handsful

We live about 30 minutes north of Charlotte, and the motto of our little town is “Race City USA”.  We’re home to about 60 different Nascar teams, with many of them having their homes on Lake Norman.  We have the largest collection of retired race cars, and Dale Earnhardt’s museum is also here.  It’s all Nascar, all the time.

Funny thing is…we don’t care for any of it.  Never been to a race, and we never watch them on TV.

But, this is the second (and won’t be the last) year we’ve driven over to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to check out “Carolina Christmas”.

It’s a drive-through light show…and, the route goes ONTO the actual racetrack.  And, yes, Randy always drives up on the bank to scare us to death.

See the tilt?

It’s also a petting zoo, mini carnival complete with fair-type goodies to eat, Bethlehem scene, pics with Santa, and a little shopping just to make it more fun.

And, we did it all…

Randy made me feed the calf…huge tongue, eating verrryyy slowly.  Ick!!

I spoke to the woman at the petting zoo…turns out she’s local and has a HUGE amount of goats, all kinds.  She gave me her contact info so I can contact her in the spring.  Have I mentioned we’re thinking of getting goats?  Thought I did…

After this, we went inside for some treats, shopping (the same incense guy is there every year and I love it…), and pics with Santa.  They insisted that we ALL get in the shot, and he got us all looking in the same direction AND smiling in one take.  Nice.

We barely had time for the carnival, they were almost closing!  The bigs rode the spinny thing that you couldn’t PAY me to get on.  The littles chose a tilt-a-whirl ride (think teacups at Disney).  Come to think of it, I wouldn’t get on that either.  I’m getting old.  Spinning makes me woozy.

We had a blast, and it’s now officially on our “gotta do” list every Christmas!

If you’ve been visiting my blog for any length of time, you know that Testify Youth Choir is a big part of our kids lives.  Made up of 7th-12th grade kids from many area churches, Testify puts on Christmas concerts each year.  With song and dance, they perform in local churches.  In the spring, the kids do a full (song, dancing, drama) concert singing locally and on tour (last year they went to Atlanta and Ohio).

This year, the concert is called “Cradle that Rocked the World” and we’ve watched them perform twice…so far.  It can get complicated, since all four of them are in two separate Testify choirs…one large, one small.  Which makes for double the number of concerts they’re scheduled for.  We make sure to attend at least one for each choir.

I forgot my camera for the Mooresville choir last week, but remembered it this past Sunday for their North Meck concert.  Good timing actually, since Abbey dances and has solo/duet, Payton sings and has a speaking part, Ethan dances and has a solo/duet, and Marley sings!

It’s funny really.  When the kids were little, we spent our weekends watching them play basketball, baseball, and cheer.  Weeknights were spent at practices.  With all good intentions, Randy “tried” to foster a love for athletics and sports…it’s what he grew up loving, afterall.  And, of course I had visions of my girls doing cheerleading for years.

God, in his wisdom and sense of humor, had better ideas.  Ethan is very musically inclined…he sings, and plays guitar and drums.  Payton loves the choir, but he’s in it for the drama…and, he’s good.  Abbey is very comfortable on stage, loves to sing and dance, and wants to try her hand at acting in the spring.  Being on stage doesn’t come naturally for Marley, but she’s grown into it and is a joy to watch sing.  As far as sports?  Abbey plays a mean game of volleyball; she’s the only one still in organized sports.  And, all six of the kids take tumbling/fitness classes….5 our of 6 are on their way to doing back handsprings.

Truthfully, it’s been such a blessing, watching each of our kids unique God-given gifts take root, grow, and blossom.  We could never have planned them so well.

Here a few (ahem) shots from their last concert…enjoy :)

Abbey, far left, with pony tail.

Marley, with her new dark underneath hair color that she loves!

Payton in the middle, he does a salsa type dance…best shot I could get, they moved fast!

Abbey, far left, and Ethan (hidden by the girl’s arm!) in the hip hop dance.

Payton had a speaking part, he did a great job….lots of emotion, and I love how he made it conversational instead of “here’s something I memorized”.

More dancing…Abbey far left, Payton behind her (hard to see), and Ethan in the middle.

Better shot of Abbey and Payton

Abbey sang so well, she had solo parts and then sang together with her friend, Aaron.

Ethan was in the final song.  It was a duet, but he had a large part of it.  He was actually subbing for someone else who couldn’t do it, and only had 1 practice.  He nailed it.

Very thankful and proud mama, here.

Lots going on here, as I’m sure it is with everyone else…

We’ve done two parades, a Walk Thru Bethlehem event, went to the Charlotte light show at the raceway, the bigs have had 3 Christmas concerts (so far), and we’ve decorated inside and out.

Oh, and did I mention it’s 12/12 and I’m done with shopping?  Yes, I’m that good.  (this is not usual, folks)

I even did a craft with the littles!  I know, right?  It’s so unlike me.  I used to be very crafty, but that has waned big time as I’ve gotten more OCD…uh, I mean older.  The mess and clutter that crafting makes drives. me. nuts.  But, this one was quick, easy, and fun.

I poked holes in the tops for hanging after taking this picture.  The littles hand prints will be dry by Saturday, ready for painting!

I still have to get our cards out in the mail, and do our usual (and some new recipes I’m excited to try) baking/cooking done.  And, enjoy my 40-something birthday in 5 days.

Since our picture taking is in warp speed lately, I’ll just post our “putting up the tree” shots for now.  We bought our tree at the usual spot, a local farmer’s market in town.  Same place we get fresh apples, local honey, amazing chocolate pecan pies, etc.  Since our ceilings are really high in the house, we weren’t bound by height, only price :)

Tradition calls for us to all decorate the house, while Randy (with Marley’s assistance) wrestles with the lights.  He’s VERY particular about how they’re done, so it’s off limits for me.  I’m quite okay with this.  We’re a non-garland family, just lights and ornaments.  We do have about 30 tin icicles that we’ve had for years and they always go on last, right on the ends of the branches.

When we’re ready for the ornaments (which we have scads of…), I sit beside the bin  and pass them out to eager big and little hands ready to hang…with Randy’s guidance on where.

It’s also mandatory that I get a shot of each kiddo hanging their “baby’s first…” ornament.  (It usually takes me a few seconds to decide which baby is Marley, Payton, or Ethan).

Decorating mayhem…

and cuteness.

Someone was trying to avoid a photo.  Bah humbug.

Final touch…adding the beautiful angel that Randy and I bought early in our marriage, to the top.

Christmas tree, 2012, complete.

It’s been TWO years since Dylan YuHai Clark joined our crazy family…and, we celebrated him last Thursday night.

As is our custom for both birthday and forever family days, the special kid chooses where we go out to eat.  We KNEW that Dylan would choose the same place we went to last year.  He brings it up all the time, always asking us WHEN are we going back there?!

But, no.  He decided to confuse us and picked one of our favorite Asian restaurants from when we lived in Florida.  Problem is the closest one to us now is a 45 minute drive.  So, we drove.

While we’re driving, enjoy some of the shots I got of our little guy earlier that day…

Mom, the sun is in my eyes!  (moving to another outside spot…)

I had nothing to do with it, so I don’t feel bad saying….he’s just so dang cute.

There’s the silliness.

Time to eat…

And, because an ice cream place was right next door…why not?

Giving the special kid a book is also a tradition with forever family days.  I’d been sick, and ordered the book a little late.  And, it hadn’t arrived in time.  It showed up the next day, though.

He’s big-time into all things super hero, so a huge pop-up book with all of them was just the right choice.

Dylan has come a long way in two years.  As with any adoption, there are bumps in the road as the child learns to be part of a family.  And, more bumps as the existing family members make room for another.  We are fortunate, in that Dylan’s adjustment-pains have been relatively easy.  Bedtime used to be a bear…we believe due in part to losing his crib-mate(s).  Now, he loves his room and his bed.  He also used to zone out when things just got to be too much for him to handle….no more.  His biggest struggle is self-control over his emotions.  He becomes upset/cries very easily, especially if he feels like you’re mad or disappointed in him.

But, most of the time he’s a very laid-back, low-maintenance kid who loves bursting into ninja-like moves when you least expect it.  How can you not smile at that?

We love you Dyl-pickle!

Gotta get the Thanksgiving photos up…we’re already full-out into Christmas, but I’m behind.  Been sick…yucky!  So, excuse me for not being as wordy as usual, and enjoy the shots…

Homemade brine, simmering.  If you’ve never done it before, you have to try a brined turkey next year.

Thankful Tree, yearly tradition since forever ago.

Master carver

Abbey being…Abbey.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.  Psalm 100:3-5

Our bigs (and their friend…our semi-adopted daughter…Kylie) dressed and ready for the parade.

The Mooresville Christmas parade was yesterday afternoon…and, all 4 of our big kids were in it.  Since my parents were planning on spending Thanksgiving with us anyway, they came a day early to watch the parade.

My mom was amazed at how llloonngg it was.  It lasted nearly 2 hours.  Our population is about 33,000…and I think about half of those were in the parade ;)

A few pics of the day…

Our local Shriner’s were the pre-parade entertainment this year…they have a special place in our hearts, since Dylan came into our family.  Dylan had his amputation surgery at Shriner’s Hospital in Greenville, SC, and he’s gotten two prosthesis’ so far…free of charge.  He will continue being a Shriner’s kid, with all of his care and prosthesis’ covered, until he’s 18.  Amazing.

One of Dylan’s best friends, Hollyn, was in the parade for the Shriner’s…this is the best shot we got of her :)  She’s the gal in green.  Hollyn and her family were a huge blessing to us as we prepared to adopt Dylan, having gone through the same surgery, same hospital, and same prosthesis need with Hollyn.

Having fun, kids?  They got more candy thrown at them at the parade than they collected on Halloween.

First up for us was the boys, in their AFFR group.  I’ve mentioned before that all the kids take tumbling/fitness/dance classes at Acrofitness here in town.  The boys class is Free Running…kinda like a spiderman, climbing and jumping, and tumbling with a little break dancing thrown in for good measure.  Both boys can already do back handsprings (on the mats, not concrete yet!), and they’ve only been doing classes for 2 months.

No, this is NOT the boys.  But, impressive, eh?

Why just the boys in the parade for Acro?  The required pants, shirt, beanie, and shoelaces were a little pricey.  And, the other kids classes didn’t have special performances lined up either.

Here they come…

There’s Payton…of course, we didn’t catch them doing anything.  That would have required good timing.  But, the rolling scaffolding was used to climb on, through, over, and jump off of.  It’s the kinda stuff they’re learning and they love it.  Gets them active, which I love.

Only picture we managed of Ethan!  Hey, we tried.  I like the feet beside him!  And, notice that Payton is the only guy NOT wearing his beanie.  He’s a rule-breaker and rebel like his dad.

Finally, the Testify Youth Choir showed up.

Abbey is in the Santa Hat, beside her friend Aaron in the purple tie-dyed shirt.  And, Randy is on the right in gray.  He just had to run up and ambush them…he got hugs from all.

What are you lookin’ at?

He’s happy now, his bling is back on (had to remove it all for the parade!)

I know what I SHOULD type here, but I just can’t say it yet…it’s not even Thanksgiving yet!  :)

Our new home (we’ve been here 8 months, so it still feels new…) has a large shop out back.  The previous owner was a contractor, and used it for his business.  We weren’t sure exactly what to do with it.

Storage?  Workshop? (Randy loves to build)  Hang out place for big kids?

Last year, Randy had a middle school age guys group.  They met at our house for bible study and teaching every Sunday night.  As the year went on, he began feeling like it was supposed to be “more”, but he wasn’t sure what/how.  Then, it became clear.

We’d use the shop for a youth ministry…guys and girls, middle and high school age.  Our initial idea is to meet every other Friday night for teaching, prayer, and fellowship.  This past Saturday was the kick-off…

The Shop

It’s still very bare-bones.  The previous owner was in the process of finishing the inside…there are two rooms in the back that aren’t completely walled-off.  There’s no plumbing.  We’re getting the heat turned on this week (yes, the kids were cold!).  Randy and his friend Ed built railings for the existing stairs and 2nd floor space, and Ed built 4 benches for seating.  We’ll eventually have a couch and other furniture, we’ll paint, hang stuff on the walls, etc.

About 15 kids attended the first meeting.  I didn’t get any shots during the teaching, I was up at the house stretching out wire hangers to use for marshmallow skewers with Kelley!  Her younger kids and my littles were playing and helping…

When they were done, we loaded up snacks and water and headed down.  They had already started the bon fire.

And, to end the night, Randy took the brave kids on a bumpy ride around our property.  They climbed into his tractor’s trailer and held on tight!

We’re so thankful for this building, and look forward to tons of memories watching our kids and their friends grow in Christ :)