CHRISTMAS!

We had a very fruitful Christmas thanks to our wonderful ward! The relief society president called me a month before Christmas asking me if it was okay to put our family on the giving tree this year, we've been struggling financially for a few years and they know of our situation and wanted to help us have a Christmas. I of course said no and urged her to use some other family in need but she didn't listen and so a week before Christmas we went to her house and picked up four garbage bags full of gifts! So with that and the gifts from grandparents and the few that we bought our tree was stuffed with presents. As much as we appreciate it we feel bad at the same time because we don't feel that we're missing out on anything despite our financial situation and we just feel that somebody else was more deserving of all those gifts. It did make our Christmas very special and we hope that someday we can make Christmas extra special for someone else. We were also supposed to go to Utah to spend Christmas with Brock's family but it didn't work out because of cost. Since having Joshua we've been unable to get a car that seats our whole family so we were going to rent a van. Did you know it costs 14-1600 hundred dollars to rent a van!! INSANE!!! There was no way we could do that so we missed being with family but still enjoyed our Christmas very much and are so grateful for everyone who made it special.

Joshua at 2-3 months!

I know I promised pictures and these aren't up to date but these were taken a few weeks after he started smiling so I thought I'd share them and I will, at some point, get some more recent ones up!

Brithdays!!

Kiera turned 4 on Novemver 13 and Kayla turned 5 on December 12 and we didn't celebrate their birthdays on the same night but because we did exactly the same entertainment for both I have choosen to post them together.It was very laid back and low key. We didn't even have a bunch of friends come over this year. The Wurstens did attend and we ate dinner together, opened presents, ate cake, and went swimming.

We had so much fun with both birthdays and love our girls so much! I can't believe we have a 5 year old!! They are growing so fast and we love the individual talents and blessings they bring into our home and add to our family.

I'm Grateful For....

Both Hands! 3-4 years ago I fell on my wrist and had an excruciating amount of pain. I did not go to the doctor because it didn't swell or turn bluish black so I figured whatever happened would work itself out. Well the pain continued to get worse over the course of a few years and a bump appeared on the top of my wrist. A year ago I went to the doctor to have it x-rayed and although the x-ray showed nothing the doctor believed it was a ganglion cyst so to be sure she sent me to a wrist doctor. Well, being pregnant with Joshua, I was unable to get to the specialist but about a month ago I finally made it in and sure enough it was a ganglion cyst, which is just a fluid filled sac that plants itself between the joints most commonly the wrist and hands. 10 days ago I had it surgically removed and had to wear a cast. The cast came off yesterday and though my wrist and hand aren't yet that functional and I'll have to do a month of physical therapy to get it working fully again I am sooooo glad to have both hands free again! The doctor had to chisel some of the wrist bone out in order to get the root of the cyst to lessen the chances of it growing back so my wrist is swollen and my hand is bruised so, because of the pain and discomfort, I was unable to use my hand as a support to pick things up, change diapers, load kids in the car, cook, clean, drive, and anything else. It was a very frustrating and interesting 10 days. And it was only 10 days and I'm grateful for that and I've never appreciated both hands more than I do now!

THANKSGIVING

This year we got to enjoy the company of my two sisters, Sarah and Rachel, and my brother, RJ. It's rare that our whole family or even some of our whole family is ever together at the same time anymore so having all the siblings minus one was a lot of fun. The weather has been warm for this time of year so the kids got to enjoy some trampoline wrestling with Uncle RJ and flips with Aunt Sarah. They got to do the fingernail painting with Aunt Rachel and all of us enjoyed swimming at our rec center on 3 different occasions.

Brock and RJ fearlessly headed out to our wards annual Turkey Bowl Thanksgiving morning.RJ came home with a nice bruise on his back side and Brock's still complaining about how sore he is but they still managed to maneuver around the roof to get our Christmas lights up! After that it was football, football, football and then.....TURKEY! And I was so excited because this year I managed to do it right and it was yummy. We really enjoyed our holiday and are so thankful for our friends and family that make these times so special

4 MONTHS!

On November 25th Joshua turned 4 months. He is 16 1/2 lbs. and 25 inches long (50-75th percentile for both). He likes playing with his feet, chewing on his toys, sitting up in his bumbo, sucking his tongue (very interesting looking and hard to do), jumping up and down, playing pat-a-cake, and laughing at his goofy sisters. He has struggled with acid reflux and colic which has made things difficult but he is such a joy and despite the extra challenges he's brought time is still moving too fast. He is such a blessing and we love him to pieces. I'll have to post some pictures later.

BYU vs. Airforce

On November 15 we went to the BYU vs. Airforce game up in Colorado Springs. We drove up with our friends Jeff and Jamie and then met up with another couple, Curtis and Jen, once we got there. We were at the 50 yard line and only like 10 rows up. The weather was perfect, sunny and 55-60 degrees. It was a close first half and BYU was making us nervous but they came through in the second with a final score of 38-24. Before the game ever started Airforce had their jets do a fly by and poor Joshua got so scared from the noise. He freaked out and was difficult the whole first half so I missed most of that but by the time the second half started he had passed out. THANKFULLY!! Here are some pictures from the game.

HALLOWEEN '08

WOW! I can't believe how long it's taken me to do this. So Halloween this year was pretty uneventful but still fun. We had our traditional chili and very greasy, buttery, and oh so yummy bread sticks and then headed out for lots and lots of candy. Last year Halloween was soooo cold that the girls wanted to come home after like 5 houses so this year I made sure their costumes were very warm.

Of course it ended up being like 50 degrees and the girls wanted to come home because they were too hot. Oh well, we at least managed to make it to more than 5 houses and candy was everywhere for the next 7 days and then they went through very cranky withdrawls. It was fun and the girls are still talking about what they want to be next year. Kayla was a kitty, Kiera a "toodle" (poodle), Ella a dinosaur, and Joshua a dragon.