Carys Prays

Life has been busy. I've been reading others' blogs but not posting on my own. I've been thinking about this post for awhile since I read something on DeEtta's blog about one of her little darling's prayers.

Carys almost always wants to be the one who prays before meals now. This is how it goes:

"Dear God, thank you love for me." Interpretation - thank you for loving me. Then she begins to talk about whatever happened to her that day or whatever's on her mind. Last night she said, "Don't touch the stick. It's hard." She was trying to put the ClearPlay USB stick into the DVD player for the family night movie. She couldn't get it in, and we fussed at her and told her not to touch it. Some day it might be "I swing and slide." You get the drift. Then she finishes, "Jesus' Name. Amen." Sometimes she remembers to say thanks for the food, sometimes not. It cracks us all up as we try to listen closely and hear what she's saying. But I think she's right on target. She's just talking to God!

4th Annual Meahl Christmas Event

I'm posting this mostly for my "family record" as I don't have many good pictures. This is the 4th year that we did an "event" with Greg's family instead of exchanging gifts. We went to the Sleuth Mystery Dinner Theater in Orlando. Here are some pictures from the "waiting room".

Carys, Gerren, Kay (Greg's brother's wife) and Chase


Rebekah and AJ (Jeff and Kay's kids), Gran (Greg and Jeff's mom), Landon and Jeff (Greg's brother)


Finally, I get in the picture! I think that's everybody except Greg.


We had a great time. The play was hilarious, although it was a little more raunchy than I liked for the kids. I think most of that went over their heads, though.

This has been a really fun thing for us to do. I'm out of ideas, though. Anybody have any good ones for next year?

Learning to Ride

I had forgotten what a trick it is for little ones to learn the coordination of pumping their legs to ride a tricycle. Three of my children are short and have a tough time reaching pedals on top of the coordination thing. Carys is one of them!











As you can see, everyone had a try. So far, no good! :)

Carys Opening Gifts

I had to post a separate entry on Carys opening her gifts. It is SO fun to watch her. Every little thing she opens is a big deal to her. She gasps and says, "Oh... it's my fravrite!" (No, that's not a typo... just how she says it!)

Below is a montage of her opening a color wheel puzzle. First we wrapped it in paper. Then, we realized that some of the other kids knew we had purchased this puzzle and its shape. That would give away Carys' code name and help them toward figuring out everyone else's code name. So, we put the wrapped puzzle in a gift bag as well.

3rd Annual Meahl Christmas Event

I may have mentioned on this blog that four years ago we decided to forego the annual exchange of gift cards with Greg's family and do something together instead. Even though we live in the same county, we don't work or go to church together (well, Greg and Jeff worked together for awhile), so we don't see much of each other.

The first year, we saw the Christmas program at Dixie Stampede in Orlando. It was awesome! Carys was born a month later, and this has altered what we're able to do a little bit. Last year, we went to the Melting Pot, and this year we took the Italian Star Dinner Train run by the Inland Lakes Railway out of Eustis and Mt. Dora, Florida. We left from Eustis for a 2-hour trip which included dinner.




They have a dome car where you can pay $10 extra and sit in the upper level. We didn't pay the extra, but I guess no one else did either. So, they seated us up there (maybe because we had a party of 11?).

This is the boys' table. AJ, my nephew, is on the far left, followed by Landon and Gerren across the table.


Gran (Greg and Jeff's mom) sat across from the boys with Chase, Rebekah (my niece) and her friend from college, Mary.


Jeff and Kay and Greg and I each had our own tables right behind all of them. Carys sat with us, when she was sitting. The neat thing about being in the dome area was that she could roam up and down the aisle without bothering anyone else. That made it bearable for her.


Greg was rushing me out the door and I forgot my camera. So, thanks to Kay and Rebekah, I have pictures of this event! Here are a couple of Gran with Carys and Gran with Chase.



After we departed the train, we had someone take a picture of our entire group. Once again from left to right: Greg, his brother Jeff, Jeff's wife Kay, their son A.J.,and daughter Rebekah (who is holding our Carys), her friend Mary is behind Chase and Gerren, Gran is hiding behind me and Landon is last.



Then it just got silly, or perhaps I should say Chase got silly!


A fun time was had by all!

Merry Christmas!

Well, I had to go in and wake up the three oldest kids at 8:45am this morning. I said, "We're hungry and we're eating breakfast with or without you!" They got up and dressed and beds made quickly, needless to say!





My parents are here from Illinois, so we had a slightly bigger breakfast than normal. The adults loved the baked eggs, but the kids preferred the apple-topped biscuits. Gerren didn't eat anything. I think he was too excited to eat.

We read the "Christmas Morning" reading from Jotham's Journey. I had to finish reading it for Greg. He can never get through it without choking up. I made it almost to the last line! We finally began opening presents around 10:00am and finished by 12:30pm or so. No, there weren't that many gifts. We just take our time and let the kids play with things as they open them.

Now, since I've decided to use this blog as a journal for my kids, I am listing below what everyone received from everyone else. Please skip this part if it bores you!

Landon - Framed print of Advances in American Aviation stamp collection, Age of Empires III Asian Dynasties expansion pack, iPod Nano (from Mom & Dad), $10 I-tunes gift card with which to purchase the Switchfoot CD he loves (from Gerren & Chase), Crocs and a rolling backpack (from Grandma and Grandpa), Timechart of World History book (from the Rooks).


Gerren - remote control truck, I-Quest handheld game, iPod Nano (from Mom & Dad), remote control dragonfly (from Landon, Chase & Carys), Axle Crocs (from Grandma & Grandpa), paper airplane book (from the Rooks)




Chase - Birding gift bag with fanny pack, bird house & hummingbird feeder, Squirrel-proof bird feeder, iPod Nano (from Mom & Dad), doll tights and outfit (from Landon & Gerren), Mary JaneCrocs and rolling backback (from Grandma and Grandpa), personalized stationery and a butterfly picture holder (from the Rooks)

Can you see the theme of Chase's gifts? Birds! She has fallen in love with all things birdy and has read and learned so much about them completely on her own. This is my favorite thing about homeschooling.

Carys - Dora ride-on toy, Gigi God's Princess purse book, straw-sippy cups, Mary Jane Crocs, Fisher Price Musical Learning Chair (from Mom & Dad), Telephonics Leapfrog laptop (from Landon, Gerren, and Chase), Kid's Aerobed (from Grandma and Grandpa), pajamas (from the Rooks)

The theme for Carys' gifts would be "what will keep Carys from distracting school"!

Greg - BDU set (for Civil Air Patrol), outrageously expensive non-plastic hardhat, My Utmost for His Highest leather updated language edition, pewter keychain with kids' picture, microwave, tons of gift cards to restaurants around his job site (from Linda), Sonic gift card and shirt (from the kids), $$$ (from Grandma and Grandpa)

Hey! Exactly whose hat is that anyway?

We interrupt these announcements to inform you of a car accident in the front hallway!


Linda - Waring professional waffle iron (from the kids), $50 I-tunes gift card and headphones - which will be returned (from Greg), $$$ (from Grandma and Grandpa), box of Godiva chocolate (for both Greg and me from the Rooks)

Family - in addition to these individual gifts, Greg's mom always gets us a subscription to Blockbuster online. We love this! And our friends, the Pillsburys, gave us some homemade goodies and a $25 I-tunes gift card. This will come in so handy with almost everyone having an iPod now.

Greg's mom joined us later in the afternoon for dinner. We had Peppered Ribeyes, Cheese and Broccoli Stuffed Potatoes, Caesar salad, Marinated Mozzarella, Buttery Rolls, and (later in the evening) Caramel Fudge Cheesecake for dessert.


After everyone left, we opened stockings. This has become a tradition in the past several years, mostly because we kept forgetting about them. Now, it's a rather nice end to the day.



I'm tired! Time to get on with my word of the year: REST!