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)