Tis the Season

Well, this is my most favorite time of the year, although my girls' birthdays are running a close second this year! This is our new tree! We opted to "invest" in a pre-lit artificial tree this year. For almost every year that we've been married, we just got a real tree. Ryan was the one that cared about having one. So, when he suggested this year that we get a pre-lit one, I was all for it! I found this beautiful one at Sam's! I LOVE lights....this one is 7.5 feet and has 1,500 lights! I LOVE it! It is so pretty!




This is our second tree. I hated it last year that we didn't have a tree that was in front of a window to be seen from the street, so we bought this skinny one for the toy room. This year we put the big one in the toy room and I put this one in the living room. I wanted to have one to enjoy in the living room too! I know, some of you think I'm weird! I would probably have a tree in every room (like my mom's friend Shelby!) if I had the money and time to do it all! But, instead, I'll stick to my 2 trees. I decided to make this a Razorback tree. There really isn't much razorback about it other than the red and white and a few Razorback ornaments. I like the tree with the light off because you can get the "effect" of the lights, but I LOVE my "tree topper" sparkles that I found at Hobby Lobby this week, so I had to put this one in so you could see those! It is probaby the "prettiest" tree I've done. Usually it is just our ornaments (which I LOVE) and no ribbon or sparkly ornaments. So, I really like this "dressy" tree! Go Hogs!
This is our beautiful house that Ryan did! I love lights on our house and he HATES HATES HATES heights, so I know it is not something he looks forward to doing. However, it has been his idea to do more every year. This year he did the peaks and not just the outline of our house! It looks incredible!!! It is hard to "capture" how pretty it is because it is hard to get the light to do right with those lights and the flash and all. But, I thought this was a good enough picture to brag! WAY TO GO, Babe!! I love it!

Twas the Month Before Christmas

Twas the month before Christmas

When all through our land,

Not a Christian was praying

Nor taking a stand.

Why the Politically Correct Police had taken away,

The reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing,

About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.

It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say

December 25th is just a " Holiday ".

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit.

Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!

CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod.

Something was changing, something quite odd!

Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa

In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda

As Targets were hanging their trees upside down

At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.

At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears

You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty

Are words that were used to intimidate me.

Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen

On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter

To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.

And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith

Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace.

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded

The reason for the season, stopped before it started.

So as you celebrate "Winter Break" under your "Dream Tree"

Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.

Choose your words carefully, choose what you say

Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday !

Family, family and more family!

We had a fun Thanksgiving with all of our families! We had a busy days though! Thursday we had lunch at Ryan's dad's house in Bella Vista. It was fun to see them and have a wonderful dinner that Pam made for all of us. Then we headed to Bentonville to eat with my family Thursday night. The girls had fun playing with Uncle Taylor and Amber, as they always do! Then we spent the night there and got up and headed to Avoca to have lunch at Ryan's mom's house. She fixed a great lunch for us! Then the RAZORBACK vs. LSU game was on and we watched almost all of the first half there. We left because it wasn't too exciting and never dreamed it would turn into the game that it did. So, we just listtened to it on the way home. We got home with about 11 min. to go in the 4th quarter. That was when all the fun really started anyway, so we didn't miss much. For those of you that aren't following the Hogs, #1 you should be #2, we were playing LSU and they were ranked #1 and it was a close game and we were up by 1 at halftime. The game went into 3 overtimes and we WON! 50-48! WOOOOOOO PIG!!

I hate it that I wasn't good about taking pictures all weekend. It was like I took less and less as the weekend went on. I guess you are "in the moment" at the first holiday event, but unfortunately I guess I just quit thinking about it. So, excuse the lack of pictures at each house! Sorry mom and Cynda, it wasn't on purpose! :) We had a ton of fun everywhere we were! It is fun to see family and have great food all at the same time!

Starting Early

Well, it is that time of year when you start baking for no real reason other than making things you like. So, Lindsey and I made turkey cookies the other day to take to all of our family dinners we were going to on Thanksgiving Day and Friday! They were a hit and Lindsey loved making them. She was very particular about the color of eyes she chose for each one! I love that we can do these fun things together! One day Courtney will be baking with us, but for now I'm sure she was having fun otherwise--as you can see from her own picture!

My Friend Ashley

My friend Ashley is in Russia right now visiting a little boy "Nik" that she and her husband Bart are potentially adopting. It has been so amazing to see God open doors and work in His timing. It was literally only about 2 months ago that she even told me that they were looking into this. That is how fast God has worked. Some of the long story is this: They wanted a boy or girl (they have 2 girls now) who was between one and two. They were getting all of their paperwork done and things were moving along. Ashley was frustrated with some papers not getting mailed to Russia from their agency that was slowing the process some.

However, 3 weeks ago she got an e-mail with a list of kids on the "waiting list" which just means that they had been rejected by another family, from my understanding all for medical reasons. One little boy (Nik) stood out to Ashley, but she didn't think much about it. He only has one kidney. Thinking that Bart wouldn't want to pursue this boy, she didn't say much but sometime soon after she mentioned it to him and he was fine with looking more into it. Ashley did some research of her own and found out that 1 out of 750 babies born, are born with only one kidney. She contacted her agency for more information on this little boy and asked what they would need to do if they might be interested. From there the agency got his medical records for Ashley and Bart to take to a doctor here and have him look them over. So, they did that and the doctor said that from what he could tell this little boy looked like a growing, healthy child! The one kidney thing was not a big deal to him as far as medical concerns. The doctor told them that he may live his whole life and not have any issues from it, or it may come up down the road, there is no way to know. He looked at them and said, "It wouldn't be a reason not to adopt him." He looked at their two girls and said, "I think he'd make a great little brother!" So, Ashely was excited and called their agency about what to do next. They said they'd start the paperwork of them pursuing Nik. Sure enough, last week her agency called and asked if they could leave for Russia in 10 days. There was a lot to do in those 10 days, but if it was supposed to work out, God could do it. Ashley said that she got nervous and started questioning things. One of the BIG things that had to be done was their visas for Russia. That next Monday was veterans day, so when they mailed their things to Washington DC they weren't even sure if they would get things back in time. So, Ashley just thought, "Ok, if we don't get them then maybe that is a sign." They had their visas Tuesday morning! One of the neat confirmation stories!

So, they are in Russia for the week. I got an e-mail from her this morning with pictures of her holding him and Bart holding him. The one where Ashley is holding him, Nik is smiling and it is just precious. I looked at it and tears rolled down my face! This is a lucky little boy! Bart and Ashley love the Lord and are just doing exactly what God called them to do! I am amazed to see the love that Ashley has for this little boy already. I'm sure Bart is the same way, but I haven't seen him or talked to him about it. It is neat for me to think that in God's big plan, He "saved" Nik for Bart and Ashley!

God is good! When you read this, please pray for them and for Nik. They will get to see him everyday this week for a little while, but will have to leave him there on Sat. when they come home. It is supposed to take 2-4 months for the offical paperwork to go through and all, so it will be that long before they can go back to bring him home. Even before they left, a lot of conversations happened about how hard it would be to leave him. I know that it will be difficult for Ashley and Bart to leave what they believe to be their little boy there, but God will, just as he has through this entire process, give them a peace!

TU TU Cute!

Well, when Courtney had some pictures at Legacy House made, their website was down. Of course they were cute. Then when it was up and working, they didn't have the pictures up from then. Anyway, I got it figured out....they had them under the wrong name. So, here are some pictures from almost 3 months ago, but they are cute!

http://www.legacyhousephotography.com/

view proofs
in the search option type Scogins (yes, with the s on the end)
password: scogin11

Hope you can find them! They are cute, most of them. If you have a hard time, tell me!

Anyway, they are pretty cute. She wasn't very happy, but I liked a few of them.

Who do I look like?

One is FUN!

Courtney was trying to sit in this box that she had taken all of the toys out of. However, as I was taking the picture she fell, so it made for an even better "moment" as a one year old. Life is so hard!




Tonight I found her in the toy room with every purse and "pretty" aka necklace and bracelet out of the box. She LOVES to have a purse or even her diaper bag to carry! I just thought Lindsey was my girly girl! Which she still very much is, so it will be funny to see how they grow up in that area!




This was Courtney when she was finished! She was so frustrated because she could hardly walk as she was so tangled up in her "pretties!"

Cold Front

How cute is this face? Thankfully the top was on these bubbles, or at least A top! I just thought she looked so cute in her hat that I had to take a picture!

Our Athlete!

Is this a sight or what? She had a dress on, then wanted her sparkly shoes on. Not sure why the dress was off at this point, but when you are at home and going no where, does it matter if you are topless at 3? Not here at our house! Then she wanted to hit the ball, which she doesn't do too badly at our friends' house that has a longer bat. She hits it about half of the time. She's getting bat and ball for Christmas to play with. Anyway, I just thought this "action shot" was too funny not to share!

Project: Red Kitchen

Ok, this first one is sort of blurry, but I was having a hard time with the flash and the window and the light and all. So, I'm sort of frustrated with the camera. Anyway, I LOVE my red kitchen though. Lindsey keeps saying, "This is the best red kitchen, Mom!" So grown up! Anyway, just thought I'd share what we did at our house before we went to the tailgating party at Taylor's house!

Tailgating with Taylor

My brother, Taylor, just moved to a different house in Fayetteville and it is RIGHT by Razorback stadium! So, he let us park there for free, instead of the $20 they charge other people. We went up with our friends Gary Don and Tracy. He is our Sunday School teacher and started working at Cintas about a month ago. Their daughter is Paige, Lindsey's good friend. So, we rode up together and sat in the Cintas tickets and had fun.

We decided to tailgate with just a simple menu of hot dogs and chips. The funny story about that is that we borrowed one of those tiny grills from a friend here in Greenwood and she had washed the grate for it and forgot to put it back in. So when Gary Don went to start the fire, we had to figure something out. Ryan was smart and thought of Taylor's oven rack, so that is what we used! It worked perfect!

Amber was there and we got to talk a lot. She has the bean bag game called "Bago." We had played it but not with such official boards! Way to go Amber! It was fun. Ryan and his brother Kyle played and didn't lose for like 8 games or something. So Gary Don and I decided we'd play them. I was horrible, Gary Don had scored all of our points. We needed 6 to win (which meant 2 bags in the hole) and I hadn't even thrown but like 1 bag ON the board much less in the hole! So, one went in, missed the board with the next and then the next one went in the hole too! So, Gary Don and I beat the unbeaten "Scogin Brothers." It was sweet!! Especially since I was the one that threw the winning points, even though I had not thrown any of the other points! Way to go Gary Don!
This is Taylor's back yard, very nice with a lot of trees and stuff! That is Gary Don, Ryan, Kyle and Tracy.

Thanks Taylor for the free parking! Thanks Amber for the fun Bago game! We'll have to do it more often next year!

Courtney's Last "baby club" Pictures

Well, Courtney isn't a member of the "baby club" at Legacy House photography anymore! She is officially done with our "year of pictures" that I did with both girls there. I was really done at her one year pictures because I put them in a frame all together...great idea mom, even if you didn't have professional pictures done each month you could still do it! Anyway, we skipped a few months so she just finished last week. It was to the point that I wasn't sure what to do, so I just did a fall picture. However, she did not want to cooperate which I think is why I felt "done" with it. She either cries (where one studio is) or she walks away at the other one. So, it is frustrating each time. Where as Lindsey, my laid back do whatever (at least almost ALL of the time at that age, Courtney's age and younger!) would just sit and smile or stand where we told her and not move, you know, the calm child you have! I'm just learning how to parent differently at times. Here's the link: http://www.legacyhousephotography.com/ Then you have to click on Legacy Rogers, view proofs and then you can search for her by just typing in Scogin on that page. It is different than the times before. It will bring up a few of our sessions (not sure why it isn't all of them, I'm checking on it actually) and you want the one with the Nov. 1 date. The password is scogin12.

Trick or Treat?

Running in to the fall festival, but leaving a few min. later. Lindsey was overwhelmed with all the kids and games. We stood in line and she wouldn't even HOLD the fishing pole. So, we asked her if she wanted to just go home or whatever and she said yes. We trick or treated at a couple of friends' houses that live by us, and came home to pass out candy. She loved that! However, she did NOT love me taking her picture, as you can see from this picture. This is one of about TEN that I tried to take. None of them are her smiling and looking at the camera.