December

Sea World Christmas

 

Austin Ballet Nutcracker and The Cheesecake Factory with Kara and Kaitlyn Vaught and Kirsten and Madalyn Northrup.

We got VIP parking for the Nutcracker!

Waiting for Santa to come to Temple on the BNSF Train. 

Justin found this dead tarantula while the girls were at school. He placed it in theuir bathroom. Yes, there were screams.

Sweet Loden fell asleep by the tree,

Gingerbread houses

 

 Angel decor at church one Sunday,

Family picture

 Milam's early Christmas present.

 The Bronco fans together.

Santa's treats.

 Milam's First Christmas

Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Hilton

 Justin, Blacker, Milam and me walked down to the lake Christmas day.

Christmas from GranNola and Papa.

Random Blogging Part III

Our infant son has been sleeping in the bathroom.
We got rid of all of our baby stuff after Loden outgrew it so we don't have a crib or a lot of other things that aren't as necessary as they once were.  Milam developed a cold a couple of weeks ago, aggravated at night with a dry cough since the weather turned cool enough for the heater to come on at night and dry out the air.  We also don't have a humidifier anymore.  So we filled the crockpot with water and a glob of vaporub and put it in our bathroom (to contain the moisturized air) and stuck him in there and closed the door.  Seems to be working okay.  Kid #6 is a whole new experience.

Elton John is more country than country radio.
There is more fiddle and steel guitar and more meaningful lyrics in the average Elton John song than there is on today's country radio station, so I've been listening to the local classic hits station in the car.  Thankful for Pandora. Come on Nashville, you can do better than this.  I don't care how queer he is, I like most of Elton's stuff, but please King George, please don't quit.  America needs you right now.

A frequent conversational exchange:
You have SIX kids?!  How do you do it?
I have a great wife.

A Difficult Conversation
I went upstairs to tuck the girls into bed last night.  I went to Georgia's bed first and she looked me dead in the eye and asked, "Daddy, what does f*ck mean?"  I knew I'd have to have this talk with the girls eventually, but wasn't expecting to have it last night, and wasn't expecting to have it with all three girls at once.  I hope I got it right.  I'm sure it's one we'll have to have a few more times. Made me sad for them and for our culture that is so broken.

Thankfulness
As 2014 draws to a close and with the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons upon us, I find myself  reflecting on the year and my life thus far and am overcome with thankfulness.  I know that I've been blessed beyond mere contentedness. And I DO count it as blessing.  And responsibility.  I could demur and say its's not really blessing from God and that it's not fair that I have while others have not as seems to be the popular view of things these days, even in the church. But that's not what I see in the scriptures.  I don't know why the Lord has blessed me with so much, and I do know that it could all be taken from me tomorrow. I believe what Jesus said when he declared that "from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more shall be asked."  I am overwhelmed with blessing and responsibility.  Lord, give me strength to be up to it one day at a time.

November review

We were blessed this month to see all three sets of grandparents. I don't have pictures of all of them, but it was a great month.  

 Happy Thanksgiving. It was in the 70 degrees. Perfect day of food, family, bike rides and Milam's first Thanksgiving.

 Portales, NM trip for Justin's Grandma and her 90th Bd Party. 

 *Mom and Steve came over to Portales for lunch.


In Lubbock overnight. Time with friends and cousin.

Three months old. He smiles. He "talks" alot. He's snuggly. Likes to be held. Had his first cold.

The big boys wore their Bob Marr belts to Wanetta Dillingham's funeral.

Highlighter Indian.

Our first 4H meeting. The kids sewed bean bags.

 My mom stayed with the big kids while M and mommy went on the ladies retreat.

Freestyle Blogging

Many thanks to my bride for taking up the slack and posting lots of captioned pictures from the last few months while I've been off not blogging somewhere.
Looks like I'm going to be stuck in this hotel all day so I decided it would be a good day for some freestyle blogging.

Just turned on the TV and the talking heads are reviewing the election results and giving their opinions on why people voted the way they did.  I don't know about the rest of the country, but here are a few reasons I didn't/don't vote for democrats:

*I'm allergic to whining.
*The message I hear from them is: You aren't smart enough to take care of yourself, you need us to take care of you.  You need us to take care of your money, your health, and your children because you are incompetent.
*They encourage people to see themselves as victims rather than over comers.  
*They're always declaring, "That's not fair!"  (My children get a bar of soap in their mouths when they say that at our house.)
*As a white male I'm told by democrats that it's probably my fault, no matter what it is.  I'm probably a racist suffering from homophobia whether I realize it or not.  Oh, and I probably beat my wife and neglect my kids.
*I've read the book of Proverbs and can recognize the difference between wisdom and foolishness.

If a republicans are going to win the presidency in 2016, they've got to put up a better candidate than McCain or Romney.  Give the people someone to vote for rather than just some stiff in a suit who's not a democrat.  I like Ted Cruz, but I think he'd be more effective in the senate than the White House.  Maybe Scott Walker 2016?  Please don't give us Jeb Bush.

Okay.  That's all for politics.

Two nights ago, 30 minutes after the girls had gone to bed, I went back upstairs to tell them to be quiet and get to sleep.  This is not unusual. 30 minutes later I had to go up again and found all three of them sitting on one bed with the lamp on reading and talking.  I was frustrated and didn't know what to say, so I said nothing, and shut the door.  Yesterday morning I woke them up by turning on all the lights, yanking the covers off, and singing The Song That Never Ends about 20 times through.  Loudly while dancing.  When they were all awake and staring at me with really Dad? eyes I gave them the speech about making better decisions and getting enough rest for school.  What I didn't tell them was how happy it makes me to have three daughters that love to stay up late talking to one another.  They often fuss and fight during the day, but bedtime is that magic hour when they are sisters and best friends and share their silliness, fears, and dreams with each other.

I'm struggling with remembering to only hit the spacebar once after a period. I read an article the other day that said you're only supposed to use one space and that only old-fashioned idiots who learned to type on typewriters use two spaces. Maybe my use of two spaces after periods is why
Time of the Preacher has yet to go viral even after being on the internets for 7+ years.

Milam is finally smiling.  He has a lot to smile about.  All he can eat buffet.  Lots of brothers and sisters that love him.

West and Loden are great big brothers.  Interesting to watch how each of the kids fall into their own role in the household dynamic.

Leslie is awesome.  I genuinely enjoy being married to her.  Even if I were a wife-beater she never gives me a reason.  I told the girls the other day that I hope they can land husbands that love them as much as I love their mama.  They act embarrassed when I say stuff like that, but in a world of shifting sand I know that they feel secure in the anchor of home and a mom and dad that love them and love each other.