Sunday, December 30, 2012

Our first snow!

We had a longer than usual wait for a good snow this year, but it was worth the wait!

Poor Journey has her giant temporary cast on so we had to improvise her winter wear :)

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Christmas Cookies!










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Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas Eve, our traditions and surprises

Christmas has always been a holiday full of traditions, and this year we were able to start some new ones, as well as pass on one from my own childhood.

Since Eric and I got engaged, we have spent Christmas Eve with Eric's extended family, before heading to church for the Christmas Eve service. This year we were getting ready to go to Eric's aunts house when we discovered that our basement had flooded. Our sewer backed up and wasn't draining. So instead of traditional Christmas Eve food, we grabbed McDonalds on our way to buy some Drano and some other drain supplies. BUT at least we made it to church for the service!

The kids playing 'jingle bells' during the Christmas Eve service. They also had a little skit that the kids performed, Jeb was a shepherd and the girls were sheep.


When we got home, it was time to pass on one of my favorite holiday traditions, the Christmas Eve treasure hunt! Every year since I can remember, my dad put a bunch of clues around the house that always ended with us opening matching Christmas pajamas-my mom's plan to make sure we looked cute for pictures on Christmas morning. As we got older, the clues got harder. We usually had to make a few phone calls to get clues, always to different phone numbers, but it didn't take us long to realize they were always to the same uncle, their home phone, cell phone, and my aunt's office phone. But we enjoyed it and played along anyway. The Christmas after I got my license we were so excited to have clues spread out all over town! Just me and my sister driving around. My dad always went to 7-11 and we had to say something ridiculous to the cashier (and hope there weren't any other customers around!) and he always prepaid so after we got our clue we would get slurpees. He involved neighbors, family friends, and clues stashed around town. We actually enjoyed it into adulthood, but last year it got to be too hard for us to traipse around town with kids in tow, so we retired our game and this year we got to pass it on to the next generation!

We had been doing a daily Christmas countdown, so the very last can had the first clue in it.












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Christmas morning
















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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Journey's hand surgery

Journey's next hand surgery is tomorrow! It should be her last hand surgery, but unfortunately she will be having another surgery in January to find and hopefully fix her sleep apnea. She is so excited for this surgery because it will give her 5 fingers on her right hand. She has noticed that there are 'two in there' and is excited at the idea of 5 fingers.

This surgery is also significant in that Jeb has started to understand what surgery means. He asked about how the doctor will give her 5 fingers, so I told him a very basic version. He shook his head and said "No, that would hurt her!" I told him about anesthesia, that it is a special medicine that makes her take a long nap and doesn't feel anything. He smiled at me like I was joking and said "no way!" I still don't think he believes me. But Journey's excitement has eased his mind a little. I can't wait to post the after pictures!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Thanksgiving

Time to get back to posting! I was trying to leave the post about our big news up at the top for awhile so everyone would get a chance to see it, but now I'm behind on blogging :)

Thanksgiving morning we stayed in our pajamas all morning, which was very very funny to the kids. It was even more fun because they were wearing their favorite pajamas. Jeb and Vivi both needed new, bigger pajamas and both picked the same ones with construction trucks. So of course we got a matching one for Journey too. Truck pajama night is the best night of the week around here!

We watched the parade

Eric made a big breakfast and they got to eat while watching tv, which was very exciting

Then we made turkey crafts





Then after lunch and quiet rest time it was finally time to get dressed and go to Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house. They clean up good, don't they?



We got there just in time for me to carve the turkey, under Grandpa's close supervision

Jebby's first Thanksgiving, he gets the drumstick!




My cousin put paper on the wall with markers for everyone to write what they are thankful for. Vivi said she is thankful for a happy heart, Journey is thankful for Halloween and Thanksgivings (she kept getting confused and wishing people a Happy Halloween :) and Jeb is thankful for Aunt Janelle, Thanksgiving, and Halloween too!
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