Happy New Year!

2008

Added a bouncing baby boy to the fam~

Lost our daughter's favorite toy in the process

Survived yet another year of residency

Added an awesome sister in law

Visited with old friends

Made some new friends

Had some nasty challenges...

Overcame them

Voted

Watched the 401K & college fund dissipate

Visited new places

Celebrated

Found new hobbies & interests

Felt very blessed by the Lord

Here's to a great 2009!

Christmas!

Christmas in Pictures......lots of pictures!
We headed up to my parents house Christmas afternoon for a very fine feast, Christmas treats and fun!
My mom got my dad a Wii for Christmas. We had a ball trying to figure out how to bowl, play tennis and box!
My mom found Todd a portable toilet for out 72 hour kit. It was by far the funniest thing ever. He was so excited. He's already talking about all the places he's going to be using it!

The babies were so cute. Their eyes kept getting heavier and heavier until finally we had this...

Christmas Morning!

"Santa" was very good to us this year! The kids had a ball and I'm relieved my "elfwork" is complete! Joey was just old enough to be very excited about the presents. Poor Katie could hardly stay still long enough for Joey to try and rip the paper off his presents!

Christmas Eve at the Ericksens!

We had our annual Christmas Eve fajita get together with the Clevenger clan. Todd made it just in time for the festivities. I can't believe I don't have any pictures of the girls. They were unbelievable elusive that night.

Wow! If you made it to the end of that post give yourself a pat on the back!!!!

Snow, Snow, Snow

There are some things that are great about the snow:

The stillness it creates outside as it's snowing

The way the Christmas lights looked on freshly snow-covered trees

Skiing

Snowball fights

Feeling like a kid again

Making cookies and having hot chocolate after sledding

School and church getting canceled if you live in North Carolina~unfortunately we don't benefit from that any more.

Not so good things would include:

My white knuckle freeway drive on Friday!

The six accidents I saw on the freeway in ten minute period. (Mind you these were separate accidents.)

Owning a car without four wheel drive

Shoveling the snow

Having to buckle children with large bulky coats into their carseats

Running errands in the snow.

Katie and Joey loved sledding. The first couple times down the hill Joey would whimper a bit, but then he warmed right up and loved it! Katie was totally digging the jumps. Todd and I were cracking up as she would land from the first jump then get whip lash from the second while still recovering from the first. I decided I'm in no better shape walking up the hill this year than last. Unfortunately, I don't have an excuse this year!

Mary?

Every morning the kids come into our bed and we play before starting the day~sometimes we play a lot longer than we should. (It's something I will be very sad to let go of when the dreaded day of kindergarten arrives in a couple years.) We tickle, laugh read stories etc. etc. We also do this to Joey. Katie calls him "Mary". Then we laugh harder and harder and Joey laughs harder and harder! Love these kids.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Extremely fragrant decorated tree.
All the lights off except the tree lights.
Baby absolutely enthralled with tree.
Little girl giddy with excitement about helping decorate.
Hot chocolate and Christmas tunes.
Tis the season!

*Photo disclaimer-Can't stand the flash from the camera look. Was going for the dreamy feeling look. Not very good and holding still equals blurry photos, but you get the idea!

Sea Legs

Ahoy mateys! We have a serious case of sea legs!

I had forgotten how comical a new little walker is. The last few weeks have been full of giggles while watching my sea legged mummy man. It doesn't matter how many times he tips, teeters and falls; I have to laugh every time. There is such concentration and complete thrill on this little guy's face. At times I catch him running to keep up with Katie only to loose control and slide across the wood floor. Then it's back up again and a where'd she go look.

My life has now entered a whole new level of crazy. I've had to move everything up higher now and ever higher still because the kid loves his tip toes. He's very resourceful and unfortunately obsessed with the garbage can. I'm sure, that he's sure, there is something fabulous left in there just for him. Hummm, maybe and old piece of crust or a baby food jar to lick clean?
Unfortunately, the awesome chubby thighs we worked to hard to achieve are about gone. (Sighhh) Thankfully, I still have his squishy cheeks!!

Cowan Family

This family was so much fun. They were making me laugh so hard, it was almost impossible to hold the camera still. But, with 22 people we actually got a picture with everyone's eyes open, looking AND smiling at the camera. Whewwww!

Don't they have the cutest grandkids ever?!