Merry Christmas!

We had a great "white" Christmas! We now have at least a foot of snow on the ground. It started to snow on Wednesday night, all day Friday and on and off today.
Christmas was wonderful! It was just us, Jacob, Taylor, Kamdyn and I. This is the first time ever but it was nice. My mom and grandma are coming on Monday for a week.
We (Taylor) all woke up around 7:30am. No sleeping in for this family especially when you tell your 2 1/2 year old that if she goes to sleep, she will be able to open presents in the am! We came down stairs and I had the video camera...it was great! We set the video camera up to capture the moments of opening presents and of course Kamdyn's 1st Christmas When we were all finished, I went to look at the video and nothing...it wasn't video taping at all! It was defiantly a sad moment. But we video taped much of the day to make up for it.
The girls love there gifts. We gave Taylor a pink guitar, microphone and amp. She loves it! Along with many other dolls, books and a Dora bike helmet (she asked for it.)
Kamdyn, got a "Dino"(special to our family) dog, a toy turtle that makes noise and rolls on the floor and a ball that lights up and rolls on the floor. She loves her toys as well!
We followed up the presents with watching the movie "UP". If you have not watch this movie, it is so cute and perfect for kids. Nothing bad...just pure joy!
As the kids were napping, I started on dinner preparations. We had one amazing dinner. Rosemary and garlic rib eye from Whole Foods, saute green beans with mushrooms, shallots and bacon, cream cheese mash potatoes, candied pecan, apple, goat cheese, red onion, spinach salad, home made rolls and a chocolate citrus two layer cake. Yes, I made everything and everything was amazing! Melt in your mouth amazing! I have to give "Southern Living" magazine the credit though, I did take every recipe from them except the rib eyes. I do have pictures to prove it.
We had such a wonderful day!
On a side note please pray for the Loux family, wife and 10 children. Derek Loux a christian singer, song writer and leader of the International House of Prayer died in a car accident Dec 23. Pray for strength for his family!

update

I can't believe its already 1 week until Christmas! Boy, this year has flown by!
We as a family, are doing well. We are getting more and more settled here in Kansas City. The weather on the other hand is not settling! It is so dry here, we are routinely putting on lotion and chap stick. It is also a bit colder here than South Carolina and Florida, but other than that we are really well.
Kamdyn is cutting her first tooth. I could feel it coming through tonight. Poor thing, I'm glad we do not remember the pain that is behind getting our first tooth! She's been so cuddly, which I love! We also had her first well visit to the pediatrician here in KC. We finally found a Dr that we love, she is amazing! Kamdyn (8mths), weighted in at 14lbs and 25 inches long. She is in the 5% in weight and in height, she's just a little girl! It is surprising because she was 8lbs 3oz's at birth! But not surprising because her momma is little!
Ta did the same thing, she was 14lbs 4ozs when she was 8 or 9 months old, tiny!
Taylor, is doing well also. She is getting excited to open presents on Christmas. We have decided as a family, not celebrate Santa but, instead tell our children about St. Nicholas. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus not some fake icon. The gifts are from Mommy and Daddy. We want our children to realize that mommy and daddy have worked hard for these gifts! Anyways.....We were listening to Christmas songs on the radio and "Jingle Bells" came on and Ta said mommy "this is a song about Tinker Bell!" I thought it was so funny, I had to write it down! So, if I do not blog before Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I realize that it has been quite some time since my last post.
We have been extremely busy.
In the beginning of November we went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a week on vacation. It was so beautiful! We explored the cute little town, did some shopping, went sledding, visited the Continental Divide, Ta and I painted pottery, built snow men and just relaxed in our amazing 3 bedroom hotel!
Kamdyn and Taylor are doing well. Kamdyn, said "DaDa" to her daddy, for the first time On Wednesday the 25th and she said "MaMa" to me for the first time today.
Taylor, is growing. We've been working on her pronunciation of words and she is doing so well. She's been asking about dance classes. We can't start them until she is 3! But she get's excited just talking about them.
We went home to Illinois for Thanksgiving, to spend time with Jake's family. We had such a nice time. Ta and Kam were spoiled with lots of toys! The Sunday following Thanksgiving, Jake preached and lead worship at a church not to far from his home town in Carmi, Illinois. He did really well and we love the people at Mercy Gate!
Our kitchen is almost complete with renovations. I can't wait until it is finished. It already looks like a totally different kitchen. I will post pictures of the before and after!
We purchased our Christmas tree on Monday and decorated it last night! We had such a good time. We are going today to get Kamdyn's stocking done, buy an ornament for her first Christmas and an ornament in honor of my dad. It's a little difficult right now thinking about this first Christmas with out my dad. It will be different.
I will post pictures as soon as I can. Merry Christmas......I love this time of year!

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I will post an update soon, from our vacation. This is just way more important!

WOW

OK...I realize it has been a while since the last post!
We are doing well. Ta and Kam are growing. Ta says the funniest things. She started to say "nope" to me when she didn't want something so, I taught her to say "no mam" or "no thank you." The funny thing is she says "no mam" to Jacob! He really loves that.....
Kam is pulling herself up on everything. I can't believe she is already doing this. She is now sleeping about 4-6 hours straight at night, Praise the Lord. We started her on rice cereal and some 1st fruits and veggies. She gags every time I give her rice cereal!
We are going on Vacay on Sunday. We are headed west to Breckenridge, Colorado! My dad purchased a share in the Hilton Grand Vacation Club, about 5 years ago. So we have "free" vacations every odd year for life...all around the world....thank you daddy! Colorado, just had a huge snow storm so we are expected to see at least 4 feet of snow when we get there.
When we return, Jacob will be heading to Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina for the IHOP-Onething Regional Conference. He will represent the Luke 18 project.
I will post pictures when we return from our vacation!

update

Happy 6 month birthday to Kamdyn. She is 6 months old today! I can't believe how fast it is going.
My mom was here last week and we had such a great time. We took the girls to the pumpkin patch for the 1st time. Let me just say, it was freezing outside! But it wasn't about us it was for Ta and Kam but mostly Ta!
I have posted some pictures for that day.
We also dedicated Kamdyn on October 9th. It was so nice! She wore the bonnet that I wore when I was baptised as a baby. My mom saved it and found it right after Kamdyn was born. It was so cute, a little small for her head but cute!
The weather has been cold for October. We bought a log for the fireplace but have yet to put it on. The leaves are changing fast and falling fast as well. I hope this doesn't mean a cold winter. So much for global warming huh!
We are going on a family vacation in 3 weeks to Breckenridge, Colorado! We can't wait....for relaxation and nothing to do! Our lives have been so crazy that the last vacation was in April of 2008. So we can't wait for it to get here. When we get back Jacob will be traveling to North Carolina, for a Luke 18 summit in Raleigh Durham. Than we will be heading to Illinois for Thanksgiving. This will be Jacobs first Thanksgiving at home in 6 years! We've always gone home to my family.
We are super excited. Enjoy the new pics.

Update

1st, Taylor turned 2 1/2 yesterday on the first. I can't believe she is already 2 1/2. Everyone keeps telling us how fast it will go and we are beginning to realize how fast she is growing up!
2nd, We are going to start Kamdyn on rice cereal tomorrow! She's been doing well just waking up more than normal at night so, I think she is growing and needs a little help at night time. I can't believe we are starting her already on cereal! I mean it feels like she was just born!
3rd, We just got a "new" van! It is a Honda Odyssey with 34,000 miles on it. The dealership had an extremely good deal on the van and we differently needed one. We were a one car family. Kamdyn and Taylor are both in car seats and they literally take up the whole back seat of our Honda Accord. So, we were really crammed in! We prayed about it for a long time and finally we were blessed with a van! We are super excited and can't wait to take our first road trip in it!
4th and last we had another bird fly into our window this morning. That would make 3 birds now and we've only lived here for 8 weeks!
I will post pictures soon