Christmas in Montgomery

We had the chance to spend Christmas with Mark's whole family after his sister and fam returned from three years in Japan last summer. Such a treat!

Mark, the pied piper, with all the kiddos gathered round in the first ten minutes we were there. :)

Mom and Oma made lots of yummy Dutch (fried!) food. Mmmmm. Great time to be pregnant!

Ava is not so sure about the Karaoke hits.
Some serious conversation.
Mark's Mom got all the kids matching hats. Look at the cute picture we got of all of them wearing said hats. (no, really, this WAS the best one.)
Ava and Jack-1 week apart!
Diet Coke shelf.


One of the best posts I've ever read though, was written by my friend Carrie. Helps keep things in perspective! I encourage you to read what she had to say!

http://braydenandmommy.blogspot.com/2009/12/unexpected-gift.html

Happy Birthday, Jesus...

We had a lot of fun at a birthday party for Jesus. Hoping the real meaning seeps in, but my pictures start halfway through the party when Ava realized how much fun she would have if she'd just get over me making her wear tights.

Started by cooking some food for the party.

Note to self: snapping pictures during the prayer is slightly distracting for 2 year olds. :)
Poor baby Kaiya wasn't quite old enough to get in on the action. She was also cutting her eye teeth as evidenced by her burned cheek look. She had some Advil for dessert and shaped right up!
Every kiddo got their own (red velvet w/ green frosting) cupcake and CANDLE to blow out. My friend Lindsey is smart.
Sugar lover.
And nothing says Happy Birthday Jesus like a good episode of the Mickey Mouse Club. (so the Moms can eat lunch!)
Fun tradition for our girlies....Happy Birthday Jesus! We Love You!!!

For posterity's sake...

This is the first year we have ever put up any Christmas decorations. Don't ask. I feel it necessary to put a few pictures so in case it never happens again at least my kids know they had one good Christmas. :)

I loved our tree. Loved, loved, loved it. I just got the 3.99 packs of ornaments from Hobby Lobby, because we had no ornaments, but it made me happy. And made me wish we could have Christmas lights in our house all year round. :)

Ok, so my flower boxes maybe will be painted by next year and I realize look a bit frightful...but my friend helped me make them look a little more presentable...and it made me happy to come home every day to something pretty, since my flowers are gone!

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!!

friends who are dear to us...travel near to us...once more

Last weekend we had our 2nd Annual Christmas celebration with some good friends.

There was cookie decorating.

Girls playing...
Donuts!
Whipped Cream.
A gift exchange...

Maternity photos
Ringlets after baths
Just a lot of plain old cuteness...
And an attempt at a group picture. A perfect weekend! :)

No pain, no sled...

Ava had her first sledding experience this week. (I know, we should have taken her last year...) Thankfully our friends The Kent's persuaded us to come partake.
Ava was not overly thrilled with the whole snowsuit, not being able to move thing....

At all....

But warmed up to the idea of freezing for fun pretty quickly. Especially charming in this shot is Mark wearing Meredith's scarf. So cute, honey.

Wheeee!

a year ago....today

A year ago...

-I rode with Kaiya in an ambulance

-I sat with the senior chaplain in a hospital waiting room

-I learned the difference between the NJ and NG tube

-I cried.

Today...

-Kaiya said bye bye and shut the door in my face

-Kaiya hit her sister

-She gave me about 10 kisses, complete with mmmmwa sound effects

-Her little hair curled up into ringlets after her bath

-I cried.

It's funny...we have well water and our pump went out yesterday. An expensive and undesirable repair. Mark and I commented though, how in comparison, that is such a wonderful problem to have. And frankly much cheaper! Praise God for what he did for us.

" The LORD has done great things for us,

And we are glad. "

psalm 126:3

Stairmaster

Kaiya has figured out how to go down the stairs which is kind of exciting for me. Several times in the last few days they have both headed down and played in the playroom unattended. Seriously life changing!

This day for at least 2 hours, they just went up and down. I didn't dare ever go down myself for fear of ruining the happiness. :) I just documented from above.

(Sometimes we DO get dressed. :))

Oh Christmas Bridge, Oh Christmas Bridge

When we moved here and I didn't have many friends (well not any, excluding ones I hijacked from my sister), Mark used to joke that I should wear a sandwich board and advertise that I would be a nice friend for someone. Of course that was a silly idea because I was pregnant and a sandwich board would NOT have fit over me.

God has been so kind and provided me with lots of good friends in the almost 2 years (wow!) since we moved here. I have NEVER been happier in my life and feel so blessed by all the great people I have met. Anyway, my friend Ingrid invited us all for dinner and the covered bridge lighting, but was gracious enough to let the girls and I still come while Mark was out of town. She certainly got more than she bargained for having to hold Ava the entire time!

Ingrid has a little girl, Lena, who is just 2 weeks younger than Kaiya. They are going to be great friends, if you see below they are already chatting with each other from the strollers. And we have some plans of our own for Ava and Sam.

Thanksgiving. A week late.

This post has so many pictures I don't even need any words. But since this is the only scrapbook my children will ever have, I figured I needed to go crazy.

*The obligatory, but not always cute family photos. (well, not our family. my kids don't get the smile on demand thing yet.)




*Above, Men Grilling meat.


*As a Mom, it's nice to wear clothes conducive to playing peek-a-boo.

*My girls had a GREAT time with our family.
-Ava played for at least 2 hours at the kitchen sink....
-Also enjoyed the Mickey punching bag from Aunt Laurel
-Kaiya loves hanging out with her Daddy and big sister. She is a TOTAL delight.
*These pictures (including donuts, obviously) were just too cute not to include.
*My beautiful Mama and extraordinary cook.

*Oh. My. I love this baby girl. And a new walker is one of the cutest things, maybe, ever.

*I LOVE LOVE LOVE our family! Have I ever mentioned that?? So thankful my parents got married 52 years ago so we could pack 24 people into one house and talk about how thankful we are for each other and eat good food. (13 deserts, 4 breakfast casseroles, 2 turkeys, 10 lbs of potatoes, mama's rolls, mmmmmmmmm)