A New Year, A New Decade!

   Wow, a new decade!  This is the one where Kirk and I get fit and healthy!  Yeah really!  We started the year out right by having one of our favorite little visitors on New Year's Day. 

Christmas Day 2009

   I am determined to get caught up!  On Christmas Day, Matt, Kelly and Caleb, the Heberts, and Grandma DeDe and Grandpa Al all came to our house, as is our tradition.  We had to put each of the two babies in the giant Christmas sock, another tradition, for a photo in front of the tree.  They are, of course, the best presents of all!
   Speaking of presents, that gets pretty crazy, with so many!

It can take so long, that some people actually fall asleep...

But, of course, it's not the PRESENTS, it's the PRESENCE of the people you love that matters the most.  We missed Megan and family, but it was wonderful to be together with all the others we love, and especially to celebrate Caleb and Keegan's very First Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2010

  On Christmas Eve, Kirk and I took Jenna and Dustin to church at Grace, where my mom met us for a very special service.  It was wonderful, with a live nativity, including a donkey, and we enjoyed it so much.  At the end, as we sang "Light a Candle", we all lit candles we were holding by passing the flame from person to person, until the whole Family Life Center was filled with only candlelight.  It was beautiful!  I was so thankful to be there, alive and healthy. Last year we missed the service because I had just been discharged from the hospital that afternoon, and I really missed it.  Thank you Lord for another chance to celebrate the birth of your Son!
   After church we headed home for a ham dinner with Matt, Kelly and Caleb at our house.  After dinner, we watched "Christmas Vacation," and laughed as hard as we do every year.

Caleb was sweet and adorable in his Santa hat!

February Already?

   Really?  It is February?  And I still haven't finished blogging about December?!  Dang it!  Will I ever catch up?

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   Well, I need to write about our Christmas with the French Family.  Megan, Ryan and Casey drove over from the Tri-Cities to celebrate an early Christmas with us on December 18-20.  It was the first time the rest of the family had met Casey, and the first time the four little cousins were together, so it was a weekend we all were really excited about.  And, of course, the three babies would all be celebrating their first Christmases.  They were pretty adorable in their matching reindeer butt sleepers!

    We had a great weekend together, with "controlled chaos" being the best description of my house!  Crazy-busy, but so fun!  All the boys were adorable, and we tried to get shots of them all together, but really, it was like trying to herd cats.  Just not a lot of cooperation from the babies, or the two year old! 

But we tried....

And we tried.....

  While it was not possible to get them all to smile, or even look in the same direction, we had to settle for getting them all in the same picture!  Except, where's Cooper?

Got him in this one! 

The photos were not a complete disaster.  I got some darling shots of Caleb in the reindeer hat.

And the Santa hat.

    And of Great Grandma and Grandpa with their newest "Great", Casey.

But none of Kirk and I with all the grandchildren, Darn!  Next time for sure!

Photos were fun, as were presents!  We had a great weekend, which ended all too quickly, and we had to say goodbye to the Frenches, until their next trip over.  Casey will probably be much bigger and be smiling by then.  Can't wait to see his smile and see if he got his mama's cute dimples!

Zoolights!

  We had so much fun at the Santa Claus Breakfast and just wanted to keep the holiday spirit going, so we decided to go to Zoolights that evening, even though it was only about 30 degrees out!  Kirk, Dustin and I picked up Matt, Kelly and Caleb in the van and we headed for Tacoma, with Taylor Swift singing us Christmas carols from her CD.  We weren't the only ones who thought Zoolights on a frosty Saturday night would be fun, and it was quite crowded.  But we parked and began the process of bundling up and getting Caleb situated in the Moby wrap, complete with hat and mittens.  He looked so cute! 
   The lights were pretty, as always, and really kept us in the Christmas mood.  We must have done a good job of bundling up, because in spite of the freezing temperature, no one complained of being cold.  Even Caleb was quite content being worn by Kelly, and they kept each other warm.  After we had seen all there was to see, we headed for KFC for dinner.  We detoured through Sky Island on the way to Matt and Kelly's to look at all the beautifully decorated houses, then dropped them off and headed home.  It was a perfect day!  Fun with family is always the best!

Updating

  So I added this new background to my blog and, woohoo, it worked!  Unfortunately some of my last post disappeared.  Dang it!  I don't have a clue how to fix it, so guess it will just have to remain MIA.  It seems like I get so far behind, then I don't know where to start, so I just keep putting it off and get farther behind.  So I will just jump in with the Santa Claus Breakfast on December 12th.  It was so much fun to take three grandsons, after all the years I took my kids to the same breakfast.  Santa came around, and Caleb and Keegan were okay with that, but Cooper was not too fond of Santa this year.  He was willing to let Santa stand behind him, but when we tried to get him on Santa's lap, well, he was having none of that!
   We had a nice pancake breakfast with Grandma DeDe and Grandpa Al, who have been coming with us for many years.  Shauna brought Cooper and Keegan, and Matt and Kelly brought Caleb, and Kirk and I were there, of course.  We took up almost a whole table, all but two chairs.  I think everyone had a great time, and it really put me in the Christmas spirit! A great way to kick off the holidays!

Always Behind...

My week in the Tri-Cities went too quickly, and soon it was time to get back home. God timed it all perfectly again, so I was able to spend the morning of Thanksgiving with Megan, Ryan and Casey, then catch a plane home for Thanksgiving Dinner with the rest of my family. We had a nice French toast breakfast and I got to see Casey in his sweet "Little Turkey" outfit. We took lots of pictures and I held that darling little bundle one last time before we headed to the airport. Kissing everyone goodbye was hard, and I admit to sitting in the airport with very teary eyes as I waited for my flight. I wish Megan was close by so I could be of more help to her on a daily basis. I am comforted by the fact that she has a wonderful husband who is fully engaged in parenting!

Matt picked me up at the airport in Seattle, and soon I was home with all the rest of the family, with a baby back in my arms. The boys all looked so cute! We took lots of pictures and had a wonderful dinner, thanks to Kirk.

I just cannot believe where my life is now, as compared to last Thanksgiving! I am now healthy and have three more adorable grandsons! God is SO amazing! And I am SO thankful!