Whoa...back up

Now that the month is halfway over (yikes!) I s'pose that I should back up a bit and at-least post the photos from Luke's birthday and New Years Eve. ;) Sorry for the delay!

New Year's Eve
For the first time I think ever, Ty and I had the opportunity to dress up and go out on the town for NYE this year! Sometime back in November, we were invited by Ty's friend Goose to go down to Long Beach and celebrate the dawning of a new year in style at the Mai Tai bar where Goose is the manager. So, one little black dress, a pair of new black heels and a not-so-short car ride later, we arrived in Long Beach that night, just in time to watch a world-record breaking stunt jump by Travis Pastrana. Super cool! The area around the pier was PACKED with people! It felt like our own little rendition of the excitement in Times Square! Lol! The loads of people, ba-zillion lights and helicopters flying overhead really made the night buzz with excitement as we walked the 1/2 mile or so to the bar from where we parked. After we watched the jump (we actually listened to it more than we saw it. We watched via the massive screens that were put there for the throngs of people, since the crowds prevented us from actually seeing the pier), we squeezed our way through the crowds to the bar. Goose had graciously reserved a little cabana-style booth for his little entourage (there were about 10 of us there in total) and we enjoyed the rest of the evening sipping martini's (responsibly of-course, since we had a long drive home!), yelling our conversations over the loud band, eating appetizers, and just having fun! The bar was standing room only (except for us who had that great booth!) by the time midnight rolled around and it was SO much fun to be a part of such a crowd to ring in the new year! An awesome memory, for sure!

Unfortunately, our camera is much too big to lug around to an event like that, and Ty's pictures from his phone didn't turn out very well, so we don't exactly have photographic memories of the night. Only these few shots that Ty's brother took of us at home just before we left. :)






A late Christmas & Luke's Birthday
The day after New Year's, we celebrated a late Christmas here at our house with my parents, Jenn and the girls. It was such an awesome get-together! Grandma and Grandpa graciously bought Luke and Ellie a brand new trampoline for Christmas this year, so we got it all put together in time for the kids to enjoy it that day. The kids were SO excited to help put it together and jump for the first time!




Ty's Bill Cosby look after taste-testing some Heman Chocolate chip cookies I brought out to them while they worked! :)


My big 5 year old!






Testing it out!


And they ALL spent hours on it the day we had Christmas!


Jenn's girls received a new Wii as their gift and after it was too dark to jump outside on the trampoline anymore, we all gathered in the family room to play Wii for hours together! It was truly one of the best Christmases we've had together as a family! So fun to just be together, playing games and laughing! Good times!

Luke's 5th birthday was the following day. (Phew...a busy weekend for sure!) We do birthday parties with friends and such every other year around our house, and this year was a party year! Luke chose JumpZone for his party destination and was over the moon about his big day! It was all he could talk about for the two weeks leading up to it! Even Christmas paled in comparison at times to the excitement of sitting in the 'kings chair' at JumpZone on his birthday!

Here's a run down of the day via photographs...we started with birthday hats first thing (per Luke's request), followed by his favorite chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and then it was off to the party!











He was so excited to get his wristband!








Luke and his little buddy from school and church...


Ellie being brave & climbing the tallest slide






Pizza & cake time!






The long-awaited King's Chair!






Happy birthday, Bubba! You, who were once so tiny and delicate, have grown into this vivacious, sweet,silly, creative, dirt-loving, bike-riding, bible-reading, music-loving, energetic, well-mannered little boy who is the apple of my eye and the giggle in my heart! Thank you for the ways you humble me, make me laugh and bring so much joy to our family! We love you so much, Luke!

Procrastination...

....seems to be the name of the game today! I set out this morning with a strong mindset to shampoo our downstairs carpets after a teeny accident our lovely four-legged friend had last night. But somehow, in the midst of moving furniture and setting things up, Ellie ended up bare-bun'd while trying to change from her jammies into play clothes. ;) Those little buns just get me every time! I love 'em and I got a crazy idea to photograph her. Which, of-course, led to MORE photo and lots of playing, and before I knew it, over an hour had passed. THEN, I just HAD to photoshop them, and now, sit for another hour to finish them up and post them here. On the to-do list of life today, there are certainly so many other things to get done, but enjoying my babies has been WAY more fun!

Grandpa bought a little crown and wand for Ellie on a whim at the end of Luke's birthday party (which, I still promise to post pictures of soon!). Every time she wears them now, she talks about how he bought them for her and how she is his princess. :) So...this one is for you, Dad!

And here are my second two loves of my life!

I just LOVE how they have the exact same expression in that one! My heart squeezes looking at them here!

Anyway....just wanted to share. And I'll have you know that I did get those carpets done in the end. ;)

A little video

So I think I'm just going to have to do this a little bit at a time. Something is better than nothing, right?

Luke had his Christmas program at school last month and I was never able to post the video I took because...well...my video camera decided to do some funky blurry thing (which it has never done before) the very moment that Luke was on stage. Seriously people...you KNOW me and you have to know that I tested out the camera before he even entered the building to make sure it was working properly. Lol! It was. And it was even working just fine so that I could tape him walking with his class down the church isle to his seat. But for whatever reason, it decided to putz out on me JUST for his performance. I nearly cried. I was so upset! Afterall, it was his LAST preschool Christmas program. Next year he is off to kindergarden. So of-course you can guess what happened mere moments after he returned to his seat....yup. It started working fine again. Argh! Anyway....my friend's Laila and Patrick got GREAT video of thier son Ethan, who just so happened to be standing right next to Luke and graciously shared it with me! Thank you, guys!

Enjoy their little song! I had to giggle at Luke and how nervous he was! I think he's the only one who wouldn't dance! :) Sorry for the video quality too...OneTrueMedia unfortunately warps the quality. If you can't tell, Luke is second from the end. :)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Maybe....

...if I tell you that I promise to be back soon to recap my precious son's birthday, a festive start to the new year and to share the gazillion pictures I have for you, I will actually do it?? Here's to hoping! ;) Lol!

Soon....friends...soon!

Christmas Recap

Ahhh....the day after Christmas! Most people spend the day shopping...we spent the day together as a family, resting and recuperating. That is after we both got our training runs in for the day. I had my longest run to date today...13 miles! I can now officially say I am feeling fairly well prepared for the race in a little over a month! Ty is quickly gaining on my mileage too, and despite illness and injury, is also doing really well with all this training! I am so proud of us! I can honestly say that a year ago I would have never dreamed I could accomplish what I did today, but what an awesome thing it is to know that we really can do anything we put our minds too!

As for Christmas, we had SUCH a blessed few days! We spent Christmas Eve visiting Ty's grandma in the morning and then his aunts, uncles, cousins, Mom & brother in the later afternoon/evening for dinner and dessert. Luke and Ellie were so well-behaved and I loved just sitting around all of his family, listening to the stories his aunt's and mom shared and soaking in some time together. It was late when we finally arrived home and got the kids into bed so that Santa could come. They were both super excited for what was to come the next morning as we picked out just the right cookies and snacks for Santa and the reindeer. I think this year has been, by far, my favorite Christmas with the kids! They are at perfect ages to enjoy the magic of this season! I delighted myself in each little expression and remark they made as they opened presents and marveled at how lucky I am to be able to share in their joy. This Christmas, Ellie and Luke were my gifts. Being together, sharing in the joy of all that Christmas is was more than enough to fill my heart! I (we) are so blessed!

I took a few minutes before we left the house on Christmas Eve to take a few portraits of the kids all dressed up and looking rather spiffy! Luke has this silly thing about wearing collared shirts and "nice" clothes, so it is rare these days to see him all cleaned up. I didn't even bother buying him anything special for the occasion because of this. Ellie, on the other hand, LOVES getting 'pretty'. She is my little girl, down to the core. She was thrilled that I let her wear the special tiny, beaded bracelet that she received from a friend of our when she was born, and she was indignant if her hat fell off or got messed up somehow! Lol! Sweet Ellie!











Ty says Ellie looks sad here, but I liked the photo anyway. It just feels sweet and thoughtful to me. I like it :)





Aren't they darling?! I love them so much it makes my heart hurt!!!!

Aside from those, I really didn't take many photos this Christmas. We actually took more video than pics. Unfortunately though, sharing those will have to wait for another day. Sorry!

Here are just the last couple pictures to share. Luke on his new green bike he asked Santa for and the rock-star guitar he hasn't put down!


And Ellie just being her cute self Christmas morning...


And finally, just a quick shot before we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out our birthday candles on Christmas evening after dinner.


What a wonderful Christmas!

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Quick Angel Update:

First off, I am so sorry I forgot to post on the day of his surgery! The surgery went well, from what I know. The doctors removed his small intestine, though had to keep his ostomy (the connection from his large intestine to the outside of his body) which is not what Nick & Sarah had hoped for. Angel seems to be showing much improvement in terms of pain and overall illness however. Sarah, I'm sure is absolutely swamped, so updates are sparse, but she did post a photo of Angel today. He looked phenomenal...up and out of bed, playing with his new toys and feeling fairly well today! It warmed my heart to see him via the web! He is certainly the strongest little boy I know...a fighter to his core! Just a reminder for all of you Facebookers, please feel free to join the group Angel's Wings on FB if you would like more regular updates. Its a public group and you can keep up on his progess from there, as I'm not always able to post regularly on the blog! :) I thank each of you again for your continued prayers for Angel! They are working for sure!