2009 Wrap Up

What a year!
January 2009 - Eric found a jawbreaker in the ductwork in the van...Now where would that have come from? Will's JRA flared.
February 2009 - Will shoots & scores as he LOVES YMCA basketball.
March 2009 - We adopted our Compassion son from India - Vijaya Pandi. Soccer started with snow still on the ground.
April 2009 - Several trips to DM as we said goodbye to a dear friend and were blessed by his last days. Morgan turned 2!
May 2009 - My mom retired. We had a great visit to Des Moines with my family including my grandparents.
June 2009 - Will finished Kindergarten and started Summer School. Mommy worked lots of hours rolling standards. We celebrated our country's birthday with the Freedom Festival Parade.
July 2009 - We had a wonderful time at the lake with my sister & fam and my mom but missed Eric terribly. Will surfboarded!
August 2009 - Will turned 7! We took our ill-advised trip to Chicago but the CUBS WIN! Will started 1st grade, soccer and flag football.
September 2009 - Morgan rode in an ambulance. Thankfully it turned into a happy ending. Eric got a new job!!
October 2009 - I'm engaged to marry the man of my dreams. Thank you for loving me my sweet. We had a clown and a fighter pilot for a chilly Halloween.
November 2009 - Our 1st Thanksgiving together in DM at my mom's. Lots of good food and fun! oh, and shopping :)
December 2009 - Our 1st Christmas together engaged! My first Christmas without the kids. Grateful for so many blessings and looking forward to 2010.

We praise God for the blessings and challenges that he has given us and brought us through this year. We're grateful for the hope and promise of the year to come.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Praise God for His precious Son!

And the time just flies by...

It's been a busy couple of weeks! It seems like with last minute shopping, lots of time with the kids and snow, snow, snow the time has flown. December 8th & 9th we had a BIG blizzard with 12 inches of snow and very high winds. Rockwell hasn't closed in my time here (~10 years) but was closed on the 9th. We stayed inside, watched movies, baked cookies and fudge, and had lots of fun time together! Then came the sickness. First Morgan had a brief (Thankfully!!) bout with the stomach flu. She was sick once and then all was well! If only my time with it had been as simple. I had it for the next two days and didn't venture outside the house during that time. I finally started to rebound on Saturday only to have Will come down with strep throat. Finally, I think we are all well in time for the holidays. Yesterday, we wrapped packages and got things set up under the Christmas tree. The kids are spending Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with their dad, so I'm hoping that these couple of days are relaxing and restful for Eric & me, even if we will miss the kiddos. We're planning to have our Christmas together on Saturday when they get home and then will head to Des Moines to visit my family on the 28th. We saw John & Karen last weekend for dinner and hope to celebrate the holidays with them over New Year's weekend after they return from Vail. Eric & I are so blessed to have the Dec 24th - Jan 1 off from work. Yep, we're SPOILED!

SNOW DAY!

Today is a snow day and to hear the weathermen, the world might be ending as well. :) We are home in our jammies watching movies while Mommy's working some. I'm glad we don't have to be out in the yuck today! A few pictures from our weekend...

If you're gonna be a bear...

BE A GRIZZLY! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Making pumpkin bars...

I think Eric's not sure :)

Our outside decoration "Frosty" who became a sun porch decoration after he couldn't stand up in the wind.

Hanging out with Eric Loving movies in their fort on the floor in Mom's room

Dancing to the Wiggles

The thing about faith...

The thing about faith is it’s not about what you want. It’s a confidence that God won’t give you any challenge you can’t handle….you just don’t know what that limit is.