Christmas 2013!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Our House to Yours!

A Special Day With Jonathan!

Jonathan is home, briefly, from Ft. Rucker, Alabama, and we were able to have a nice dinner with him on Sunday.  He requested Mexican - so has Courtney.  Apparently the South is not known for their authentic Mexican food!

We attempted to take pictures in the parking lot, which didn't make for the most beautiful background.  Also, it was incredibly sunny and we were all squinting from the glare!

Jonathan also came to our evening church service with us before he had to leave.  It was so good to see him again!  He will be getting his orders after Christmas and he is hoping to go to either Germany or Korea!  So it could be quite a while before we see him again.

'Twas the Week Before Christmas.......

We are so enjoying having Courtney home for this Christmas season!  Isn't she beautiful?

Our table is more full once again.......

The little boys are beyond excited that Courtney is home once again.

Isaac, Joshua and I went to the library today while David was at basketball practice, and the librarians let them them pick out a book from under the tree!

David is already enjoying his Christmas vacation.  He still has basketball practice now and again, but he is relaxing while playing Axis and Allies - his favorite "take-over-the-world-game"!!

Christmas cookies are in-process, and we are hoping to take some to the "extended care" patients at the hospital on Monday...........when Rachel is on duty!

It was so good to hear these girls laughing and giggling the other night as they were painting their nails!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas week as you remember the birth of Christ!

Daily Life...........At Our House!

Isaac is almost two weeks post-surgery and he is doing wonderfully!  After a few days of pain and swelling, he was pretty much back to his perky little self!  He still has glue across the stitches area and the doctor said that the lip would be "tight" for a bit.  But it's amazing that all the bumpy scar tissue from the original surgery is completely gone!

Isaac is always in motion...........it's a good thing we are homeschooling, because this is how he does most of his work.  Not so sure this would be good classroom posture, even for a kindergartner!

Here's Joshua......always sitting nice and straight, with his legs on the floor!

David was out chopping wood for our wood stove and decided to give Isaac a few lessons!

Speaking of David, we attended the high school's winter orchestra concert last night.  It was quite good and David looked very dashing in his suit and bow tie!  Rachel came to the concert right after she got off work at the hospital.......doesn't she look sweet in her scrubs?

David likes to have fun with the little boys.  Here he is modeling his Cubbies vest - from many years ago.  Isaac and Joshua were in hysterics!

For my parents in Florida..................we are still enjoying the Christmas train that you gave us all those years ago!  Isaac and Joshua are enthralled with it and I hear "All aboard!" throughout the day!

The kittens are doing well and are still very friendly.  Hopefully they will keep the mouse population at a minimum this winter!

Well, excitement is running high at our house, because tomorrow morning Courtney is flying in for Christmas!  Can't wait to see her and have some special family time!!

Isaac's Lip Surgery

For those of you who don't know, Isaac was born with a cleft lip and a cleft palate.  His lip was repaired in China - an "okay" job, according to the surgeon.  He had his palate repaired in 2010 and the doctor did a magnificent job on it.  Yesterday's surgery was more to tidy up the scar tissue on the lip, re-position the nostril, and bring up the right side of his upper lip.

Boy, did he have fun BEFORE surgery!  All sorts of surprises, nurses and doctors being silly with him.  It was a great time and the hospital staff went out of their way to make him comfortable with what was happening.

The surgery lasted about two hours and the surgeon said that everything went really well.  Isaac's lip is very swollen and he has quite a bit of pain, but he is tolerating it pretty well.  He slept through the night last night, which did him......and the rest of us, a world of good.  Fortunately, all the stitches are dissolvable and we go back to see the doctor in two weeks.

I'll post more follow-up pictures as the weeks progress and the healing is more dramatic.  So glad that we have this behind us..........................!!!

Thanksgiving Eve Day

Joe had to travel on Thanksgiving this year, so we decided to celebrate a day early.  Our family's tradition has always been to open our home to church/work friends who don't have any family nearby.  We usually have a decent crowd each year, but we were concerned that no one would come to celebrate with us a day early!  But we were wrong!  We had a great crowd - close to 45 people all together!  The food was spectacular and the fellowship was just what we all needed.

My pictures did not turn out very well - too much glare everywhere I turned......plus, I was so busy I almost forgot to take a few photos.  Anyway, here are the photos of our day!

David was very concerned that there would not be enough mashed potatoes!  However, Mrs. Wilford came through with 20 lbs. - plenty to go around.  Here is David on round two......or was it three?

Later in the evening, after the bonfire where everyone who went out was FROZEN, the young people had a rousing game of cards.  I have no idea what they were playing but there sure was a lot of hooting and hollering going on in there!  (What are they?  older kids?  young adults?  teen and post-teens?)

My Thanksgiving Eve started out very stressful.  Isaac had been complaining of severe stomach pains since Monday morning.  I took him into the ER that afternoon, convinced that he had appendicitis.  However, all the tests they ran came back negative.  We struggled through Tuesday, and late Tuesday night (11:30 pm to be exact)  Rachel and I drove him into Tucson to TMC because Isaac was still in so much pain.  We spent the entire night there, they ran more tests, and again nothing showed up.  We arrived back home at 6:30 am and I was able to get a quick hour nap before preparing for our guests.  I was running on adrenalin most of the day until about 8:00 when it hit me.  But Isaac was in so much misery, crying, most of the day - my heart was broken for him.

He has slept through the night the last two nights and seems to be feeling better.  He is eating more, and playing with Joshua, but still complains now and again about his stomach.  We are praying for a complete recovery for him!

Anyway, celebrating on Thanksgiving Eve may become a new tradition for us.  It allowed some families to join us that would have been celebrating with their own families on Thanksgiving Day.  We all had a wonderful time  - we have much to be thankful for, for sure!  

Random Happenings..............

Last week, Isaac and I had a visit to our dentist.  Rather than drag Joshua along (who was cavity free, by the way), I checked with Miss Amanda to see if she would be willing to watch him.  The boys still talk about when Miss Amanda stayed with us for a few days, and always ask when she can come visit again!  Anyway, Isaac was none too pleased to have been left out of this fun by going to the dentist, but he handled it well. Looks like big sister, Ashley even got in on the fun!

Some serious work seems to be going on around this tree. Love the Home Depot apron!

Boy, look at that smile!  Having lunch on the steps with Miss Ashley!

Thanks, girls, for making Joshua feel so special!  So, here is Isaac at the dentist office looking cheery!

David's been doing a lot of brush-hogging (mowing) lately, and is really improving on his driving skills!

Flags flying high as the boys and I were in the parking lot of the high school waiting for David one afternoon.

The kittens are doing well and are growing nicely.  Snowball, the white one, like to be in the food bowl, which makes it rather tricky for the other two.

A special present came in the mail from big sister Courtney!  We just started reading Pinnochio and the illustrations are magnificent!

Well, those are some random happenings at our house this past week.    I'll end with this shot of the beautiful harvest moon as it came up over the mountains.