miscellaneous....

Anaya is in the 2009 AGCI calendar! It features children who are now with their forever families. If you are interested in purchasing one you can go to the link here AGCI , you would also be helping orphans around the world!

We decorated a gingerbread house this year! The kids had fun, but would have rather eaten all of the candy instead of decorating with it!!

At Christmas Grama Great gave Easton this picture of her that was hanging on a wall at her house. One day this past summer Easton told her that he wanted that picture, so she wrapped it up and gave it to him! He was so excited(he LOVES Grama Great!) When we got home he made Ryan take the bear mirror off the wall in his room and hang up that picture!!

Christmas Parties 2008

My family gathered for Christmas on Christmas Eve. We all spend the night at my parents every year and open gifts Christmas morning! This year my sister and her husband who live in Chicago, are expecting a baby any day now so they were not able to be there!(everyone talked to them on the phone, but it wasn't the same!!) We missed you Jen and Eric!! I am waiting for the call!!

After we have breakfast we read the Christmas story and then open gifts. Then we make pea soup and do a puzzle!! This is the one and only time I do a puzzle each year~I hate puzzles!

We left my parents after getting all of our stuff in the van and headed over to a hotel for our family Christmas! Every year around Christmas we go to a hotel with the kids and do our family party. We usually get pizza, have a birthday cake for Jesus and open gifts, but we were minus a pizza this year because we actually did it on Christmas and there was not one pizza place open!! Good thing I brought lots of snacks!!

The gift we got for the boys was a big hit!! Anaya got her own cell phone, maybe she'll leave ours alone! We actually got her and Easton a play kitchen (I convinced Ryan it was OK for Easton to play with a kitchen~as long as it wasn't pink) we finally put it together tonight, it only took about 3 hours to assemble!!(I read online it took some 4 hrs. ~I failed to mention that to Ryan before we got it!)

Then on the day after Christmas we went to Ryan's brothers house and spent the night! The next day we had a huge lunch with his family and then we opened presents. We were going to go snowmobiling, but it was raining! YUCK! But we had a great time anyway! Thanks Lisa, it was fun!!

Anaya and her Bitty Baby!!
What an incredible Christmas we had, we are so blessed, but the best gift of all will always be Jesus!!

Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!!

Easton ~ not so fond of the big guy!

neither was Anaya!
Santa came to Grampa and Grama's house again this year!! Funny thing is we don't usually do "santa" but he keeps showing up! I guess there really is a santa clause!! Silly me!

Las Posadas!

We went to a Las Posadas celebration at church tonight! Las Posadas is a Mexican holiday tradition which lasts for 9 nights!! We just did one! We went around with Maria y Jose (Mary and Joseph) and the donkey=)looking for a place to stay, and all of the Posadas(inns) were full so we finally ended up at one that allowed us in(Church!) There we listened to the Christmas story in both english and spanish, ate some authentic Mexican food, sang Christmas songs in english
and spanish and had a pinata!! It was a lot of fun, although I doubt there ever was a Las Posadas celebration with 2 feet of snow on the ground!

Anaya with Mary and Joseph ~ Carmen and Matt!

Spencer, Jayden and Dylan all took a whack at the pinata, Easton didn't want to do it!

This is Fred and Beto, Beto and his brother just came here from Mexico and their family helped put this party together! Thanks Dorothy we had a great time!!
The candy clean up crew!! It only took a few seconds and it was all scooped up!

Jayden and his stash!

skiing!!

Spencer ready to hit the bunny hill!!! After a few falls he was a bit frustrated~which did not surprise me, I gave him a pep talk before we went out because I know how he gets if he doesn't do something perfectly the first time!!
We finally decided to let him up the ski lift and down one of the bigger hills.

Poor Jayden could hardly see, his hat kept sliding down over his eyes!! But yet, he smiles!!

Spencer loved the ski lift!

This is pretty much how we went down the bigger hills! I did not trust him to slow down enough to be in control!

I love that little face! Below is the only picture of Dylan, he was with his friends all day! I only saw him a few times... they never even stopped to eat! We got there at 1pm and they left at 7pm(I left with the 2 younger boys a bit earlier)and only stopped to go to the bathroom once! While I am happy he has friends and loves to be with them it was a bit weird to let him just go off with his friends! So sad my baby is growing up too fast!!

We went skiing today with some of the youth group kids. This was Spencer's first time skiing so we spent a lot of time on the bunny hill. After the first time down the bunny hill Spencer pointed at the big hill and said "can I do that one now?" I said "I don't think so!!!" When we finally decided to let him tackle the "big one"(easy hill~no black diamonds!)I had him between my skis, because he still hadn't mastered the snow plowing thing and would have gone down full speed ahead! (which is what he would have rather done I am sure!!) It was a fun day and no one was injured~not even Ryan, my non snow skiing husband (he likes to water ski, which I hate) But we will both be feeling it tomorrow I am sure!

About 4 hours....

Is the amount of sleep we got last night thanks to the little girl in red below!!! I don't know what her problem was but she did not want to sleep last night at my parents house. She is quite...

The little stinker! We are home tonight and hoping she doesn't feel the need to play in the wee hours of the night like she did last night, because I know we are not going to be in the mood!!
Easton and one of his favorite people in the world ~ Grama Great!

Rylie and Brayden enjoying the punching balloons ~ always a "hit!!" But can cause a bit of ruckus, like spilled pop!~oops!

The kids coloring ~ a nice quiet activity! Thanks Grama!!

We had a great time tonight with my moms side of the family for our annual Christmas party, and I didn't want to have to be the first to leave, however, I dreaded having to drive home in the "snow storm" on only 4 hours of sleep! So I loaded up on some Diet Coke and went on my merry way! Well, it didn't turn out to be so bad after all. It took a while longer but thankfully I am not afraid of winter driving! My biggest fear used to be our driveway, now even that has not been an issue since receiving the gift of snow tires! I haven't even had to do the "run around!" Now I am home and I can't sleep due to the Coke!! Ryan had to go check out his brothers BIG BUCK, so he is still not home!(and of course the boys had to go see it too so~we may have some sleepy boys on our hands tomorrow!)

6 months ago today...

WOW! I can not believe we have been home for 6 months! I am so thankful to be here and done with the adoption process! Thank you Lord for Anaya!
This was Anaya last year, as we were hoping she would be home soon... Wow! this time of year brings back all kinds of emotions as I recall the struggles of last year!

And this is Anaya (a few weeks ago~I know her face is a mess,) but I love this picture because she is holding my hand! She does this all the time and I have never gotten a picture of it before!

Her shirt says it all ~ Good things come in small packages! And it could state ~ good things come to those who wait!!!