Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Jennifer Knapp Karaoke??!!?! Yes PLEASE!!!

I've been in search of awesome, free karaoke on youtube.com in preparation for our upcoming New Year's party.......and I found Jennifer Knapp karaoke! This rocks!!! Literally!!



Also, this prompted me to type into google "what happened to Jennifer Knapp" and the results that popped up tell me that she's back!!! Listen to her new songs on her official website, follow her on twitter, and check out her tour schedule!

I'm pumped!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15:13

Wishing you and your family hope, joy and peace in 2010!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Twerson?!

Twerson definition: Twitter person, member, user.
Synonym: Tweeple




I'm officially a tweeter/twerson!! I am learning so much new twitter language - it's overwhelming!

I started my account on twitter so I would get real-time health updates to my phone from @MattChandler74 and @villagechurchtx but have lately realized the wonderful benefits of this thing called twitter!

First of all, it's just plain fun! It's an awesome way to keep in touch! And for lazy bloggers like me, it keeps people updated without having to sit down at the computer and write a blog entry!

So I invite you to follow me on Twitter (@allipenn or http://twitter.com/allipenn) and join in on the fun! Or at least take a look at my recent tweets on the right side of this blog!

Wishing you a MERRY and BRIGHT day before Christmas Eve!!!!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas Pictures

My brother's longtime girlfriend Elyse is incredibly talented at photography, and she took our Christmas pictures last weekend.

I will not reveal our official Christmas picture until later, but here are a few of my favorites.






I especially love the two of Kosmo by himself - yawning and one where he has a wrinkled lip - such a silly boy! He's my little Santa Kos!!!



Madeline is worn out from all the picture taking!



Here is a picture of our house at night....I LOVE Christmas lights!!! Sweet Michael got up on the roof this year and put lights on the house.


I hope you're enjoying this Christmas season as much as we are!

Beau Hughes preached last Sunday at The Village Church on the Hope of Advent. Listen here. We have hope that we will be with Christ forever, and He will make all things new!

This Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Advent and the candle represents Peace. The fourth candle reminds us that Jesus comes to bring Peace to both the world and to people's hearts. Without Christ there is no peace in this world.

“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 Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6-7

Peace to you and your family this Christmas.....

The Lewis' are back in town!!!!!!!

My friend, Chelsi, her hubby, Austin and sweet baby girl, Brierley just moved back to DFW from Florida!! To say that I'm excited is such an understatement!!

We welcomed her back with a little party. See her blog for pictures and details of the day!

I so love my friends from high school!

Here is a favorite picture of Chelsi and me in high school. :)

Friday, October 30, 2009

Welcome to the world, Tanner James!!

Tanner - this message is for you:
When I walked into your parents house 2 days after your arrival and saw more than 15 family members standing around you in adoration, I had many thoughts....
-Yes, there a LOT of us!!!
-Yes, we will love you like this and completely adore you forever!
-Yes, that can be a little smothering sometimes, but I will say you probably will want to get used to it now rather than later, because that's the way it's going to be when you have a big family on both sides who cannot get enough of your cuteness and sweetness!!

Just remember it's all because we love you. :)

Here's a great picture of Tanner and his mom (looking absolutely beautiful I might add)!


I really was in shock when I realized how many people were at Heather and Wade's house on their first day home from the hospital!! They took it in amazing stride too. Michael and I came to visit them and baby Tanner on Saturday, October 3rd.

After seeing all the love and support and excitement in their house and getting over the shock, I decided that's what I want - how fun!!! :)

Here are some pictures from the weekend where we welcomed Tanner ... that turned into a great big family get together!

Michael and Josh (Kristin's husband) with Emery (Josh's daughter)


Me, Kristin, Josh and Emery


Michael and me


Silly Michael and Emery! (Yes, Tanner, this weekend IS all about you - but first of all, we were trying to share you with everyone else, so in a lot of these pictures you're having to share the spotlight already...scroll down to see more pictures of you!)


Heather (Tanner's mom), Tanner James, and me


Me, Michael and Emery


Kristin, Emery, me (Em - I'm going to have to teach you how to pose for the camera!!)


Me, Kristin


Kristin and her Dad (my Uncle Ron - my mom's brother)


Wyatt (Kristin and Josh's son, 4 yrs old) and his "Papa" (my Uncle Ron) - Papa's birthday is 10/6 (October is THE month for Willis birthdays so it seems) and we are celebrating his upcoming birthday and Tanner's arrival with cake! Ron is letting Wyatt have some fun blowing out the candles (Wyatt's birthday is 10/17)



Welcome to the world, Tanner James!! We're so glad you are finally here!!!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Tanner James Willis

Tanner James was born at 6:03 pm on Thursday, October 1st
8 lbs, 21.25 inches



Tanner joins 2 other Willises that have October 1st birthdays!! My precious Aunt Karen (Kerri's mom) and my awesome bro Carter.

CONGRATULATIONS WADE AND HEATHER!!!!

The Inn at Lake Granbury

Last weekend, my mom treated all of her kids to a fabulous weekend in Granbury. She found a great place for us to stay - The Inn at Lake Granbury! It was absolutely beautiful. It is part of the select registry of distinguished inns and bed & breakfasts.

Incredible Grounds and Accomodations








Downtown Granbury



There was lots of good food, cheap wine, great conversation and fun had by all of us. It was the perfect getaway to spend time with family, and we were so relaxed when we got home.

The weekend was kicked off by a private dinner served at the Inn right after all of us arrived. The next day, Kent and I held our very own Inn at Lake Granbury bootcamp. Participants included Nicki and Michael and Mom (sort of Mom - she joined us halfway through because she thought we had slept in). We all just traded off picking a workout (Michael picked squats, Nicki picked lunges, Kent picked push-ups, I chose to take everyone on a run around the trail, and so it goes). That was lots of fun. After that we had breakfast at the Inn. Wow! Totally gourmet and delicious! The all-around favorite was the blueberry blintz souffle - tasted just as good as it sounds. It's a good thing we got a workout in!!

We were off on the first adventure after breakfast - geocaching. My mom heard about this from one of her nursing students, so we decided to give it a go since Granbury was supposed to have lots of geocaches. Essentially, geocaching is high tech hide and seek. You use a GPS device to try to find something. Once you do, there is a list where you write your name down, then you put it back for the next person to find. Don't ask me who hides everything and logs it online - I have no idea - people with too much time on their hands I guess. That was fun except for the fact we only found 2 out of 3 things!! Oh well!

My mom had quite the agenda for us on Saturday, and up next was touring the Barking Rocks Winery in Granbury. You can probably guess we had a blast with this!

We then went back to the Inn to hang out at the pool. Later in the afternoon, we headed to downtown Granbury to eat dinner at Stringfellow's. Following dinner, we went to Granbury Live to see a show! What a blast! We had no clue there was so much talent in Granbury! It was a 60's music show called The Beat Goes On....very entertaining and fun....and I even got on stage. I know this won't sound too far-fetched to most of you who know that is always my goal! I could tell they were about to ask for volunteers, so I immediately raised my hand as high as possible and sat up real tall - I raised my hand about 30 seconds before anyone else thought about it, so of course, I got picked! I went up on stage and led the crowd in the twist. :)

Family pictures





The Couples




Shopping before the show - 1 Kappa, 2 Chi-O's and 1 Tridelt (but there were no dolphin or pansy hats so the tridelta took the picture)



More shopping fun


Me - on stage at the show

At the bar after the show - 5 Aggies and 1 Baylor Bear pretending to be an Aggie (cheesy Michael!)

Sunday was our last day at the Inn. We had another wonderful breakfast and then went out by the lake and Kent and Carter led us in some worship songs. It was then time to go.....Inn at Lake Granbury - we will be back for sure!

Some pictures from the practice Jam/Worship Session