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Holiday Greetings to you!!! This truly is the best time of the year!!!
It’s also the busiest time of year but that’s
because we get together with family & friends to
celebrate the birth of Christ!!! It is by far our favorite holiday! Christmas brings many festivities!
Family gatherings!
The smells of warm cookies. I
love the smells of fresh cut pines that get cut and placed
around the house for décor. Gifts get purchased and wrapped. Lights get strung. We drive down the road admiring
the Christmas
lights and efforts that people do to make the season sparkle! Christmas music gets played in our home daily.
Christmas carols are sung. It’s like a huge celebration going on all
season long!!! At school. At church.
In town.
In the malls.
Everywhere!!! We LOVE to
celebrate the birth of Christ!!!
For it is because of His life that we can have
eternal life in heaven!
Our year has been a year of changes, challenges,
plus much excitement!!! I’ll share some
of our highlights.
Michael: Loves
his Savior. Employer at Lapps
Structures. Best daddy to our four
adorable children. Still plays
baseball. Loves golf, strong coffee,
thin crust pizza, chips and coke! Loves
to be with people! Enjoys date nights
with his wife! Mike also loves to
learn about investing and got to do some traveling while getting more
educated. We took a family trip to Ohio in
September for Mike to play in a ball tournament and he was finally, after many
years, able to help bring home the first place trophy! He also played for the Titans this summer and
they won the town league championship! His
baseball season went well! J One
of his dreams in life was to build a nice home for our family. That is in process right now!!! Mike has worked countless evenings and spent
abundance of hours working to get this project finished before Christmas. We are counting down the days for our ‘move
in’ date!!! The kids really can’t get
enough of their daddy’s time and attention!!!
They love him so much! He takes seriously
the blessings God gives to us and raising our children for the Lord is his
upmost life time goal!!! I think he is
the best daddy our children could ever have!!!
Lori: Mother
of four children. Loves her wonderful
husband. Loves Jesus! Loves to still go on dates with our
children’s daddy!!! Likes to shop. I like and try to be organized. Likes to blog on our family blog page. (Reallife-lori.blogspot.com) Coffee with cream, please. I like to listen to music! I love, love a routine. And, boy, was that a challenge for me this
year!!! I wouldn’t mind if my schedule
would mostly be the same week after week. But I was challenged because we had some
really big changes take place over the past year. One, we now attend Honeybrook Community
Church and loving it! Two, had baby
number 4!! Three, moved out of our home
and into a basement for remodeling to take place!!! I did not have a choice but to adjust and embrace
the changes. On July 1, we could not
wait for our baby number four to be delivered!
Austin Kendrick came into our lives as a healthy baby boy! Mike, the kids and family helped me out like
crazy with the house work while I was recovering from a C-section. And when Austin was only four weeks old, I
know … call us crazy, we moved out of our home and into dad-in-laws
basement. After living in the same old
house for fourteen years and everything, everything
needed to be packed up, moved to the basement, or be put into storage … made
lots of extra work for us. It was one of
the biggest jobs I ever had! We packed
and went through so many things before baby arrived to help keep it simpler when
we did actually move out. Many thanks to
family and friends who helped us through all this and blessed us with baby gifts
and meals during this time!!! We
adjusted well to living in the basement but we are all very, very ready to move
back home! Our family became very
familiar with the word “temporary”!!! I
can’t wait to live in our new home and be settled in for the New Year!!! I know it will take me all winter to put
everything in place and have a more organized home but that’s ok! That will be the fun part … moving back
home!!! With a teenager, and ten year
old son, a toddler and a six month old baby boy … this momma is lovingly
busy!!! J I am so blessed to have such a wonderful,
supportive husband and children! My goal
still remains that even though we will move into a bigger and new home to
remember things here on earth are temporary!
I strive to set my eyes on eternal goals while living with God’s
blessings here on earth!
Hadassah:
Volleyball player. Serves hard
and spikes down a good set. Does very
well in school. “A” student. Works hard for her good grades! Loves to be with friends! Loves to pin on Pinterest. Has self-discipline. Has a contagious laugh! Cares for her house dog Ginger. Loves to shop. Hadassah has been such a blessing to our
family this year and extra much when Austin was born! She was my ‘in home’ maid. J She helped me with so much around the house
while I recovered from my C-section. I
was so grateful! She also helped pack up
box after box when it was time to move out of our home so the remodeling could
begin. I was not ready for the school
term to begin because then there would go my biggest helper back to the
classrooms. But Hadassah loves school
and she was ready to see her friends and get back to school life. She is now taller than her mom. She wears a bigger shoe size than her
mom. J She’s growing up to be a young lady and we
appreciate her great attitude in life!
She cares about people and has a personal relationship with Jesus. Hadassah is really enjoying her 8th
grade year. She just came through a
wonderful volleyball season at school and starred in the sport! She was happy to receive the MVP player trophy! She is excited and a bit nervous when it
comes to thinking about high school.
Moving back home and having her own room and bathroom is something
Hadassah is really looking forward to!!!
She is also anticipating a class mission’s trip in the spring. It is so neat to see her grow and blossom for
the Lord!
Matthew: Family
boy. Loves to play baseball. Likes routines and a schedule too! Made lots of new friends at church this
year. Loves to be with his dad!!! Matthew is growing taller and is doing great
in school. He is really enjoying Mrs.
Felter as his new 5th grade teacher.
I am very impressed at how he has learned to take responsibility for his
homework. Matthew loves family
time. He teases his sisters (especially
Ashlyn) more than his mom can take at times but loves them with deep
affection! J Matthew
played baseball this past summer again and did wonderful on his team!!! He is a key player and is really good! He has talent and ball skills like his daddy
and throws catch every night with him during the summer months. He was also extremely grateful for another
brother!!! Austin loves when Matthew
fusses to him! I’m sure they will become
best friends! Matthew likes going to the
cabin with family and makes it a highlight!
He spent many nights helping Mike work at the house and cannot wait to
move back home and get back “to normal” living conditions. However, he does like having Mommy Lapp’s
cereal selections right upstairs and has enjoyed having a creek right nearby. Lots of crawfish were caught here this
summer! We love Matthew’s calmness in
life and the charm that he adds to our family!
Ashlyn: A sweet
four year old girl. Loves to play doll
house. Gardener. Is such a great big sister and entertainer to
Austin. Still plays with “Baby Kate”. J
Likes to watch Peppa Pig. Paints
her finger nails often. Loves her
cousins! Ashlyn is
our long, blond hair girl! She adds much
spice to our lives! She was very excited
to have Austin join our family this summer and is very helpful with caring for
him. She loves to help me with
gardening. We only have a small family
garden but we hope to make a small garden just for her. She absolutely loves to plant seeds and see
them grow! She is also the one who eats
the most vegetables! Her favorite
combination is cooked corn, sautéed mushrooms and cold black olives. J I love that she likes healthy foods! Ashlyn can’t wait to move back home and play
with her kitties. She likes to color,
play with play doe, make Austin laugh and loves to receive mail. She always looks to see if there is something
in the mail for her. J I
know she will be delighted to open up all the Christmas cards we will receive
this season! She’s so cute and
adorable! She prays. She sings.
She is such a blessing to our family!
Austin:
Six months old. Smiles
often. Loves to be entertained. Adores his daddy and siblings! Is a happy baby. His mom is his favorite care taker! J
He was born with blond hair and blue eyes. Austin arrived in our
arms on July 1st! We were all
excited to have another healthy baby boy join our family! He loves to be held. Loves to be kissed and cuddled. Likes to be fussed to and coos. His favorite is to lay on his back on the
living room floor and watch his toys.
Everything that he grabs goes into his mouth. He jumps and fusses in his Johnny jump. He can sit in the saucer and play with the
toys. He can now roll from belly to back
and back to belly. He is the happiest in
the morning and loves to wake up early.
Austin is such a blessing to us and we are so grateful God put him into
our lives! What a privilege it is to be
his parents and it is so much fun to watch him grow and move into new stages. Austin is a gift from the Lord!
With the Christmas season now upon us, let’s
remember to celebrate the birth of Christ!
To wrap Jesus around our lives just as Mary and Joseph “wrapped him in
swaddling clothes”. To sing with the
angels “glory to God in the highest”. Let’s
rejoice with the shepherds as they went with haste to see baby Jesus and
“glorified and praised God for all the things that they had heard and
seen”. To worship like the wise men did
“when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they
saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him:
and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh.”
The whole earth rejoiced when Jesus was born!!! The whole earth was saved when Jesus died for
our sins!
As a believer, let’s thank Jesus for the gift of
eternal life with him!!!
“For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Love,
The Lapp Family
We moved into our new home just in time to enjoy the holidays and celebrate Christ's birth!!! I feel like I've been going 100 miles an hour ever since Monday!!! It's all exciting and we are so blessed to be moved back home!!! (More on the whole moving thing later!!! Now, I must go and do some packing so we can have Christmas with my family!)
Merry Christmas!!!
