I'm trying, really I am. I have some great posts for this past week, but our internet is acting up and I am having a miserable time getting the pictures to load. I promise, I am trying! We have train adventures, dinosaur adventures, animal safari adventures, the return of Grammy and Pop and New Years Eve balloon fun to share! Oh the frustration!

anywhoozle...

Happy New Year Everyone!

2012 really does feel like a new year. I didn't used to see the big deal with new year celebrations, but I get it now. A fresh start. Moving forward. It feels like a new beginning! I pray that this year you feel God's glory, His mercy and His grace.

Love you all!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Loved Ones!

Freshly home from the Christmas Eve Service. For us, this is the start of Christmas!

Ready for bed in our matching Polar Bear PJs!

(an annual tradition inspired by some very clever friends)

Good Morning Rudolph!

Waiting for Daddy....

Caleb delivered us our stockings! Such a happy dude!

(Santa may not be a part of our Christmas morning, but we still do stockings!)

We break for breakfast after stockings. I made some snowman milk drinks to make it a little more special. They didn't make as big an impression on the dude as I had hoped....but he loved the donut.

How do you wrap an aquarium? Cut the flaps off a box, wrap it and plunk it on top! Worked like a charm!

Caleb has been asking for a fish for weeks now! We got him two guppies, each sporting some yellow. He immediately named them Shripareen and Shrimp. He has a way with names (remember his pillow pet TeaPoe?). We, (well, mostly Brian) woke up this morning (Boxing Day) to a dude insistent that his fish were starving and needed to be fed.

Daddy lurves his ice-cream! A lot!

It was a beautiful day with my dudes!

We played a lot with Caleb's new toys!

Our Happy Birthday Jesus cake.

Very excited to say that this one got made at home and was completely free of artificial food colouring. But the dude then got some m&ms later in the afternoon and we paid the price for that....

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!

(the cupcake was my gluten-free treat)

One of Caleb's favourite books, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We were winding down at this point and fighting the effects of the aforementioned m&ms. And let me just clarify, Caleb does not get naughty with food colouring, just extra hyper. And if you know our dude's energy levels, he doesn't need any help in that department!

Putting out our advent candles. I think the dude will miss the candles and advent calendars. He certainly will not be a happy dude when the trees come down...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

The Love of Christ

There are not any posts for last week; it was a rough week. Christmas does not mean that we are stuffed into a protective bubble that shields us from the real world. But it does remind us of the extraordinary love of our Saviour and of the hope and promises that can only be found in Him. Some of our dearest friends are truly suffering right now and our hearts are breaking for them. This is what made sitting down to blog extremely difficult. Mary, Ty, Charlie and Joy, and Angie, Todd and McKenna, you are forever in our thoughts and prayers. My friend Chrystal sent me an amazingly comforting note just before Christmas and her words have stuck with me, so I want to share them with everyone else: she prayed that we would find joy this Christmas season in the midst of reality. We love you all so very, very much.

It is kind of hard to switch gears, but last week did have some joyful moments. The most significant has to be the birth of Baby Elizabeth (Beth). My cousin Lavonne and her husband Mark welcomed their first child on Wednesday. Caleb has been the only child in the new generation on my side of the family for four years, and in the past three weeks has now been joined by Baby Matthew and Beth! How exciting! All December babies!!! Beth is the first girl! Congratulations Mark and Lavonne! I can't wait to meet your precious little treasure. She might be walking and talking before we get back north and she won't have a clue who I am, but I love her so much already!

Caleb is my forever source of joy and he was a wonderful distraction all last week. We kept up our holiday baking and he had so much fun decorating cookies to hand out to our friends. These are the moments we are meant to treasure.