Our first attempt at a Gingerbread house!

I bought a gingerbread house kit at Target a few days before Christmas because I thought Ansley would enjoy putting it together.  As we started, Troy and I both discovered that neither he nor I had ever built a gingerbread house either.  

 Side note: she has this weird attachment to a Jimi Hendrix shirt my dad and Shari gave her for her birthday, she would sleep in it every night if we would let her (and most nights we do, we'll even put it on over her one piece, footie pajamas).  In the last few weeks she has also developed a similar attachment to this vest.  This would be why she is wearing both, first thing in the morning.

 We discovered a few minutes in that we should have constructed the house the night before so it had ample time to dry.  Since we had not done this, it didn't take long before the walls and roof were all sliding apart...

 Oopsie!

Maybe next year we'll be better gingerbread contractors!

The Ick...

Ansley had a cold around Thanksgiving that went away and then came back as a terrible cough and wheeze a week later.  I took her to the Doctor who ordered chest xrays, worried that she may have pneumonia but we luckily dodged that bullet!  Fortunately she never really ran a fever, and she was put on an antibiotic and the liquid form of Albuterol.  Unfortunately, after a week on both she wasn't any better.  Her cough was so bad that it would leave her gagging which turned into several days of throwing up...ick!  She went back for another check last Friday and since she hadn't made any progress, she was switched to breathing treatments.  She started them last Friday and her cough was pretty much gone by Sunday!  I'm so thankful that even though these treatments are a pain, she's healed up quite nicely!  

We're headed back for another doctor check this Friday in which we'll hopefully done with all forms of medicine.  She's been a trooper though, sitting for these things 3 times a day!!!

The Annual Reeves Family Christmas Tree Sacrifice

We took our annual trip to Penland Tree Farm Saturday morning to pick out our perfect Christmas Tree. It was FREEZING outside, but we tried to make the most of it!

 Ansley played on their mulch playground and then we went on a hayride!

 I'm not sure Troy could have managed cutting the tree down without Ansley's help! 

Ta-Da!!

The Christmasville Parade

We took Ansley to her first Christmas parade Friday night in downtown Rock Hill.  I have never seen her sit still and that mesmerized for as long as she did that night.  She LOVED every minute of it.

 Ansley and her BFFs, Jackson and Emme!

 Before the parade started Jackson and Ansley made the best of time by running full speed in circles around Troy!

Supper Club Thanksgiving Dinner!

Last Saturday night we had our 'Supper Club' over for an early pot-luck Thanksgiving celebration.  We had one 2 years ago and Ansley was just a baby and Kristen R and Kristen P were both pregnant...it looked a lot different this time!

 The 'kids table', because what's Thanksgiving without one!!

 The girls called 'dibs' on eating at the dinner table which put the boys in the living room with the kids...it turns out none of the guys complained.  I'll let you see if you can figure out why!

 Of course, the kids table didn't last long because there was just too much playing to do!

After the kids went to bed we pulled out what has become a Supper Club tradition...'The Game of Things'.  We bought it for $10 at Target and I think its one of the best investments I've ever made.  We managed to burn off all of the calories indulged at dinner from all of the laughing we did afterwards!

Whoa...

*Scroll down to the bottom of the page to pause the music!*

I thought I'd share this video that was shown at the end of the sermon yesterday at our church.  I'm not sure how many reading this are familiar with Francis Chan, but this guy is on a whole new level when it comes to serving the Kingdom...if we, as Christians, were all on his level, this world would look totally different.  I read his book "Crazy Love" a while ago and it messed me up something fierce.  It took me a long time to get through it because it stepped on my toes in the most uncomfortable, but necessary way.


Catalyst East 2010: Francis Chan from Catalyst on Vimeo.

Recently I made the decision to go back to school.  It makes absolutely no sense...and I readily tell people this when they ask me about it!  I never thought I'd want to be a student again, but I really feel like this is something that I'm deciding to do, knowing that the outcome will be bigger than 'me'.  My hope is to start nursing school at the beginning of 2012, spending this next year taking some pre-requisite courses at York Tech.  I'm the kind of person who needs to know what steps 3 and 4 are before I even start on step 1 and let me tell you, I have NO IDEA how all of this is going to work out.  I just know that  I'm enrolled in the class I need to take next semester and that I've given this whole process to God so steps 2, 3, 4 and so on are going to be totally what HE wants them to be.  Our church was doing a series on the book of Esther the Sunday that this was all laying heavy on my heart and the key verse was the following:

"For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish.  And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14

It's the 2nd part that messed me up the most.  It doesn't make a lot of sense to start this endeavor at this point in my life...but what if that means this is the exact time I'm supposed to go after it.  Also, if I were to do nothing with what God was screaming so loudly at me that Sunday, I can without a doubt tell you the outcome...nothing.  God is at work in our world everywhere, every day.  He doesn't NEED me to get the job done (HE is God, after all), but what would happen if I took a big trip out of my comfort zone, stepped into His bigger plan, and met Him where He is already at work...what would that look like for my life?  I guess I'm about to find out!

Playdate with Asher!