And Thomas!

I've been so busy that I haven't written anything about Thanksgiving yet. We had a nice weekend here. I made our traditional turkey meal, with Michael's help, and we just enjoyed being with the kids. Michael said the prayer for Thanksgiving dinner, and he was listing all of the things we are grateful for when Daniel cut in with a very loud "and Thomas!" It was so hard not to laugh. Daniel loves Thomas and Friends; he knows all of the songs and the names of the engines.

Here is Daniel after a typical day of refusing to take a nap.

18 pounds

Jonathan weighed in at 18 pounds on his 4 month visit in December! I'm grateful to have another big, healthy baby. :-) His smile lights up a room. Here are some examples.

Seriously?

Yesterday was a very cold day. Where I grew up, in the Midwest, we would have considered it a beautiful winter day. However, in Alabama, they cancelled school for it! According to weather predictions, there would be snow and ice and so on Thursday night the school district cancelled school for Friday. Andrew spent a good part of the day playing with this empty diaper box. Later, he ripped down one of the sides and sat in it and used it for a chair.

Merry Christmas!

We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and to visit Santa today. The kids are so excited for Christmas. I love this time of year when there seems to be extra kindness in the air as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

My Sweetie

Michael has a new calling (position) at church. For those who don't know, we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Michael has been the Bishop in our ward (congregation) for three years. A stake is made up of many wards, and Michael has been asked to be the 2nd counselor to the Stake President. He has been serving for over a month now. Life is still busy, just in a different way.

This picture was taken at our portrait session last month.

Sneak Peek

I hope you enjoy these portraits. They cropped out the Thomas train in Daniel's picture before they printed it. Letting him hold it was the only way to make him happy and get him to sit still. You can't see it, but he is holding it in his right hand in the bottom picture, also.

The kids are all feeling better. The doctor advised that we should stay home from church today, but things should be back to normal this week.

Home Sweet Home

My babies are home! We are so grateful that they are better!!!! Jonathan came home on Saturday, and Andrew came home yesterday. They are both doing really well. My dad was here to help on Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning. He took Nathaniel (Optimus Prime--from Transformers), Emily (Ariel the mermaid), and Daniel (Thomas the Tank Engine) trick-or-treating while I stayed home and handed out the candy. Andrew wore his James the Red Engine costume in the hospital (I took pictures with my 35mm camera, so they aren't ready yet), and different nurses and other staff from the hospital visited him in their costumes and brought him candy. After trick-or-treating Saturday night, we all went to visit him and bring him more treats.

We have had so much comfort, love, and support from family and friends and we are very, very grateful.

Daniel refused to sit still for a picture. He sure had fun, though.