Braden's Bowling Party!

Braden wanted to celebrate with his school friends this year and we had a great time bowling! I even made bowling shirts for all the guests! A super fun party for Braden in the middle of all the Christmas chaos! :) Happy birthday precious, Braden! Your 7 now... where did all the years go? What a cool kid you are! God sure has blessed you with many wonderful gifts!

'Tis the Season to be Jolly... and busy!

December is ALWAYS such a busy, but wonderful month! Our month was filled with laughter and tears as we got SO excited to see it snow in Houston and then had to make a spontaneous trip to MO to mourn the loss of our beloved Great Grandpa Ermeling. We also enjoyed the League City Christmas parade from the sidelines this year instead of riding on a float and nearly froze! All three of the boys brought the true meaning of Christmas to LSA through the Christmas plays. Andrew was a Wise Guy and had to sing with two other boys and a small speaking part and Braden had a speaking part in his as well and then our precious Colton did so well doing singing, smiling, and hand motions all at the same time. We were so proud of all three and there I sat as usual... the crazy mom grinning from ear to ear, taking pics, swaying to the music and crying at the end! Gotta love this stuff! Then they all had fun at their Christmas parties at school, seeing lots of Christmas lights with friends, and our traditional Christmas Eve with the Swiggards added to the season.

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23

So Thankful!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving break! We started with a great day at Kemah with friends, then had some wonderful family time at Herman park, a very quiet Thanksgiving day at home with our traditional spaghetti dinner, and spent the rest of the break decorating for Christmas!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34

Braden the Bobcat!

Braden has been having so much fun with his buddies from school in his new den at LSA! They have been working hard at their meeting and "go see its" (field trips) to earn their Bobcat badge. Andrew took this year off from scouting and has been helping to "mentor" Braden. This will be a really great thing for both of them! We were so proud watching Braden get his Bobcat badge. I think this will be a great year for him in scouting! :)

"You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory." Psalm 73:24

Women of Faith Conference

Oh how I have been wanting to go to a Women of Faith Conference for so long! Finally I got go and it was everything that I had hoped for... time with friends, laughing, crying, worshiping, learning, growing, more tears, more laughs, more worship! Amazing! Highlights for me: concert by Steven Curtis Chapman and Nicole C. Mullen, hearing from all the awesome speakers and being inspired to read Lisa Whelchell's book "The Facts of Life". For an added bonus my dear friend, Karen, treated us to a suite at the Hilton and we stayed up WAY too late talking and eating cheesecake! My new goal is to make it to this conference every year! October 22-23, 2010 San Antonio here we come!!! Who wants to join me?

Happy 4th Birthday, Colton!!!

How in the world did that happen? When did my baby turn 4? It seems like just yesterday I was snuggling him in my arms... thankfully he still does that sometimes and every morning he jumps out of bed and runs across the room to jump in my arms for a big squeezy hug! Oh how I treasure those! He and I had a great time making horse cookies and his cake for his party! Then lots of his friends came over for his Cowboy party! The big kids did a great job running the games; lasso the horse, huge ring toss, tattoo station, milk bottle toss, pinata, stick horse races, etc... Tons of western fun! Yee haw! Love you bunches, Colton! God made you special and we all love you very much! :)

Our beloved... Grandma Barb!

What a joy it was to celebrate Grandma Barb's birthday! As you can see she is thrilled to be surrounded by some of her very favorite "grandkids"! Only one is truly hers, but she loves them all so much! Our life is so much better having Grandma Barb in it! She loves on our kids and us too! It was great for the kids to have time to play together, eat pizza, and sing to their precious Grandma Barb! We love you! :)