The Star of the Show!

Okay, so she wasn't the star of the show, but she was a starfish! Morgan was in her first children's program at church this past Sunday. She did as well as you would expect a 3 (soon to be 4) year old to do and had a great time.

Here she is with her best friend singing in the choir before getting into costume.

Blake excitedly watched his sister with his Oma.

In costume with some of the other sea critters.

Yawning a little early-it's only the 1st performance. There is still one more to go!

This is just a little clip of the opening song:

I'm so proud of Morgan! My little girl is growing up!

Our Weekend of Christmas Festivities!

Christmas is definitely in the air! We spent much of our weekend doing Christmas activities. Friday night the kids got to stay up late and watch a Christmas Special on TV, 'Yes Virginia'. I remember looking forward to the older, unanimated version every year when I was little, so I really wanted to see the new one with the kids!

Morgan got to help pop the popcorn for the movie!

Enjoying the popcorn-apparently Morgan was going at it with both hands! :-)

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Saturday I put up the rest of the Christmas decorations-including my Precious Moments Nativity!

Saturday night was the church's Christmas musical "A Baby Changes Everything". I didn't take any pictures, but it was a wonderful program! It was very moving and a great way to remember and celebrate the reason for the season! :-)

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Sunday, after church, was the firefighter Christmas party. It's always a wonderful party with great food, music and Santa!

Blake couldn't wait to go get a present from Santa. He kept watching as Santa handed out presents thinking that they were all his! Good thing he was patient and didn't scream! When his name was called, he practically dragged Rich to the front to get his present! LOL! (Morgan wouldn't go anywhere near Santa, so no pictures of her with Santa :-( )

Blake got a phone.

Morgan got a doll.

Mom got a poinsettia!

Actually, I got three! Each year the wives of the firefighters get a 3 foot tall poinsettia! It's huge for our little house, so I always give it away to my mom or mother-in-law. So this year I saw that they had smaller ones (about a foot tall) and thought one of those would be SO much better and I could actually keep it. Rich asked about getting a small one instead of the big one and somehow I ended up with 2 small ones and 1 big one! So much for trying to get less-I ended up with more! LOL!

**By the way, Rich got something too. I'm pretty sure the food (prime rib) and the drinks (rum and cokes) were all Rich could have wanted from the party! LOL!

Making Progress

We started going to a new church about a month ago. It's a church that I had been wanting to make it to and see how we liked it. I have friends that attend there and Rich, being from this area, knows all sorts of people that go there. From everything I had heard about the worship music, the sermons and the children's programs, I really thought it would be a great fit for our family. So far, I love it and Rich seems to like it, but the kids are just not adjusting as quickly as I had hoped.

The first week we attended, we didn't know that the church had a nursery, so we kept the kids in the service with us. We didn't have the most pleasant experience. The kids, acting their ages and being impatient, did not do well in the service. Rich and I were so occupied trying to keep the kids entertained that we heard very little, if any, of the sermon. We both agreed that the next time we would try out the nursery, since we now knew it existed.

The following week, we went again and tried leaving the kids in the nursery. Morgan was great when we left her in the 18 month to 3 year nursery. She went off and played with the toys and didn't even seem to care if we were there or not. Blake went to the Birth to 18 month nursery, where he was crying when we left, but I expected that he would have a harder time. When we went to pick them up they were total opposites of how we left them. Blake had done fine and slept most of the time, Morgan had been had been crying and kept saying "no church" all the way home. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but we were going to keep trying.

The next Sunday Morgan had stayed the night at her Grandma's, so we only took Blake and we kept him in the service with us. The following week went as well as week number two and last week, feeling guilty that they had such a hard time adjusting, I never left the nursery. I stayed with them and totally missed the sermon. I was starting to wonder if going to church was going to work out at all. We knew they couldn't stay in the service with us, because Rich and I would miss the message and we'd be stressed trying to keep them entertained. Leaving them in the nursery was stressful to all of us. (I could hear Blake screaming from inside the sanctuary!) There was no way that I could stay in the nursery with them, since that would totally defeat the purpose of going in the first place. I realized that it takes time for them to adjust, and as long as the nursery workers could handle them, we were still going to keep trying.

Today was our fifth Sunday at the new church and yet another attempt at the nursery. We tried leaving them in the same nursery room, hoping they would be better together. When we left, Morgan was crying and Blake was fine . When we went to pick them up, we were told that Blake started crying because Morgan was crying and they had to separate them. All I thought was "oh no", but to my surprise they both seemed happy and there were no tears. I really don't know the best way to help them adjust, but I do think we are starting to make progress....finally! :-)