A dozen...

That is how many years it has been. A dozen. 12 years since I lost my Mom to cancer. Nasty old cancer.
Seems like each year gets easier to think on all the good times. Yesterday, marked 12 years of my life without my Mom. It is such a personal journey. I had an amazing Mom and we shared what I am realizing now, was a very unique and rare relationship. I feel like I am building that same relationship with Ashley, though it isn't as many years old as the one I had with my Mom. I was 43 when my mom lost her battle here on earth, but reached the finish line in heaven! And we rejoiced! She was an amazing mom and grandmother, and she approached both of those duties with God by her side! We all learned a lot from mom. Oh how I hope I can pass that legacy on to my children and grands but I am afraid that filling her shoes will always be a challenge.

Yesterday I tried to spend the day thinking on all the wonderful things she taught me. She was a good teacher, I hope I can always remember her lessons!

But as much as I thought on all the good, I have to admit I long to have a conversation with her. To be at her feet and gain wisdom. The two of us had lots of fun times...whether it was sitting over a cup of coffee talking about life, family, God...or cooking, sharing recipes, crafting, digging in the flower-beds, traveling, shopping...we always had more to do and talk about than there was time...that's a good thing. We ran out of time before I was ready but it was God's perfect timing for her.  My memories are full and rich.  I have so very much to thank God for.  I was so fortunate to have a Mom who loved me, cared for me and made sure I knew God.

Every time I am with my grands...I think of my Mom. She loved our two kids like crazy. She would have been even more crazy in love with her great-grands. I wish she could see Owen's little freckles, Clay's intense blue eyes, Will's adorable dimples and Emma's sweet curls. But then again, she can see them. I feel her presence daily and though not here on earth anymore, I still feel her gentle nudge to do the best I can and to love deeply.

Thanks Mom. You are missed BUT never ever forgotten.

One of God's many reminders...

In the middle of winter with news that we are headed to another hot and dry summer...I love that God reminds me DAILY of just staying in the moment. Don't get ahead of yourself Mary Kay. Enjoy today.  I am blessed beyond what I deserve, I am trying hard to stay in the moment. I am working around the house today and had to stop and go out and take a picture of this:

See in the middle of winter when all is brown and dry...up pops a reminder of God's perfect plan! Sweet little violets. (Thank you Sherri for sharing these little plants with me MANY years ago!)

I have so many blogs to write but I am doing my best to not stress out with my long list of "to-dos" and instead keep my eyes on the blessings in today.

Laps overflowing with love...

Bud and Honey

Will (4), Emma (2), Owen (7) and Clay (5)

Taken Christmas Day, 2011

Back blogging...

I was really hoping to start my new year off with a fresh blogging start...but here I am again...playing catch up! I just can't seem to keep all my balls in the air...I just keep dropping something and to be honest, blogging has been the one who falls to the ground most often! :) So here is a quick catch up on the Holiday Season at the Knight House!

Though Larry and I were busy decorating, putting up lights on the house, cooking, baking, etc..the REAL fun began when the kids showed up on Saturday, Christmas Eve. They all arrived at the house within 10 minutes of each other...David, Ashley and Emma arriving from Mansfield and Zach, Meg, Owen, Clay and will arriving from a few blocks over! :) Larry and I had been super busy in the kitchen. If I haven't mentioned it on here before, I am in love with Pinterest. I have a very big board of recipes to try. I have been trying to at least try one recipe a week...but I thought during the holidays I would try as many as I could. :) Good excuse! So, we fixed a big brunch for everyone and all the recipes were new and some quickly became new favorites! :)

Here is the table before the crew arrived....

And here we are busy doing what we love to do...eat! And yummy new recipes!

Then it was time for one of our favorite and oldest traditions. The Christmas Eve Morning Hunt. Not a terrible original and clever name...we have great traditions but we sure need to work on their names!
Here is the tradition explained. The little kids went first. In the past, I have taken pictures of things around the house that I knew the little ones could find but this year I hid some really cute paper Santa's around the house. I would show them a sample of one and tell them the room to find them in and off they would go. They were really sweet to help each other. We got tickled because we had told the boys to be sweet and help Emma. But it quickly because obvious that she didn't need help and was spotting them right along with the boys. After they found all their Santa's, they went to the couch (which has become a tradition! The boys think they need to get in the couch ANYTIME there is a surprise and close their eyes and hold out their hands!) so off they went and I love this picture that David captured of Emma...she at least had the hold out the hands part! :)

Here are the four digging into their gifts!

While the "big kids" wrote the next chapter in their crazy Christmas Story (which they did an amazing job once again...talented group!) the kids and I played Emma's game. 

We originally had planned to make gingerbread houses but everyone was having such fun relaxing and playing games with the kids so we decided to not try to rush through another activity. We spent the afternoon relaxing, visiting and then got ready for our annual Christmas Eve with my brother and his family. We had such a good time. We had our traditional snack food buffet, which is always a big hit. Then my brother read our Christmas book this year with some help from Owen and Clay. Afterwards, we played Bingo, yes, another tradition. We all bring an amazing and awesome wrapped $5 gift and fight it out to come away with the best gift of the year! This year, I played Christmas Bingo with the little   ones. I think they were so excited to get to play too and of course had fun picking out a gift from the little wrapped packages. 

After the party, we got the kids in their Christmas PJ's and off to bed. We had a chance to visit as adults before heading to bed ourselves. It was so fun because Zach, Meg and the boys spent the night as well. Christmas morning started with hot coffee, a beautiful fire in the fireplace and a very sweet and memorable devotional with our family. David did our communion thoughts, Zach and Meg shared the Christmas Story with a really sweet video. We sang songs and prayed as a family. It was precious. 

Then the little ones opened Christmas presents, it is always such fun to watch! Here are a few pictures of the fun!

 I love how it doesn't matter who is opening a gift, the kids get so excited for one another!

 Clay opening his set of Lego's. The boys had a Lego Christmas this year and it was a huge hit!

 Owen's turn!

 Emma sporting her new apron! She got lots of goodies to go with the kitchen Santa brought her!

Will opening one of his gifts.

After the kids opened their packages, we stopped for brunch. We have a very traditional meal...French Toast Casserole and Bacon-Mushroom Strata Casserole (thank you Pioneer Woman) plus sausage and lots of drink choices. The kids were very excited to have Chocolate Milk! :)

Another tradition...we always have new ornaments on the plates for each child and the couples.

As is the tradition (I know...another tradition) the little kids got an ornament to reflect the theme of their birthday in 2011. Thus, Owen got a Lego ornament, Clay a fishing ornament, Will a Superhero ornament and Emma a monkey. David and Ashley got a New York Ornament to reflect their trip to NYC and Zach and Meg got a pop up trailer ornament to reflect their love for taking their family on camping trips each year. 

Then it was back to one of our families very favorite parts of Christmas...STOCKINGS!!!

Afterward the little ones had finished opening all their goodies, the adults exchanged gifts. This year we made the decision to really cut back on our giving. Because we are all so blessed and truly don't need a thing! Even though in my heart I know this is a good thing, it was really hard for me not to stuff my kids stockings...after all we have been doing that for 30 plus years. Each adult was to buy a $5 gift for every adult. It was amazing to me how creative everyone was in their gift giving. Lots of fun little treats! We enjoyed playing with the kids for the next several hours...the boys were so excited to put together their Legos! I am pretty sure the adults had just as much fun. 

We spent the afternoon playing, visiting, snacking and enjoying our time together to the fullest.

That evening we drove to Hawley and celebrated Christmas with Larry's family 

It was fun to see everyone and of course, we ate. We always eat. 

Monday morning, Meg, Ashley and  I did a little after Christmas shopping. The nice thing was we had fun but certainly didn't take the shopping too serious! It was fun to find a few things to tuck away for next year! We returned to the house and fixed lunch. 

It was another relaxing afternoon of playing, visiting and vegging! 

Late afternoon the fun had to come to an end as David, Ashley and Emma packed up and headed back to Mansfield and Zach, Meg and the boys headed back to their house.

We are so very blessed.

We cherish these times and always enjoy our children being home for the holidays!

Another tradition...a new one of sorts...

Okay, our family loves traditions. We have lots of old ones that I have written about here, here, and here and ... okay, I am gonna stop there...cause there are so many of my blogs (19) that are about traditions! Since we didn't have enough, we started another last year! Ha. However, the wonderful thing about this one is how easy it is for Larry and I! As I have written about in the past, we always have a Christmas Eve Morning gift...which always involved hunting for your gift around the house. This tradition, involved poems/hints that lead you around the house. Well, writing poetry is not my strong suit. In the past, I have received some chuckles...with good reason...for my lack of rhyming skills. Or, worse, it would rhyme but made no sense! So, last year I had an idea to get me out of this role of writing poetry! Here is what they received:

Mr. and Mrs. Claus’s poems have been laughed at

Their rhyming abilities, they say, are weak and flat.

They’ve looked at us as if we were crazy

When we tied them together and no one could be lazy!

So we have decided to turn the big kids loose

And just see what kind of story they can produce!

The words on the enclosed list must all be used

To make a story or poem you will choose.

Enclosed are a notepad and a pencil too

Work as a team, we look forward to your debut!

The clock is ticking; you have only a 1/2 hour to work

As yes, your results, if done well, will produce a perk!

In order to receive your prize

You must delight our ears and eyes!

Bud, Honey, Owen, Emma, Will and Clay

Look forward to your most CREATIVE display!

Larry and I came up with a list of random and I mean random words...
Today I was getting the list of words ready and pulled out the last years (which by the way, the story will be a "continued" story) and it just made me laugh. This 4 did a great job! It made me laugh this morning, so I thought I would share it with you...and maybe it could be a tradition that would fit into your family!

Chapter One:

The icy wife was hanging plastic Christmas bells while the kids were mixing a green concoction in the blender. A fuzzy blanket of snow glittered at midnight as the sleepless President texted Santa on his iphone while listening to his ipod. The cold salami wrapped eggrolls burned Santa's nose, while hearing the news of the blizzard approaching the North Pole which would affect the elves toy making in the workshop. The blizzard was so cold that not even crazy buzzards giddy with hormones wearing red socks on their toes could survive. Made aware of the eminent threat of the snow-melting green concoction, Santa danced a silly jig while slipping his legs through the holes of his pants and strapping on his jingle gun, then hopped into his sleigh filled with presents and acted as a taxi to deliver lipstick and earrings to the boring wife who's jaw never stopped moving. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!.

As you can see, when these 4 get together, random, silly and amazing things happen! By the way, it did make Bud, Honey and the kids laugh and thus they were rewarded! We are anxious to see how they do this year!

Our Special Little Tradition

I just came home from a wonderful little trip to Mansfield. Last year, Ashley, Emma and I started a little Christmas Tradition. We went to North Park Mall for a day of shopping at fun little stores but much more importantly we took Emma to see Santa!!! We started this last year and decided right there and then, that would be our little tradition! We got to North Park Mall, grabbed our ticket (it gives you what time Santa will see you!) and then did a little shopping and looking around until it was Emma's turn! First stop was the Disney store. She is VERY in to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse..as in she loves that show, so of course she loves all those characters. When we walked in the store, she looked around and exclaimed "COOL"!!! :) We just looked around a fun stores that we sure don't have around here....Paper Source, Gymboree, Janie and Jack, Anthropologie, Lego Store, H&M...before and after our appointment to see Santa! I had wondered how she would do. Ashley thought she would do great. Ashley was so right! She waltzed in to his little house, crawled up in his lap, handing him her letter and acted like she could have stayed all day! She was quite taken with the guy with the white beard! I have to say that Santa was so precious with her as well. He was so tender and sweet to her!!! I think if we had left her there she would have been just fine with that! She talked about him all afternoon! Him and his beard! So, that of course made the day super special. Then we went to eat at la madeleine...always a favorite!!!

 First sighting of Santa

 Waiting to see the big guy!

 Reading her wish list- a Kitchen and a balloon

 Checking out the big guys beard, she was quite taken with it!

Love this picture!!!

We had such a fun day!!! Emma was so sweet and good the entire day...especially since we missed her nap! She did take a mini-nap on the way back home. We finished the day at another favorite place to eat, Chuey's. Yum.  It was so fun to get to spend some time with my girls! Tonight, we have a sleepover and Christmas Shopping night with our boys...so I will blog more later but for now, I will close with a few of MANY fun pictures of a VERY fun day with Emma and Ashley!

Because it looked fun...

I love this girl. Annalee is always so clever with her blog. I have been suffering from Blog BLAH. I have so many things I need to "write" about but life has just been so busy. When I read Annalee's blog this morning, I thought "I love these things, because I learn such fun and interesting things about people"!!! I thought I knew a lot about Annalee, but I learned so much today that I didn't know! So...just because it looked fun...I will copy! Love you leeper!!! (Ha, you didn't mention that name!!)

it's THREE days until thanksgiving.

i hereby declare a THREEs survey is in order.

(friends attempting to blog everyday in november, here's your easy post!)

THREE NAMES I GO BY:

1) mary kay

2) honey

3) mk

THREE BEVERAGES I DRINK FREQUENTLY:

1) coffee--every morning!

2) tea with sweetner

3) water

THREE THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN:

1) to quilt

2) to knit

3) to write a book

THREE SONGS THAT GET STUCK IN MY HEAD:

1) "hot dog, hot dog, hot diggidity dog"...thanks Emma!

2) "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" 

3)this version of "rolling in the deep". Love this group.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBaskRZDbNA 

THREE MOVIES I  COULD WATCH AGAIN AND AGAIN:

1) Sound of Music

2) Anne of Green Gables with Ashley

3) Curious George with Emma, Owen, Clay & Will :)

THREE TV SHOWS OF MY CHILDHOOD:

1) bonanza

2) password

3) i dream of jeanie

THREE CAREERS I WOULD ENJOY DOING:

1) interior decorator

2)owner of a stationary shop like Paper Source! 

3) art camp teacher-just like annalee!

THREE CAREERS I WOULD NOT ENJOY DOING
(but i'm thankful someone else does them):

1) police officer

2) fireman

3) C.P.S.

THREE THINGS I AM WEARING RIGHT NOW:

1) jeans

2) sweatshirt

3) hillcrest youth trip t-shirt

THREE THINGS I CAN HEAR RIGHT NOW:

1) coffee pot turning off :(

2) squirrel playing in the leaves in the backyard

3) tea maker making tea

THREE THINGS TO-DO TODAY:

1) celebrate meg's birthday tonight

2) help larry with work at churches

3)keep boys tonight while Zach & Meg go shopping 

THREE end.-