Christmas Day

Christmas morning we opened our stockings

London was so funny when she went downstairs

When she saw her bike - her comment was . .

"Santa brought me a new bike because daddy ran over my other one"

I don't think she will let him forget that

Love this photo

Then we headed off to Chuck and Kathy's for Christmas brunch 

This was a leather jacket that Chuck had when he was in high school

Russ' Uncle Jay had it and gave it to Russ - so he decided to surprise Chuck 

Kathy and Chuck give the grandkids ornaments every year

Leslie had us all send pictures and she put an album since it started 30 yrs ago 

Back home to open more gifts 

London made this pictures for Kassade & Keyton

We ended our night with our traditional Crab leg dinner

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with Russ' brother and sister

It was the first time we had done this

We had a great time together

Funny how I got no pictures of us adults

Buddy the Elf

This is our Elf - Buddy

About 2 weeks before Christmas we start looking for him

That is usually when he shows up at our house

He is "OUR" Elf on the Shelf 

He moves every day

At night he flies back to Santa and reports how the kids are doing

They can talk with him

but the 1 Rule is . .  you cannot touch him

or else he will loose his magic 

these are a few locations where we found him hiding out this year

watching London and making sure she was being a good girl 

Every morning one of the first things she would do is go find Buddy

London saying goodbye to Buddy since he was

going to be gone Christmas morning. 

A fun little tradition to start with young children

Go find your family "An Elf on the Shelf"

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours

Hope you have a blessed day!

Christmas Celebration #1

Chuck and Kathy came over to our house to celebrate Christmas

Instead of cooking - since it was going to be on a Wednesday night

we thought we needed to introduce them to Reba's for burger night

It is one of the best restaurant in Newton

Christmas PJ's - Gingerbread

London's ornament from Thomas' grandparents is gingerbread

Grandma Kathy is very good with finding clothes to go along  

We are ready to do some mother/daughter baking 

Thank you for the wonderful gifts and evening of fun

London's Christmas Program

London had two Christmas programs

The two daycare locations did one together

and then on Friday they did one for the grandpas and grandmas at the nursing home

I got to attend both of them

Getting ready - only one pinky wave allowed

It must be Santa

They sang - "It's A Wonderful World"

Absoultley adorable - they each had a part on the song

I see trees of green, red roses too

and I think to myself - what a wonderful world

Skies of blue, clouds of white,

brightness of the day and darkness of the night

the colors of the rainbow - so pretty in the sky . . . .

Oh Yeah!!!!

Just like Louie Armstrong

This song has a whole new meaning to me

It was a great program - they did so good

I must say London was quite the performer  - no shyness while singing

She sang loud enough I could hear her!

They also sang - Mary had a baby, Away in the Manager, It must be Santa

then also did some little poems with motions

Thanks to her wonderful teachers that took the time to teach her such fun songs

Christmas Lights

Tonight we drove around Newton looking at Christmas lights

to help get into the Christmas Spirit

I took a few pictures

London really enjoyed them this - "Daddy, put my window down"

We heard this request all evening

I love this star - every year I want to stop and ask them where they got it

I took this picture because I was amazed with their railing

too time consuming - but it does look cool 

This is "The House" of Newton for Christmas lights

It is amazing how much is stuffed into that yard

A Kansas Sunset

I took these the other night on the way to Haysville

The one thing I do enjoy about Kansas

Beautiful Sunsets  - no matter what season it is

Race Day

Russ had been asked to do an interview for St. Jude

In reference to why he decide to become a hero

Then we attended the pasta dinner for St. Jude Hero's

Up early Saturday morning - Russ needed to be at the starting area at 7:30 

Hanging out with Russ before the race started 

London wanted to take our picture 

It was interesting seeing all the different people and their family/friends

Everyone had their reason for running the race

Since this is a fund raiser for St. Jude

there was teams running in memory or honor of children

I enjoyed reading the different slogans on their shirts 

The team in the yellow shirts had one of my favorite slogans

"Run for a cause"

"Run with purpose"

"Run with heart"

"In loving memory of Kathryn"

Russ' favorite was -

"I run everyday to train, but today I run for life" 

London cheering for daddy

Once Russ got started - we walked back to the Peabody Hotel

They run right by the hotel about mile 3

We grabbed a spot on the curb and cheered everyone on

There is a lot of  electric and excitement in the air

and then to our wondering eyes . . . just the man we were waiting for

as quick as he appeared . . . . he was gone again

London and I headed off to our room to shower and eat breakfast

Our room looked right out to third street - so I pulled her up a chair

She continued to watch the runners

We then headed over to the stadium to catch Russ at the finish line

They enter in around first base line and run around to the third base

We were able to get front row seats and watch everyone finishing up

This is special place for Russ to finish

the Memphis Redbirds play here and he attended many games with Konley. 

Towards the end, he started to enjoy watching baseball

Over 17,000 people ran in one of the 3 races 

Russ had a good race

It continues to be a healthy healing process for him

good times . . . good memories

A SPECIAL thank you to all those who supported Russ

We and the children of St. Jude greatly appreciate it