Build-up to the holidays


Just so y'all didn't have to look at a forlorn Kenny until I got around to posting the post-Christmas pictures, here's a few we took of the events leading up to the holidays.  In the picture above, we had Kenny's birthday party the first Friday in December.  You can see that this was after he had broke his ankle--note the crutch by him.  In addition, now that it was officially December, I relented on the holiday activities, so that included cookie decorating.  Below, Stephen gives decorating his all:


Beth also concentrated hard:


Kenny and our neighbor friend Jessica also made a number of colorful cookies:


Last week, Kenny's fourth grade class went to the Arkansas state capitol to learn how the government works.  Here is the capitol building itself:


Hope and Stephen accompanied our still hobbling boy on this trip to help Kenny get around and to help supervise a bunch of excitable 10-year-olds.  Below is a sculpture dedicated to the Little Rock Nine on the capitol grounds:


The Little Rock Nine were 9 courageous African-American students who braved the anger and insults of  their white counterparts in an attempt to get the Little Rock school system to desegregate in the late 1950s.  Ultimately, their actions were successful, but it took intervention by President Eisenhower and the 101st Airborne to get the process moving.  Kenny's class (and a bunch of other ones) got to meet the current Governor Mike Beebe and get their picture taken with him:


(The governor is the tall guy in the middle, of course, and Kenny and his crutches are on the end).  They also got tours of the rest of the capitol building, including one of the legislature chambers:


In the capitol rotunda, they had a number of choir groups from various schools in the state singing holiday songs:


Well, that brings us to the upcoming holiday season, and we hope to see as many of you as we can.  If we miss you, here is a classic Stephen photo for y'all:


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