technical difficulties... again

well our computer died... again. so i can't blog at the moment. hopefully we will have it fixed soon. i feel so disconnected... sigh.

christmas :)

let me first say that i can not believe that Christmas is over! where did the time go? i guess when you are old, it zooms by!
we went to greensboro to join my sister, steven, steven edward, sam, and nana and poppy. we got some really great family time! it was very special to have everyone in the house. even though we rotated being sick and courtney had to take sam to the er. it was still some great family time!

hana got to go to the park

we also went to the greensboro natural science center... the girls loved it!

a cute picture of sam... his first smile!

we went to the mall on christmas eve... of course!

then off to the candle light service

then came christmas morning... the girls were so excited!

and their fav presents... new bikes!!!

we then made the trek home and met mimi for christmas afternoon

more presents to open

hana loves her new digital camera... in fact she has already gone through TWO sets of batteries!

brooke gets a stool yea!

i still can not believe that christmas is over! it was wonderful to spend time with family and we are truly blessed to have family that loves us!!

hana's christmas performance

hana had her preschool christmas performance today. it was really cute and well done :) the 4 year olds acted out the story of Jesus's birth. they were all dressed in costumes. very cute. then the 3 year olds (hana) joined them on stage for some cute christmas songs.

hana when she first spotted us

hana and the group during the songs... you can see some of the 4 year olds dressed up on the back row

hana singing

and lastly the video of hana singing "we wish you a merry christmas" sorry for the shakiness of the video...

Merry Christmas!!!

christmas cookies

so we finally got around to making christmas cookies this year. i had previously stated that i would this like year to "make the cookies from scratch"... um that didn't happen. i planned to buy the kind that the dough is already made up and you cut out the cookies with you own cutters (i have many of those now- thanks nanny!). well i miss read the package and purchased the "pre-cut" ones. so basically the girls just peeled back the excess dough and placed them on the tray. but the most fun was had when it came time to decorate them. the package came with already made red icing... so that is what we used :)

arranging the cookies on the cookie sheet

hana worked hard decorating the cookies

brooke... not so much

brooke more enjoyed eating the icing

and as time went on it got worse!

hana getting ready to eat :)

the finished cookies

Merry Christmas!! ONE week away!!

no he didn't...

i watched noah today while emily worked. for most of the morning it was just brooke and noah (hana was at preschool). they had nice quiet laid back play time. after i picked up hana from preschool and brooke took her nap, this is what noah and hana did...

after reading hilary's blog... i am a little afraid to tell jack that hana and noah slept together :)

but it was very cute, hana got the pillows, noah laid down, then she spread the blanket over both of them... or should i say all three of them. priceless

it was nice and innocent, because afterwards we had some bible story time :)

i guess we have the makings of a good Christ-centered marriage :)

millie's pictures... of us

i got the pictures from the photo shoot that we did with millie. they are super good (of course). here are a few of my favorites. my very fav is the one of the girls hugging... so cute!!
thanks millie!

The Littles

i took pictures of the littles yesterday :) check out my photography blog to see the rest... enjoy!

updates in cornwall land

i just thought everyone needed some updates from cornwall land :)


we got our first energy bill on our "time of usage" plan. it was only $75! our usual bill on the balance bill plan was $126 a month. so that saved us $50 this month :) we may not be able to save that every month... but it is still totally worth it!

hana is only wearing "real" underwear. she made it through the night last night for the first time with out any kind of thick underwear or diapers or anything!! it is a good thing too, because after christmas i am going to work on potty training... brooke!

we are working hard on our dave ramsey/ financial peace lifestyle. our biggest step was taking back the computer that we bought with our christmas money. as many of you know our computer died after thanksgiving, so we rallied our family and they all sent our christmas money a month early (thank you!). well a friend in our financial peace small group fixed our old computer and "encouraged" us to take back our new computer and use that money to pay down dept. we accepted the challenge and did just that. this was a big step for me! i was ok paying down our dept over time... but use my christmas money??!! i was not a fan. but through the encouragement of my husband and others, i realized that this is what God was calling us to do. so we took it back this morning.

i also have to share that before thanksgiving, i was a bit stressed about money... jack had 2 small paychecks in a row and i was worried that we would not make it. so i payed for God to give us money. now when i prayed this i fully expected him to answer. i just expected some annomious gift from family or a stranger. i didn't know that he would answer the prayer... just using my christmas money (that thought did not even cross my mind). it is amazing how big God is and how much he can do. even when we don't accept his gift with open arms!

small group

our small group had our christmas party tuesday night. i thought it would be a good idea to commemorate the occasion with a group photo...

regular

whatever...

tree

we got our christmas tree last week :)

the girls really enjoyed decorating it!

Merry Christmas!!

picasso

this is what hana did during nap today. it cost her one week of tv. hope it was worth it.

Thanksgiving take 2

ok i have finally gotten around to finishing up the thanksgiving pictures... so here you go :)

we decided to break with tradition this year and head to the asheboro zoo the day after thanksgivng (instead of our marathon shopping trips). we all had a blast! the animals all cooperated and we got to see them all! some of them we saw up really close. the kids were wonderful!! well here are a few pictures to commemorate our trip!

they had a fun playground for the kids

hana slides down the leaf

steven edward

us watching something (there was a lot of that :)

steven edward at the seals

and hana watching the seals
steven edward on the elephant

with nana and poppy, and nanny around... of course they had to ride the carousel

hana rides her favorite animal... the elephant

brooke rides too :)

hana on another elephant

like i said, we got to see a lot of animals! here are a few of them.

the elephants were SOOO close! it felt like you could reach out and touch them. hana was in heaven!

we had a GREAT day at the zoo!!