camera MIA...and updates

well, i'd have posted more by now...if i knew where our camera was!! we've done so much cleaning and organizing since we've gotten home from christmas to get the house ready to sell, that i am pretty sure that it is either in our house or storage unit...somewhere!!!! (just in case, family: if you happen to see it at your house, let us know, we may have left it there over the holidays??)

i know i can post without pictures, but i just feel like i don't know what to say unless i have a picture to write about! i guess i need to start practicing!

house update: we had our 1st, 2nd and 3rd showings on sunday!! we've had positive feedback from 2 of them!! wow. but haven't heard anything else since tuesday. it's doubtful with the pending 'potent' winter storm (as our local news is calling it) that we'll have any showings this weekend...we hope not anyway! :) if all goes well, we'll be bundling the kiddos up and heading outside to make a snowman!!

matt's job: he enjoy's the work, just not being out of town. which is more than we anticipated. we know it's been a hard year for farmers because of all the rain, which is what has caused them (matt and co-worker) to travel more... they have to reinspect (2 and 3 times) grain bins (located from SC to NC to VA to GA!!) for moisture content. (at least, that is what i understand...i'll be correcting this later if i am wrong!! ;) ). next week he travels to Iowa for training!! i think he's kind of looking forward to this. he's a farm boy at heart, and i think that's about all they have there!! (hehe! i'm sure there's more...right?) pray for safe travels!

our situation: waiting patiently to see what the Lord has in store for us! :) also, we are more than likely going to have to purchase a vehicle in the next couple of weeks...ugh. matt can only use his truck for commuting this far for his first 2 months...i am pretty sure we aren't going to be relocated by valentine's day. we basically have the 4runner paid off. oh, how i was hoping to see what it would be like to have no car payment!!!

well, i guess i'll leave it with this for now...until i can think of something else to talk about! ha! ;)

snack at a special table

at nana and papa's, eating a snack and watching some fun pbs show we don't get at our house.

i just thought this was so cute of wyatt and claire. the little table that they are sitting at used to be a table that their auntie ashley sat at when she was a little girl...maybe even their daddy!

Christmas morn!

claire and wyatt opening the goodies in their stockings!

this morning we slept till the kids woke us up. wyatt knows that santa came last night, but he's so crazy acting sometimes, that he was pretending he didn't see anything different under the tree. once he came around we open presents, ate cinnamon rolls and then finished packing everything up for our trip to papa and nana's house (matt's parents).

this boy loves some mater! :) he was actually excited to get clothes!!

i am sure that she has no clue what this is (it's a game), but she's good at saying "cheese"! ;)

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve!

our christmas tree!!
(side note: i promise that our wall's are not really the color portrayed in this picture.)

yay! it's christmas eve!! what a fun time, and kids just add to the fun! we are really trying to start some family traditions now, esp. now that wyatt is old enough to remember things. one thing we are hoping to do is be home christmas eve so that we can be home christmas morning as a family. it's a little different for us, because we are used to being at one of our families by now, but we know it's good to have our own traditions too. vati and mutti (grandpa and grandma) were able to come and spend this evening with us too, which added to the fun! especially when we all crammed into the 4runner for one of our other traditions: riding around to look at christmas lights. it was funny because vati was literally crammed in the back seat between the cars eats...i think his shoulders were up to his ears the entire time. and then poor matt, who's fighting off pneumonia, was all the way in the back trying to stay warm. needless to say, it wasn't the longest tour of lights!

wyatt and claire: "thank you so much great grammy and great grandpa eakright for our cards and walmart gift cards...mommy says it will probably go towards clothes or crafty thing! yay!"

then it was present time!! wyatt and claire opened up the gifts from us and family and friends.

more presents?? didn't i just do this a couple of days ago??

daddy, can you open this?
(couldn't tell you how many times we heard this question!)

claire and wyatt: thank you rachel and madelyn for these fun games!
(mama is just as excited...if not more!) can't wait to play these games!

look! a "pack pack" with my name on it!!

2nd Annual Cookies with Frosty!

the "cookies" part of the event! look at the focus!
(pictured left to right: oliver, wyatt, evan, claire)

last christmas we apparently started a fun tradition with our close friends (or should i say "extended family" because that's what they really feel like to us!) the thomas': making christmas/snowman cookies and watching "frosty the snow man". we are so glad that this has become a tradition, but we have to give oliver the credit for this. a couple of weeks ago oliver asked carmen (his mom) when we were going to get together to decorate cookies and watch frosty! he remembered doing it last year!! ...he's 3 now, so we were just so surprised and excited that he remembered it and wanted to do it again. so we did! ...i will have to say that a couple aspects of last years "cookies with frosty" didn't make it into the equation this year (starbucks run for the mama and cigars on the porch for the papas...in fact the papas missed out all together this year...sorry guys! :( we did the best we could do!) , but i have high hopes for the coming years! thanks sooo much oliver for making this a renfrow/thomas tradition! :) we love you guys!

claire with her snowman-head-cookie creation!


evan: can we pleeeease eat them now??

oliver's scoping out the competition...not that they are judged or anything...but that's an idea for the future!

which one should i eat first?

do i have anything in my teeth?

and finally...it's time to watch frosty!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Claire!

how can it be?? my baby is officially not a baby any more!!
she's a toddler! yikes! ;)
but what a fun and silly toddler she is!

happy birthday sweet claire bear!!
you are such a blessing to us and we thank the Lord for you always!
we love you soooo much!

how old are you again??

Christmas card photo shoot...take 2!

again, the ones that didn't make it to the card (like all the pictures from the first photo shoot!)! since i still haven't had time to do the christmas card, and these outfits were specifically made for them for christmas outfits (by matt's mom: she made claire's dress and put the snowflake on wyatt's sweater vest!!! which we love both!! thank you, thank you, thank you! i know that you worked on these every spare second that you had (which i am sure where hard to find!), and they turned out beautifully!!) i decided to go for another photo shoot!! the kids had a little less patience with me this time, but we made it with a little incentive!

i really liked this one, but it didn't fit the space on the christmas card,
which i had already designed. oh well. i do like the one i went with.

"cheese"

singing! (i was trying anything to keep them interested!)

:) claire: "a stucker" :)
(the incentive!)

work-on-the-house weekend

what a great work-on-the-house weekend we had! jason, andrea, eli and matt's mom all came for the weekend to help us out...thank you guys soooo much! here are some pictures of the weekend...you will see that it wasn't all work...especially for the little ones!! :)

the 3 munchkins watching rudlolph the red-nosed reindeer!

ah, i've been spotted!!

jay, andrea and eli knew that they wouldn't get to see claire on her birthday,
so they brought a gift for her to open while they were there. so sweet. :)

me and the almost 2 year old! yikes.

looking at her new book with daddy.

the closest picture of working that i could find,
but the reason for that is we were all so busy working,
we didn't think to take pictures! ;)
i am pretty sure that wyatt took this picture!

i know that wyatt took this cute picture! smile nana! ;)

work day

today was our first day of working on the house to get it ready to sell...it's gonna take a few more work days/weekends! mutti and vati came today, thanks for all of your help!!

we're moving!!!

matt accepted a job offer today!! he will be working for Pioneer (seed company), at their plant in laurinburg. we don't know when exactly, but we will be moving to that area. right now we are looking at the southern pines / pinehurst area. it is bittersweet, but we feel it is what God's plan is for us right now. we are truly excited about the adventure and what the Lord is going to teach us through all of this, but we are sad to move a little farther from both of our families, and leave our church, church family and neighbors that we love. thankfully it's not too far away, and we'll be able to visit! ;) and southern pine / pinehurst looks like a fun place to visit...and we LOVE company!!! :)

christmas card photo shoot...

...the ones NOT used! :) some for obvious reasons!

things started out looking good!

these two love to watch a show, and i knew it was the only way...

...i could get claire to sit still long enough for me to get her hair as close to the way i wanted it as possible!


then, the "fun" began...

it did start out fun anyway!

it just didn't last!

then a little more fun!

then finally, a decent pic of the two together!! yay!


here is wyatt's best "blooper" and his best photo!

and claire's best "blooper" (she didn't have any pouty single shots) and her best photo!

Congrats Jimmy and Stephanie!

left to right/back row: ben and carmen thomas, kelli and bobby billingsley, bryan and courtney (in front of bryan) johnson, and of course cute matthew.
front row: chris and jamie murray, beautiful bride stephanie and handsome groom jimmy baughan, and then me!

the only thing that could make this picture better, would be if dan and laura were in it!
(dan had a test he had to take that day. bummer!)

this weekend we attended jimmy and stephanie's wedding. this was the final wedding of matt's college buddies!! it was a blessing to see these too become husband and wife and be together with great friends.

this was from the night before at jimmy and stephanie's rehearsal dinner. i thought it was such a great picture, that i needed to share it! look at that cool cake!! :)

cute bubs!

just a great photo of our lil bubs! :)

safety first

even office work can be dangerous...be prepared!

sweet sleeper

just thought that claire looked so cute with her leg propped up on the bumper! :)

reading time