Trying to catch up...

Even though I have updated several times in the last few weeks, I feel like I'm falling behind on general updates. So, I'm going to try to get caught up now.

First of all, on December 10th our church family had a surprise 40th birthday party for our good friend and youth minister....Kenny. His actual birthday is Dec. 12. Yeah, I know, 40 is kinda old to be a youth minister :). Hey, I must say the kids must keep him young, because he doesn't look 40 and certainly doesn't act 40!! Anyway, I do believe he was surprised...

"2-T", aka..Nancy Morrow made the cake. It shows Kenny trail bike riding and falling. Kenny and Bobby (my guy) are trail riding buds. This bike riding thing is becoming addictive, which is a good thing. Also from the surprise party, I must share this picture of the daughter of one of my good customers, Jessica Gallahar. Here is Harper taking some of her first steps at 11 months old. Jessica better look out...Harper is on the move!! :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Saturday, December 13, we travelled to Leeds, AL to celebrate Christmas with my mother's mother, siblings and extended families. Altogether, there are about 60 of us, so this celebration took place in the fellowship hall at the Ashville Road Church of Christ building, where my mom's youngest sister and her family are members. My mom is the oldest of 6 (5 girls and one boy). One member of the family has ties to the North Pole is "the" official Santa. He always pays a visit to the family gathering. As you can see most of the kids are thrilled, however there are a couple that aren't so thrilled. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Here is Santa with my Maw-Maw.....

Here is Santa with the kids (minus 2 sweeties).......

Here are the 2 sweeties with their "Pop".....

Here is Santa reading "T'was The Night Before Christmas" with the help of one of the angels....

This is Hudson, the youngest of the whole clan-- with his grandparents and daddy (my cousin). The next addition is due in January!!

A fun time was had by all. We are scattered all over the south east, so it's always great to see everyone.

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Moving on, Sunday, December 14 is Kenny's sister, Tammy's birthday. She isn't as old as Kenny :). Anyway, Tammy started the W.I.N.G.S. bible study that I'm a part of on Thursday nights at her home. Well, all of the W.I.N.G.S. "sisters" met at Cracker Barrel and had dinner to celebrate Tammy's birthday. It was really great to be able to get out for a few hours and have fun with the girls. Sorry I don't have a picture, I didn't take my camera :(

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Then of course the next night is when Tammy's daughter, Taylor was so suddenly taken from us. We are all still hurting and will for some time. Here is a link to a tribute here grandfather (Ken Wright) put on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DhnMcMRBZE . Tammy sent me the link with this message..."THIS IS WHY WE'RE STILL RUNNING THE RACE!!! How true! Taylor made a difference in this world during her short 17 years and she will continue to make a difference. We have all rallied around Tammy and her family and will continue to do so, but it will never be enough. We are all looking forward to the day we meet her at the gate!! I love you Newsome and Wright families. Let God be your strength. This picture was taken on the youth mission trip to Mobile inner city we went on the Summer of '06...this is how I prefer to remember her...

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On, Sunday, Dec 21, we had Christmas with my parents and my brother and his family at our house. Below, are my parents....Here are my 2 girls and my brother, Stan's 2 girls, Brandy, Alison, Courtney & Abbey...

It was a nice relaxing afternoon and always great to have us all together.

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On Sunday, December 21, about 20 of Alison's friends from school and church met us at Struts to celebrate Alison's sweet 16. I'm sure they all had a great time. I tried to stay in the background. It looks like they had a good time anyway. Thanks to all her friends for the support. She loves her friends....every one of them....

Moving on, Tuesday, December the 23rd was a big day around here. First of all, my baby turned 16, so there was no question where we were off to first....The Alabama State Troopers office in Jacksonville, AL...to attain her first Alabama Driver's License. I'm nervously proud to announce there was SUCCESS!! I will have to admit, I would not have been disappointed if there wasn't success, but I would have had one sad 16 year old on my hands for Christmas. So, Congratulations Alison. Now for the rest of you, if you see her on the road, please don't distract her, she is concentrating!!! :) Here she is with her birthday crown on while she's still the princess.

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I'm not through yet, but it's getting close to time to start the "party". It's time to welcome the New Year. We've invited my W.I.N.G.S. sisters and families over for a night of fun, food, and games. I really need to get myself in gear and get ready, so this blog will be continued tomorrow, Lord willing, and a new year. For now, everyone have a safe New Year's Eve and remember.....

"How you exit one thing, determines how you enter another"

May you all be blessed in the New Year!! I love you all!

Update on Coleman

Peggy, Coleman's mom updated his CarePage this afternoon. They were able to come back home for now and are consulting with home-care and Hospice. He is pretty much just sleeping with the help of pain meds. He is still not able to talk, except a word or two at a time. Also, having a hard time swallowing. Caden is very concerned about his brother and wondering what he can do to help Coleman fight harder. Everyone, please continue to keep the whole family in your prayers. If you would like to read the update, you can do so here, (cp: colemanscott) . You may have to create a username and password if you haven't already. Then search for colemanscott (no spaces). The whole family is overwhelmed at all the prayers that are going up on Coleman's behalf. Their faith and strength through all of this is amazing and very inspiring. Thank you for your prayers on their behalf.

Coleman is fighting hard

Coleman is fighting harder than ever and needs EVERYONE'S prayers. Christmas eve/Christmas day Coleman had to be airlifted to the ER. He couldn't swallow, hold anything in is right hand and he was having a hard time talking. They had to cancel their big family Christmas (which the boys were really looking forward to, since they had not been able to attend the big family celebration in the last 2 years, due to Coleman's low blood counts). There have been no updates on his CarePage since Christmas. Please take time out of your busy schedules to pray for Coleman and his family. They need every prayer we can offer. Thank you for praying for Team Larson. Their "team" motto is "Team Larson Never Gives Up"....let's not give up petitioning God for Coleman's complete healing.

"He will hear our prayers"

The Princess has arrived!!

Well the long awaited princess AraBelle Nicole Ishee has arrived.

December 23, 2008--11:40 pm--7 lbs. 9 0z--19.5 in.

AND....she is healthy and beautiful (oh, mom is doing great also!!)

Is she precious or WHAT??!!

Here's the dethroned princess Alison with the new princess AraBelle. I think she really does love her. After all, there will always be a bond there....seeing as they share a birthday now :)

Well, that's it for now, I've got to finish cooking for Christmas. Everyone will be here soon.

I pray that everyone has a blessed Christmas. I will post again soon with more pictures. May God bless each and everyone of you.

"A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on." --Carl Sandburg

Pray for Peace....

I don't have many words, my heart is heavy. Every Thursday night I meet with about 8 sisters in Christ for a bible study. One of those sisters' lives changed forever last night about 8:00 pm. Her oldest daughter, Taylor who is a mere 17 years old, more beautiful on the inside as on the outside, went to be with our one and only Savior. As many teenagers, Taylor had problems, but some of Taylor's problems were deeper and different than your average teenagers. She had the biggest heart of anyone her age and loved her parents and two younger sisters as well as a special young man in her life. But the monster raging inside her took over this weekend. She felt like the world was against her and she set out to run from that. As she was running, she was struck by a car and killed. Please, pray for this family, pray for peace and understanding. Pray that we as brothers and sisters will know what to do for the family. Pray for the Newsome's to be comforted and know that they are loved. Taylor has conquered this beast and won her home with the King. Go about your day in prayer and love those you don't think need loving...we all need to be loved. We love you, Taylor!! And we love you, Newsome & Wright families. John 11:25,26....Taylor lives!!

Be blessed...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

I'm back....What has taken me a full day, maybe a day and a half to do in past years, has taken me at least 5 business days to do this year....you got it...decorate for Christmas!! I'm getting old or it's taken me longer this year to get in the mood to decorate. Actually, I enjoy decorating for Fall than any other time. So it took a while to take the Fall decorations down and put those away, before I could even think about the Christmas decorations. I've actually been through decorating for a few days now, just had a hard time finding the time to document it with photographs and blogging about it. So, for your boredom, here we go....

The overall view...

Small Santa collection...

Santa Lane....

The Snowman collection...

The mistletoe and what to do when near it...
Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head know what to do!! :0)

Lexi is taking it all in....this is her first Christmas with us...

The parade of trees...The main tree with miscellaneous ornaments from through the years...

The Coke tree...

The trio of trees (Nostalgic games/characters tree, The Photo tree, & the snowman tree)...

Our favorite new addition to the nostalgic tree...the "mooing" barn... So basically there you have the tour of the inside of the Phillips' house at Christmas time. If I can remember, I'll snap a shot of the outside at some point. But it's nothing spectacular.

Well, besides the decorating, it's just been the usual hectic time of the year. Three out of the four of us have had the sinus/bronchitis crud, so that hasn't helped our non-existent Christmas cheer. I think we are all seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the crud thing though, so that's good news.

We did learn that "the Princess" will make her royal appearance more than likely on December 23. Yes that is the date we welcomed the last little princess in the family (16 years ago). Princess Alison will have to give up her throne, and she is NOT a bit happy about that. Just ask her!! She'll forget fast enough, as that is also the day that (hopefully) she will gain her Alabama driver's license, so all will be well with the de-throned princess. I'll keep everyone posted on the outcome!! We are all anxiously awaiting Princess AraBelle!!

Another long awaited and exciting thing that is happening this week is, the church family where my family attends worship (Greenbrier Church of Christ) has been collecting money from the members to sponsor 33 children who attend Golden Springs Elementary who need a little help at Christmas. We met our goal and were able to purchase for each child, a brand new coat, shirt, pants and shoes. These will be presented to the children and their parents on Wed. morning at the school. This is the second year we've been blessed to be able to do this. Last year I believe we sponsored 25 children. So, we have been truly blessed to add 8 more children to that list this year. I will be there to take pictures and hopefully have a couple to post the next time I blog.

This past Saturday, my family travelled to Leeds, AL to attend my mother's side (The Reaves) of the family's annual Christmas gathering. I'll have more about that along with some pictures, hopefully tomorrow or the next day (you know me)...ok sometime before the end of the year.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE remember Coleman in your prayers. He's hanging in there, by the way, he and Caden turned the big 5 last Wednesday. Please pray that this LAST chance at treatment will rid his body of the terrible beast...cancer. Pray for complete healing. Thank you, I know his family is so thankful for all the prayer warriors out there!! God bless you!!

I'll leave you with this gift.....

And share this thought... **Wishing you a season of beauty**

**Wishing you a season of peace**
BE BLESSED....