Chocolate breakfast

the early morning chocolate lovers!!

Kate - sampling her first bite

the tray of treats that we brought home for Doug and Ben

White chocolate, m&m "scrambled eggs" and bacon

Kate and I decided that since we both LOVE chocolate....what better way than to kick off our day at eth chocolate breakfast.  We arrived between 5-5:30, sampled everything chocolate that we could imagine, and then put our name in the drawing to win a $1000 gift card to Hy-vee.  We had the best time!! My favorite was definitely the chocolate covered bacon -- YUMMY!!!
Then to make it even better, our name was drawn and announced on the radio a week later as one of the winners of the $1000..so FUN!!! We were shocked to say the least (-;  Feeling blessed....

Third Grade bible class

Tonight was such a special evening.....we were blessed to be able to present Ben with his Bible at church.  During the ceremony, they lead us in reciting this prayer to our kids and I just loved the words. They really ring true to the fact that God's word is alive in all of us and we want Ben to develop a strong relationship with his AMAZING heavenly Father.  

We give you this Bible, It is God’s Word

It is the Truth, Read it and study it

It will teach you about Jesus

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life

He is your Savior and Lord, He will teach you how to live

Never forget these two things, We love you and God loves you. 

Amen

New Years Eve

 balloon drop

 Having a fun evening with the Paulson family

our photo booth pics

Doug and I used to go out and have no problem staying up until the wee hours of the night......but over the last few years, we have both become very fond of our sleep (-;   We decided to spend the evening with friends eating pizza and then ringing in the New Year with all of the kids at our church party with inflatables, scavenger hunts, raffle drawings, cake/pop walks, crafts, and then a balloon drop & New Year count down with New York City (Eastern time zone) 11:00pm...perfect for us "old people" early bed timers!  We had a great time with wonderful friends, plenty of laughs and many well wishes for an amazing 2014 -- can't wait to see what God has in store for the Cairney's!!! 

Gramma's clocks

 

 Jensen boy clocks - Drew, Joe & Jack

 Cairney West -- Nick &  Zach

Pella Cairney's -- Grant, Elly, and Cassie

Each year Gramma Cairney blesses all of her grandchildren with an amazing gift that she has created. This year it was all hand crafted clocks and they are gorgeous!  I just loved looking at all of the details that make them all unique and perfect for each one of them-- well done Celie, these are amazing and a gift that they will cherish always!

Family photos

 Cairney West -- Zach, Brian, Suzy and Nick

Jensen's - Jeff, Jack, Drew, Joey and Lynne

 Pella Cairney's - Grant, Cassie, Dawn, Elly and Greg

 Uncle Jim

Papa and Gramma and all the kiddo's

Cairney Family Christmas

 Lynne, Celie, and Suz -- making a toast of holiday cheer (or maybe a toast of good health for me (-; )

 Zach and Nick -- brotherly challenging game of chess

 Ben and his clock (personally made by Gramma Cairney) -- amazing!

 excited about his new basketball jersey

 Kate's amazing new clock and very cool new sweatshirt!

 One of my favorite weekends of the year was greeted with illness from my point this year.  I was sick for our Cairney Christmas celebration and it was a total BUMMER!!  I felt horrible, so I chose to stay at home, but everyone had such a great time. Delicious food/drink,  fun board games, card games and of course the official kid pyramid was complete one again this year!  Thanks to you all for blessing us with gifts this year and more importantly, for being such an AMAZING family!  I love you all.....

Christmas Eve

 Ben....all ready for Silent Night after hearing an amazing message about "Coming Home" for Christmas Eve church...seeing all of these candles and singing tears me up each and every year.  I guess I am just overjoyed with the happiness of celebrating Christ's birth and the amazing gift that it is for me and all who believe!

 all dressed up for church....Happy Birthday Jesus!

 Ben was so excited about this new jersey.  He even did a happy dance all around the house....while yelling YEAH! (-;

 Kate was equally excited about her new sweat pants

Doug got some very cool new shirts and I LOVE my new Santa apron!  It was put to use right away on Christmas Eve while preparing the peanut butter cakes for our candle light dinner.

We were very blessed this Christmas season.  I loved spending the day together, attending Christmas Eve church services, greeting people at church attending other services (I loved doing this with the kids...they were so cute "Hi, Merry Christmas....welcome to HOPE!" )...priceless.....and then of course, our evening capped off with pancakes at Perkins, driving around looking at Christmas lights and delivering a few of our cookie trays.  Merry Christmas to you all!!!