It wasn't quite what we expected,

but nonetheless, Christmas was good.

My maternal grandmother passed away in the middle of the night a couple of days before Christmas.  But it was a blessing because she was able to leave behind an extremely frail, decrepit body and mind and have a joyous, sweet reunion with my grandpa.

On the 23rd, my washing machine died the great death, and because of the holiday, a repair man won't be able to fix it until Monday.  Thank the good heavens above for Bill being able to get all of the laundry done except for one load and for Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University and having $1000 emergency fund.

We woke Christmas morning to a vomiting two year old.  Throw-up all over the place ... and a broken washing machine.  Nice.  Thank the good heavens above for a very loving and understanding mother who came by on Christmas to collect the soiled sheets, blankets, pajamas, pillow cases and stuffed animals to take to her home and be washed and folded and returned by her and my dad the next morning.  Mothers are a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Later, on Christmas night I suffered a miscarriage.  It was something I had a hunch might happen - my doctor said it might.  And it did.  Thank the good heavens above for a loving husband who fought it out with me, and for his big hand to squeeze tight, and ibuprofen, and a hot, hot bath, and a hot rice heating bag, and cold ginger ale.  We did it together.  And I'm okay.  I was blessed with strength and perspective and a family and parents who have taken care of me.  It was a miracle that I was even pregnant.  And that, in and of itself, brings us hope.

Even through all of this, Christmas was good.  We were surrounded by family and friends through much of it.  We ate lots of good food.  We had a family Christmas party at my brothers new house.  I turned a year older on Christmas Eve.  We fed two friends on Christmas who didn't have family to be with.   And my husband turned a year older today.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas:

  Eli and Evelyn.  Cousins.  Best buds.  Miracle babies.

Family nativity.  Does your family nativity have a Christmas elf?  Ours does.

Porter and Kennedy playing Mary and Joseph in our church's primary nativity story.

Awesome,  face-pullin' sis...

... and her adorable daughter.

My dad.  I love him.  Bill pushed the button on the camera just as my dad's mouth was coming out of his 'fish lips' pose.  

My joys.  Porter and Evelyn.  Santa brought Porter some tools and Super Mario Bros Wii.   Santa brought Evelyn a baby doll that she named 'Pancake'.

Christmas is always good.

picnic in the park

Bill has been a busy man at work lately, so since he couldn't come and see us, we packed a picnic lunch and decided to meet him on his lunch break at the park. 

The menu consisted of:

-hotdog sandwiches (I didn't have any buns)
-salt and vinegar pringles
-carrot sticks
-chocolate covered strawberries
-crystal light

Porter shoveled in his food as quickly as he could because there was a large family of geese across the park that he wanted to make sure Evelyn was able to see.




We followed them for several yards before we started creeping them out:







We then proceeded on to the disc golf course, a family favorite pastime. I pushed Evelyn in the stroller and followed the disc golf professionals as I documented their skills on camera:

(Bill took over the camera for a second)

"Mom, will you take a picture of me chugging my drink like Napoleon?"

Wig Out!

A new favorite family game.

I'm not much of a boardgame or deck of cards player.  Never really have been.

BUT

Porter recently purchased this card game with some of his allowance money and we have been playing it several times a week since he has gotten it.

The characters in the cards are easy to fall in love with, A game only takes minutes, It is exciting and fast paced, A fantastic Sunday afternoon activity, and it gives me some one-on-one time with Porter to laugh and have a little friendly competition- we play best out of 5.   (Evelyn loves it too- she is very stealthy at taking the cards that have been played...her favorite is Stevie!)

Our cards are already showing a little wear and tear- we tend to get a little feisty.

But I definitely give Wig Out! a two thumbs up!

A stegasaurus......

and blizzards: (this is the side of our house caked in snow, with our mailbox in the back ground to show the amount of snow we got...)




and very first pony-tails!: (yes, I know. I can barely pull enough hair up...it's the girl in me :)




and farm animals:




and medieval knights riding Evelyn's farm animals: (hmmmm, wonder who did this? I'll give you one guess.)




and sweet t-shirts:




and hours and hours of Legos:




and grandparents:




and great grandparents:




and the yo-yo man: (taking after his father...did I ever tell you that I found Bill's yo-yo skills very attractive when we were first dating? :)




and snow piles in the drive way that are a lot taller than your ten year old son: (can you tell by the look on his face that he was very involved in clearing that snow from our driveway?)




and big, wonderful families:

These were the highlights from my Christmas vacation...

Oh, I almost forgot. Christmas dinner with our neighbor Uncle Ed and Bill's co-worker Bill was also a huge highlight, but I forgot to take pictures. Great company, great food, what more could you ask for?

*Oh yea, and that handsome guy standing in the back of our family picture that you might not recognize is my cousin Isaac who was standing in for my brother Bracken who is on a mission. The idea was to cut and paste Brack's head onto Isaac's body...but, I just havn't had time to play with it yet. Thanks Isaac. You rock.