Icy roads=day home with the boys

Guess what we're doing today? A whole lot of this...


And probably even more of this...

Snap out of it!!

It's a cold, dark day in my world. Peyton handed me my mail this afternoon and what I read on a plain black & white postcard just about made me cry...you see I received notification that the last edition of most favorite magazine has been printed. Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion is no more. The January 2009 edition was the last. I have had a subscription since year one (1996) and have held onto every magazine. Somehow I missed receiving the very first mag (not that I haven't tried like crazy to get my hands on a copy!!) but I have every other one. Mary Engelbreit's artwork makes me smile. For years her magazine has featured some of the most fascinating and cute homes I have ever seen. There have been yummy recipes and sweet art projects galore. According to a press release posted on her web site, they are looking for another publisher. I hope they find one. Until then I am stuck with a replacement magazine...Martha Stewart's LIVING...uggg...it's just not the same!

Thirsty?

Our church is blessed beyond measure to be hosting a Life Action Ministry team. The group came to town last Friday and will be here until next Wednesday. In my lifetime I've had the opportunity to be a part of 2 LAM crusades, summits, quests for revival...or whatever you want to call them. And although the first one was when I was 13 years old, the power of God is at work and is no less evident than it was 22 years ago!

Tonight Ryan (the speaker) talked to us about clearing out all of the distractions in our lives that we put ahead of God. He put this 3-columned list of examples up on the screens and I found that so many of those very examples are distractions in my own life! How arrogant are we to think that we can replace Him? How foolish are we to think that those things will quench the thirst of longing that only He can satisfy? Praise Him that His word says,

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have
not kept them. RETURN TO ME AND I WILL RETURN TO YOU, says the Lord of
hosts, Mal. 3:7

We don't derserve it. But He is our God of Grace.

Here's an awesome song, Jimmy, the worship leader sang tonight

(Mute my blog music at the bottom of the page before you listen to this)

Comforts

Each night we have a pretty good routine going when it comes to getting the boys ready for bed. They get baths-sometimes together, sometimes apart-then they brush teeth and climb into bed. With Preston it's always a wiggly-fest. He doesn't want to wind down until I'm at my wits end. His latest demand is that his covers go on his body in a particular order-and yes it's a beating, but if I've learned anything as a parent it's that you have to pick your battles and since I know the order that he prefers it's not really a big deal...until the striped blanket is missing like it was the other night. I don't know why the striped blanket must go on top, but you would have thought that the world was ending because I thought it would be ok to just go with the frog blanket on top, but oh no! we had to search high and low. Thankfully it was finally found in his chair at the dining room table.

Now with Peyton the "Blue Blanket" has practically become a part of the family. It started out as one of those super thick fleece blankets, but after 8 years and a million washings, it has been reduced to a threadbare piece of cloth. Apparently it holds some mesmerizing smell too because that is Peyton's comfort-to smell the blanket. I guess it could be worse. He could still suck his thumb. I have no doubt that "Blue" will be making it to college with him someday.

Now, when it comes to actually going to bed each night, Peyton has a "script". As soon as I tuck him in he says to me,

"I love you, I'll see you in the morning, you're the best mom in the world, how long are you staying up?"

There are no pauses between any of those statements. It's all blurred together...to which my response most nights is "I love you too, probably about an hour, I'm pretty tired". Most nights I'm up more than an hour, but I've become so accustomed to saying it like he has become accustomed to saying what he says. I've been wondering here lately how long he'll keep that up. How sad will it be one day when he just says "Good night"? Maybe that will be when he and Blue are off at college too.

8 is GREAT!

Eight years ago today, David and I met our Peyton. He was born 12 days before his due date and has kept us on our toes every day since! He is so very smart, and so very funny and seems to excel at everything he sets his mind to. What a wonderful son Peyton David Reed is.

Because there has been so much going on with our extended family the last few weeks, we decided to celebrate the big 8 by taking a trip to Gattitown in Frisco for just the four of us. It seems everyone else in the family has been sick and really needed to rest and recover. Actually Preston isn't 100% but he was quite the trooper, especially when it comes to eating pizza and playing games. We spent about 3 hours there and even ran into my freshman year roommate from Baylor!! Tanya is married with 3 boys of her own. It was great to catch up with a friend from the past.

Of course a trip to Frisco wouldn't be complete without a trip to Stonebriar Mall. I was able to go to Sephora and use my GC that David and the boys gave me for Christmas and we exchanged a couple of other Christmas gifts that weren't the right size, etc.

Here are some photos from the fun that we had today.

Christmas & New Year's Eve 08

Wow, it has certainly been quite a holiday season! With Christmas falling on a Thursday this year, we were able to really spread out our Christmas fun. We are blessed with such a big family that it takes several stops to get it all done. The Sunday before Christmas we had our annual get together with Gran's side of the family. We spent it at Gran & Pap's house. David's Aunt Jane and Uncle Brian were there, along with his cousins, Russell & Megan, Matt, Michael & Amber, and Mitch. Of course David's brother James was there too. We ate a ton and did our annual white elephant gift exchange. The most interesting gift this year had to be the large "nose" that attaches to the shower wall and squirts out soap. Pap ended up with it and I'm sure it got regifted to his brother Charles on Christmas Day!

The boys spreading feed out for Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve

Next was Christmas Eve at Gran & Pap's. This is just them, our family and James. Poor Gran had to work that day, but she had a wonderful feast of breakfast casserole. We even used her 12 Days of Christmas glasses. There are lots of memories made at this get together each year. I count my blessings everyday for Norman & Judy. I don't know what we'd do without them!

Santa's Express at Pap's

The future President with his US book

Gran & Pap

Jenn & Judy

The worker-man with his workin' clothes

Gran with her Ps

The boy loves office supplies!

Chillin' with Uncle James

Christmas Day was as magical as ever! The boys must have really rated high on Santa's list this year because they were rewarded with some pretty amazing gifts. Peyton was most excited about his new Wii game system and Preston's favorite was definitely his jack-hammer. They got many wonderful gifts but we made sure to emphasize that the real gift at Christmas is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have continued a Link-family tradition and all get together and pray before we see what Santa has left. It's a special tradition and one that I hope they pass along when they have families of their own.

Christmas Day bounty

For Christmas Day lunch we had a wonderful time at Poppy & Nana's home. We got to spend time with David's Mama & Papaw Reed, Nana's mom & dad, Amberly & Riley and Uncle James. Nana outdid herself with a wonderful meal! I was in charge of bringing broccoli, cheese & rice casserole. It took me several days to realize what I'd left out...the cream of mushroom soup! Oh well, there's always next year! After we took the boys home for a nap, we headed back over for a good ol' fashioned game of Mexican Train dominoes. We taught them to play several years ago and its been something that we get a big kick out of. Poppy is so competitive but never seems to win. Nana always plays her hand perfectly to keep him from going out. He is such a good sport!

The day after Christmas, we headed to Grammy & Granddaddy's house. Matt & Katy and Mema were in town so we had dinner together. Mom made Chicken Spaghetti...yummy!! Mema wasn't feeling well, but she stayed up late with us and finished playing Mexican Train.

Mema looks pretty good here considering she has pneumonia!! God love her!

The next day, the LeBlanc's came to town and we celebrated with the Link's. Mema wasn't feeling too well and insisted that we go ahead with lunch and open our gifts without her. We were blessed again with many wonderful gifts.

Preston checking out Ellie's new Barbie.

It wasn't until early that evening that we discovered that Mema was sicker than we all imagined. It was determined that a trip to the ER was needed, so Mom & Dad got her in their car and headed that way. I joined them a little later and that's when our holiday began to turn not-so Merry. Sweet Mema was diagnosed with pneumonia and was admitted to ICU. Because of her comprimised lung situation, the ER physician felt strongly that she needed to be put on a ventilator to assist her breathing and give her body a chance to heal. She agreed and we sent her off towards a deep sleep. This week has been a series of ups and downs in her recovery. She is now off the ventilator and able to talk with us all. What a blessing that has been!! My precious Aunt Melanie and Uncle Randy have been since Sunday. God has blessed our family by the bucket-loads and while never in a million years would I wish this sickness on Mema, I feel its been a blessing to spend time with my parents and my aunt & uncle. We are praying for her strength to return and her infection to disappear. It's going to be a long road to recovery but I feel like she is getting some amazing care. I've always known that TMC is a wonderful place to work, but now I'm seeing what it means to be the recipient of care for a loved one...and Mema is certainly a MOST LOVED one.

Last night was New Year's Eve. I thought it might be good to give the Links and the Grays a change of scenery so they came to our house for an early NYE celebration. I bought everyone hats and we watched David broadcast the Sherman Holiday Invitational basketball tourney live on KXII. It was fun to see the Sherman Bearcats play the Denison Yellowjackets for the 1st place finish. The Bearcats were able to secure the victory. Mema even watched the game from her hospital bed. She told Dad that it was the technical shots that won it for the Bearcats. I love it that she loves sports...must be where I get it from.

Uncle Randy & Aunt Melanie on NYE

Little Mr. New Year's Eve

Granddaddy with the Reed boys.

David was home by 10:15 pm, so he and the boys and I rang in 2009 together. I have cute pictures of us in our hats, but I promised David they wouldn't go on here. Just imagine the cute picture above with David and I.

We're praying for good health and God's continued blessings this year. Love to all!!!

Christmas-eve Eve

David & I are officially off for Christmas. Yea!! David was off today and I only worked for a few hours. We finished up our shopping and wrapping which left us free to really enjoy some family fun tonight. The boys received a Gingerbread House kit from Aunt Jane last weekend, so after dinner we set out to become engineers and exterior designers. The boys did a great job decorating...all 3 of them and I had the job of putting it all together. Take a look at how it turned out.

After we took photos of the house, I took advantage of their willingness to pose and put them in front of the tree...especially now that it has presents underneath!!

Brotherly love!! (Not like the mention in the previous post)

After we had our mini-photo session, we headed out to Loy Lake Park to drive through the Christmas light display. I think we all agreed that our favorite display this year is the one where Santa is in a boat fishing. It's set up on the Lake! We enjoyed Christmas music (thanks XM!) and laughed at Preston's pure joy at seeing each display. We had the boys bring money from their banks to give as a donation at the end of the display. They're never too young to learn the lesson of giving to others.