Merry Christmas!

We had a nice relaxing Christmas (when people were not sick) with my mom, brother Adam, step dad, Daniel's Aunt Barb and Uncle Harold. My favorite time is always Christmas Eve service at Church, seeing Christmas lights afterwards, and watching the girls wake up on Christmas morning. This year we started a tradition I learned about from my step mom...having a Happy Birthday Jesus cupcake so that was a fun tradition to start now that Lauren understands why we really celebrate Christmas... to celebrate Christ's birth!

Sanity for the Season...

My first holiday plan cruncher came when Shannon found her wrapped gift Lauren had picked out and wrapped and "hid" behind the tree. Shannon threw off the paper in a flash while waving her new slippers for all to see..... not what I had planned or envisioned for this special gift.

In addition to this today started out as a typical day until we noticed baby Jesus was missing from the fisher price nativity set. Just a few days before the girls were putting all sorts of things in little mini Chrismtas gift bags while I was busy finishing up Shannon's baby book so when I asked Lauren where baby Jesus was, she said he was in one of those bags...not good news when I could recall throwing those bags away yesterday so I did what every mom does when a precious treasure gets thrown away...... I went through the garbage can :) So after 20 minutes of house and trash searching I found myself getting desperate thinking what would we do without baby Jesus on Christmas and how could I have lost the most important piece to our nativty set? Panic set in as I questioned each of my girls (more like badgered) until alas...there he sat where I had left him after rescuing him from the bag the night before, on Shannnon's dresser. :) At one point I even prayed out to God to help me find...well, Jesus.... oh what holiday stress can do to a person :) Needless to say I started thinking of what we could have done if we didn't find him (there was the doll house baby and bassinet etc) then realized that the nativity was not the focal point but our Savior. Not the tree, meal preperations etc....I was starting to miss the point, yet again, of the season...to anticipate celebrating our Savior's birth and spend QUALITY time with family. So this year I am going to write myself notes in all sorts of places to remind myself to stop "Be Still" and B-R-E-A-T-H-E~take in the joy of the season and the gifts God has already given us :)

Marathon Man

Today Daniel ran the California International Marathon with our friend Christian. I was pretty impressed considering it was 26.2 miles....I am not sure if I could run 1 mile let alone 26 :) Since Daniel has been getting over a bug all week we were not sure if he would be able to pull it off but prayers were answered and he did!


I am so proud of Daniel. He turns the BIG 30 this year and was able to complete a few races and get in shape...perhaps next year I will join him! (Not a chance!) :) If it were a cardio-dance aerobics marathon.... then maybe.

Way to go babe... the girls and I are proud of you. :)

Why we love daddy...

Rooting for dad at the football championship game...
As you can see the girls can't get enough of Daniel..but either can I. :)

Thanksgiving Blessings

Pin the tail on the turkey...

Pumpkin Pie

Nothing says thanksgiving like saying "cheese!" with a mouth full of food :)

Lauren~my little pie maker

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at home with Daniel's aunt and uncle. It's strange to say "home" because we always call Oregon home.... I guess now that the girls are getting older home is where your little monkeys are... :)

We have a lot to be thankful for this year....our health, our family, and friends both old and new. This year we made a thankful tree so the girls could count their blessings as well.