An Evening with the Girls

With TJ and Samantha at the Winter Retreat with the Youth Group.....Theron & I took Mary & Chrissy out to dinner at OutBack, then over to the mall to Build a Bear for our send off for them to go back to college this weekend. A girl is never too old to enjoy a stuffed animal! They even let me take a ton of pictures of them making their animals! We had a great evening and we will miss them so much when they leave on Sunday. However, I am so thankful they are following God's will for them in their lives.

Mary picked out a monkey and Chrissy picked out a black bear.

The worker had Chrissy step on the pedal to fill her bear with stuffing.

Then it was Mary's turn!


He had them do little silly things while he put their animals' "hearts" in. This one was funny...he had them put the heart up to their ears...both ears...since their bear and monkey are boys he said they need all the help they can in being good listeners!

Here they are whispering a wish into the heart. haha

Adding a hug Don't remember this one, but it looked funny.
Fluffing up the Bear at the bath station. Mary with her new bud.


Mary dressing her monkey in skater gear...he looks like TJ.

Chrissy dressing her bear.

Above....Mary & her monkey Below....Chrissy with her new bear

Chrissy let me put her bear into a kiddie ride right outside of the Build a Bear Workshop. Isn't he so cute?

Mikaela Comes for a Visit

We got to watch our friends' beautiful daughter while they had a date night after our party with Bruce & Lisa. I had fun taking pics of her, as she is such a doll baby!She loved Samantha's big monkey. It was way bigger than she is!

Mikaela playing with the monkey while Bethany watches

She loved playing with our keys which we keep in a basket on the front door.

I asked her to touch the snowman so I could take a picture. She obliged!

She loved the tree but didn't touch until I asked her to for the previous picture. She is SO well behaved!


Once Mommy & Daddy got back, she got so excited and played and ate while sitting on the monkey. Johnny & TJ got home, too, so she started running around in circles until she was dizzy and the whole time she'd chant "Johnny, TJ" . I wish I would have gotten some of that, because it was pretty funny and she did it over and over!

We are already looking forward to our next visit with Mikaela. She is such a joy!

Christmas with the Fowlers

Bruce, Lisa, and Bethany were out of town for Christmas this year, so we celebrated once they got back. On January 10th, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast as is our family tradition to do that on Christmas Eve morning. Then, we went back to our house to open gifts and play games. It was such a great day!!The family sitting at the Cracker Barrel table. We had excellent service. They were being observed by some Cracker Barrel "higher ups" and they tripping over each other to give us everything we might need. I told Theron I wanted to walk up to one of the observers and say, "Hey, what's going on? They NEVER act like this!" But, of course, I'd never do that. They really are great there all the time. :)

Theron put one of our small trees back out so we could have a tree up for our gift exchange!

My Bath and Body Works gift from Lisa

Theron got a set to make chicken wings.

Bruce and Lisa with their gifts. I put Bruce's gift card into a Vera Bradley Box. I think he liked the box more than the card! haha

The Fowlers got TJ an ITunes gift card, too.

Chrissy with her Bath and Body Works gifts

Bethany with her EverSewEnglish purse & Sam and Mary with their Bath & Body Works stuff.


Theron being cute


We all played Quelf while Theron took pictures for me

TBC "Talent" Show 2008

Every year on New Year's Eve, our church holds a Chili Supper and Talent Show. Lots of people bring their homemade chili and desserts. Then, we have the entertainment. Sunday School classes are encouraged to do a skit of some sort. I have pictures of all the entrants, except for the Scantlin girls and some of the 30's ladies' "annoying commercial" skits. I was getting ready for one of the 30's ladies' skits (no, I'm not 30, but I teach that class) so missed taking a pic of the Scantlins. As you will see, we have some REAL talent at our church!!

Here is Pastor Reid displaying the "coveted" urn. The winner gets to take this home for a year!!


Pastor Reid has in the past few years, handed over the MC job to his son, Pastor Mike.

The first skit was one the teens did about a box with something dripping out of it. As all the teens tasted the mystery liquid they described what it tasted like. At the end, we learn that the mystery box had a puppy in it. Haha

Frank Devenuto "entertained" with some jokes and a "song". I wonder why his wife didn't show up..... Just kidding, Nancy & Frank!!


The teens did another skit about not having a skit.

Our first annoying commercial. "Head On, apply directly to the forehead" over and over. We also did a Snuggie commercial, but I forgot to have someone take the pics of us..we put robes on backwards. And our last one, we yelled, from different places in the church, "It's my money and I want it now!"
FBI Training Refresher Course. I was one of the agents, that's me with the black beanie on. It was a great skit. Hope always does good ones!

The College and Career class did one about an elevator and everyone wanted to get off on the 10th floor. It was the floor with the bathroom. Their teacher, MR. Austin, dressed as a pregnant woman. The young married class did a skit about a guy being mugged. Dustin was hilarious!

The McBride family entertained with a lip sync to a song about David and Goliath. It was very cute.

The winner....The McBride Family. I'm sure they will display the blue urn with pride!

Silly Pictures

Joey spent a few days with us, so there was never any stop in the craziness. The kids had fun and we laughed a lot. Not sure what he was doing, but they were laughing. Mary took these while I was in the other room.

TJ doing whatever it was they were doing!

Chrissy being pretty!



Joey must have been standing on the table taking this one.

TJ spinning a dvd?

Christmas Trees

Here are two of our Christmas trees. I do the one big one that has all the ball ornaments and kids' homemade ornaments, etc. on it, and then I do two small ones with snowmen and gingerbread men on them. Here are pics of the two small ones from this year.

Johnny's on Maintenance

Darlene called me earlier today to tell me how the dr. appt went. Johnny is now on the maintenance phase. That means no more hospital stays, etc. They are very excited, as this means he will feel better and not have so many limitations. He won't be knocked so low that he can't be out and about and he'll feel better all around without so much chemo in his system. He'll be on more of a pill form of chemo, etc. from what I understand, for the most part. I waited until he posted something about it on his Facebook, so he could be the one telling everyone. I know a lot of you who read this aren't on Facebook, so I wanted to let you know. :) Keep praying for Johnny, that this will continue to keep the cancer away, and that he will do well on this regimen. The plan right now is that he'll be on maintenance until August. Thanks, again, for your prayers. The Bryans appreciate your prayers so much.