Church Christmas Celebration

12/18 - We were on the activities committee for the Christmas party and fried four turkeys for the occasion. It was a lot of work but so fun. I did two of them completely on my own while Aaron slept and that was a first for me. I think they all turned out pretty great.

12/18 - Spencer and Santa for the church Christmas party. He was excited to see Santa but not all all interested in the lap sitting.

12/18 - Miya was so sweet being shy with Santa. I was so proud of her being brave and talking to him. We really talked it up and tried to tell her that he wasn't scary. I guess it worked.

12/18 - She warmed up to Santa at the end but also wasn't interested in sitting on his lap.

12/18 - Amelia went right up to Santa and asked him for a pillow pet. It was so cute! Then I wanted a picture of her with Santa and suddenly she freaked out. Don't know what happened but this sad face quickly led to tears. Poor baby.

12/18 - Alex didn't ask Santa for anything this year but was very cute posing with him. Too bad Santa's hat kept whacking him in the face and the smile left.

12/18 - They had a cake walk for the younger kids and mine loved it! Spencer won first but they all ended up with a cupcake.

12/18 - The kids love the coloring pages at the party and were so proud of the beautiful pictures they made.

12/18 - Amelia was SUPER excited to be coloring.

12/18 - Miya was such a great helper after the party and folded up some chairs.

Family Happenings

12/12 - Alex boy is learning how to crawl properly. He's been on the move for a while now but now he's working himself into the crawl position.

12/12 - He really loves his hippo toy.

12/16 - Spencer was the "Special person of the week" in his Kindergarten class. To help celebrate I went to lunch with him and then played out in the snow. It was a really fun day! It was pajama day so Spencer and I picked out the best pair of jammies I had. Also we can't play outside without snow pants and boots, gloves, and a hat so I had to find all of mine of those too. My poor snowboarding pants haven't been used in years but they got some use that day.

12/16 - Spencer and I together at his school. It was so fun that it was pajama day. Spencer picked my red penguins because hey have his new favorite color red on them.

 

 

First Real Snow

12/11 - The kids were so excited to go out and play in our first snowfall. They were all bundled up and waiting at the door for Aaron and I to finish getting ready.

12/11 - Miya and Spencer were really excited about being able to leave footprints in the snow. We got a few flurries of snow before this snow but never enough to leave a footprint in.

12/11 - Amelia was a little hesitant about going out in the snow but insisted she do it all on her own.

12/11 - Me and the small two all bundled up ready to play.

12/11 - Alex being coy with Aaron. You can also see Miya in the back- ground checking out her footprints.

12/11 - Spencer was really excited to see all the prints he was leaving in the snow. He looked pretty awesome bundled up in his snow gear.

12/11 - Miya schlep- ping through the snow.

12/11 - Amelia was very worried about her slide being covered with snow. Here she's sending out the distress call to Spencer and Miya to come help her fix up the slide.

12/11 - Alex was fasci- nated with the new look of the world all covered in snow. His little eyes never stopped moving the whole time we were outside.

12/11 - The big three being cute in the snow.

12/11 - Amelia insisted on wearing her hat just like this. She would get really upset if anyone tried to fix it. She was pretty cute though.

12/11 - A cute picture of me and the kids. Poor Amelia I didn't know about her hat fetish and tried to fix it before the picture. She was not happy.

12/11 - Alex the drool-master needed a little clean-up to stay warm. Aaron caught us all excited about the return to the snow.

12/11 - Miya with her brand new shovel all ready to dig out the slide.

12/11 - Amelia with the big shovel loved helping to uncover the slide. The shovel got stuck to her glove with all the snow on it. It was funny to watch her try and shake it off.

12/11 - The three kids hard at work with snow removal. Too bad they weren't worried about my porch being covered. I had to clean that myself but the slide looked beautiful.

12/11 - Spencer loved playing in the snow. He was showing his awesome snowballs to Dad.

12/11 - Poor Alex was just too cold to stay out and play any longer but he really didn't want to go in. We compromised by watching everyone out the window.

12/11 - Amelia was concen- trating really hard on the slide and her little tongue poked out.

Thank You Secret Santa!!

So this story doesn't start off well but ends great.  I cried for two very different reasons tonight....

I was putting the kids to bed rushing around like a chicken with my head cut off.  Aaron was at work.  I ran downstairs to grab some diapers then back up to get the screaming Amelia.  I get to the bottom of my stairs and someone POUNDS on my door.  I literally screamed and ran up the stairs.  I calmed Amelia down hoping they would go away whoever they were because Aaron wasn't home and I was too freaked to open the door.  About a minute later again with the pounding.  Although maybe my house was just so quite that it seemed loud but it did kind of shake the house.  At this point I looked out the windows to see if there is a car in my driveway.  I looked out every window upstairs and couldn't see a darn thing.  I figured they gave up and began to relax again when they knocked again.  At this point I actually started to cry and wonder why I was so foolish as to not have my cell phone in my pocket for such emergencies.  Seriously I was seconds away from calling the police if only I could get my phone.  At this point I said a prayer for protection and safety.

I calmed down Amelia and put her back to sleep when Alex started to cry.  I went in his room and they knocked again.  Persistent little buggers.  I peeked out my window to see two people walking away from my front door with their arms loaded with presents.  At this point I started to feel silly with all my freaking out.  They then went to my other door and knocked there.  I figured with my prayer for safety and the fact that they had presents it couldn't turn out all that bad, right?

I went downstairs and turned on the light to see people I didn't know standing there with presents.  Now the house one block down from mine totally looks like my house so I figured they were at the wrong house but opened the door anyway.  I was still shaking, literally, from being freaked out.  They said they were delivering presents from some friends that wanted to do secret Santa for us.  I noticed our name on a card and then knew it wasn't the wrong house.  I thanked them and sent them on their way.  That's when the crying for the second reason started.

Very few people know how hard I've truly had it these last few weeks.  I actually tried to kill myself the day after Thanksgiving and ended up in the hospital for a few days.  I'm just now beginning to feel safe with myself again and to see the happy things in life.  Just yesterday I had my first spontaneously happy thought that wasn't forced.  This is massive improvement.  I'm working out at the gym in an effort to improve my mood and de-stress.  It's done wonders and as a bonus I've lost 5 pounds with only 7 visits.

You may never know how much you've truly touched me.  I felt like no one cared about me or my family and I've been proven wrong in countless ways that I will ever be grateful for.  Even now I'm so touched and moved that I find it hard to express my thanks sufficiently.  Even if you are not aware of all I've been through I know that God is and he touched your heart so you could touch mine.  Thank you!  For your kindness, for restoring my faith in friends, and for showing me that I'm not alone.  I hope you get to read this and know that you were on the Lord's errand tonight.

A Bunch of Firsts

12/2 - Alex boy got his first two teeth. They popped in about a week ago but were not big enough to be pictured until now.

12/2 - I had to tickle Alex to get him to open his mouth so I could see his teeth. He's grabbing my hand as I get him here.

12/6 - We have yet to have our first real snow. We've had two or three light dustings but Miya had enough of waiting for real snow and went out to play. You can see the print from her mittens in the bottom left corner where she attempted to make a snowball. It was the funniest and cutest thing to watch.

12/6 - Amelia was small and unimpressed with the snow last year and I wondered it it would carry over. Here she is thinking about it.

12/6 - She decided she loves it! A flurry landed on her hand and she was so excited!

12/6 - Spencer's school put on a little holiday concert his first ever. It was so fun! I loved watching the little kids sing and do the movements with the song. I attempted a big group shot but there were a lot of heads. This is two Kindergarten classes.

12/6 - My Spencer man singing. He knew all the words and was on with the actions too when they had them.

12/6 - Cute smile for me! It was hard to not get them blurry or dark with all the zooming I had to do just to see his face.

12/6 - Mrs. Upah's class.

12/6 - More cute singing.

12/6 - I seriously love this kid!! Look how cute he is with his hands in his pockets!

12/6 - Spencer and his friend Grace were working off of each other to remember their parts. I loved it!

12/6 - They have these cute little windows in the cafeteria by Spencer's class room and Amelia was so cute checking them out that I had to get a picture.