Oh Christmas Tree

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We had a happy Christmas here. The kids had us up promptly at 5:15 am. with eagar anticipation. Christmas 2006 will be remembered at our house as the year of the Christmas tree. It was definitely NOT our year for Christmas trees! As I posted previously, our first tree promptly died soon after it entered our humble abode. Our new tree has been proudly adorning our living room for the past 3 weeks or so. Well, proudly standing until Christmas morning that is. Right in the middle of the frenzied unwrapping our brightly decorated tree decided to just.... fall over.........YES, fall over right in the middle of all the festivities! Standing one minute and flat on it's side the next.... a huge PLOP promptly followed by a loud GASP of six voices in unison. Luckily no one was injured by the tumble, but we sure did have a lot of water, ornaments, candy canes and needles mixed with all of our red and green wrapping paper, bows and boxes. Tom managed to quickly get the half naked tree back upright where it belongs. We all laughed, made a brief pause and continued with the task at hand with our half naked tree in the corner with a big box of ornaments nearby. Our tree has provided us with lots of memories this year that we will surely talk about for years to come!

Christmas Preparations

We spent today on Christmas preparations. I just love this time of year! Much of our time today was spent in the kitchen baking and listening to Christmas music. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all are basking in the warmth and love of your families. I know we are feeling truly blessed here.
Much Love,
Wendy

Puzzle Masters :)

A few days ago I was busy addressing Christmas cards. Isaac was being very adamant about wanting to get out our USA puzzle. I was resisting getting out the puzzle because I wanted to complete as many Christmas cards as possible and I knew that if I got the puzzle out it would likely end up all over the floor and I would end up having to put it together myself because it is quite complicated for a 3 year old. Isaac was very persistent and I finally relented and got the puzzle out. I continued on with my Christmas cards while Isaac got to work on the puzzle. Gracie soon woke from her nap and was busy with the puzzle along with Isaac. Before I knew it they had totally completed the entire puzzle without an ounce of help from me! I was one impressed Mama! :)

Love,
Wendy

Gracie Funny!

It is 42 degrees here this morning and our snow is all melted. When we walked outside to take the kids to school Gracie declared, "It's HOT out here. Can we eat watermelon today?" LOL!! She is officially a true Michigander! ;)

Wendy

Happy Birthday Heidi Jo!

I'm feeling a bit sentimental today. Today my baby girl turned 13! How can that be? My beautiful girl made me a Mama on this day 13 years ago. Heidi was adopted domestically, so I remember the day very vividly!! We had struggled and waited so extremely long for our daughter. But, boy was she SO worth all those years of struggle and waiting!! It truly is amazing how all of the anxiety and hardship can just literally melt away in an instant when you see your sweet one's face. I'm so very proud of the person that Heidi is and I am beginning to see glimpses of the woman that she will become. I am absolutely bursting with love for my girl. I know that God has very special plans for her. I'm quite certain that God was smiling on this day 13 years ago.......He was smiling on the day that sweet Heidi Jo was born.

Pics from Thanksgiving

Here are a few pictures that we took while we were in KY celebrating Thanksgiving with my family.

The whole clan. :)

The kids on the trampoline.

Gracie and Avery taking a bubble bath

For some reason I still just can't post pictures on Jacob's birthday post. So, here are a few birthday pics. ;)

Christmas Tree.....Take Two

Last Saturday we all headed out on the hunt for the perfect tree to bring home to become our Christmas tree for the year. It didn't take us long to find just the right tree and get it cut and loaded into the truck. A stop for hot chocolate for all of us and we were on our way home with our find.

Tom had to spend a few days away from home last week taking a class. So, we decided that we would wait until he returned to decorate the tree. The day after we cut the tree Tom took it out of the truck and cut the end of the tree off so that it could suck up water well. He put it in the stand and gave it a big drink and put in on our back screened in porch. That night it got extremely cold leaving the water in the tree stand a solid block of ice. So we brought the tree into the house where it stood naked for the next several days while Tom was away. Within a few days the needles began to drop off the tree and by the time Tom got home the tree was extremely dry and well on it's way to total death. UGH!! We KNOW it was fresh because we cut it oursleves just one week ago. All we can figure is that we put it into shock when it was sitting in the ice??




So, we headed down to our local grocery and picked up a tree that was leaning against the outside of the building and brought it home to become our Christmas tree for the year 2006. We had a ball decorating it last night and it is a beautiful tree. :) Our 1st tree is lying out back on the burn pile. Just think of the weeny roast we will have this spring with the help of TWO dried up Christmas trees.







Love,
Wendy