On Christmas Day in the Morning

Our Christmas was unplanned.  We intended on visiting Nevada from Dec 21-Jan 6, but had to cancel.  It was a tough decision, but after prayer and consideration, we all agreed that we needed to stay home.  We were packed and had already spent time at the airport.  When the flight was canceled and there was little hope in getting a different flight before Christmas, we went home.  We rented a car and made plans to drive, but ultimately decided against that as well.  So-my parents hurried and shipped us all of the gifts that I had already shipped to them (yes-we paid for shipping twice-ugh!) and we got them just in time.  It was still great.  We enjoyed spending time together and had a really fun week.  Clay still has the time off, so it has been such a fun and relaxing week and will be next week too.  We still had snow from the snowstorm that we had a week before (20 inches!), so we have been playing in the snow.  The snow is almost gone now, though.  The kids were pretty worried about not getting gifts since there were no gifts under our tree.  They were extra excited on Christmas morning to see presents.  On Christmas eve Leah said that Santa was going to bring us a new car since we crashed our old one.  Boy do I wish that would have been true.  ha ha.
On Christmas eve, we enjoyed the festival of lights at the temple and even watched "Mr Kreuger's Christmas".  Boy, was that a cheesy movie.  I forgot.  Oh well, it was fun.  This year we are especially grateful for simple things like car heaters, a plate of cookies, generous ward members, considerate neighbors, phone calls, etc.  The list goes on.  On Christmas Day, I came down with the flu, but no worries, Clay takes great care of me.  I am doing better and am anxious to have another fun week with Clay home.  We missed family, but we were not sad...who could be sad this time of year?  We will plan a trip in the summer and will be better prepared for obstacles.
Sorry-no pictures.  I am frustrated that I didn't take the time to grab the camera.  Leah was hilarious when she woke up.  I had sat on her bed and told her that it was time to get up...she didn't move.  Then I said "it's Christmas" and she sat up so quick that it scared me.  She also said something so loud and it made Clay and I laugh.  We don't know what she said...it was probably something from her dream.  Funny!

Kasey is home!

We are so lucky to be close to Kasey's mission!  Kasey got released from his mission in Philadelphia on Dec7.  Mom and dad had the opportunity to pick him up and spend a few days with him.  We had intended to meet up with them in South Philly, but after a recent car accident, we weren't able to.  We are so thankful that they decided to come here!!!   It was so great to have company and see them for a little while.  We hadn't seen Kasey in 3 years.  Our kids hadn't seen the grandparents in 3 years either.  It was such a nice visit.  We really enjoyed each others company and also had a nice lunch.  We desperately tried to convert dad from In-N-Out to Five Guys. :)  Kasey was in shock a little bit from leaving the mission field, but that is understandable.  He's got some sinnin' to do.  Just kidding! They are on their way back to the hotel now and we are so anxious to see them and the rest of our family when we visit in a couple of weeks!

We gave them a tour of our mansion.

They are laughing at the story of when I slipped on the ice...I wrote about it in a previous post.

Ryan blocked the picture.  He was so good today and even spoke to mom & dad and Kasey.  He surprised us.

Leah loves her grandparents and Uncle!

I am so glad for the good example Kasey set for Dallan.

Clay was so happy to see his parents and brother.  He really misses his family a lot.  I do too, but I think Clay does more.

Out to lunch!  I am not sure if dad is a convert to five guys or not.  :)

Our first Snow

We love the snow here.  It is nothing like the few times we experienced snow as children.  We look forward to it every year.  This year we were not fully prepared.  Our 2 rear tires are in no shape to drive in snow or ice.  On my way home from a baptism, I lost control of my Yukon.  I slid into a telephone pole and snapped it in half!  Leah and I were in the car and for that moment there were no other cars around.  We are completely safe and feel fine.  We feel blessed that we were not hurt.  I know the Lord protected us. 
At this time we are thankful for our ward for helping us with rides and letting us borrow a vehicle until we figure out what to do about our Yukon.  We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family that love us and uplift us.
Now-does anyone know a good body shop?

Leah was in the backseat behind the driver side.  Thank Heavens!

You can hardly notice it, right?

If you look close you can see where the telephone pole fell on the top/side of my hood.(in the first picture)

This is our home that we are selling and if everything goes well, we will be moving soon(we will move somewhere nearby).  We will be sad to leave-we have loved living here!

Despite the accident, it is just so beautiful and I still love the snow.  I can't see the snow as anything but beautiful and it gives me such a peaceful feeling...well except when I am crashing into telephone poles.

Thanksgiving

I don't have any pictures to share.  I guess we just forgot to get the camera out.  We had a wonderful holiday!  Clay and Dallan played football in the morning with some ward members while the younger kids and I watched the Parade.  Then we cooked a yummy Thanksgiving dinner with lots of wonderful things.  Everything tasted great and now we are left with lots of leftovers.  I bought my pies and rolls from my favorite place.  We are so fortunate to live in this area where there are so many orchards and markets to choose from.  My favorite is the Lancaster County Dutch Market!  I am there once a week, so it was only natural that I would want to buy my pies from them!  I don't know what I will do when we leave this area.
So that's it, it was a relaxing day and everyone is healthy and happy, so I couldn't ask for anything more.
We are still debating on whether or not we want to decorate our home since we won't be here for Christmas.  Leah doesn't want to go and I have to admit, I really don't want to be away from our home for Christmas.  I am sure we will get over it.  We will look forward to seeing family and it will be great!

Halloween

We did very last minute Halloween celebrations.  None of us cared about it much, so the last minute stuff works well for us.  On Friday we spent the morning with Ryan at Butler's Orchard for his school field trip.  It was really fun and we wished that we could have taken the other kids with us too.  Then we went to help Leah with her costume parade and class party.  That night was our ward Halloween Party and we had a good time.

On Halloween day we went to a baptism and then had to run some errands.  We carved pumpkins in the afternoon and finished just in time to put them on our steps and send the kids out to trick-or-treat.  Our complex is perfect for trick-or-treating and we were so lucky this year because Dallan took Leah and Ryan for us.  Clay and I enjoyed watching a scary movie and passing out candy to the few neighborhood kids that actually go door-to-door.  These days there are so many kids that go to places of business or drive to a rich neighborhood and their loss is our gain.  Since we are among the few who like to stick with our neighborhood, we are the recipients of some major generosity.  Of course, we return the favor and give out huge handfuls of candy to the kids who come here.  It was an easy night and we all had a great time!

Picking  a pumpkin!

Hay ride

Slide

Photo op

rubber ducky derby

oooooo

Ryan loved this maze

So much that he threw a tantrum when we tried to leave

Mario

Meow

Gangsta

Gotta represent

OctoberFever

Our JibJab video is no longer available which is a bummer because the kids had me play it for them several times a day.
I have nothing else to post because we are consumed with the post season. I hope to take the kids to the farm to do the whole pumpkin patch thing, but we have been sick and the day we planned to do it, it rained. We still haven't planned our costumes and frankly, I don't care since the World Series will be on that day. I would normally be trying to watch scary movies all month long, but things have changed. I have tried just recording the games, but I hate hearing the score before I have seen it. So, to Halloween, I say "Bah Humbug...But still give me candy."

This is pretty funny!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Ryan's first day

Ryan started his PEP preschool program today.  It was very exciting.  It still hasn't hit me yet that I don't have him home with me.  I went to the school for a meeting and looked in on him.  I also got to see Leah enjoying PE.  Ryan wasn't nervous at all.  When the bus showed up, he got on with his sister with no trouble.  Leah is a great big sister and I know that she helped out a lot.

I am so happy that Leah got permission to ride Ryan's bus. 

The class only has 6 boys right now, so I know he will make a lot of progress.

The night before our campout, we had a blast at the Nationals vs Phillies game in DC.  The Nats won 8-7.  It got pretty intense in the 9th inning because the Phillies got 5 of their runs in that inning.  It was so fun and I can't wait to go again.

campbell camp

This year we finally went camping!  We chose Greenbriar Lake and it was wonderful.  It rained the first day and part of the second day, but it was not bad at all.  The kids wore rain boots the whole weekend even though it wasn't necessary.  We discovered that the zipper to our tent was broken, so we shoved our air mattress into the back of our Yukon and the 5 of us spent the night in there the first night.  It was an experience.  We got a new tent for the second night and that was much better!  We enjoyed spending time together, boating, hiking, cooking, and playing games.  We can't wait to do it again in a couple of weeks with the ward. 

Ryan was content just walking along the border of our campsite

I am so glad that we never saw the snake that went along with this pile of skin.

Dallan had fun rowing us around the lake.  We saw a bunch of jellyfish and even caught one.  I held it, but I think that we killed it by catching it.  oops.

Leah has a net on her head.  Ryan and Leah loved pretending that they were "jellyfishing".

Ryan had to be carried because he loved to wander off and run from us.

Pirates

Leah was playing pirates with my dough hook when Dallan hit her with a pillow.  The hook banged into her lip and split it.  So we took her to the ER to get 4 stitches.  We were only there for 2 1/2 hours, so it wasn't too bad.  Leah was very brave.  She didn't cry once.  The doctor was very impressed with how calm she was.  She was acting so funny and was really excited about getting a milkshake on the way home.  She kept asking Clay if he remembered what flavor she wanted (strawberry).  Dallan felt terrible about hurting her, but Leah is very forgiving, so everyone is happy here.

First Day

Ryan was happy to play with Leah's toys while she is at school.

Leah seemed a little shy, but she will be fine. This is her getting on the bus.

Leah is mastering the art of fake smiles.

She looks pretty nervous to me, but still cute. It was chilly and her lame jacket ruined her cute outfit.

Summer

I was just laying in my bed watching baseball with Ryan and decided to empty our memory card, so here are some fun pictures that have been taken over the last couple of months.

They fight during the day, but by bedtime, all is forgiven

This was taken during the Damascus Days Parade.

Just gettin' clean after a haircut.

Dallan got me a basketball for my birthday. I am 31. boo.

This is in the morning on Father's Day.