Kenney Christmas 2011

Here are a few photos from our Christmas at church, at home, in Marietta, OK, and in Muskogee, OK.  Enjoy.

Sebastian as a shepherd as the kids reenact the Christmas story as Dr. Bob Pearle reads from the Gospels.

Katherine as an angel on Christmas morning at Birchman Baptist Church as Dr. Bob Pearle reads the Christmas story from the gospels.

Katherine & Sebastian on Christmas morning at our home in Hurst, Texas.

Taylor, Wes, and Claudia Banks (Wes's Granny) in Marietta, OK.

Roy & Faye with Katherine & Sebastian at the Christmas celebration for Granny Banks (Claudia) at the nursing home in Marietta, OK, on December 23, 2011.

Granny Banks

Wes, Granny Banks, &  Billy

Kyle Martich, Sebastian & Katherine. 3 of Granny's great-grandkids.

Roy, Faye, Katherine, & Sebastian

Billy, Taylor, Katherine, & Sebastian

Wes, Roy, Faye, Taylor, Billy, Debra, Sebastian & Katherine

Things we did in December

~Celebrated the birth of Jesus
~Visited Pecan Manor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
~Attended a Keith & Kristen Getty concert on their  Joy, An Irish Christmas tour
~Attended North Richland Hills Baptist Church's  Christmas on the Boulevard
~Enjoyed a visit from friends from Oklahoma
~Celebrated the end of Wes' first semester in the Master of Divinity Program at SWBTS
~Attended Katherine's first Winter Piano Recital
~Celebrated Sebastian's 7th Birthday
~Attended the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas

Christmas on the Boulevard at North Richland Hills Baptist Church

On Saturday evening, December 10th, the kids and I with some friends attended North Richland Hills Baptist Church's Christmas on the Boulevard.

Sebastian's 7th Birthday Celebrations

Sebastian was blessed with the opportunity to celebrate this birthday with friends from Texas and Oklahoma.  He partied at Chuck E Cheese with some dear friends of the family (here); another celebration involving pizza with friends from Oklahoma at CiCi's in Paris, Texas; and then a small party with cake at our house before being surprised with dinner at Medieval Times.  

It was awesome to see Sebastian together with his friends, especially those he had not seen in several months.  A special 'Thank You' to our Oklahoma friends who came to meet us and surprise Sebastian & Katherine.

Micah, Sebastian, & Ryan

RaeliJo & Katherine

Wes, Debra, Sebastian, Dean, & Katherine *

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*copywrite 2000 Medieval Times

Enjoying Birchman Baptist Church

*Also posted at The Ramblings of a little Debbie

Wes, Katherine, Sebastian and I are enjoying our Birchman church family.  The kids have made friends and are involved in Sunday school,  RA's (Royal Ambassadors) and GA's (Girls in Action).  Sebastian is learning the RA Pledge and once he's memorized it he'll earn his vest.  The first night he attended the class was building race cars.  An older boy (who turned out to be in Katherine's Sunday school class) helped Sebastian build his race car. Sebastian was so excited when I picked him up that night.  The next week his class raced their cars.  He won his first race and lost the second, but he had a great time.

Katherine is enjoying her GA class too.  In October they studied how God tells us to help the poor.  She learned about the ministry of a WorldCrafts^SM artisan group in Southeast Asia. She also discovered how she can make a difference through WorldCrafts.  Her GA class hosted a WorldCrafts party in December where ladies of the church were invited to come and learn about the WorldCrafts vision and purchase handcrafted, fair-trade products from artisans spanning the globe. The girls provided the snacks. 

Wes and I love our respective Sunday school classes too.  God has used the ladies in my class to teach me so much already.  God is convicting, challenging, growing, and molding me.  Some weeks it's hard to hear, but oh what a blessing when I receive it!

Last night was Christmas family night at Birchman and it was such a blessing to see our pastor & his wife, Dr. Bob & Mrs. Deborah Pearle, and our Minister of Worship/Music & his wife, Philip and Angela Griffin, host the children up on the platform where they sang Christmas carols; Deborah Pearle read We Believe in Christmas by Karen Kingsbury; and  Dr. Pearle closed with having the children help him build the manger scene while telling them about Jesus' birth.  It was evident that the Pearle's and Griffin's adored these children and once again gave me another reason to be thankful God brought us to Birchman.

Sebastian is the kid in the blue sitting in front of the monitor.  Katherine is sitting next to him, but you can't see her.  She's in front of the girl in the red.

Winter Recital

Let the Celebration Begin!

 Sebastian got to have an early birthday celebration at Chuck E Cheese's this week with his friends Jim & Sara Barber.

That cute little boy will be 7 on December 21st.

Stationery card

Vintage Snapshots Christmas Card

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Aggieland

Soon after the 2011 Aggie football schedule was announced and tickets were available for purchase, Wes purchased four tickets for our family to attended the Texas A&M vs The University of Kansas football game as my birthday present this year.   We'd been excited about our first trip to Aggieland as a family for months.

Wes having lived in southeast Kansas while in high school is a KU fan, and I'm an A&M fan.  Neither of us attended either of these schools as we meet while attending a smaller private Christian University; however, we still hold true to our state schools of choice.

We arrived in College Station, Texas, on Thursday night, November 17, 2011.  * We may have extended our trip by a couple hours after realizing about 60 miles down the road that the tickets for the game were still in Hurst.  On Friday we took a campus walking tour and visited the campus bookstore where we purchased some more Aggie gear.  Game day Saturday was an awesome experience even with arriving half way through the first quarter because we didn't double check the game time.  Apparently it was moved from a 2:30 pm kickoff to an 11:00 am kickoff earlier in the week.  Oops!  We finished off our Aggieland visit on Sunday with a visit to the Bonfire Memorial then the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

As we headed north towards home the kids wanted to know when we'd be back to Aggieland, and I was already wishing we had tickets to the A&M vs Texas game on Thanksgivng.  It turned out I was able to secure us four tickets for the game on Thanksgiving and so we left our home around 11:00 am headed to College Station and Aggieland!   This time all four of us were decked out in our Aggie gear, and we arrived with plenty of time for all the fun pregame activities.

Here is a photo slideshow of our two visits to Aggieland.  Enjoy!

October Field Trips

 The month of October provided the opportunity for our family to take several fun field trips.  One day we visited the Fort Worth Zoo.

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures. 

Katherine taking advantage of a hands-on exhibit.

One trip that we always look forward to during fall is the Great State Fair of Texas.  We eat lots of good (& really unhealthy) food, walk A LOT, see many different exhibits, ride fair amusement rides, spend money tickets, enjoy time together, and leave incredibly tired.

The kids enjoy the hands-on farm exhibit where they get to pretend to be farmers.  They planted a garden.

 Harvested the fruit & vegetables.

                                         They fed the animals and milked the cows.

 They sold their products.

 After selling the products they spent their earned  money at the local store.

I could be guessing, but I believe the reason the kids enjoy this exhibit so much is receiving the free snack they purchase receive at the end.

 The whole family enjoys the feeding & petting some of the animals.  There were a few of animals we didn't want to touch or feed!

 Another day we visited the Dallas World Aquarium with other local homeschoolers.

 Our last field trip of the month has probably been our favorite.  We participated in the Dallas Stars Education Day.

We enjoyed watching the teams (Dallas Stars & LA Kings) practice and a two hour tour of the American Airlines Center (AAC), where we learned many facts about the AAC, hockey, and even some basketball. 

When we arrived home we couldn't wait to share all the information we'd learned with Wes.  Katherine completed the work page she'd received, and we spent the rest of the afternoon preparing to attend the game that night.

We had a great time and even made it on the big screen once!  We've decided we'd love to attend another Stars game sometime in the future. 

The attendance was a lower than normal as many of the metroplex sports fans where at home watching the Texas Rangers battle the St.Louis Cardinals in game six of World Series.

Unfortunately neither the Stars or the Texas Rangers came away with a win that night.