wedding bells.

I stayed in Ruston for 9 days over the Christmas break - the longest I've been home since I lived in Ruston in 2004. The biggest reason I stayed so long was because Seth and Vanna's wedding was the weekend after Christmas.

Yes, my cousin Seth has finally married his Vanna! Their wedding was beautiful - Vanna was stunning, Seth was handsome, their wedding party was classy, the church was beautiful. And the reception was elegant - lots of fancy dressed folks, fancily presented food, and fancy dancing!

Meredith even had a great time!

Christmas highlights

We spent Christmas in Louisiana with my family this year. We won't be seeing Daniel's family this year for Christmas - being a part of a 22 member family makes scheduling a bit difficult sometimes and it just didn't work out this year for us to all meet up for Christmas. :-( We're hoping to all get together sometime in 2008, though!

As for our 2007 Christmas....

We were so good in 2007 that SANTA came to visit US - we didn't have to go find him!

He looks a bit like my Papaw...actually, more than a bit! He IS my Papaw!!!

Much of the holiday centered around the little ones in our family - it's so fun to have Meredith, Annie, Allie, Sydney, and Abbie around. They are our niece and our cousins' children, and they range in age from 6 months to 4 years old. So cute! Our family Christmas surprise was that Meredith was walking. She took her first steps the Thursday before Christmas and we got to watch her grow in confidence in her walking as the week progressed!

Meredith's first debut of opening gifts was in November at her first birthday. However, she didn't really get the concept very much then. Almost 2 months later, though, at Christmas, she was way more into the opening of the gifts. Here she is about to rip into a present.

She got a jack-in-the-box from my parents and loved it!



And, well, amidst all of the excitement, she pooped out!

At Granny's house there is a big framed picture of the cousins when we were around ages 11-16. Someone commented on the picture while we were at Granny's and we decided to recreate it...14 years later! I wish I had a scanned picture of the original one - maybe I can get that next time we go home. But for now, here's the updated version.

And finally, our family with Mamaw and Papaw in front of the Christmas tree at Mom and Dad's house in Ruston!

our 2nd Christmas together

Upcoming...

We got a new computer for Christmas and are in the process of changing over all of our information from our old one. We're hoping to blog this weekend...from the new laptop! :-)

project over Christmas break.

So, I'm off of work for 3 weeks - December 17-January 7. It's nice, except that my "vacation" is unpaid since I'm just a part time worker!

To fill the time Daniel and I decided I could take on a house project!! And the winning project was painting an accent wall in our kitchen - RED! So, this past week my friend, Amanda, and I took on a painting project at our house. And here it is - an accent wall in our kitchen! We painted the primer and first coat. I thought it was a complete disaster...until Daniel took a roller brush to it the next day for a second and a very thin third coat. Whew...it looks fantastic now!

christmas at our house.

Just in case you wanted a peek inside of our living room during Christmas time, here it is. We bought a live fur tree again this year and are reminded of Christmas each time we walk in our house and not only see, but smell the greatness of this tree! The placemats on the table are from Bed, Bath, and Beyond...last year. I found them and fell in love with them, but didn't want to pay $7/placemat. So, I waited until after Christmas. And guess how much I paid??? $2/placemat!! Pretty good if you ask me!!

'Tis the Season

Working with refugees at Catholic Charities is such a joy! One of the joys of this job is getting to really bless these families at Christmastime. Toys for Tots donates toys to our kids as well as individuals who "adopt" refugee families to bless at Christmas. Daniel and I got to deliver gifts together last Sunday afternoon to this particular family - they were all smiles with the gifts they received!

Another fun thing that Sunday afternoon was hearing the kids sing their understandings of some of our Christmas songs. I think you'll enjoy it!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Christmas at Amy's

Our friends Amy, Nicole, and Jason hosted a great Christmas party at Amy's house. It's always good to see these folks - originally they were all friends of Daniel's through Turkey connections, but the Lord has really connected my heart with them as well. I look forward to seeing them and being encouraged by them in the Lord!

Amy Nobles and me!

Me, Nicole, Rebecca, and Callie!

Me and Daniel cheesing it up!

A Tribute to Izehi

Dear Izehi,

Your sister delivered our Christmas gift to Elizabeth at the church...

Elizabeth delivered it to us...

And well, we just couldn't wait to open it!

Daniel had an inkling of what was inside and was anxious to chomp his teeth into it! Here's how the ripping open of your gift progressed:

1. We calmly displayed the gift to the camera.

2. We began ripping into the nicely wrapped roll of tissue paper.

3. Daniel threw his hands up in excitement that his "inkling" was true. As for me, well, my eyes nearly bulged out of my head with excitement.

4. And here we are, so excited that we're eating through the packaging to get to the oh-so-yummy cookies!

Thanks, Izehi, for remembering us at Christmas and sending a gift from across the ocean! We love you!!!

Kim & Daniel

Fort Worth Jingle Bell Run

We did it!! We successfully finished the 5K we were totally unprepared for! I mean, we ran probably 60% of the race!!! HOORAY FOR US!

Fort Worth has an annual "Jingle Bell Run" and we decided to be a part of it this year. "Jingle Bell Run" you might ask. Tradition has it that runners wear jingle bells on their shoes as they run - and we all sound like a pack of reindeer. It was actually quite fun!

Here we are warming up before the race at our house. We're such goobers!!!