Christmas 2007

We had a fantastic Christmas this year. We've always loved Christmas, but getting to be parents and share the joys of the season (our faith, traditions, and the usual spoiling....)with Sarah and Andrew was an absolute blast. Between Dec. 24th and 25th, we had plenty of time with family (my parents) and friends....but, we also had plenty of time with our little family, too. Amazingly, playtime with the new toys wasn't too noisy either. We bought Sarah Melissa and Doug wooden toys and puzzles, books, play dough, and a Mrs. Potato Head. Of course, what would Christmas be without a few things that required batteries- lol? The kids had a great time, especially Sarah. I can only imagine that it is going to be even more fun next year. We wish you all a wonderful and safe New Year!!

I just realized that the slide shows are kind of hard to see. You might have to click on the "View All Images" button to see the pics.

Ready for Christmas

The power has been back on for almost a week, the yard is completely cleared thanks to help from my dad and my uncle, the gifts are bought and wrapped. So, other than the grocery shopping, I'd say we are ready to go. On the 17th Andrew turned 8 months old. He officially has his two front (lower) teeth for Christmas. :) Natasha and I weighed him the other day and according to her scale, he is 22.5 lbs. (1/2 pound heavier than 18 month old Avi Joy). He seems to be so close to crawling (which, quite frankly, makes me a little scared!). Here are a few of our latest pictures. Wishing you all a blessed Christmas!

Storm Damage

We finally have power and are home! Yay! We came home Saturday night. Today the clean-up begins. My dad and Uncle Lindell are outside helping Michael cut up the branches and haul them away. Here are a few of the pictures we took of the damage last Monday morning. Actually, by the time we returned home, we had lost quite a few more branches. So, these don't really reflect the full extent of our tree damage.

Good times in Oklahoma....

We’re still here! Actually, for a while we were over here. And now we are with my parents. I feel like a refugee with significantly better accommodations. After a cold rain storm turned into an even colder ice storm, we lost power to our home, along with most of Tulsa. We live in an older neighborhood established in the early 50’s, so we have many beautiful mature trees that were partially and/or completely destroyed by the ice. We also have above ground wires that are snapped and down. So, we will probably be one of the last to get power. Power is spotty across town, so we were very thankful that our friends (Chuck and Jean Anne) opened their home to us, since they had most of their power. The first day, their house was heated by a fireplace and space heaters, but then the furnace came on early Tuesday morning. My parents just got their power back, so now we have “moved” over there. Our big and hairy lab, Rosie, is braving the cold in our house. Last I checked it was hovering at 40 degrees inside the house. She has our bed and a warm fleecy blanket, so other than being lonely; she is going to be just fine. Poor Andrew has a terrible little cold, so I’m so glad that the streets were drivable, or we would have been stuck in our cold house with a sick baby. We don’t have a fireplace in our home, so we don’t have an alternate heat source. And, even if we did, it is impossible to find firewood anywhere near Tulsa right now. Once we are back home and settled in, I’ll post pictures of our storm damage. Our two huge oak trees have just shattered all over our yard and gutters. I think most of the limbs missed our roof. (One actually landed on our Accord, but miraculously didn’t smash it.) I wish I had a good way to describe the sounds of shattering and snapping trees and transformers blowing. Let me just say, it is the creepiest sound. It pierces the silence. At this point, we hope we can salvage our oaks. They truly were the beauties of the block. This Christmas I know our family will truly be counting our blessings that this is the worst natural disaster we have experienced. We can’t even pretend to understand how fire, flood, tornado, or hurricane victims feel.

Christmas Pictures

Here is a small sampling of our Christmas pictures. Now, to just pick the right one for the card....

Two Moments

Today there were two moments with my kids that I wish so badly I could have caught on video. Alas, the timing was wrong to get them on video, so I'm blogging about them so that I don't forget. The first "moment" was during our afternoon walk (kids sit in a side-by-side jogger). Normally the kids don't interact during the walk, but towards the end of the 3 miles Sarah started playing with Andrew. She got him laughing so hard and she had a terrible case of the giggles, too. Next she took her lap blanket and put it over both their heads. Then she was pressing her forehead up against his under the blanket. I had visions of them in a few years huddled under a blanket or in a fort swapping secrets. The other "moment" was this evening. A little exasperated after cleaning up the big dinner mess, I went to run Andrew's bath water (he just started using the bathtub instead of baby/sink tub). I put him in the bath. I was going to wait until after bathing and dressing him for bed to give Sarah a bath. But, she came into the bathroom completely naked (totally undressed herself - diaper and all - again) and ready for her bath. I decided to just put her in with Andrew. Oh my gosh, they had so much fun! I was so worried that he would get knocked over or that I couldn't handle them both at the same time. But, they had so much fun. They were splashing the water so vigorously together, I think they got everything in the room wet. So, I'll have to take the camera with me next time..... It was way to cute.

Well, while I'm blogging I'll give a short update. Drew's 1st tooth has cut through the surface and he is contemplating crawling. I'm just hoping he waits until after the Christmas tree is down before he gets the hang of it. Sarah is working a little harder on using the potty. We've had a few successes in the last week with #1 AND #2! Baby steps....baby steps.

Here are a few pictures before I return to my giant heap of laundry and dishes....

Happiest baby on the block!

Lucy came over for a spaghetti dinner.

Eli Sang playing with Andrew.

So excited about tree ornaments!

Merry Christmas!