going on down there and the day after Thanksgiving they always turn the lights on the largest tree in America! Sandy Patti sang with Ben Utecht, a Colts player, she also sang with the African Childrens Choir. There were all sorts of other acts, including the PaceMates, so the boys were all happy about that :) Bobby's parents just got in to town and off we went, we met up with some other families and all cuddled together to stay warm.

Here are the boys and their rosey cheeks! This is me and Robyn Willis...if you can focus hard enough :)
This used to be a lot easier when the boys were smaller. I had Zeke on my shoulders at one point...think it's time to make a visit to the chiropractor!
Here's me and Jerrica again...in those cute sweatshirts :)
This was the view from where we were standing. There's the monument before the lights were turned on.

There is an American flag waaaaaaaaaay up there...I took this picture during the National Anthem and I was thinking "they normally light this building up with something, like the flag or a Colts symbol...

Then BOOM!!! They didn't let me down :)
BEFORE...
AFTER!
Then there were fireworks.
Here is Pops, Granny, Price & Zeke all bundled up!

uh...you need to hold the camera still until it's finished flashing. :)

Here's me and my Baby :)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving across the street at our Pastor's house. The Willis' and us moved to Indy the same year, back in 95 and it's always good to have a neighbor that can run you to the hospital, should you decide to cut your finger off with a Pampered Chef kitchen slicer :)

Here is Bobby cheering for the Cowboys! That's another thing we have in common with the Willis'...they're Cowyboys fans!!!

Here is Zeke - not so sure why he's laughing so hard.
This is one of our cheerleaders Jerrica, her family came over for Thanksgiving also. Look at that cute sweatshirt...someone must love her :)

Snug as a Bug in a Rug!!

The boys slept in Zeke's bed last night, and when I went in to check on them...this is how I found them :)

PRECIOUS!!!

Charger Night

Here are a few pictures from our Chili Supper & "Charger Night". This is an annual event at out school. The cheerleaders host a chili supper and they did a great job this year, they raised BIG BUCKS!!

Once we started serving chili, the line went all the way along that far wall...it stayed there for a solid hour and a half!

Here are the girls working and having a good time.
2007-2008 Varsity Cheerleaders!!
Here come the Chargers!!! Price lead them through the breakthrough sign, then they passed him up...but he's runnin' hard!!

On Display

Here are the pumpkins on display in the foyer on top of the trophy cases.

Pumpkin Patch

Jen and I are coaching the Varsity Cheerleaders this year and after practice on Saturday, we took some of the girls to the pumpkin patch, then to our church's chili cook-off, then back to the house to decorate our pumpkins :) We had a great time and pumpkins are darling :) If I do say so myself!

OK - for some odd reason, I'm not able to move these pictures around like normal so they're not in the right order...and you know that's probably driving me crazy!!! So, we're gonna just have to deal with it.

I guess I should clarify for those of you who aren't as familiar with our school. The pumpkins are spelling out B. A. Chargers - that's not all one word :) After I published this post I realized that it may look a little funny.

We dwindled down to about half of our girls by the time the night was over.
Here is Wes helping us with our lighting :)
Zeke took this picture for us :)
See...there's more than corn in Indiana!!
The girls were a little worn out.

Hay ride!