Merry Christmas, Happy birthday Jesus and let it snow!

"Merry christmas to my best buddy" Taylor would say. He and Alex are 2nd cousins and go to the same school. They are the type of friends that never get sick of each other. They both love Star Wars (can you tell?). Taylor was so excited to give Alex the clone outfit so they could be clones together. 

  

Our first Christmas morning together at our house! We usually stay at Thads parents house but with everyone having different schedules we decided to come home from grandma's Chrsitmas Eve party and wake-up at home. The kids had a blast and it reminded me of when I was a kid. We Sang Jesus happy birthday, read the last page of our "Jothom's Journey" Advent book and Luke chapter 2. We opened gifts, had a wonderfull breakfast and then realized it was time to go see a few of Thads family and then head to my sisters.

Happy Rose Bowl Mike!

We had our first snow! The kids were extatic when Thad said "get your snow pants on and lets go!" I haven't seen my kids move that fast before! What a great morning. We walk out our door to the hill in front of our house. Oh so nice. Thanks kids for a great day!

Thad yelled stop but it was too late!

She is such a trooper!

Sarah is done after a 4 1/2 hr surgery! What a trooper. She is waking up so much better and no sick tummy yet! She hates the tounge stich but owell. Here's to a good night. Our recovery room nurse was great! She brought Sarah an orange cup with monkeys on it! Her favoite color and we have called her monkey since day 1. She was so nice and said well that was lucky, I said something like: God knew just what to give her and used you to get it! I think she thought it was over the top but it was  great to recognize it for me.

Sarah is snoring the night away right now, good girl. He said the major hurtle is sleep apnea with all the swelling. I'm so thankfull for an o2 sat monitor!

Here she goes...

Sarah is in sugery now. What a brave girl. I think of 2 years ago tomorrow we hugged her into our family. I am thankfull for great hospitals and great staff. To think she did this in China 3 times by herself wow, brave girl. Today she: took her meds like a champ, talked to all the staff, and said she would save me some of the bubble gum breathing medicine. Lets hope for no getting sick tonight!

surgery day...

Sarah will have her surgery on Dec 16th. They will lengthen her palate, move some muscles in the top of her mouth, move her adniods a bit, and reposition the bar of tissue they made last year in the back of her throat. Last year her surgery was on the 15th. It was great to hear her sing jiggle bells last year after surgery so we hope this one will realy help her close off her nose and pronounce her s,t,d,g,h,k,q,w,x,z!

Let it snow, Let is snow, let it snow!

Thank you Cindy for the 2 dance dresses! Sarah absolutly loves them!

For a couple of days I tried to figure out why Taylor had put these 2 lego guys on the string climbing up (now I know they were going down)  and a lady lego piece ws at the top. As I was helping Taylor clean his room I went to take the tape off and move the guys. Talyor stoped me appauled that I would move them! He said, "Mom those are the guys trying to get out of the city and the lady with the red rope, who trusted God, let them out through her window with that red rope."I just couldn't take it down after that. The red rope is cinnamon dental floss! So the room is clean except for the lego men on the rope!

 

Here are some pictures of our Christmas Tree Hunting trip! Here we GO...

The tree was found and cut in record time even before the camera was out! So here are pics of sleading!

And here it is.... our tree 2009. The kids had a great time listening to Christmas music and hanging their decorations.

They adore the nativity set on the mantel. They turned baby Jesus around so, "his mommy and daddy can see him"!

I'll take it mom...

I'll just get it out of the way: we spank. I wasn't sure if I should write about this story since I don't want CSD at my door. But it does have a spank involved so I had to get it out there. We don't leave marks on our kids and it's a serious offense that warrents a spank at our house. When we do it's talked about before: what happened and why it warrents it.

Anyway. Tonight was one of those nights. To be honest I prefere time-outs, taking things away, loosing privilages way more than a spank. Sarah was the offender. I asked her several times to fess up and she had several stories trying to not fess up to the event; I think she almost had herself believing that I wasn't right there when it all happened! Anyway. So it was and as I told her that her consequence was a spank. As I told her to come to the kitchen Taylor said "mom I want to take her spank" I had to think about it. I told him it would not be an easy spank but that he could if he really wanted to. He said yes. The 3 of us went to the kitchen. I looked at Sarah and asked her if she was sure she wanted Taylor to take her spank; "yes mom" eyes to the ground. So he did and there were a few tears shed. I asked her what she wanted to do and she came over to Taylor hugged him and said thank you. More tears. More hugs.  Then off to bed they went.

I followed and we talked about consequences for actions. We talked about the fact that Jesus choose to take the consequences for our actions even before we asked him too, while we were still enjoying our wrongs (sin). We talked about things that are wrong, lying, stealing, just being selfish. We talked about how we all do those things (they were shocked to hear me say that mommy so struggles with those things) but that if we are honest and tell the truth and ask for forgivness it will happen. We talked about how Sarah saying thank you helped make them feel close as friends again.  "please forgive me" is one of the hardest but most healing phrases I know.

Sarah said thanks again to Taylor and I don't think he will be asking to "take her spank" again anytime soon!

we did it!

Sarah had her scope yeseterday. She did great, considering everything. We had practiced with rope licorice at home before hand. She had to have a small camera put up her nose and down her throat a short way. She had to say 100 or so words so they could get pictures and see what they need to do surgery on to get her palate to close effectivley. They first time they put the scope up it gave her a blood nose and hurt alot. They took it out and cleaned it and tried the other side. The Dr seemed more frustrated that the scope got blood on it than that it hurt Sarah as much as it did but I guess that is what they had the "child helper" with us. The helper was great and gave Sarah a big prize when she was all done and played with her before the scope to try to help her get ready for it. My mom had come for it and was able to watch Taylor while Thad and I were with Sarah. Thanks mom I didn't realize how much we needed you there!

Good job Sarah you did great!

Thank you!

Does anyone else still do thank you cards? I have my kids do them for birthdays in hopes that in some way (big or small) they will be a bit more grateful that people thought of them. What do you do to help with with that? I'd love the ideas. Thanks, Becky

Here is a better pic of Sarah in her "I am 5!" dress

I AM 5!

Sarah is so excited that she is 5! She now feels like she can take anything on. It's so cute!

For her party she wore a new dress that a friend picked up from China for us, thank you Tara. Dora is her fav so we went with it including a mommy invented Dora party game where the kids went "Down the stairs, through the tent, and around the table" to find their treats. Sarah got to be Dora and she was taking her friends around to find the friends prizes; they all loved it what a hoot! We did the game 3 times since they loved it so much. Here are a few pics from it.

fall, tea partys, school starts, harvest full swing

Sarah loves to bat her eyes and beg "Taylor please let's have a tea party". Tea party's are not often in our house because most of the time Sarah wants to be "Darth Vader" yikes! Her choices are more a testament to the fact that she wants to play with her brother. Every once in awhile she get an itch for the girly things in life and Taylor doesn't mind being apart of it at all in fact he realy enjoys the cookies and tea. They drink kids tea that Sarahs Chinese "Aunt Kelly" brought her. When I have tea in the mornings she asks for her tea too.

Here is a picture from their first day of school. They were so excited. They checked their bags and their hair to make sure everything was just right. We started them in different school (same as last year). A couple of weeks into school they asked to go to the same school. We figured they didn't know what they were asking for but Thad and I prayed and weighed the pros and cons again and made the switch. They are in the same classroom! Sarah in K4 3 days a week and Taylor in Kindergarten 5 days a week. We've made it through 2 weeks and so far so good. The class is good for Sarah in that she knows alot of the kids and they can understand her.

She is shuch a goof ball. Sarah will be having surgery later this month. It's going to be a bigger surgery this time and a couple of days in the hospital. She is a trooper and I'm sure she will be back to her goofy self in no time. We told her that we will go to Chuckie Cheese resturant when she gets out.

Taylor was climbing the walls so we headed out to the fish hatchery. It was the first day that we have had as a family for weeks so it was nice to do something fun. The kids enjoyed identifying different types of salmon and feeding the trout and ducks. The salmon are spawning so we got to watch them in huge numbers make it up the creek by the hatchery. Sarah counted the dead ones and Taylor counted the live ones, what fun they had. they enjoyed "talking" to Herman the 70yr old steargon. What a great day.

Fish hatcheries are great places to take family pictures. The grounds are beautifull and full of flowers this time of year.

random summer updates...

We started the summer with Taylor's 6th birthday. He wanted to wear all white to be like a clone trooper. We had a great time! He loved his clone trooper helmet he got as a gift. Most of all he felt so special that his Oma and Opa came for the party. Opa and Taylor love to tell stories to each other and Sarah does Oma's hair.




Here are a few pictures of our "princess". Most of the time we see the "fair lady" every once in a blue moon we see the grumpy "I need a nap" sleeping beauty and then the princess transforms into a rock-n-roll or county queen. We love to experience them all!

We went to horse camp again this year. The kids had a count down to it. Both kids repacked their bags several times waiting for the day. Sarah was much more into what was in her bag to wear and Taylor into what toys he was bringing.

Sarah loves the horses! she could hardly wait to ride. When she got up she gave me a "go ahead and leave me for hours I've got this mom" look. She was co content up there. I got to go on a trail ride and Thad even went on one too. Taylor rode his bike all around camp and enjoyed hanging with the camp kids that live there. It was such a sad day when we had to leave.

This is the "pond" at camp. The kids swam in it several days. It was so muddy gross. I cringed when they got in!

Here are a few pictures from Taylor's last day of school (June 2009). We are so thankful for his teacher. She is such a wonderful lady and such a blessing to us. She encouraged Taylor so much and he loves her zest for animals and art. Taylor is wearing the hat she had all the kids make for the last day. On the top of the hats they decorated them with their favorite craft supplies.

I took pictures for a wedding that Thad and I went too. We asked someone to take a shot of us. It's the only recent picture we have. Someday I'll train Taylor to snap a few shots.