DISNEYWORLD

We made the big trip to DisneyWorld for Thanksgiving! We met my mom and dad, my sister and her family and even my cousin Julie drove over from Tampa one day. My brother and his wife could not make it... we were bummed to not have them there.

We had a great time. Although, there were times that I think the kids were tired of being taken here and there etc..... I think they enjoyed just being able to run around the playground and swim at the resort pool the most!!

We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort. It was beautiful and HUGE!! Anyway, here are some of the pictures from our trip. We only took about 100 pictures, so I just chose a couple to post.

This is the night before our flight. The kids slept sideways on the bed so that they had enough space to sleep.


This is a picture of Emma's first glance at the castle!! (it was her favorite part) This is also my niece Anna, next to Emma.

This is how they had the castle light up at night for Christmas.

Here is my family... minus Owen who fell off the rock.... (not really, he just would not stand still long enough for a photo). Also, missing is my brother and his wife.

This is the only chracter that Emma would have her photo taken with.

The kids are totally wiped..... this was the bus ride back to the Orlando airport.

THANKSGIVING FEAST

Okay it is time for me to play catch up with pictures on the blog. You might check it the next few days. I will be making additions....

Owen and Emma were in a Thanksgiving program at their pre-school. They went up on the stage and sang songs to all the parents and then we all had a Thanksgiving feast together!!! Emma was the LOUDEST singer of all the 3-4 year olds. She sang so loud and hard that her face turned red. It was really fun to watch!!!

CHRISTMAS LETTER

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Hope this Christmas letter via the blog, finds you all well!!! I am going to give you a run down of some of the things we did this year.

JAN: We were in Indiana, so we rang in the new year with my mom and my sister and her family!! We also hosted 9, 8th grade girls at our house for a Discipleship weekend. Our kids REALLY enjoyed having them here and we would do it again in a heartbeat!!! Last but not least, in January, we welcomed our new dog to our home. We rescued a half blue heeler/chocolate lab from the humane society. She was 1 1/2 when we got her!! Her name is Bluebell.

FEB: Two things in Feb...... we went to a Casting Crowns concert. The other awesome thing we did was go on a cruise with my sister and her husband. Neal's parents were kind enough to come and watch the kids for a week while we went. It was wonderful!!!

MAR: I started my Doula training this month!! Also helped birth a baby using my new Doula training!! (thanks Ken and Renee).

APR: Our friends Matt and Janelle (Ella & Bennett too) came for a visit before they left for Korea!! Our small group from church volunteered to fix up a lady's home through an agency called Christmas in Action.

MAY: Neal left for Phoenix to be on an accident investigation board. The kids and Rebecca did a 1 mile run. Camden actually ran the whole way. He was the first kid to cross the finish line. My dad came for a visit on his way back to Indiana from California. I helped my friend Jody welcome her baby boy, Aaron, into the world!!

JUNE: We went to Indiana for a little over a week and then camped in Missouri for a few nights on the way back to Texas.

JULY: My sister and her family came for a visit over the Fourth of July. At the end of the month Neal's youngest brother, Dan, and his family came for a visit!!

AUG: A few friends came to visit us this month, including the Hammond's and the Kearney's.

SEPT: Neal and I drove to Indiana, while leaving the kids with friends in Texas. We went to Indiana to visit a fertility doctor, in hopes he could help us conceive another child. Much to our surprise and dissappointment, we were unsuccessful. We were/are very sad, but we know God has a much greater, wonderful plan for us. Our friend Jesse also came to visit us in the middle of the month. Owen and Emma celebrated their 4th birthday. The last thing for this month, was Rebecca's sister, Jennifer, came to Texas for a weekend. We went to an overnight scrapbooking dealio!! It was tiring, but VERY fun!! Thanks for coming Jenn!!

OCT: Camden celebrated his 8th birthday!!! Camden was also baptized this month. I was also able to help birth another child into this world. Fiona Norwood arrived on Oct 30th.

NOV: We all went to DisneyWorld for a week over Thanksgiving. Rebecca's sister and her family as well as Rebecca's mom and dad met us there for the week.

DEC: This month will entail the usual Christmas parties and gatherings. We will also be travelling after Christmas to Indiana to celebrate Christ's birth with family and friends!!

We are all doing well. The kids are doing great..... Camden is busy in second grade, with Jeet Kune Do and soccer. Owen and is busy with pre-school, Jeet Kune Do and tumbling. Emma keeps busy with pre-school, ballet and tumbling.

Another move is happening for us..... we are on our way to Alabama next summer. We will be there for one year.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed 2009!!!!
We love you all!!!!!
~Rebecca, Neal, Camden, Owen and Emma

WRITING AWARD

Last Friday, Camden received a second place award for writing. (before I got there, I thought it was for handwriting... come to find out, it was for writing...as in writing stories). I was very proud of him. I laughed to myself, as I got teary eyed.... knowing that some day at his wedding I will be a complete mess. Seeing your children succeed, is such a joy!!!!

Camden proudly displays his second place ribbon.

Here, he is receiving his ribbon!

HAPPY FALL YA'LL!!!

Hope you all had a great time with your little trick or treaters!!! Our kids sure had fun on their 82 degree Halloween!!!!!!! We walked up one side of the street and back down the other side. Just with that amount of houses, the kids had full baskets. They were very excited to get back home and pass out candy to all the trick or treaters!

Owen, being a warrior statue in his Dragon Knight costume!

Camden posed as King Peter from Narnia.

Emma, our little renaissance princess. (you know, to go along with her two knight brothers... you know I like a theme!!) Oh and she had a wand that the dragon knight broke the day before....


God's little knights and princess!!

Ahhhhh, how cute!!!!!

WE ARE MOVING TO........

Well, we are off to ACSC (an Air Force school) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama!! It is basically in Montgomery. Neal was pleasantly surprised to be chosen to go to school. We will be going there next July and we will be there for about 1 year. It is a great place to be a family at, so please help us and pray that we sell our home or find great renters!! We will only be eight hours from Indiana.... the closest we have ever been since moving away. Our friends Jenn and Kevin are also moving there at the same time. We have been friends with them for about nine years. God has blessed us by sending the Gordon's and us to the same place three times in those nine years!! You Air Force people know..... this is very odd to actually go the same place three times with your greatest friends!!!

PRAISE GOD

Camden had a big day on Sunday. He was baptized at our church, Colonial Baptist. Pastor Alec was the one to baptize him. He was so excited when he woke up that morning. Then to see him all giddy right before he was baptized, was really cool. He was all smiles all day long. After we left church we invited a few friends over to celebrate!! We had 27 people over.... only 11 of those were adults!! Needless to say, the kids were all well behaved, and Camden enjoyed every minute of it!

Camden listens to what Pastor Alec has to say.

Under he goes......

Up he comes, refreshed in Christ!

FAMILY PICS GALORE

OK.... I know this is a lot of pics of our family. But I am so proud to finally have some family shots, that I really wanted to share them with my friends and family!!! So enjoy.... Also, people always say how much Emma looks like her mommy. I just think she looks like Emma... that is until I saw the pic of me holding her. She really does look just like me. So now I will believe all of you!!!! Don't forget to leave us a comment!! To leave one, just click on the "comment" icon at the bottom of this entry.

PUMPKIN PARTY

Our neighbors, Leighann and Perry invited our family down for a night of pumpkin carving, cookie decorating and pizza eating!!! Leighann was very prepared for us.... she bought each kid a large pumpkin and a small pumpkin to carve. She also put down a big black tablecloth on the floor, everyone had a towel to wipe their hands on and a scooper etc....She did a great job!! It was a lot of fun. The kids were not all too thrilled with getting their hands dirty, so the parents ended up doing a lot of the work. I would say Camden and Emma stuck with it the longest!!! One of the big events for the night was getting all the seeds ready to be baked so that we could eat them. The kids loved playing in the water!!! It just does not seems like fall when the kids are wearing t-shirts and shorts for their pumpkin carving!!!

Cookie decorating.... Sophia licked the icing off the spatula, Myah ate tons of sprinkles, Owen used about 500 candy corn for each cookie and Camden thought the little kids were hilarious!

Owen, digging into his small pumpkin first!

Emma was not afraid, she thought the "guts" were cool!

Camden took everything out of his pumpkin, drew his picture and craved it out all by himself!

Everyone hard at work on the pumpkins!!

Emma actually drew all these little pictures on her pumpkin. She would have to tell you what they all are. But then Neal cut them all out for her!! Pretty cool I thought!

SEEN THE MOVIE CALLED "THE BIRDS"?

So it is bird season here in Wichita Falls.... There are tons of birds EVERYWHERE. My theory is, the more northern states are getting colder so all of those birds have come to Texas for the winter. (yeah us) So what better fun for Emma and her friend Isabella to run through the birds?!?! I guess they have not seen that terrible movie...."the Birds".

PROUD MAMA

I am such a proud mama!! So I am going to brag a little bit on my big boy Camden. For his birthday he got about $70.00. It, of course, was burning a hole into his pocket. So we headed to Mardel, a local christian book store. While in mardel, Camden decided on a biblically based computer game for $20.00.

I was shocked that he did not want to spend the rest of his money. THEN...... he turned to Owen and Emma with NO prompting and asked them if they wanted to pick out something for themselves. HOW SWEET IS THAT?

He was so proud to pay for things for them. Not to mention, I was almost in tears while watching all of this take place.

PUMPKIN PATCH

This past weekend we took the kids to the pumpkin patch to get their pumpkins to carve. We chose a patch that gives all the profits to local mission work. They had lots of fun. Stay tuned for pictures of the actual pumpkin carving!!!!

Our three little pumpkins!!!!

Emma choosing a pumpkin the size of her!!

Camden chooses the cool looking pumpkin!

Owen rolls his pumpkin over to our pile!!!

MEDIEVAL TIMES

Camden decided that instead of having a birthday party with his friends, he wanted to chose one friend to take to Dallas to the Medieval Times Dinner Show. This is the place where you eat with your hands and enjoy a knights tournament while you are eating. The kids love this place. So..... I of course was all for it!!!! Camden chose his best buddy Anthony to go with him and they had a great time.. even the two hour drive there and back! Owen and Emma got to hang out with Adam and Jody and their daughter Isabella (and baby Aaron) for their fun night!! Adam and Jody are Anthony's parents.

Camden doing a knights pose with his buddy Anthony.

Getting ready for the fun to begin!

Camden was "knighted" as part of his birthday fun!

WARRIORS.......

Our knight, the green knight.... turned out to be the bad guy... very cool for the boys