Merry Christmas

the girls with cousin Mirella eating Christmas Eve dinner and drinking "wine" (sparlking apple cider.)

hey this stuff is bubbly!

Hailee LOVES it! (think she likes the glass more than the juice though)

Faith liked the glass but not the juice so much.

Letter to Santa, milk, cookies, apples and carrots are all laid out . . . going outside to spread the magic reindeer food!

left the key outside for Santa.

Hailee got a new camera and some fake nails! he he he

Yay . . . nice close up with my NEW camera!!

Faith with her huge stuffed dog she named Rover.

Hailee didn't get that tooth she asked for. Guess she'll just have to wait for her's to grow in.

Tegan passed out on her new chair before dinner . . . whew, Christmas is a lot of work!




Christmas has now come and gone and while we still have another trip to San Jose to visit family our family Christmas is over. On Christmas Eve Tony, Jenn and Mirella came over for a nice dinner of Rib Eye's, mushrooms, sauteed green beans and twice baked potatoes. For dessert I made a mud pie. After a great evening with family we started our Christmas bedtime routine. We put out the cookies we made for Santa with milk along with some carrots and apples for the reindeer. Then we went outside and spread out the magic reindeer food on the lawn and left a key for Santa in our wreath. When we came back in we read The Night Before Christmas. It took the girls about an hour to fall asleep becuase they were so excited!!

On Christmas morning I heard Hailee up first (no surprise) and she was SO excited to see all the goodies that she ran into our bedroom and woke us up. She then woke up Faith and Aaron got up Tegan . . . then the madness began! Hailee got a camera she asked for, Faith got a giant dog that she asked for and Tegan got her own chair which she asked for. They got a bunch of little things here and there (puzzles, playdough, toys, etc.) and Santa brought the family a Wii!

Daddy was way too generous and bought mommy a brand new camera!!! I LOVE IT and am so excited to take GOOD pictures with a new 12mm! He also got me a new griddle, some aprons, calendar, blue tooth and some elves for my village. I got daddy a new edger, business cards, business hat and magnet for his truck, dart board, blue tooth, sweatshirt, CD, DVD's and an electronic tooth brush.

It was a GREAT day!

visit to Oregon

the marker placed in honor of Adam in the VA Cemetary

the girls, me, Laura, Nathan, Kaleb and Izzy at Adam's marker

cousins . . Izzy and Faith (they are 2 days apart in age!)

Kaleb and Hailee (they are 2 months apart in age!)

craft time at Gramma Laura's!

Tegan is chillin' at the hotel.

Since the girls have 2 weeks off for Christmas break and Aaron is off work all month on disability we had planned to take a trip up to Oregon to visit family. We drove up Saturday and went straight to the house to stay with Laura and Nathan. We decided to bring Ladybird with us and she had a BLAST and did great on the trip (no carsickness this time!). We spent Saturday visiting, eating and just enjoying each other's company. On Sunday we drove into town to the Apple Peddler to meet up with Kaleb and Izzy and take them for the night. After breakfast we drove to the VA Cemetary so we could see Adam's marker. It was freezing and raining so we didn't stay too long. Just long enough to snap a picture or two and Aaron stole a wreath off of another marker and placed it on Adam's . . . he said "hey . . . family first". Cracks me up. Adam would have loved that.

After making our stops in town we drove back out to the house where the kids had a BLAST running around the yard and exploring. It reminded me of when I was a kid and Adam, Heather and I would go and make up all kinds of stories in our minds and have a blast. Kaleb and Hailee were really into the tree fort and wanted to work on fixing it up for Uncle Nathan. They even said they heard bears growling out in the forest. I love their imagination (all the bears were in hibernation). The kids opened their gifts, crafted, played with flashlights in the dark rooms and just had a BLAST with each other. One of the highlights was that they got to help make a pumpkin cheesecake and then eat it for breakfast!! Kaleb said he had never eaten cheesecake before and he gobbeled it all up. We normally don't eat cake for breakfast but hey . . we were on vacation!

Our time was brief with my family but we had Aaron's family to visit as well. So Monday we had to drop off Kaleb and Izzy (which was VERY hard to do) and we headed out to Grants Pass to visit Pop, Nana, Mimi, Uncle Jerry and Suzanne. The girls had a blast playing on Mimi's piano and I realized that I have a natural on my hands. All of them were great but Faith just has an ear for it. I'm definatley going to look into getting that girl in some lessons! Mimi treated all of us to dinner at JJ North's which is a buffet place which we never go to so the girls were in HEAVEN. They couldn't believe they could actually eat whatever they wanted! After lots of food we decided it was pretty late and we still had to check into the hotel. I think the last time we stayed in a hotel with the kids was when Tegan was only a few months old. So this time Hailee was HILARIOUS. She figured she was just like Zach and Cody from the Suite Life and was totally into it. I of course let them go crazy jumping on the beds (it's not allowed at home) and then we all setteled into the beds and watched movies and stayed up late. It worked out great because we all slept in until past 8am! That is LATE for us! Then it was breakfast in the hotel which Hailee LOVED because she got to pick whatever she wanted. Too funny.After a morning of visiting we decided to give Pop and Nana a "break" from the chaos and took the girls into town to shop for some snow pants and then we went to see Tangled. This was Tegan's 2nd movie in a theather and she did awesome! We only had one potty break and other than that she sat in her own seat for the entire movie. And what a great movie it was! After the movie we headed back to the house where Mimi made a HUGE Italian dinner for us. After our full bellies we headed back to the hotel for some bed jumping and more movies.

Unfortunatley all good things must come to an end and we had to head home. We headed out around 1ish to make sure the pass was nice a clear. We had great luck on the drive, no rain or snow in or out. We stopped at our usual Black Bear Diner on the way home for dinner and Hailee's front tooth popped out during the meal! What a way to end the trip. We all laughed so hard at the table and were glad she didn't swallow it (like she did her first tooth!).

What a great trip. We just love visiting our family and are so blessed to have the opportunity to travel to visit them. This life we live is so short that we need to make the most of each moment.

Final tumor removal

Home from surgery resting.

first dressing changing . .

fresh stitches

It has been 7 months since the removal of the tumor from Aaron's right ear. During that first surgery the Dr. discovered that he did in fact have another tumor in the left ear. We thought that this one was not going to be as big so we debated back and forth weather or not to have this surgery this year or to wait until next year. Well we figured we might as well just get it done and over with. Thank goodness we did because it turned out that this tumor was just as aggressive as the other one.

Surgery started around 7:30am and it lasted a little over 3 hours. Aaron had a little harder time in recovery and was in quite a bit of pain so they wouldn't let me back to see him and they gave him more narcotics to make him comfortable. After he was stable they released him to come home. After speaking with the Dr. he told me that the surgery was a success and there was no spinal fluid leaks or nerve damage. However, the tumor destroyed 2 out of the 3 major bones in the ear so he had to attach the ear drum to the last remaining bone in hopes to save his hearing. Only time will tell if that worked. Praying it did work so he won't have to undergo another surgery to put titanium "bones" in to replace the ones that were destroyed.

With all said and done we are glad we went ahead with the surgery and hope that the remainder of the recovery will go well and all hearing will be restored.

Faith's first Kindergarten field trip and bus ride!

SO happy to finally go on the bus!

Having fun on the zip line

my what balance!

such a FUN day at extreme gymnastics!

Well we are 4 months into the school year and Faith FINALLY had her first field trip! She has been asking for years to ride on a school bus and her wish finally came true! I don't know if she was more excited about the bus ride or going on a field trip. All of the kindergarten classes went to Extreme Gymnastics in Loomis. When Hailee was in Kindergarten she did the same trip. All of the kids had a blast and I think Faith had the most fun on the zip line. Perhaps someday she can go on an extra long one! All in all it was a great trip and Faith had a blast.

Happy 3rd Birthday Tegan Louise!

Tegan and Ally . . . buds!

Princess Tegan . . .so cute!

Tearing into her presents!

Making a wish . . .

"Happy Birthday to you" . . .

Our little peanut turned 3 years old. It's so crazy to me how fast the past 3 years has gone! Tegan's birthday this year was pretty mellow. We started it off by going to church where she was so happy to play with her friends and cousin during her "school". She loves going to church and insists that it's her "school". She asks to go on a daily basis, she's so funny. After church we went and got our Christmas tree which we have been doing every year on her birthday since she was 1. She specifically asked for a flower cake so when we got home she and I baked her birthday cake. She picked out the flavor and was so happy to be the only one allowed to help me. Normally all the girls line up for what I like to call the "baking line". For dinner she asked for pizza. We had the Green family over for pizza, cake and presents and boy oh boy was she excited for the presents she got! She LOVED the princess dress, laptop, dora doll and the entire baby set. She was so exhausted from a long day (no nap) that she passed out right away.

Tegan has been completley potty trained for awhile now but since she's a "big" girl now every time someone calls her baby she gets so upset and says "I'm not a baby . . I'm Tegan!". I must say though it's funny because God must know how much I want to hold onto the "baby" because she is SO tiny! We measured her (like we do every year on the girls birthday) and she is the SAME height as Hailee was when Hailee turned 2! And Hailee has always been our peanut. This means that I get to pretend that Tegan is still a baby . . . :) Happy Birthday sweet angel. We are so proud of you and so happy you have made our family complete.