NEW YEARS EVE

We had a VERY SIMPLE new year's eve.

Perfect!!!

The Randalls came over for pizza. The kids watched Kung Fu Panda and then we all had Hot Chocolate! Fun times...




(Click on picture above to see it bigger)

IT IS COLD here in K-Town. FINALLY!! I like the cold weather. We were going to put a fire in the fire place but my friend Christy was afraid her Sammy (1 year old) might crawl in. SO...NO FIRE!

Here are Ted and I... ringing in the New Year (at 8:30pm :-)


My buddy Christy!

The Randall Clan...

Excitement from 2008 -

-THE COMPLETION OF OUR ADOPTION OF ABEL!

-Gotcha Day Feb 18,2008 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

-Avery starting school at CFC

-Trip to Disney World! What a BLAST!

-Aidan starting Kindergarten (at Home - home school)

-the "birth" of Ancelet Photography

-Ted making 2 A's in Seminary classes

Our HOPES for 2009...

Well, for me (Tracie)... I just want to let the year be what it will. TRUST is my word for 2009. Trusting the LORD with our lives and what HE HAS FOR US.

Ted's word is REBIRTH. (he'll expound more later)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

FLIP VIDEO

I got a new flip video for Christmas from Ted and his mom (mostly his mom! :-)

How fun!!!
Here is a sample video.




and this one too.... (not done with the flip camera but wanted to share :-)

CHRISTMAS FUN!

What a DAY! It was relaxing, productive (we cleaned out the kids rooms), and WAY FUN! Here is Abel... clapping... I clap for Christmas! This so describes Addie today... just hanging out in the background. She got a new polly pocket toy and she spent the night in her room just playing. She also stayed in her PJs ALL DAY.
Abel on the other hand... was in the MIDDLE OF EVERYTHING!

We had a family day until 5pm. Then the Randalls came over and we had Christmas dinner ... Pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and we were suppose to have salad (I accidentally froze it). Bruce made these amazing chicken wings. It was a great meal! Lots of desserts as well. The Hornes came over after dinner for a little hanging out and KARAOKE!

Here is Abel looking into his gift from the Hornes. HOW CUTE. He isn't really sure just yet what to do with the whole "gift thing".

How fun is this gift :-)

Just loved this picture...

SAM BONE

This is Abel's buddy (or partner in crime :-)

OUR DJ... Let the Karaoke time BEGIN!

HOW SWEET is this :-)

Savanna and Samantha were Karaoke addicts. We could not get the microphone away from them. The kids were all crying begging for a turn but... they would NOT SHARE!

COME ON GIRLS... SHARE!

Can you tell how into it they were?

FINALLY... they gave the microphone up to the little children.

JK... They (Sav and Sam) only sang one song. These girls were the ones that couldn't get enough. We ended the night singing some Christmas Carols... SO FUN!

We got our Karaoke machine for Christmas from Ted's parents. WHAT FUN!

WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS! and a happy new year :-)

Christmas Eve

I took lots of pictures tonight. So many expressions!
You can also check out my photography blog... http://anceletphotography.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/christmas-eve/
.... I put a lot of pictures from tonight on there.

This is Abel having his first Christmas Eve dinner. HOW ABOUT THAT HAM?

GOOD STUFF!

I love Avery's expressions! She was talking about the book "City of Ember" which Ted is reading to her, Aidan and Addie right now at bed time.

TIRED!

She had such a great time tonight!

Aidan showing a gift he got from Charlotte and Buddy (aka Granny and Papaw) ... They are the sweet family that has had us over the last 6 Christmas Eves. When we moved here to K-town, they asked us to come over that first Christmas. We've gone each year since. We are SO THANKFUL for their generous hospitality!

Here are the gift set out for tomorrow morning. Ted and I stuff our kids stockings and the gifts they open are from Ted's parents. We sure wish MawMaw and PawPaw were here with us as we open them. We'll be sure to take pictures and video :-)

It's WAY TOO LATE (1am)! I should be in bed because there are going to be some HYPER KIDS up EARLY in the morning! They are so excited!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS! WE ADORE YOU!

Smiths in Ethiopia

This family are friends of ours. Our paths crossed for a while in Texas and we loved being friends with them. It just wasn't long enough!
They adopted from Zambia several years ago and planned on doing two years of mission work there ... well, the Lord had other plans. They ended up in Ethiopia!
Here is their blog.
I am blown away by their HEARTS FOR JESUS and their WILLINGNESS TO SERVE!

www.smithsinethiopia.com

Check this sweetness out...

Ho Ho Ho!

My crazy kids in their PJs :-)

We tried Pizza Kitchen for the first time last night. Abel ate his weight in the bread they bring out before the meal.
I wish I could remember Aidan's quote about Santa last night... It was something like "I just don't get that Santa guy". We don't do Santa but he is amazed by everyone believing in him. I told him DO NOT RUIN IT FOR OTHERS (hope there are no little kids reading this...oops)

The puffy vest girls :-)

The Cove park has a carriage ride and bon fire thing in the park for charity (bring canned goods to get in) every year. We went last night. Here is Ave roasting some marshmallows. Here are our two horses (above).
We decided to start caroling on our carriage ride. We had everyone singing. HOW FUN! Actually my friend Becky Crenshaw (who is a Karaoke winner down at the local family bowl) got the tunes going. SHE ROCKS!

This must be the picture (below) where I lost my cell phone. I realized as we were leaving that i didn't have it. GONE! YEP! BUT ... in the Spirit of Christmas, some nice man called this morning and he found it. He is on his way to bring it to me right now. HOW NICE! Ted and the kids are gone so if I end up on forensic files, find out who this dude is. Kinda weird that I gave him my address... I got all into the "Spirit of Christmas" and told him where we live and that my family was gone right now. WHAT WAS I THINKING! Abel climbed into this decorative bucket this morning and I thought it was too cute not to share! I LOVE MY NEW little camera!

It's been a while...

I am not posting as much as I want to. Honestly, every time recently that I have put batteries in my new camera, they weren't strong enough. I am always taking batteries out of my flash (for my other camera) and putting new ones in (to make it power up faster) ANYWAY... I have a bowl full of DUDS! I just got some new recharables! I AM SO EXCITED!

ANYWAY... here are a few updates of what we have been up to over here...

Our last day for the semester at co-op was last Thursday. What a fun day! I love these kids!
This is my first class... BLAST (Bible Learning And Share Time). We do a lesson and a craft each week in this class. The kid learn Bible verses and we are WILD FOR JESUS :-)

This is my second class... Look Into Lit. I normally share a book with the class and then we do some type of lesson with that book. Sometimes we cook, we do crafts, we do geography lessons, science lessons, math lessons... It is a FUN CLASS! This day was bring your favorite book day.

I DID NOT TAKE A PICTURE WITH MY 3rd CLASS - which is my K-2 Math class. AMUSING MATH.

This is my 4th class... AMUSING MATH 3-5. This is my biggest class at Thursday Connection. We have LOADS of fun playing math games to learn math concepts. This class is full of LIFE!

Our co-op starts back up in January. I will miss the kids! I am going to enjoy the break though. I have lots to prepare for ... next Semester will be even better than the first!

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We had our 2nd annual Christmas party for our LIFE group out at the Taylors. It was lots of fun!

Rudolph and his lovely wife picked us up and we drove out to HALLS together! ROAD TRIP. It's only 30 minutes but in K-town that is far :-)

Here are the ladies in my LIFE group (minus Patty)... TALL PEOPLE all around me!

I would have taken more pictures but this was one of the times my camera died.

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Abel is all about the remote at our house. He is ALWAYS finding them... trying to change the channels. I caught him this morning IN ACTION. HOW CUTE IS HE?

There are many a days that this little dude wakes up with NO DIAPER on. He takes it off. We need to learn to put pants on him. We usually just put him in a t-shirt to sleep. Well... here is again with out a diaper on. This is so Abel. He loves to be diaper free and he LOVES getting into the kitchen cabinets. I put the child proof things on there but he can pull them off.

SWEET STORY ALERT!
Tonight we were at Kohls. We were doing a little Christmas shopping and right at the end, Ted went to the car with the boys and I stayed in the store with the girls to check out. Well, Avery and Addie decided to play hide and seek while I was checking out (they now know that is NOT OK). So after calling Addie's name several times... she came out but she forgot her kitty. She had brought her favorite stuffed animal into Kohls and when she hid, she set it down.
She realized when we got to the car that she didn't have it. She started CRYING SO HARD! We went back in and could not find Sarah the Kitty. Addie is ALL ABOUT penguins in life right now. She LOVES them. She grabbed this penguin while we were in Kohls with HUGE tears and started hugging it for comfort. WELL... little did she know, I had already purchased that $5 penguin for her. She was crying and hugging the penguin (sending me a message ... mom, if you just buy this for me ... I will heal from the loss of my kitty). I leaned down and told her "Addie, I bought that penguin for you for Christmas... it's at home and when we get home, you can have it". She started to giggle. THE ADDIE GIGGLE. I love it. Here she is tonight... all snuggled up sleeping with her SNOW the PENGUIN. I wish I could have recorded the conversation in the car about how she should name the penguin Sarah to keep the memory of the kitty alive. It was hilarious... Ted and I just listened to the kids talking. She decided on Snow. HOW PRECIOUS!

1 year ago today...

was our REFERRAL DAY. We got the call about a precious little baby boy named Tefaye. I can not believe it's been a year! HOW TIME DOES FLY. Click here to read about that day.

Just wanted to say ... TESFAYE ABEL ANCELET... WE ADORE YOU!

Christmas Parade and Other Random Things...

So I found a GREAT DEAL on a Canon Power Shot yesterday and got it (Merry Christmas to me!). I have not been taking pictures of the kids much lately because I don't want to take my big camera. I just use that gear for my shoots. I had been wanting a smaller camera that I could just slip in my purse or pocket. Perfect timing because we were on our way to a Christmas Parade down town. SO FUN! SO COLD! So many pictures to take.

We ate at Subway first.... How big does he look in this picture? This is Abel sitting in a booth.


Avery ready for the parade.

Me and my friend, Becky.

(Above) Aidan all bundled up. (Below) Some of the Mazons. Our fellow parade goers. We reminisced about how we went to a Christmas parade together in Texas 7 years ago. Neither family has been to a Christmas parade since then. This one was VERY good. The paper today said that 35,000 people were at the parade. I believe it... it was PACKED.

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Today we got out for a few hours. Lunch at Chic Fil A (with the Horne Girls) and a trip to Old Navy and Target. I woke Abel up for our outing. Poor thing... look how well he was resting!

He transitioned well :-) What a happy boy! By the way... he walks EVERYWHERE now. He is into EVERYTHING. He loves to giggle and wants to be in the middle of what his brother and sisters are doing.

At Chic Fil A. Do these two look just alike or what?

Savanna... we are doing crazy faces... where is yours?
OH MY! Two precious girls!

A little fun with the camera at Old Navy

CUTE!

Avery got some money from the "tooth fairy". She had two teeth pulled at the dentist. I think that if you get a tooth pulled you should get two dollars. So she got two dollars for each one of those teeth. She was thrilled (PS... she knows we are the tooth fairy). She was so excited to spend her money. She bought a key chain at Old Navy. It was the first time she purchased something. She was so proud... and guess what? I had a camera to catch the moment!

Moving on to Target. We were in the dollar section and put this hat on Abel. Think it's cute? Well, he wore it for the click of the picture... then he RIPS it off. NO HATS FOR HIM. It doesn't matter how cold it is.

AND GUESS WHAT MOVIE I GOT FOR $4 AT TARGET??? GIRLS JUST WANTA HAVE FUN. ... Only the best MOVIE EVER!

Fun Times had by all!

On a domestic note... I am trying something new. Now those of you that figured this out a long time ago, I AM SLOW when it comes to time management in the home. I am ALWAYS and I repeat ALWAYS up to my eyeballs in laundry. Mainly clean. I can wash just fine... it's the putting away that TAKES ME OUT! Well, I decided to start something new with my kids. If their clothes are clean at night... we wear them again the next day. INCLUDING ME. If Avery is going to school, she can wear something different (I don't want to scar her), but if we are just gonna be at home or going around town (errands, etc), we wear the SAME CLOTHES. Can I just tell you something... FREEDOM! That is what I feel! We wore two outfits this WHOLE WEEK. And we don't smell... come, be near us... take a BIG WHIFF. It's crazy that we wash clothes so often.
Now, I just have to figure out how to better do EVERYTHING ELSE around the house. If you have any tips. LET ME KNOW. I know about the Fly Lady. But if you've done anything that has helped you... Please, share with me. I NEED HELP!