The Suits Sisters

Mom's famous casserole and then some Look at these precious old men sitting in the living room talking about I don't know...Baseball? The stock market? Kent's beard? Liza's First Christmas!  And Finn's!    Mr. Christmas Cheer Opening stockings. Also, a dad with his daughter on Christmas morning? Stick a fork in me. I'm done. The Princesses Paraphernalia couldn't wait Caris wasn't the only one to receive snazzy head gear Our secret to opening presents without the distraction of kids You know you're old when you gift each other Pyrex without knowing! 

In honor of the Christmas Story, we traveled many miles over the span of 9 days. However, this year I was not great with child which made the trip a lot easier. And Kent's determination to drive through the night from hither to yon meant that the girls fell asleep in Florida and woke up in South Carolina.  I wish that I could post all of them, but here are some highlight pictures.  Breakfast with Pops   Our silly snow wo man  This is real life  The Ziggle bike from Papa and Yaya was a huge hit  Our trip included a few lows   Ma reenacting the Nativity Scene  We finally met Finn!  We were the last to leave Pops and Gigi's and this was the The House is Empty Christmas is Over scene.

We've done a few things in the past week  We put an offer in on a house! They countered! We accepted!  The weather dropped into the 70's while it was still light outside  so we broke out the hammock and hoodies. My phone fell out of said hoodie, landed just right (wrong?) and died. We save a lot of money on my pre-paid phone plan each month  (THANKS KENT!)   which should translate into money saved towards a new phone when needed, but when we're faced with buying a tiny gadget for like, four h u n d r e d dollars, that will live in my back pocket, keep my butt company and eventually break, we balk. So after a few days of living on the edge without a phone, a fellow youth pastor gave us an old phone. TEXT ME. We celebrated our first Thanksgiving away from family. And although we missed everyone, pooting around in our jammies until 10AM and not traveling with 2 little ones was definitely nice. We hosted another family + Ilse (have I still not ...

Because it's not every day that your best friend enters a new decade  Happy Birthday to FinYin... my kind, loyal, funny, smart, hard working, patient, lovely best friend of many years. Birthday blessings to you and thanks for the memories.  

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all the ugly Florida tile floors were wet because THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES, GUYS. It takes hosting a few people from church for a Thanksgiving feast for me to mop our floors. Guess I should plan something for Christmas   New Year's  Easter too. Happy Thanksgiving!

Scene: Kent and Caris are hugging Kent: We love each other, don't we? Caris: ( nods)  We are married  Scene: We're eating dinner, talking about what's on our plates Caris: WAIT. Carrots are vegetables?? Kent & Kait: Yeah they are Caris:  (shocked)  NOway!  Scene: The girls and Mommy  Kait: What are you thankful for? Caris: Hmm..it is pink. And green. Kait:  (looking around)  Liza's cup? Caris: YES! You are RIGHT! Seems like we have thankfulness and the game of iSpy a little mixed up.

Dear Publix, I might be able to over look your high prices for the shopping carts that drive like a dream and free balloons Dear Dog after Daylight Saving Time, You're not eating dinner! It's only 4:30! Dear Pediatrician, I have small babies! Dear Lady in Michael's that told me her 7 month old twin grand daughters are bigger than my kid, I have small babies! and maybe yours are a little chubby?  Dear Candy Corn Mix, you were worth every white chocolate coated bite over the weekend Dear  Matt Chandler,  You make women of every age in Central Florida laugh out loud and get convicted every Thursday morning Dear Liza, For a second I thought you were a genius baby for trying to put on a hat that you found. Then I realized YOU'RE JUST THAT OLD wahhhh!! Dear Caris, I can see it in the near future.. your sister happily eating dessert while we wrap up your uneaten chicken for your breakfast tomorrow Dear Bestie, I loved Face Timing with you. Wish we lived ...

Halloween--pumpking carving in particular--will always hold a special place in Our Story. Kent asked my dad to court me ( yeaUhhh! ) in the middle of October and shortly thereafter I led him astray (the first of many times) by carving a pumpkin with him. Little did I know that he didn't believe in carving pumpkins and if it wasn't for my striking good looks (winky face) , he would've bolted for the door that night.  Here we are circa 2004. I'm sure he's sweating and trying to come to peace with the idea that he no longer had a secure place in heaven. JOKES. Sort of.   But we'll save the story of Kent's gospel transformation for another post. And here we are 11 years later, teaching our pumpkin carving ways to our (IMPOSSIBLY OLD LOOKING) offspring.  I've been replaced.  "You guysssss..." -Patch Kent's always been a good sport when it comes to dressing up. Reason #481 why I love him. This was befo...

Drum roll please!! I'm tickled to present to you the 2015 costumes ! And one more memory for Liza to bring up to her therapist one day. I started with something we had (camo overalls from Goodwill) and grabbed stuff we already had (binoculars, onesie, crocs) Liza's shirt and pants also came from Goodwill, her antlers are from Michael's - the Christmas section- I pealed off the holly decoration. And Caris' hunting hat was a last minute snag the night before. Total: $7.00 (give or take) I hope we can do theme costumes for a super long time. I'm thinking until they're well into their 20's..? Aunt Anna invited us to Boo at the Zoo with her work and Gigi came with us. I talked Caris into wearing her hat "to keep the sun out of your eyes" and the binoculars "to see all the animals" and sure enough, she whipped them every time.  Thanks, Aunt Anna for inviting us! 

After the wedding festivities were over, Kent, Caris and I went on a short hike in hopes of introducing  her to a little thing called fall We did this by throwing leaves up in the air  Letting her climb on rocks and touch the this-is-not-warm-florida water And driving with the windows down. This is how she blocked the wind.