Stopping Santa

If you've been around for a while you remember the BabyFat challenge. I have been able to keep off some of the weight, but some of the babyfat has found its way back to its daddy. So here is the deal...

This is a time of year that traditionally people put on a bunch of weight. There are multiple reasons for this.
1. Lots of Christmas parties
2. Comfy winter clothes
3. Sausage balls
4. Comfort food
5. Lack of self control

This is a tough season because we all know that New Years is coming so we say things like, "I'm going to enjoy this season and lose a few pounds as my new years resolution."
I don't want to not enjoy the next couple of weeks, but I also want to be self controlled.
So I'm trying to get a jump on Santa and his tight pants.
Instead of putting on the pounds, I'm going to lose them.
10 lbs.
It would be great to have them gone before Christmas, but I'll keep you posted.
Lets try to get a jump on our new years resolution, no reason to throw away the month of December.
Just like back in the days of the babyfat challenge, Fridays will be my update days.
Bring it on Santa.

Giving Thanks

We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday.
For us it actually began a couple of weeks ago when Kristin, my younger sister, was in town from Kansas for an early thanksgiving. We had the traditional meal then and it was delicious.
This past week the Neely family got together again, sadly without Kristin, for another meal. Prime rib, the best potatoes you've ever tasted, espiargus, sauteed mushrooms, etc... I'm all for Thanksgiving meal, but this one was tough to beat. Thanksgiving afternoon we went to the Fantasy of Trees to start the Christmas holiday. I can remember going to this years ago with our family. It was our tradition to go every year after lunch. It was a bit surreal to be back now with my own children.
Friday we took off and spent a couple of very relaxing days with the Fendley family in Sevierville. It was great to just sit around, watch tv, play some games and enjoy good meals. Davis calls darts "Fun".
Here are a few pics of our festivities.
Heading to the fantasy of trees


Kristin and Lawson





If you can't tell, Davis loved the merry go round. Every time it finished all you heard was, "more, more" and the next person would go with him. Please notice Katie got her face painted hoping it would encourage Davis to allow them to paint his face. He did not give in. Instead he went with a snowman painted on his hand.

Thanksgiving

2 Corinthian 4:15-16
15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day

It's pretty simple that grace causes overflowing thanksgiving. Regardless of our circumstances, grace is what causes genuine thanks to come out in our lives.
Today I want to be thankful for grace.
It's easier to be thankful for a nice house, cars, family, friends, that new HD tv you can get on black friday, a job, health...all good things, but according to vs 16 all things that are wasting away.
I don't want to have wasted thanks.
I want to be thankful for things that are being renewed. Grace, peace, hope, joy, love-- things that are being made new because of Christ.

i hope today we can all find time to give thanks for things that are being made new.

Thanksgiving List

Here are a few random things I'm thankful for...perhaps a more serious post tomorrow.

1. DVR- changed my marriage, my evenings, dare i say my life.
2. Coffee- good coffee, not "have some coffee while we change your oil coffee"
3. Onesies
4. Drive Thru Windows- who really wants to get out of a car anyway
5. iphone- best phone ever. i know verizons coverage is bigger/better, but i'm not moving to china simply because they are bigger! (that's a good point)
6. Katie
7. diapers that smell dirty, but turn out not to actually be dirty- parents you know what i'm talking about- fistpump (this also is a plus because it means i didn't actually just put my nose in actual poop, just gas that they passed, which is much better)
8. Good windshield wipers
9. Animal control- someone has to care for all the cats
10. Good movies
11. Hot water in a shower
12. Free samples from Chinese restaurants in the mall
13. people who read ridiculous blogs

Thankful for sickness?

(NOTE:This pic is NOT Davis)
Apparently Thanksgiving is not the greatest for our family at Thanksgiving.
Last year I got the sickest I have EVER been. Here is the post.

Well this year it is very different but we still have a pretty good bug.
RSV.
3 Letters completely wrecking a day.
Lawson, Demetria and Chris' little 7 week old boy actually had to be hospitalized for breathing treatments because of RSV.
Both Davis and Annie were diagnosed with RSV tonight as well, awesome.
Davis has two really bad ear infections but they are hopefully viral, so it will just clear up with the RSV.

For two kids with RSV I have never seen two kids smile more in the "sick lobby."

But none the less it was a sick day for me as I stayed home to watch the kids while Katie dealt with her own cold.

On the plus side we did get an awesome Panda Compressor Nebulizer System, who doesn't want one of those? I hear that they are all the rave in NY :)

Thanksgiving Week

We are coming up on Thanksgiving week, which is crazy.
Some beautiful weather here in Knoxville the last couple of days.
Katie had her first small group in our new room this last week and last night we had some friends over for some soup.
It is hard to beat just sitting around with good friends and sharing life.
Here are some pics from last Thanksgiving.
What a difference a year makes.

Preach the gospel to yourself

As Christians, we must always preach the gospel to ourselves.
We far too often go to camp "accept" Jesus and nothing changes.
The gospel must be preached, at least in life, daily.
Here is a video of Matt Chandler. He is a preacher in Texas. God has used him to take a floundering baptist church and turned it into one the most alive- gospel centered- churches in America.
If you have 3 and half minutes, I hope you can watch the video.


Sorry it's a little out of whack, didn't want to take the time to resize the HTML.

Hello

Well apparently adding a room on to your house takes up a bit of your time. If you haven't noticed, we haven't updated the blog recently. (unless you are one of those that checks the blog once a month).Well our house is finished! We are so happy with the way the addition turned out. We do miss the construction men showing up at 7:30 each day, but we are making it. In all honesty though, the guys that built the room were great, Mark, Bill, Dave, Richard and Kelly were the the main men who did it and they are all stars. They worked on our house like it was their own. I am pretty sure Davis thinks they are the coolest guys around because of all their tools and skills. Much has happened. New room, Annie is now 6 months old, Halloween, etc...Here are a few pics from the last month. I'll be back soon, promise.