Our Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope it was filled with laughter and meaning for all of you. Ours was great, but a little busy this year. We headed down to Kansas City again this year to be with my family, so we did our own little Christmas at home before we left. It felt a little rushed since we fit it in between Craig's volleyball practice and my preparations for the trip, but the girls still enjoyed it. I keep hoping that one of these years we can start making some traditions of our own at home to make the day extra special, but I never seem to have time to plan any extra little fun things, so we just end up opening presents and then rushing out of town. One of these years I'll figure something out.

We had a great time with my family and all the cousins! The girls just played and played and played! We also had time for a family music recital (all the kids played their instruments) and Nana's annual Christmas story.









On Christmas day we had a blizzard hit the entire midwest, so we ended up staying in Kansas City for one extra day. The drive home was slower than usual, but we made it safely home on the Saturday after Christmas. Then, on that Sunday, I got the call that my grandfather had passed away. He had celebrated his 90th birthday in October and was really struggling, so it is a blessing that he is now in Heaven, fully healed. So, that Tuesday we packed up the van again and returned to Kansas City for the funeral. I was more concerned about the 2nd trip since the girls (especially Kendall) were still tired from the first trip, but they all did very well. Kendall did especially well, which was so great since I was busy with family (AND I got a stomach virus, so I was throwing up the day of the funeral!). It was pretty crazy, but we made it and enjoyed being with family to say goodbye to my grandfather.

Here's my dear Papa, 3 years ago with Ashlyn.

We love you, Papa.

Look Who's Smiling!

I love it when she flashes that smile at us! It's starting to happen a bit more frequently now, and it is fun. Kendall is doing really well. We still struggle with her needing to be held any time she's awake (she's not really content to just sit and watch yet), but she's doing fantastic at night, which is a huge blessing. It'll just get better and better from here. Within the next month or two she'll hopefully start interacting with us more and more, and then the girls will LOVE playing with her. They already smother her a bit. :)

Snowed In!

Winter is definitely here! Today is our 2nd snow day! We received 10 inches of snow, blizzard like conditions, and now sub-zero temps, so we're staying in. It's been a blessing for me cause I had a lot of projects to get done, and having Craig home has allowed me to work on some of them (like updating this blog!)

One of the projects that we tackled this year was to make some Christmas goodies for our neighbors. Craig and I still ended up doing most of the work, but the girls helped out a little bit, and really enjoyed eating them! That's all you need...a sugar high when you're cooped up in the house! What was I thinking!

Little Miss Jaclyn

I have been amazed at how much Jaclyn has learned this year in Kindergarten. It's like she hit a certain point of development, and her reading and writing has just taken off. It's really neat to witness her learning. She's reading all sorts of books and enjoys writing, just for the fun of it. Her teacher has done a great job of getting them to just sound out the words and write them as they hear the sounds (not necessarily correctly at this point), so Jaclyn has really taken to writing. One day last week Jaclyn had a little fever and woke up not feeling the best, so she wrote her Daddy this little note:


Jaclyn also had her first piano recital last Sunday. She played Rejoice in the Lord Always, God Is So Good, and the B-I-B-L-E. She was the first one to perform and when it was her turn, she walked right up there and started playing (no drama, yay! You never know what you're going to get with a 5 yr old). She played very well, and when it was done and people applauded, she flashed a huge smile and then curtsied. It was very cute. (Of course, Kendall decided to have a major blowout about 1 minute before it started, so Mom got to hold a stinky baby until Jaclyn performed. Yes, it got on me. Yuck!)

Just Pictures

2 1/2 Weeks!

Life with a newborn.
Hardly ever a dull moment, and if there is, you'll find me in my bed.

Where's Ashlyn?

Last night at around 10:30.
I had just finished feeding and putting Kendall to bed. I went about my normal routine of checking on the older girls, but when I approached Ashlyn's bed I noticed that she wasn't there. It's not unusual for us to find Ashlyn asleep in weird places, so I didn't think too much of it. I checked the top bunk, no Ashlyn, I checked our room, no Ashlyn. She couldn't have gone too far, right? Craig was downstairs, so I called down to him, "Where's Ashlyn?" So, he came up and we checked around a bit more. Finally, he thought to look under the bed, and there she was! There is hardly any space to squeeze under there, so that is one of the last places I would've looked, but she was there. As close to the wall as she could get. Neither Craig nor I could fit under there, so he managed to grab hold of the back of her pajamas and pull her out.
She slept through the whole thing.