Sharing My Jennarocity

My parents have always gone to Campo Verde, but we just started going in the last couple of years. Campo Verde is a Mexican food restaurant in Arlington that is probably the best kept secret in DFW. It is decorated for Christmas all year long. Why? Who knows. But, it is. And it's not just decorated with any decorations, they are shiny, gawdy, sparkling, old-school Christmas decorations. But at Christmas time - it's magical. They play Christmas songs on the radio and there is even a toy train that goes around the entire ceiling of the restaurant. The kids LOVE going here. There is never a shortage of things to see and look at, and try as you might, you will never see it all. Almost every square inch of the place is covered!!  Avery got her hands on my phone, in case you couldn't tell. This place is not fancy and it is not expensive. The food is not bad, but that's not why you go. You go to be surrounded in fe...

Our church participates in the AWANA program. AWANA stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed, based on the verse 2Timothy 2:15. It equips kids with Biblical knowledge and truth about Jesus and the scriptures. They learn verses, stories, and play games. Avery LOVES it. She was a Puggle up until this year, and now she is a Cubbie. Cubbies actually get vests and get to participate in the learning of verses and get their books.  This week was their Awards. Avery has already received a couple patches on her vest, but she got another Apple patch. We were so proud of her and are so glad she is learning so much this year!

Avery sang this week in her school's Christmas program! We always love watching Avery sing. She did a great job!!

I have been working on a project these last couple of weeks for my previous company. Yesterday, I was working on my computer and heard roaring laughter coming from Avery's room. I walk in and found Jason and Avery dancing and singing away.   By sheer coincidence, this popped up on my Timehop today. Avery was only 1 in this picture. Boy, are these kiddos lucky to have such a great dad! It makes me heart melt.

At Sophia's school, you can join choir in the 4th and 5th grade. So this is Soph's first year to be a part of it! We got to watch her sing. I always love hearing kids sing. She is the petite one on the very front row. :-)

If you look through my blog, you will find a picture missing over the years, and that's the one of my kids with Santa. Don't get me wrong, it isn't without me trying. Avery has just never wanted to get close to Santa, much less sit in his lap. Jordan has always seemed too "mature" to do such childish things and I finally got Sophia to do it this year (if I did too). I have never pushed Avery to do it either, and I would hate taking her picture with Santa where she was bawling her eyes out. I just never wanted her to have a picture with Santa that bad (athough, I do think crying Santa pictures are awesome).   Well, Santa came to Avery's school this year and she finally got up the nerve to actually talk to him! Not at first....   ...but she came around.     I haven't really addressed this formally on my blog, but since I have seen a lot of people lately jumping off the Santa bandwagon, I will go ahead and tell you that, yes, ...

Avery sang in our church's children's choir yesterday. They did their Christmas program. It was so sweet! Her director, Karice, does such a great job with these kids and getting them involved and interested in singing and music. I am glad Avery gets to be a part of it!  They started doing video feeds onto the big screens during church, and the kids kept turning around to see themselves on them. It was pretty funny! Here is a picture of her actually doing the choreography. She spent a lot of the time looking at her friends. She's 4. What do I expect?  At the end of the service, my sweet friend Logan got baptized. Getting baptized at any age takes courage and I was so proud of him and his choice to follow Christ! Was a great Sunday it was.

I really can't believe I did this. It's too much, even for me.  I started searching for girls' wardrobes online to find a cute place to put Avery's dress up clothes. They were like, $175 and up. I almost fainted - $175 for a kid-sized, dress up clothes closet? (like the one in the picture below) You've got to be kidding! But in the process of looking at pictures, I saw pictures like th is .    ( Decor Pad )   No, I said. I am not putting a stage in my four year old's room. I will turn her into a monster.  Then, for Christmas, I found a little working microphone on a stand on sale and thought....hmmm. I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I started cleaning out Avery's closets the other day and found a shower curtain rod and two curtains. I also found a tension rod I wasn't using and it fit just perfectly in her green bookshelf. So, with a little rearranging...   Ta-da! I got married on a theater stage, people. It...

When we first moved in, this house had a lot of space to fill. My formal living room has always been a hard one for me. I wish I could find another use for it because no one really ever goes in there to actually sit down as one should in a living room. But, I had to have some furniture in there just because the space was so large.   This is how it looked before we actually moved in.     There are six windows along that wall. There were these sheer curtains that I am sure had been specially made. We took those down immediately just because they looked so dated. This is what it looked like after we moved in.     Definitely an improvement!   Well, now, I finally got new curtains on that wall. I needed 7 panels and at least three long curtain rods, so needless to say, it was going to be an expensive endeavor. Well, this weekend, I found panels for $5.99 each and curtain rods for $7.99. I wouldn't say these are my dream curtains, but the...