Christmas 2008

Aunt Rebekah with her girls:)

Great-Grandma Freda and Isabella

Sadie and Elisabeth

Pap Pap and Bella

Huggin' cousins


Lucy Loo
Opening a present Christmas Eve


Aunt Rebekah and Elisabeth

Uncle Aaron, Aunt Rebekah, and Lucy

Uncle Aaron and Liam

Liam

Catherine, Aaron, and Dad

Sisters:)

Aaron sleeping in Rebekah's hat

Eating spaghetti

Watching videos on the iPhone

Sharing spaghetti

Happy 14 Years!!!

No explanation needed....

Lucy and Elisabeth

Shane and Aaron in their 'Christmas Vacation' clothing....worn only to Christmas Eve church.

Connors-Kos Family

Isabella, Pap Pap, and Liam

Nanny and Elisabeth

Nanny, Pap Pap and the kids....

Sleeping on Christmas Eve...

and Christmas morning...

Opening stockings...

Opening presents...

NOT AGAIN?!?!?!?!?!?!

Isabella is sick AGAIN!!! Her fever hit 105 degrees this afternoon while I was shopping. UGH! I am not looking forward to this winter. I think she should have a constant drip of antibiotics going into her little vein. Luckily, my sister (who is a nurse in Alaska) is here. She can keep me calm and Isabella hydrated:)

On a happier note...IT IS ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!! Shane, Aaron, and family arrive tomorrow afternoon:) I still haven't wrapped my gifts but at least they are all purchased. Rebekah and I took the girls to Canada yesterday to see our grandmother and cousins (J, J, and Sadie). We had a great time, even though it was tons of driving. Today Mom, Rebekah and I went to Rochester for lunch and then to the outlets to shop. I will miss my sister so much when she leaves Tuesday morning-it totally sucks that she has to work on Christmas;( She brought up a good point, though - in the 12 years she has been a nurse, she hasn't had to work one Christmas. Let's hope this is the first and last for another 12 years!

It's Almost Here!!!!!

My iPhone doesn't take great 'moving' shots....but this one was cute!

While we were waiting for the Polar Express, the kids made their own wrapping paper:)



A week from today will be CHRISTMAS!!!!! My absolutely, positively favorite time of the year. I love it so much that I decided to get married on Christmas Eve 14 years ago:) We will be leaving for home tomorrow afternoon-my sister is already there from Alaska and my 2 brothers, sister-in-law, and niece/nephew arrive on Monday. We will have 18 hours together before Rebekah has to leave. My fink-of-a-brother Blake, who only lives 4 hours away, isn't coming until AFTER Christmas. I am not at all happy with him. And he knows it. Being the oldest of 5, my happiest times are when we are all together - it usually happens every 2 or 3 years. Guess we will shoot for next year.

It will be especially great because all the grandchildren are at awesome ages. Lucy is 1, Bella is 2, and Liam is 3. I am sure there will be many slaps, punches, pushes, and hair pulls but it will all be worth it:) Sadie is also coming to visit and she turns 2 in January. Luckily, she is the docile one-hopefully she will rub off on the other 3. I promise to post lots of pictures:)

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

"I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE TO SLEEP!"

No, that is not something I would say..for those of you who know me-I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to sleep. This was Isabella's mantra 2 nights ago, along with "I AM NOT GOING TO SHUT MY EYES!" Just ask me what time this was....go ahead, I dare you! IT WAS 11:45 PM!!! The kid could pull an all 'nighter' every night if she had to. I swear she is all tired out and ready for a nice long sleep and WHAM! she is wide awake and bouncing. Last night we pulled the tough love approach. I brushed her teeth, got her jammies on, read to her, and tucked her in to clean flannel sheets. She was falling for it until I got up to leave and she told me she was wanted to sleep in my bed. With that, I left the room and she cried for 2.5 hours. Screamed her bloody head off for 2.5 hours. Oh...except for the 10 minutes she escaped, got into our bed, and then called me from the upstairs phone to the downstairs one. Very funny. She was returned to bed where she continued to scream until after 11....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! That is all I have to say......

Sad news about Karin

After only 3 months of fighting her battle with cancer, Karin Faulkner died last night. If you want to read more about her struggle and her unwavering faith, please go to Karin's Updates. If you would like to read about their journey to their Vietnam babies, go to Journey to Our Babies.

Amazing happenings in our home....

1. Yes, you see it correctly...ELISABETH IS ACTUALLY READING!!!!! And, hold your breath people, she is reading WHILE she is eating dinner. And furthermore, it is the new book "Twilight" which is about 500 pages long!!! U N B E L I E V A B L E!!!!!


2. We finally discovered how to get Isabella to sleep. No explanation needed except that the box you see in the video is the toy box in our computer room and she climbed in there all by herself:)

Pictures from the weekend :)

Grateful....

In light of what is going on with Karin and her family, I felt the need to spend the entire day with the kids. I think we all take family and togetherness for granted. I think we get caught up in our every day lives and don't ever live like we should. Karin honestly thought that she would share many Christmases with her babies and look where she is.....we can pray for a miracle, which is what I am doing. I am going to try and look at each day as a gift from God-exactly what it is. We will never know how is His plan will unfold and we certainly can't go back and do things differently. Live for the moment.

Anyway, we got up yesterday, got dressed, and went downtown to have breakfast at the Corner Room with Santa. I don't think there is a year we have missed it. The kids grumbled and whined-all of which I ignored :) We got our favorite table and a picture with all of us with Santa (seeing that Bella HATES the magical man). Then we went and heard the Polar Express at the library and took a ride on the Polar Express to Santa's workshop where all the kids got to spend their special coin on a Christmas present (amazingly, this was all in a 20 foot radius-who knew Santa's workshop was in our town!!!!!). After that, we drove to our favorite restaurant in the next town-we used to go there all the time when I was pregnant for Elisabeth-I would throw up on the way, eat, and then throw up all the way home!!! Amazingly, she LOVED the spaghetti?!?!

All in all, we had a wonderful day as a family. I never stopped praying and thinking about Karin and what she is going to miss and what her children are going to miss. I am so grateful for what I have.....

Very sad news for another family.....

K. and her husband adopted their first son from Russia 4 years ago and upon returning home from Vietnam where they adopted their 2nd son, K. was diagnosed with kidney cancer. She had had back pain for many years but didn't realize it was anything serious. Unfortunately it had spread to her bones.

She started treatment immediately and has had some very good days but got extremely sick at the beginning of this week and was hospitalized. Today her husband, via his blog, tells us that her liver has failed, her heart and kidney have mostly failed and not recovered. The kidney doctor said in all his years he has never seen such a strong patient fade so rapidly and he cried.

She is on a respirator and sedated and has no clue how badly she has failed.

Her husband just returned from Vietnam 2 weeks ago with their baby daughter (due to paperwork difficulty, they were not able to bring her home when they were there in August getting their little boy). Luckily she got to meet her, kiss her, and hold her before she was hospitalized.

It doesn't look good.....please pray for all of them. I can't imagine going through this kind of pain and heartache, especially at Christmas. Three precious little kids growing up without their mommy is unimaginable.

Wild-Riding Lucy

We got this present for Lucy on her 1st birthday. I think she likes it :)

14 years and no ring....

Todd and I will be celebrating 14 years of marriage....and my ring is gone. Not gone-gone....just at the jewelers. I was pulling my hand out of a plastic bag holder and I heard a 'snap'. I caught my diamond on the plastic opening and it ripped the diamond off of the setting. I looked down and screamed....praying that I could find the diamond in the 100 bags I had shoved in there. I found it-whew-and it is at the jewelers as we speak getting fixed :) Ironically, Todd and Bella went shopping this weekend and bought me an early anniversary gift - a silver and gold ring :) Bella was so proud when she brought it home-she unwrapped it for me, opened the box, and put the ring on my finger. Elisabeth, not so happy she wasn't involved, told me she was the gold part of the ring because she was worth more!! Oh....if she only knew!!!

If you have the time, please visit Ashley's Story. This incredible family has 3 children-one of which is facing major medical issues. They could really use some prayer!!

On the mend

Isabella is finally on the mend. The sores on her face are healing slowly but the ones on her lips and on her tongue have gotten much better. She had a ROUGH night last night-tossing and turning and crying. I almost went and slept in the car. Todd woke up complaining and he doesn't even hear her!!! Add that to the mix, and you have one tired mama this morning! She is off to the babysitter's-hopefully she will whip her back into shape:)

Elisabeth has settled back into school. She just got her German workbook back and got a 59/55!!! Didn't know you could do that!!! She starts Spanish next week for 12 weeks and then on to French. We also signed her up for indoor soccer, which starts in January. Todd is planning on coaching her team AND playing on a men's team. Now this I will have to see!!!! :)

Sadie and Elisabeth...

Isabella, Elisabeth, and Sadie making noise on Mom's piano....

Posing in front of the tree...

Isabella in the dog cage with ONE of Mom's dogs (she has 4 of them:)

CRUISE PICTURES

Sick AGAIN!!!! When will it end?????

Elisabeth and Elizabeth are back from their cruise :) They arrived on Thursday, we left for Mom's on Friday, and just got back yesterday. They had a wonderful time although the ship had to skip Jamaica due to stormy seas. I will post pictures later!

Isabella is sick :( She has had a cold for 2 weeks, a fever started last Thursday, and then on Saturday she broke out in sore on her lips, chin, and tongue. She has been MISERABLE for the past few days. Horrible with a capital H!!! Whining, crying, moaning, clingy.....I was so stressed after the drive back yesterday I actually had a DRINK...and not the soda kind:) I am home with her today-she looks like she was hit by a truck. Poor baby. I took her to the doctors and for the first time in 2 years, she did not scream once. She let them look in her ears, listen to her chest, look in her throat....and without crying:) We got some good ole' antibiotics so hopefully she will start feeling better soon.