little gifts everywhere.

emily had her christmas program at school.

the first program that she did the motions AND sang in,

i might add.

she's been singing her songs for weeks.

i've enjoyed everyone of them and aiden's been

learning the words and singing along.

however, jinlge bells has been outlawed in this house.

they've been singing it ALL YEAR.

that's enough.

the program was really cute, though.

on one song,

 the kids had to act a little mad/impatient...

oh, my.

she is dramatic, that's for sure.

gets that from her dad.

oh, and while i'm at it, the boy below her in the green

jammies is her future husband, maddox k.

lol.

mrs. tucker told me one day that she said she was

"in love with maddox k and when she got big and got out of college, she could marry maddox k." (we tell her the college part when she mentions getting married. :))

oh, and mrs. tucker said another girl was going to marry maddox, too, so emily has competition.

hahahaha.

at least emily's moved on from marrying aiden or daddy.

what's really funny, is that this was the boy that had his arm around one of the girls at school on the pumpkin patch field trip and justin said, "that boy is staying away from my daughter".

hahahaha.

justin even stood by maddox's table at emily's party,

hovering with his arms crossed like
"keep your distance from my daughter, boy".

it was hysterical.

and i pay 90 bucks a month for her to do that at school.

i think not.

don't think for one moment that i let her continue to say things like that.  honestly, i hate when kids say that stuff,

so she was quickly told that wasn't appropriate behavior at school or home.

i'm a stickler for the rules, ya know.

 three of my favorite parts of her program were:

1. "my daddy's wrapping presents with lots of tape..." we love that line.  justin laughs at it.  every time. 

2. another favorite part of the program was getting to see sawyer, too.  she was quite a ways down from emily and my camera could only do so much in that dark room.  sawyer's my new bff.  emily yells and wants to run to dina when we get to school, while sawyer wants to hold my hand and have me take her to class.  we can switch, dina.  it'll be awesome. :) 
(sawyer's on the bottom middle w the big dina bow on her head. :))

3. my parents were able to make it out for the performance.

jack has had the crud and it's been messing with his body lately.  he has been having a hard time getting around for a while now.  i even caught him a couple of times today and saved him a 3rd time from a near crash on our concrete porch.  it would not have been pretty.  at all.  steadying him by holding his arm when he steps up and down, as well as pushing him around in his wheelchair today reminded me very much of my childhood with my dad.  it all comes very naturally to me now, to just be there to grab his arm as he tries to move about.  i know what to expect and the weird stuff he does doesn't even phase me.  i constantly forget that it's something new to his kids(who are both old enough to be MY parents).  something they haven't experienced with their dad before.  i'm not always sensitive when it comes to telling them about odd comments he's made or how physically weak he's become.  i have to get better about that.

dina gave us our christmas present... so perfect.  i think this will become a tradition every year...having dina make us a family ornament.  i absolutely love it.

after 2 weeks of being in africa, justin's mom finally made it home this morning!  she was in nairobi with some members from westlink and her church, central christian.  we were able to see her this afternoon...thankfully after she got her first hot shower in 15 days. :) haha.  welcome home, rena!!  the kids prayed for you every night!! 

we stopped by justin's parents house so justin could change into his navy uniform for some photos. 

justin was notified over the weekend that he was getting an award...
we both thought it was 'junior sailor of the month'.  in fact, that was what i had IM'd "germany" and told her the other night.

nope. 
junior sailor of the YEAR. 
samsonite.  i was waaaay off.

i'm so proud of him and all that he's accomplished this year, both with the navy and the department.

it's always nice to see him be rewarded for all of the hours he works and has to spend away from his family!!  especially when there are cash prizes involved!  though if cash is coming via the government, i know not to expect to see it for 6-8 months. :)

(his navy photos are always a tad disturbing looking, though.)

when emily and i finally got home for the day, we decided to play with the remote on the camera.  she, of course, had already taken her braid out. :)  she can only look cute for so many hours in a day!

she took the photos of me, too. :)

i've been meaning to share some mail on here... i received this card on monday.  the guy in the photos is my friend 'jonesy' (steve jones) from high school.  i took his family photos in nov. and his wife used them for their card this year.  i seriously had tears in my eyes when i opened this.  it was so sweet of them to send one to me, too.  also nice to see that i'm actually getting somewhere with my photos. 

i also got this thank you today... a package via ups from the ohrt family.  i did their shoot over thanksgiving weekend.  what a sweet, sweet family!  thanks for the yummy treats!!