Welcome to the Big Boys Club, James!

James is turning 15 next week and my BIGS decided that it was high time he was welcomed to the BIG BOY CLUB, so they made a plan with Jodi for him to come spend the night. There were all sorts of teenage antics, but mostly they spent the whole night playing video games, eating junk food and laughing at each other, which lead to my living room looking like this...

YIKES!! Who is cleaning this mayhem up?!?

They even let Derek hang out for a while, which I thought was nice. Everyone had a grand time and James felt quite excited about being invited into the 'gang'. He loves to hang out with Pat and David, but they are often busy when James is available, so I was touched by them coming up with this idea. It was a proud mama moment for sure.
Happy Birthday James!

Happy Birthday Derek~

Oh my, how the years have flown! It's hard to believe that Derek has lived 1/2 of his life here in NM..WOW~ Derek turned 4 on Saturday and we had a blast celebrating with him. Las Cruces just happened to have what they call 'Kids Kindness Day' on Saturday as well and I'm pretty sure Derek thought the party was just for him...hee hee! It was great...firetruck tours, fingerprinting and picture taking for ID cards, bean bag toss with prizes, free food and drinks, McGruff the crime dog, he got to pet a snake, swing on the playground equipment, watch a remote control airplane zip around, dance in the bubbles and be the center of attention. Later, I whipped up one of Mambo's famous graham cracker cakes and boy, was that tasty...it's been too long since we had one of those! Derek got several nice presents and he enjoyed them all...he was every bit as excited about the flashcards PaPa and Grma sent as he was about the cool cars 'Shua got for him with a 'Cars' themed car rug to drive them on. We are actually going to have a 'real' party for him this weekend, but he wants 'ele-flants' party...any ideas?? ANYONE?? The most memorable moment of his birthday was as the the park as we were looking at the cool cars in the small car show. Derek got very excited and starting shouting, "Mama, look at this car, it is so sic!" (he hangs out with 'Shua and David too much when they are watching Pimp my Ride) but since he has a small lisp as all my boys do, it came out, 'Mama, look at this car, it is tho thick!!" Oh my gravy, we had a good laugh about that one!! Even 'Shua laughed out loud and for those of you that know him, you know how rare and special that is! A few pictures for you to enjoy and I'm gonna hush...really!

Blessings,

~K~

Christmas Time in Las Cruces

Dear Friends and Family,
Hello once again from sunny New Mexico. It is December 21st and the weather is great by almost anyone's standards...sunny and 62. As most of you know, yesterday was my 34th birthday. It was great, so many people called or left me messages, that I barely had a chance to feel homesick at all. Karen brought me a huge poinsettia, just like my dad used to every year and Dan and the boys bought me a digital camera so that I could send pictures better and faster. We had a Christmas Dessert Party last night and we all ate WAY too much, and I made Russian Tea, which I hadn't had in way too long. We ended up having a good turnout despite several people being sick or out of town and fun was had by all. However, we have so many leftovers...does anyone want to come eat some???
As for actual Christmas preparation, we are all but ready, with the tree up with gifts wrapped and under it, and we are looking forward to going and seeing some of the nativity scenes and light decorations this weekend. The boys have a Christmas Countdown on their school chalkboard and are crossing off the days with anticipation! I love having a two year old at Christmas...they get so excited about everything! Derek is just beside himself trying to resist the urge to dig into the presents...LOL! His two favorite new words are cookie and candy and he REALLY enjoyed baking day this week. He even helped us lose one beater to my brand new mixer that I had used ONE time!!! So, Karen and I are trying to bake copious amounts of cookies with a mixer with one beater...ridiculous! It was eventually found, but not until all the cookies were done, of course. We had a good laugh about that, for sure.
Church is going really well. The boys are enjoying their Sunday School classes and meeting a few people and have even requested to start back to AWANAs come January, now that they know a few kids. Dan and I had a chance to visit with the pastor for a few minutes this past week before church and he seems great. I'm looking forward to the Christmas eve service, but it won't be the same as being there with all of you. BUT, it is better than not going at all.
Dan is almost finished with his temporary foreman job and I think he is glad. At this point, he is just supervising the other trades to make sure that they do their jobs right and so he is bored stiff. The one guy he still has under him is bringing a portable DVD player everyday and they are watching movies all day long. He comes home and is ready for a project becasue he hasn't done anything all day. And that has worked out well here, we have unpacked every box that needs unpacking until Karen moves out. We've been throught almost every box and sorted what needs to come out and what needs to stay packed. Dan reorganized the garage and now we have space for Dan's weight bench and even room for the dart board, which we all are enjoying. David and Patrick are actually quite good at it.
Oy! I just realized how long this is getting! I want to add a few pictures and then I'll sign off!
We miss you all so much and wish that we could be there with you, especially as the holidays grow closer and closer. Lost Boys, Mama K Loves you!! We love you all!
In His Blessings,
Kristy and the Man Crew

Look at all those handsome boys! They are growing so fast! David~10, Dan~32, Derek~2, Patrick~almost 9, and Tyler~14
Who is this goofy guy? This picture was already on my camera when I opened it. Sheesh! You'd think people would delete these things!
Look at this gorgeous poinsettia that Karen gave me...it's practically a tree it's so huge...and dusted with gold...it is lovely!