Home Town Parade

Every year our town has a little home town Christmas Parade..

We bundle up and head down for a pancake breakfast from the local Kiwanas....

Then find a great place to sit back and have lots of fun

With Huge smiles on our faces!

We see fire trucks...

And golf carts....

And even silly women walking their golf bags!

We hang out with family....

And listen to the local high school marching band...

And see pretty horses...

And marching lawn mowers!!

There are people that honor our country...

And schools with awesome spirit!

(that is our school, and they won the spirit award!)

You can look across the way and see good friends...

While the people that protect us walk in front of us.

One of my favorites is always the local feed store...

They have these cute mini trucks....

That people drive around very silly like!!

Nathaniel can even see his best friend's sister (the one he has a HUGE crush on!)

and his buddies who play football.

There are funny bikes....

And new friends...

And simple, fun floats....

And adorable children!

We see funny bands called the "Krazy Kelptics"....

Who play tunes on dried kelp!

We even see our dear friends who give us candy...

And smiles!

There are little boy scouts...

And big boy scouts....

And even Santa!!

Do you have a hometown Christmas parade??

Do you make a habit to go see it??

Christmas is coming...

This was my Facebook status earlier today....

"my head hurts, my body aches, I am NOT getting sick, the kids won't do anything I ask, and my house is a MESS because I decided in the midst of everything else, it is time to decorate for Christmas today.... this could go one of two ways... Christmas could be canceled in our house, the decorations can all go back into storage in the garage and I can relax in bed with a nice adult beverage for the rest of the day OR a miracle will happen and my kids will suddenly become angels, the house will magically get pretty and clean and we will go pick out a cute CHEAP Christmas tree before heading out to Polar Express tonight. Wanna take guesses on which it will be???"

I must say, I am pretty impressed with how well it got pulled together! (of course mommy MIGHT have had a MINOR meltdown before it got pulled together, but who's telling?? Not me...)

First the outside lights on the house...

I started this yesterday, and it was going great until I plugged Nathaniel's deers in and then a string in beginning went out, and poof... no lights! Ugh! I was too annoyed to deal with it, so I walked away!

This morning, when I got home from church, I had an idea and went to work on fixing it. And I guess I did pretty well since it looks all pretty tonight!

Next up, window painting!

I bought a stencil kit at the Dollar Store and had window paint pens left over from when we owned the store and turned Audrey loose with them....

I think that the results came out great! Audrey did a great job and had a blast doing it!

Next up .... the tree!

We went to the tree place. I had $22 in my wallet, but there were no trees for $22. So we were heading back to the car, but the salesman stopped me to ask why. I told him that none of the trees were in out price range. He walked me around the lot and pointed out 3 trees that he would drop to what I had, and the kids picked this one from those three. Then we put it on the wheelchair lift to bring home! Made sense to me...

I think it looks great in the house, set up on a few milk crates with Nathaniel's Christmas train running around the base of it...

Maybe tomorrow I will get up the energy to actually decorate it!

Finally the house... 

We got the entertainment center changed over to Christmas decorations.

Audrey set up the Nativity scene.

Audrey was a BIG help decorating this year!

And finally Audrey and I set up our Christmas village!

There is a lot left to do, but I think we got a start on Christmas!

Then we were off to live the Polar Express!



Special Treat .... Nutcracker!

Tonight my children and I were offered tickets to go see the Nutcracker by the local Civic Ballet...

We ran into many dear friends while there. Some we have seen often, others we haven't seen in years.

The performance was wonderful, as always.  

Afterwards the dancers were available to meet and take pictures with. These girls were friends of Clara... the sassy friends... very fun to watch!

Audrey loved watching all of the "real ballerinas". She kept telling me "I want to dance that role when I get great like her." It is wonderful for her to have goals!

This young girl was darling and very talented!

This dear girl I have made many costumes for over the years... I can't believe how beautiful and talented she is!

Of course, we HAD to meet the Clara!

Our good friends Marcus and Chaela with an old friend, Virginia, whom my kids and I haven't seen in years.

But for Audrey, the highlight of the night was seeing her director and teacher in a great guest role!

No, that is NOT adoration that you see on her face... nope not much at all!

It was great fun to see Ryan perform. He is a very talented man. And it was great for Audrey to see him perform, I think it will teach her more respect for him, as she sees what he does, and that he practices what he preaches!

All in all it was a wonderful night!

Take THAT Spina Bifida!

Some things take YEARS of work....

But are TOTALLY worth it!

ESPECIALLY when the person doing it has been told that he will most likely NEVER walk due to his Spina Bifida!

Please take a few minutes and watch HOW AMAZING our God is!

And if this doesn't show you why I LOVE my God, and I LOVE PSC, nothing will!

The first year we surfed with PSC was 2009.

It had been a ROUGH summer with services, and disability related things. People who were supposed to be trained in interacting with children like mine dropped the ball big time, several times throughout the summer. Then there was this surfer guy at church trying to get me to bring Nathaniel to a surf camp for special needs kids. I  would see him and go the other way! In my mind he just DIDN'T GET my kid. There finally came a time that I caved, and I agreed to bring Nathaniel to camp to check it out.

And it was LOVE at first sight.

Nathaniel LOVED surfing.

I was in TEARS on the beach watching my child get supported the RIGHT way in doing something special.

And the girls LOVED participating with Nathaniel.

This is a video clip from the first day Nathaniel ever did Project Surf Camp in August of 2009.

Notice the shallow water.

Notice the GREAT volunteers.

Notice the HUGE smiles.

In 2010 Nathaniel COULDN'T wait to get back to surf camp. And I was praying for a way to make his surf camp dreams come true. This was the first summer I was a single mom, and money was TIGHT to say the least. But God had a plan....

 In June I got a phone call that would CHANGE our summer that year. John Taylor, the director of PSC was in a TIGHT spot. He had producers from NBC coming to film the camp the NEXT DAY, and the group that was going to be at the camp that day had to pull out for confidentiality reasons (it was a group of foster kids, and they couldn't be on national television!)  Now I KNOW special needs people, and I have connections in that community. With a few phone calls we were able to have a camp full of kids for John the next day!

Check out what happened that day HERE!

Thus began the 2010 Pepsi Refresh ride for our family with Project Surf Camp. It was a summer I could NEVER have dreamed giving my kids and we had a BLAST riding the wave with PSC. John was so grateful for my help getting kids to his big day that he let my kids surf often that summer. And we were always invited to NBC/Pepsi Refresh events.

Through countless adventures with PSC in the summer of 2010, Nathaniel became more confident, more daring and more in love with surfing! 

He even won his very own surf board!

This is 2 video clips from Nathaniel surfing in 2010

6.25.2010

Notice the independence.

Notice the confidence.

Notice the joy.

6.25.2010 With assistance....

Notice the dedicated support to bring about victory.

Notice the little boy who was not supposed to walk....

Surfing has become a passion for my kids. They LOVE it. In 2011, I was generously invited to join the board of directors for Project Surf Camp. As a board member, one perk was that my kids got to surf OFTEN in camp! We spent countless hours on the beach, me shooting pictures, Nat and Audrey surfing in camp and Brianna volunteering with other campers. It was a family event, and for those five weeks we lived PSC.

7.29.2011

Through the tears in this mommy's eyes there are not words to describe that clip.

My boy. Born with Spina Bifida. Getting himself to a standing position on a moving surf board unassisted.

PRICELESS!!!!

This is why I LOVE our PSC family.

And this is why you will ALWAYS see me doing anything in my power to keep the funding rolling in for PSC so other families can experience this joy, this astonishment and this unforgettable feel good!

Our God KNEW what he was doing when he place the dream of PSC in the hearts of many fabulous people and brought this dream to reality!