Matthew cracks us up!

It's hard for me to look at this kid and not just smile, he's super CUTE and in these brand new snuggley pajamas, I just want to grab him and squeeze him all day long!

And he does this thing that totally cracks us up--this is how he prays:
For a few weeks he was just refusing to fold his arms when it was prayer time and then all of a sudden he started doing this. He balls his fists up and covers his eyes and has to bury his head into the table or a lap or the ground.

It is really funny--and he's really good at staying in this position for the whole prayer, though at mealtimes, he has to sneak a few bites to tide him over during the prayer--he is only 21 months after all!

Sam the Mohawk man, secret service agent

This kid needed a haircut on Monday. It's winter break from school and we don't have to be anywhere until church on Sunday. So when he asked for a Mohawk we thought--why not? He was on cloud nine with his new "dew".

It was a big day for him too because earlier while Dad was outside doing yard work Sam noticed that our neighbors had A LOT of leaves in their yard and he asked if he could go to some service by raking their leaves. He wanted it to be a secret too. Stephen came and got me and we started working on it together, and it soon turned into a family project. We raked enough leaves to fill a couple lawn debris bags!

Service can be fun too!

And I had to add this precious photo--Sam is really trying to learn how to tie his shoes and I snapped this great moment of Stephen trying to help him out, I LOVE this kid (and the man is pretty awesome too!)

Sweet Kaitlyn

My sweet Kaitlyn has joined this cute singing and performing group called the "Showstoppers" and they had their first series of performances recently. They'd worked really hard learning a bunch of songs from Broadway musicals and she had a great time.
She even had a little solo to "I got rhythm, I got music, I got my man who could ask for anything more?" Her little voice was so clear and so on key, I was so proud!

I am also impressed at her poise as well, she gets so nervous and anxious about so many things in life, I'm really happy to see that in front of crowds she never is nervous but seems so confident!

2 of the performances were at retirement facilities and the sweetest thing was that after it was over the girls each walked around and gave hugs and wishes of Merry Christmas to each of the audience members. I was so touched because some of these people may not get many visitors or physical gestures of love a lot--what a sweet service these girls did for them.
And at one of the performances, Grandma and Grandpa Lewis were able to make it--it was fun for them to come!

Nativity Weekend

The week after Thanksgiving is always a really busy one around here. Our church does an annual Nativity display for the community-and we do it up real nice.

Nearly 550 Nativity scenes are displayed among nearly 100 Christmas Trees, and white twinkling lights, musical numbers are performed by people and churches in the community. It's no small feat, it takes a small army of people wonderfully orchestrated and planned down to the last detail. It's overseen by the Stake Public Affairs Council (moi) and so I have a list of things on my to-do list.

This year was SUPER SUCCESSFUL if I do say so myself. A wonderfully timed series of media blasts and promotions did wonders to get more people not of our faith than ever before--for us that's a HOME RUN! I was so happily exhausted when the weekend was over.

But the other fun thing we did was attend Stephen's work Christmas Party. It's always on the same weekend as Nativity but we try really hard to make it out. There are lots of family friendly activities like making ornaments, decorating sugar cookies, photos with Santa and this train ride which was really fun!

And we're THANKFUL

For so many things, but really thankful for the time we spent together as a family this past week--man it was full!

Stephen took the whole week off from school along with the kids and we got a TON of things off the "honey do" list and then on Tuesday we headed off to College Station for some McKneely family fun!

Wednesday was full of preparations for the FEAST. I got in a good run and am THANKFUL to my BIL Andy who I know ran slower than normal so that I didn't have to run alone. And while Grandma took my niece and Kaitlyn (who are 6 weeks apart) to go shopping for a little 8 year old girl in the foster system, Andy and I took this crew to the park to play.....then after awhile the rest of the gang joined us......


On the day of FEASTING, all the McKneelys joined in the festivities plus a few extra. When Stephen was in high school he went to Russia as a foreign exchange student. The student he exchanged with is a guy named Ilya. He considers the McKneelys his "other" family and since he now lives in South Carolina and works for GE whenever there is an American holiday he finds his way back to College Station to spend it with us. He's now married and has a baby, and we've never met his family, so we were excited to meet them all! They were lovely and Matthew really got a kick out of having a little friend to run around with.

The eating was awesome of course and took the hands of everyone--we enjoyed all of it for sure!

We gathered (and had to drag some, ahem) the family for a group photo.....We watched the Cowboys pull off a late game win, and watched the possible final Aggie & Longhorn rival game which we lost in the final moments.

on Friday we enjoyed a family soccer game, a little shopping, and then took the whole group of us (all 16) went to see a matinee of 'The Muppets" a silly family friendly movie that made our kids laugh. They had no prior knowledge of Kermit, or Miss Piggy, or Gonzo (who Sam later identified as the guy whose nose looked like a cheese puff that had been painted blue), but they loved the whole movie experience. And then we went to dinner at Raising Caines--YUM!!

But most of all we enjoyed being together, GOBBLE, GOBBLE--

It's a Dad Camp out

Stephen goes camping at least once a month, lately it's been more than that (ahem) and so we decided he owed the kids a camp out.

They were really excited:(Matthew thought he was going until they pulled out of the drive way and he was really really sad about that) But here they are all packed up and ready to go. They were ready for the cooler weather and were dressed in layers and coats.

It took a bit to set up camp and get dinner on, but Stephen told me they were warm, and slept well, Lindsey may have been a bit young to go, he said she whined a bit but she's a "big kid" now, being 4 and all, and there was no way she was going to be left behind.

Thanks Dad for a great time! Let's do it again soon.

A baptism, a bump, a blu-ray

So we had an eventful Saturday this past weekend.

#1 It was the first weekend in 8 that Stephen wasn't on a camp out, he got to mow the lawn, go to the soccer game with us, etc. It was great to have him home.

#2 Our good friend JR Wolfe was baptized. Stephen has been their home teacher for over a year, his wife Shonda was inactive but Stephen kept visiting and had a great "doorstep" relationship with them. Shonda had a great visiting teacher, whose husband replaced Stephen as ward mission leader, and relationships were strengthened through lots of different experiences. So long story short, they've been coming to church and JR took the lessons and decided to be baptized.

The baptism was going to be great. I was asked to lead the music and Stephen was asked to give a talk. Things were going great until.....

#3 we had a minor fender bender with someone on the way to the baptism. It was really dumb. We were stopped at a red light behind one car. The light turned green and we all proceeded down the street. The cars in the lane just next to us didn't start going right away and so a car honked, this combined with some glare or something caused the driver in front of us to BRAKE HARD 10 feet into the intersection. We bumped her. She claimed with the glare she wasn't sure if it actually had turned green so she stopped. We persuaded her to follow us to the church so we could at least get there on time and Stephen stayed in the parking lot to exchange info with her.

The damage so so incredibly minor but you know how this goes, she wants to call the police (who ends up thinking we're crazy because there's not enough damage for a police report). The screws from our license plate holder scratched her bumper. The impact didn't even break our plastic license plate holder and how she's claiming back pain etc. GOOD GRIEF!

Anyway so this chaos spills over into the baptismal service, Stephen and I are tag teaming back and forth, I go out to wait for the police while he gives his talk, etc. Anyway, there always is something that happens at a baptism to try and run it off course, we're just glad it was with us and not JR's family. He was great and so happy!

And I meant to get a picture of him, but in all the chaos it didn't happen, I think you understand.

#4 But for fun that evening we had a date, at home, complete with Freebirds burritos, and Starwars Episode I on blu-ray upstairs in the media room, with Rachel and Kodie who brought yummy cheesecake to celebrate his and Lindsey's birthday! YUM!

The day after trick or treat...

is my Lindsey's birthday!!!

And this year she turned 4.

This was a SUPER DUPER BIG DEAL to her, this age is HUGE for birthdays, there is scarcely something as exciting as having a birthday. It seems to be a bigger deal for this little one than my others and I think it's because Matthew tends to be her nemesis, and his sole purpose (according to her) is to make life complicated and thwart all things fun, and turning one year older means she moves toward being one of my "big kids" and away from the "baby".

Needless to say she's been telling everyone of her upcoming event: kind checkers at stores, neighbors we barely know who come out to get their paper at the same time we're walking by on our way to school, all my adult friends from church or those I know at the school, etc.

So let's get to how she spent her special day: at breakfast (for which we ate waffles at her request) she got to open her presents: She got a lunch box and this little dress up outfit. For her birthday she had requested a purple sparkly leotard, which I couldn't exactly find but I DID find this plain leotard with cute little slippers and headband. She then wore it basically for 3 days--she loves it and loves all the attention she gets when she wears it from admiring adults, who she then tells that she's now 4. =) After dropping off the kids at school, we went to Target to get her a different lunch box because the one we'd got her was defective. The new one is a super cute frog one (of course) that looks like a purse and is so sheik I could get away with carrying it.

Then we raced home (but stopped through McDonalds for a happy meal for lunch) to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis who came over to visit her on this special day.

Grandpa Lewis had made her a crown (she requested it and it so lucky to have an artist for a grandpa) and she got a remote control car for her "littlest pet shop" toys--she loves it and so do her siblings (especially Matthew and that gets tricky but we're working on it).

When Matthew went down for his nap we made her birthday cake (strawberry with pink frosting and rainbow flower sprinkles) and spent some special time together until the bigger kids got home from school. And enjoyed a quick visit and hug from her Aunt Pearl.
Tuesdays are a busy day with after school activities, she got a phone call from her cousins in Houston, and later from her Aunt Rachel. We had to start early on her dinner of choice (home made pizza and salad) which we enjoyed.And then we had her cake and ice cream! Just look at this happy face!

Happy Birthday to my special girl, (pssst...I love you)

BOO!

Halloween again was a whirlwind with how busy we've been. Halloween fell on a Monday night and so on Saturday evening there was a "trunk or treat" at our church.

Mom was gone on a much deserved scrapbook retreat and since she's the resident picture taker, no pictures of this were taken.

Stephen had been away on a camp out and Aunt Rachel (complete with her super hero cape) came to save the day and let both mom and dad be away from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening (THANKS RACH!!)

Dad was running late so "super Rach" got all 4 kids dressed in costume, fed a snack and to the church (no small feat I assure you). And Stephen arrived there (with all the scouts) shortly after the trunk or treat started.Actually I take back the whole "no pictures" thing, a friend did snap this great picture of Stephen, he was dressed up as a "tired scoutmaster".

HALLOWEEN!!

(and mom was back so photos were taken:)

Matthew was a frog--I was supposed to put a crown on his head and make him a frog prince to go along with Lindsey and Sam's costume but alas another thing we didn't quite get to. This kid was hilarious! He totally GOT IT about going up to the door, getting candy (most often one in each hand) and walking back to the stroller so he could ride on to the next house. He was so much fun! Lindsey was a princess--she is often dressed up as a princess, we have multiple options of dresses and accessories, this was her own creation. The crown had seen better days and been played with a bit to much in the weeks leading to the big day. But she was lovely! Sam was a DRAGON!! It went with the theme, and we borrowed this costume from Grandma McKneely (who has some really cool dress up things at her house) we found some cool Crayola face painting stuff on clearance (Yay for deals!) and he loved it! Kaitlyn really really wanted to be a cat, she's been wanting to be a cat for awhile and so there was no persuading her to change to a witch or something to go along with our family theme. And I have to admit, she was a pretty cute cat! So Family Night was spent together going door to door in our neighborhood for about an hour, we had a great time being together, there were no meltdowns and at the end of the day our bags were completely full and running over. We've shared our haul with dad's co-workers, and with Grandpa Lewis for his seminary class and have still had plenty for us! Horray!

Pumpkin Time

Frankly, I'm just pleased we found a way to fit this in, and it almost didn't happen, but for Family Night on 24 October we hit the Pumpkin Farm!

Owen's Farm transforms itself into a Pumpkin Patch every year during the Halloween season and we partook in all the activities there. This is a momentous visit because Kaitlyn actually felt brave enough to feed the animals!=)

After feeding the over zealous goats, looking at some long horn cows, and some super cute rabbits (I even for a moment considered getting one as a pet, I was vetoed), we lined up to wait for our hayride. It was fun, and we were lucky it wasn't too crowded so we were the only ones on the ride.



Then it was time for each of us to choose our pumpkins. We tried to get them to pose on these bails of hay and this was as good as it was going to get......

Busy, busy, busy!

I am the Director of Public Affairs for the Allen Texas Stake. I LOVE IT!!

What this means is I work with a committee to plan events, often service oriented, targeted at helping the general public and people of prominence have an accurate understanding of our church and what it's core beliefs are.

So this year we've been asked to plan a "Day of Service" to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Church Welfare program. My local church leaders have a vision of 1000 people from our local congregations serving on Saturday October 22nd.

This means, I've been working for the past 3 months or so having meetings with our contacts within the community to find projects for 1000 people to do. I've spent countless hours on the computer and phone and in meetings trying to work this all out.

The day dawned early, Stephen was gone for Boy Scout wood badge training which meant I had to farm out my kids to a good friend--who really was superb because she got all 4 of my kids, including Matthew for 6 hours.

Then I drove around from project to project taking photos and seeing how things went. I'm happy to report that everywhere I went I saw members of my church hard at work serving. It made me so proud to be a member of my church!!

BY THE NUMBERS:

1,260 people
5,070 hours of service
94 projects

equals ONE TIRED (but happy) GAL

My last living grandparent

Glenn Robertson Lewis

July 5, 1920-September 27, 2011
(photo taken last Summer, at a family reunion to celebrate his 90th birthday)

Beloved Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather.....

He had prostate cancer that had spread into his bones. He was diagnosed in July and we were told he'd last about 6 months. We were expecting a funeral in November or December, I was caught a little off guard when it happened at the end of September, but we're grateful that he felt no pain--amazing since bone cancer can be one of the more painful ones. The cancer was never treated, he was 91, we just wanted to make him comfortable and we did.

Things I want remember about my grandfather:
1. He LOVED good music and singing. He loved to gather around the piano and harmonize. He also whistled a lot and I loved to hear him whistle.
2. He used to create treasure hunts for us when we were little, he'd lead us to little stashes of candy and we thought it was great fun.
3. He always used the term, "mighty grateful and thankful"--it was one of my favorites.
4. He was always a gentlemen and was kind and loving to my grandmother and his second wife Jean (who he married after grandma died) He and Jean enjoyed 22 years together, I firmly believe she extended his life because she made him so happy.
5. He LOVED a family game night. He introduced us to all games played with Rook cards, Rummikub and Mexican Train played with Dominoes.
6. His testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ was firm and he shared his testimony and other counsel in monthly letters to all of us.

I am grateful for the legacy he has left me, and I will try to live up to the Lewis name.

*****

So you know from my previous post that attending a funeral in the middle of the "Boy Scout Training Gauntlet" was going to take some doing. I live in Texas, the funeral took place in Utah. I wasn't going to take 4 kids via plane or car by myself. So I am "mighty grateful and thankful" for my wonderful Mother-in-law who was able to come and care for my kids for 48 hours while I flew to UT for the funeral.

She really outdid herself, I am so amazingly blessed. About 6 hours before I was to get up for an early morning flight, Sam started throwing up. A very strong virus had hit the kindergarten and first grade at school and he threw up all night long. I felt so bad to leave her with that, thankfully no one else in my family got sick (but she did when she got home--I feel guilty).

But while she was here she made perfect chocolate chip cookies, waffles and homemade pizza. She brought a pumpkin painting craft for my children:
And my empty pots were filled with beautiful flowers perfect for fall.I feel so loved. I was able to go, alone, and grieve, and reconnect with family, and knew that my children safe and happy and well cared for.=)


And the funeral was perfect, the music was amazing--Grandpa's love for music passed down to his grandchildren. The grandsons sang an amazing version of "I need thee every hour", and all the grandchildren sang a version of "Oh My Father" sung to the tune of "Come thou fount". The talks were wonderful--my grandfather planned his program down to the speakers, the poems, etc. I know he was happy with how it turned out.
Cousins flew in from Germany, Norway and Turkey and my brother who lives in Japan, came in as well. It was another reunion and so nice to see many of them that I wouldn't see otherwise. I especially loved the time spent with my brothers and my brother Aaron's family. I got to meet a new niece who is so precious!=)

It was a long 48 hours but I am so glad I was able to go. I'm grateful for my knowledge of the resurrection and the principle of eternal families.

Matthew is getting B-I-G

So, Matthew has turned 18 months and is officially in Nursery. Here are some pictures of him on his first official day of nursery:
His 18 month mark fell on a Sunday. The week previous I'd gone by the nursery to ask if I could bring him during the last hour of church, he saw the toys and pushed himself off me and wanted to try--he did GREAT! It's been 3 Sundays and he's still doing great. His transition has been so smooth!

And I just had to load this photo--he LOVES playing outside. We often walk to this park near our house, and I often get comments about his beautiful blue eyes--this is a photo of both of those things:

Peek-a-boo!!

The Scouting Training Gauntlet

It is week 5 of a 7 week "Boy Scout Gauntlet"--Stephen is a scoutmaster for our church run troop. He really likes this assignment and it's a good fit for him and his love for camping and outdoor activities. But it keeps him very busy and that sometimes is hard to balance.

As a scoutmaster, he has monthly camp outs with his troop. 2 of the 7 weeks are out with the boys camping. THEN he is a certified rock climb instructor with the BSA and he needed to re-certify so he has 2 weekends (one of them right now) rock climbing and these are all day Friday and Saturday trips. THEN after we already had these things on the calendar, President Fisher (Allen Stake Presidency) approached Stephen and "strongly encouraged" Stephen to sign up for "Wood Badge" and intense leadership training for Boy Scout Leaders. This would take 3 additional weekends, 2 of them being "Sunday Friendly" and therefore Thursday-Saturday. It was amazing that he even had the particular weekends still open, and even more amazing that all 7 things have happened concurrently!

So he wasn't able to coach Sam's soccer team this season. He wouldn't be able to make it nearly all of the games. This was really hard on both Sam and Stephen, we're hopeful we can make it work next season!

But soccer has continued nonetheless, and Sam continues to enjoy it and really likes being a defender. This is him with one of his good little buddies on the team, his friend is great on offense and so they make a great team! So every Saturday I've braved Celebration Park as a single mom going to root my Sam and somehow corral Matthew. I'm sure I'm hilarious to watch but I'm beyond caring what people think of me. Sam likes soccer, it's important to him that we're there to cheer for him, it's part of being a family.


It hasn't been easy to have Stephen gone, it's meant a heavier load on me and Stephen isn't a fan of being away from us, most of the time he has been home he's blowing through the door and back out again or busy packing and loading up gear. We're really looking forward to November when this is all over. We're even pondering our children having their own camp out with Daddy which we know they'd enjoy. But I've been blessed--truly--we knew this was coming, we prepared for it. I have attended the temple praying for the added strength to get me through this time. And at those moments when I'm feeling overwhelmed I've been carried and blessed with the added patience, health and strength to get me through.

Class of 2024 and other random happenings...

Sam completed his first week of kindergarten, and when he came out on Friday, he was wearing this shirt: It just makes me feel old--I can't even imagine this little guy graduating High School but I know it will be here before I know it. THEN because it's still REALLY hot we hit the pool (explanation of Lindsey's outfit).

OTHER RANDOM EVENTS--This weekend starts the beginning of what we're calling the Boy Scout Gauntlet--7 consecutive weekends of overnight camp outs for some reason or another, we're kind of dreading it but there was no avoiding it, we'll see if we survive.

I took some wildlife with me to the post office the other day--a cheetah, a monkey and a butterfly to be exact. I HAD to get some stuff mailed and this is what the kids were wearing...and so into the car they piled! Sure I got funny looks by the few patrons at the small neighborhood post office but I LOVED it, loved that my kids hadn't been in front of the TV that afternoon but creatively playing together and loved that they'd been planning a "show" for my viewing pleasure!

Incidentally, Matthew is a handful and seems to be more so everyday! I've often heard moms in frustration tell how their children run right behind them and mess up what they've just cleaned--that was exactly my life this past week! He has an AMAZING knack for finding exactly what he shouldn't and for making HUGE messes, it's a good thing he's super cute. And we've just transitioned him from a high chair into a booster seat at the table in the kitchen and he couldn't be happier! He's a super good eater and loves being included in all the action of our busy family!