Leaving for Madrid!!

We've had a day of traveling from Lexington to Charlotte and then to Philadelphia. We're boarding in about ten minutes to Madrid! Thanks for all your prayers!

Keith Family Updates

• My camera cord-No pics because I can't find my camera to computer cord. :(
• Please begin praying for our upcoming travels and our separation from each other- Jason and I will be traveling together, Maggie will be with nana and pap, and the boys will be with Granny and Grandad. I am looking forward to my alone time with Jason, but nine days away from my babies is difficult.
• 1:1 iPads- I have been incredibly busy at home and school with a pilot program. I was chosen with two other teachers to pilot a 1:1 iPad classroom for the third trimester. I have 30 iPads synced to a MacBook. It has involved a tremendous amount of work learning how to navigate the iPad, making my curriculum work with the iPads, and learning how to manage my classroom with them. I have loved the opportunity and enjoy the challenge. Several activities have been wonderful and several haven't worked out as well. The district is considering buying iPads for every student next year which means I have had many classroom visits from the superintendent, school board members, and many others. Helps keep me on my toes. :)
• T-ball has begun!! GO METS! I love this time of year!
• We had a wonderful family get away to Louisville last weekend. We didn't have school Friday and Jason was working in Louisville, so the kids and I went there after school Thursday. We didn't do much other than swim and relax in the hot tub.
• Kindergarten update- The boys are doing well and are enjoying school. Matthew is having trouble retaining his learning. Mom helped us find a WONDERFUL tutor. She comes to the house once a week and works with him for an hour. She's a young, certified special education teacher.
• Jason enjoys his job. He is still figuring out what exactly he's supposed to be doing! He does so much around the house and with the kids. We are lucky to have him! I love being with him.
• My Miss Maggie is learning so much from Ms. Judy. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. The other day Maggie cut her omelet and said, "Look mommy. Four quarters!" One day she picked up a dollar bill and said, "George Washington." She knows her days of the week, alphabet, numbers to 20, and more. She recognizes most letters and knows their sounds. Maggie's favorite things to do right now are play in the kitchen sink and ride her bike.

A Few More Christmas Pics...

Maggie was an angel in a precious little Christmas play put on by Ms. Judy, Maggie and her friends, and several Ms. Judy graduates. It was adorable! I don't know how Ms. Judy was able to pull off such a wonderful program with six toddlers! She is a blessing to our lives.
I posted about our yearly bake-a-thon, but never posted any pictures of my gifts. I was able to completely fill nine nice size containers, and still have two platters to take to parties! Thanks again Jackie!

We girls weren't the only ones to make cookies. The kids had fun cutting out and decorating their own cookies. Of course I was disgusted watching them lick, double dip, sneeze, and cough all over their confections. No, I didn't eat one and didn't pass any along as presents!

Jason had a rather rough start to the new year! He was hit pretty hard with a slow moving kidney stone on Christmas Eve, and it didn't pass until Jan. 4! He was in a tremendous amount of pain. We made two trips to the ER and one to the urologist. Then, back to work he went on the Blue Grass Parkway when he hit a patch of black ice and had a terrible car wreck. Even after flipping the Envoy, he walked away sore and scratched up. Thank you God for protecting him. He is back to normal now. He was able to get a 2008 Camry with low miles. He is happy with his new job. My favorite thing is listening to him play football with the boys after work. I love you Jason!

Cara, Lennie, and Emily.... I love you!

We celebrated the new year with our life group. It was a fun night! Well, it would have been better with my sweetie.

We're ready for Santa!

This is the tree we hunted for and cut down with Uncle Jesse. It's such a great memory for the kids.

My kids absolutely love their cousins. We feel so blessed to have cousins so close in age and so close in proximity. I think their mom is pretty cool too ;)

On Sunday evenings Amy loads up all five kids and takes them to Immanuel Baptist for Sunday night church. It's two hours of bible study and play. The kids love it! Each week we have a little homework to do. We read a story, answer a few questions, and memorize a verse. There are two wonderful things about this 1- kids receive more bible teaching 2- Jason and I have 2 1/2 hours to ourselves each week! Most often we use it for cleaning and getting ready for the week, but it's better to do it alone than with kids messing up everything as we clean.

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Today I took the kids to visit the big man in red! We had such a wonderful experience. If you haven't visited with Santa yet, try Lexington Green. You can make an appointment and walk straight in to Santa's lap! As soon as we checked in, they put us next in line. When it was our turn Maggie took off and jumped right on his lap. The kids joked around with Santa about being on the naughty list, told him what they want, and even tugged on his beard to see if he's the real one.

A Tradition in the Baking!

Jackie, Amy, Aprile, and I have spent quality time together the past 12 hours in the Keith Kitchen! Today was our annual cookie and candy bake-a-thon. On the list this year we had:

• chocolate peanut butter pretzel bites
• chai tea eggnog cookies
• cinnamon bun cookies
• magic cookie bars
• chunky chocolate jam bars
• shortbread
• gingerbread men
• sugar cookies
• pecan pie bars
• chocolate cherry cookies
• death by caramel bars
• brownie buttons
• chocolate peppermint cookies
• walnut fig streusel bars
• triple layer peanut butter brownie bars
• chocolate chip turtle bars
• ginger spice snaps
• chocolate pistachio bow ties
• chocolate caramel thumbprints
• marbled chocolate bark
• toffee
• fudge- chocolate cranberry
• peanut butter fudge
• peppermint bark
• peanut butter balls
• cream candy
• divinity
• peanut butter roll

Can you believe we do all that in one day??? We've worked so hard today, but we haven't finished our list just yet. Tomorrow we will be decorating the sugar cookies, making the divinity, peanut butter roll, shortbread, and peanut butter balls. We are so close!

This is just one cookie/ candy location!

Giving Thanks

I'm thankful for many things this holiday season. Among the most important is the love of my God, my caring, playful, and giving husband, my dear three children, and supportive family. I was blessed with wonderful in laws and sisters to love. My caring brother is very important to our family and encouraging of all we do. I couldn't make it without the love and support of my parents. Members of our adoptive son's birth family have been beside us the past two years and have helped make his transition to our family complete. We have friends to hang out and do life with that are so fun to be around. My job wouldn't be the same without my friend and co-worker Jessica. We have jobs that we enjoy and feel financially secure in this struggling economy. I am thankful for my house, but more importantly the home we've made it.

We're thankful for cousins!

My First Turkey!

I roasted my first Turkey!! A very well documented experience….

First, I made a turkey brine (with some help from Williams Sonoma) I put my 20 lb turkey in an oven bag and poured the brine in.


I set my alarm for 2am and turned it over to soak all sides. At 5:30 I woke up to wash it off and begin the roast. That's when the mess occurred.......

As I lifted the turkey out of the pan, the bag burst and 2 gallons of nasty turkey juice and brine splashed everywhere. My clothes were drenched and the counter, floor, etc was covered! Luckily it was early, so I had plenty of time to clean it all up.

My turkey and ham sitting snug in the oven.

After 5 1/2 hours of roasting

I even learned how to carve!

The end result was moist and delicious!

I hosted Baker Thanksgiving this year. We traditionally celebrate the Sunday before. Everyone was able to come except for one key person.... my granny. She is in the hospital now and will be having surgery tomorrow. Please keep her in your prayers.

Making My Christmas Wreath

Jason and I love to have our house decorated for Christmas. We enjoy the lights every night. We have a 9 foot tree in our family room, a 7 foot in the basement, a 6 foot in our bedroom, a little one in the kids’ bathroom, and a 3 or 4 foot in each kid’s room. It takes so long to put it all up, we like to do it early so we can enjoy it as long as possible. We usually spend the entire Thanksgiving weekend in London, so we traditionally put it all up the weekend before.

After going to South Elkhorn Craft fair this fall, mom and I decided we were going to make new Christmas Wreaths for our front doors using decorative mesh. Mine is a little big, but I love seeing it every time I arrive home.

Here are some photos of my wreath in progress:

October Fun

Seems as if I'm down to one post a month. Terrible! I promise to be better in November. It has taken me three months to figure out how to balance life with two kindergartners, a new leadership position at school, KTIP resource teacher, and new school year. I am happy to say that I now feel back to normal!

Looking back on September and October (wherever they went), I have one thought.... I love my family. Although I had a lot of anxiety getting used to a very busy schedule, outside of the work day we had a blast enjoying fall together. Since I am so far behind with the blog, I will be short on words, but follow up with lots of photos!

Huntertown Elementary's Annual PTO Walk-a-thonI've had a great time getting involved in the boys' school. Although I'm a full time working mom, I feel I've been able to be involved. I've formed relationships with the boys' teachers, and have even been able to teach a Spanish lesson in their K classrooms!

Fall Break at the Beach!!!
I don't know what made this beach trip so easy, but it was just what I needed! The kids were excellent. Jason and I decided to take this trip on a Wednesday night. We booked a room Thursday, and left on Friday. Maybe that's what made it so laid back. It was a wonderful time with the kids, my husband, and my parents (who were at the same beach with friends). Jason wasn't able to take the whole week off, so he flew back early, early Wednesday morning. I tried not to think about him not being there or driving back without him, but the kids were great the remainder of the trip and everything was fine. They love the beach so much.

The boys had a fun time hitting tennis balls off the tee in the sand.

The ocean view from the porch was picture perfect. Here we are enjoying supper our last night at the beach (without daddy)

Upward Soccer

Matthew learned a lot about soccer and had a very fun time playing it with his cousin Anna!

Pumpkin Carving!
The boys were ready to carve a pumpkin October 1. We held them off a little, but they couldn't wait! They created a friendly pumpkin.

Camping at the Horse Park

We created wonderful family memories this year at the KY Horse Park Campground Halloween Fest. It was the weekend before Halloween. There were endless activities, free food, and campsite decorations. There was a hayride, costume contest, and the best Trick or Treating around! The kids were worn out!

My heroes.... an army man and spiderman along with a little scary witch.

We spent Halloween weekend in London with Jason's parents. The kids enjoyed playing around the house, walking around Jesse's farm, making Halloween cookies with Granny, and Trick or Treating again.