Some Christmas Photos!

Gage in the elf hat.



Ran and the kids.




Ashlynn with one her favorite gifts-a diva in the making?-I hope not!



Uncle Ben and Ryde being silly.



Gage wearing Granpa's glasses.

Doctor's Appointment

Had a doctor's appointment today. I measured right at seventeen weeks and the baby's heart rate was at 160. We'll go back on the 23rd to find out if it is a boy or girl, can't wait! She told me since I was feeling better I can resume some normal activity -yay-and after another week or so of feeling good I would be able to get back all the way to "normal".

We'll be sure to let you know on the 23rd, in the meantime, how about some guesses??

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Hope you all have a very merry day!!

More "wisdom" from the mouth of babes.

"Are there any bars there?"

This remark was made by Ashlynn when I told her it was time to go to a nearby kid-friendly, outdoor shopping mall.

We don't take our kids to bars, I promise mom. Randy, however, had taken down their trampoline, but left the frame up in the backyard. Yesterday was really nice, so she took to hanging from the "bars" like a monkey and that's what she was inquiring about.

Apparently she wanted to keep playing with the frame.

Happy Birthday dudes!!!!!!

From a couple of cute, tough cookies.....




To some real studs.....



Happy Birthday bros and my fellow December birthday siblings!! We are so proud of both of you, two more firefighters in the fam-that is so cool! Hope you have a blast today, well, if you're not on shift that is.

Birthday!

Last Thursday we all got together to celebrate Jeff's 21st birthday! Hard to imagine he was only eight years old when I met Randy. We had lots of fun, here are a few pictures.



Ryder digging into their shake.



Mug shot with the shake.



The guys: (l to r) Ben, Dustin, Jeff (the birthday boy) and Ran.



The kids getting to touch a lobster!

Ok, so I realize most of the pictures are of my kids, but you try to get a bunch of guys to smile for the camera, I was lucky to get one!

Living dangerously...

So there I sat at the table trying to finish addressing my Christmas cards while feeding green beans and oranges to Gage. All I can say is, the little orange and green spots are nothing to fear, just a bit of holiday cheer. No anthrax or MRSA, just trying to "multi-task".

A little peace and quiet...a little.

This morning Paula headed off with Ashlynn and Ryder to Mimi and Papa's house. Since I'm still not back to "normal" activities, I'm staying home with Gage man.

Me and Gage, this ought to be an adventure.

We have already to listened to Jingle Bells twenty times, The Final Countdown fifteen times and Everybody Wants to Rule the World twenty times. This boy is obsessed with music, but it MUST have a beat to it, no slow stuff for this kid. All day long he points to the computer or CD player whining for you to hit play. And when you start it, stand back, he's got moves. Honestly, in all my life I have never seen a one year old dance perfectly to the beat and for so long. I'm going to have to get a utube of it on here. It will crack. You. Up.

When he's not dancing, he is into EVERYTHING. Randy found a golf ball in his work boots this morning. And just the other day I grabbed a vase out of the lower cabinet of my china hutch and was shocked to see a spoon, butter knife, two potatoes and a seam guage in it. Thank goodness the potatoes hadn't sprouted yet. How he got them in there or how he even knows where I keep the potatoes remains a mystery.

The other day Coleen remarked she thought her name growing up was "Coween did it", I'm afraid Gage is only going to respond to "Where's Gage?".

Is it nap time yet????

Pictures with Antisdel.s Photography....

These images were captured by a great friend of mine, Kia. She is an amazing and nationally renowned photographer who volunteered to take pictures at the Eau Ministry conference I spoke at back in September.

She sent them to us with permission to use as we wanted, so ofcourse, I had to post them here.

Thanks Kia!

Our first snow has arrived!

We received a good three inches of snow yesterday. It came in these huge beautiful flakes while the kids watched in anticipation to see if it would accumulate. That's actually what I told them, "you have to wait until it accumulates before you can go out and play in it." They stared at me with these crazy looks until I explained what I meant. The rest of the day they made a point to mention about the snow 'cummulating outside so they could play. Back and forth they went from inside to outside, drinking hot chocolate in between to warm up. They LOVE the snow!!

The new do.

Here is Ryder post haircut. It's cute, but I miss running my fingers through his hair (I don't think he misses that!). Ashlynn LOVES it and Ryder says he looks like daddy now :-).