Hanging out at the Hometown

I am not afraid to admit that cooking in NOT on my list of things I enjoy doing.  Every once-in-a while I get a cooking bug..... but I usually stay pretty healthy.  ;)  SO Sunday lunch out is a meal I really look forward too.  We have started "going local", meaning we don't have to wait 1.5+ hours AND we can eat for less than $20 and we are usually SUPER FULL! The Hometown Inn is one of our favorite places to go!

 Snuggle Bug resting in the purple chair..... not sure what the look on her face is all about.

 Curly, trying to have a pouty face...

 The big girls in their matching brown.

Oh, Oh, Oh.... it's me!  Finally a decent picture of ME.  When I start taking pictures the girls usually want to take one of me too!

The Christmas Drama

Ever since we visited the live nativity in Waxahachie, Kent has wanted to do something similar.  This was the year!  Maybe not as grand as Waxahachie, but live and powerful non the less.

Here is the whole cast..... Mary, Joesph, three angles, three shepherds, two wise men and an inn keeper.

The wise men..... with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  (Again a package saves the day.... I made a gold bar from some metallic scrapbook paper that was sent with a team.)

The three shepherds, they were all young.... to young to ba a wise man.  Which is why there were only two, wise men that is.

Our angles..... the one on the left was Gabriel and had a lot of talking to do which is why HE couldn't be a wise man either.

The innkeeper........

Mary and Joseph.

We had three performances plus a dress rehersal.  Two of the performances were in Luo and one was in English. The drama started inside with Gabe coming to Mary and telling her she was going to have a baby, and the scene ends with Mary "running" off to go to her Aunt's house.

Scene two opened with Mary and  Joseph preparing to leave for Bethlehem. As they leave the building, the crowd follows them out side where we had torches and campfires burning.  There they see the inn keeper and find a manger to sleep in. 

The next scene is the shepherds, where once again Gabe comes and tells them the great news. The shepherds make their way to the manger, and then rush out into the crowd telling everyone that the Messiah has come!

Lastly the kings arrive bearing the gifts for the King of Kings.

When it was over the Gospel was shared and meaning of the three gifts explained. There were several salvations each night and we are already looking forward to how we can do even more next year!

Christmas Decorations

So here is where the missing months come into play..... remember one of my sweet unnamed children accidentally erased them off the camera.  ;)

Last year for Christmas we had a little fake tree and it worked well, however this year Daddy wanted a "real" tree.  So he hunted down a man who had some pine trees growing on his property, and asked if he could cut one down.   Of course no one miss an opportunity to make a little extra cash right. So Daddy comes home with a 30 foot tree (This is after he has taken off at least ten feet while at the cutting grounds!)  Then we had to trim another 15 or so feet off the top and bottom, just to get it in the house.

 I didn't have enough lights to cover the whole thing when we first brought it home, and besides that I couldn't reach up that far even if i did! 

 We later got our new entertainment center and that worked will to hold a few trinkets and the stockings.  (These were taken before Baby Girl's birthday party, those are her presents in the blue.)

 I took the extra pine branches and manged to wrap them into a wreath and wrap them with some strips of red and white fabric.  Added a red fabric bow and wha-llah!

 The girls helped me make snowflakes that we hung from the window along with some cheesy red and green tinsel.

 Now this is the AWESoMe PART!   My BFF from childhood and beyond, sent us some fun Christmas crafts in JULY with the big team..... .(Yet another plug for packages)  I saved the crafts, kept them hidden in an unused suitcase and pulled them out for our week off in November.  :)  She sent this cool foam gingerbread house.  That the two youngest put together all by themselves.

 Baby Girl colored this wooden nativity.

 Momma covered these cool blocks with the fun Christmas paper BFF sent.

 The girls made Christmas trees and snowman ornaments.

 I made this poinsettia from felt that we got the summer before.  :)

Bottle cap star..... cool! 

And for the first time in my life I strung popcorn, added to the Acholi beads it looked kinda nice.

The last day of VACATION

So the last day, when I was hoping to dry the swimsuits, the weather finally cleared up enough for us to hit the beach! What could I do..... we they went swimming!

 And played in the sand, making new friends.

 Catching some waves!

Notice the security guards.... helping keep the annoying "travel guides" off the resorts beaches.  They are almost as annoying themselves, but not quite.  ;)

Water Aerobics

Every day right at 11 they had water aerobics..... at first the girls were shy about jumping in.... but by the end of the week they were rushing to the pool.  If we happened to want to do something different for the day, it had to be done before or after 11:00am!

Other Highlights

When we weren't avoiding the rain we would ......

 Dance under the disco ball

 play live chess

 Watch the monkeys climb up the tree right outside our room.

Scuba class

One of the fun features of the resort.... you could "sample" scuba diving.  Sweet Pea was the first to ask if she could give it a try, so Daddy went with her and they learned how to dive.

Rain, Rain go Away!

For our vacation we flew Mombasa then drove to Turtle Bay Beach resort.  An all inclusive resort.  WHOOP, like fabulous food, without the labor and time and no dishes to boot!  MY KIND OF VACATION !!!! 

So we spent the first several days of our trip chillin' under the porch playin' games and sippin' hot chocolate.  That wasn't our idea of a sunny day on the beach, but fun and relaxing none the less.

Kenya Vacation!

It is the moment you have all been waiting for..... the pictures of our Kenyan Vacation!  We were Super Duper blessed this summer by a family back home who paid for our family to go on vacation!!!  Ummmm can you say AMAZING..... like my vocabulary doesn't have the right words to describe the Awesome-ness.  We wanted to go, but the money wasn't there like we had thought it would be, so they stepped up and sent us out!

Can't you see the joy all over our happy faces!