Christmas Day

Everyone had a fun day on Christmas. Hannah had more gifts than she knew what to do with. I think her favorites were the Fur Real Kitten I got her and her puzzles Nana and Poppy got her.

Josh and Aaron came for the day and spent the night which was nice for Kevin to get to spend time with both his boys. Hannah really enjoyed having them both here as well...she loves all the fun and attention.


Dinner went really well. Kevin's turkey was
cooked to perfection, and all the cookies I baked dissapeared in about two days. For the first time we have lots of turkey and dressing leftovers which we love. Hannah was funny because the young girl who helps babysit her has been teaching her to bead; at the dinner table she wanted to play with the string you can use to tie up the turkey (we didn't use it), and she had olives she was trying to bead onto it.

It was a nice Christmas, but I do look forward to next years when, if all goes as planned, we will be in Texas with two little ones.

On the Nights Before Christmas...

Here we are at the pancake breakfast on the Sunday morning before Christmas. Pastor and staff make pancakes and serve the congregation while others perform songs, skits and stories. Hannah got involved in the one skit by handing the styrofoam snowballs to the person on the ground making a snow angel.

She is wearing her lovely Christmas dress given to her by her "Aunt Shawnee". I think it is really pretty on her. Only problem is she would not stay still after eating her pancakes...every other time I turned around she was belly crawling to sneak up on someone like she's in the army.

Hannah added her own touches to our Christmas tree this year. She liked to put these on and take them off ,and then she would rearrange them and try to stack them all on one branch. I don't think she will be happy when the tree gets taken down.

House

This is the house we went to look at this weekend. So much about it is perfect for us: the price, the need for interior fixing and decorating, it's out of the crouded area, good size yard, above ground pool, big deck. We just noticed some sloping in one area of the house...this is common in older houses up here, but it was a concern. I think Kevin had a few other concerns, but I guess the next step would be to hire someone to come out and inspect the place. I am leaving all this in Kevin's hands being that I know very little about the structure and bones of a house. So we will see...it's a very exciting idea, but it is still very much undecided at this point.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Thursday morning I left for work on completely dry streets, but when I left work I had to clear about 6 inches of snow off the truck to make the drive home. The roads weren't too bad, and I was very happy at how well the truck does on snow...the Jeep always sled a bit when you took a corner because it was so light.

Once Kevin left for work I bundled Hannah up in her snowsuit and boots, and we went outside. I love it because she always says, "Look snow! Yucky!" I have to agree...snow is just such a pain. It's pretty to look at in the country and in movies, but when you have to shovel it and scrape it off your car and drive through it with incompetent drivers all around you learn to dislike it. I grabbed a shovel while we were out there to clear off the newly fallen snow from the walkway, and Hannah wanted to help so I gave her my small shovel that I used to keep in the Jeep. She actually did shovel little bits of snow. More snow is expected this weekend, but we will continue to venture out because we do have Christmas shopping to do.

On a side note we have decided that when our lease is up we are going to have to move for our own sanity. Our landlady gives us attutude every time we tell her something is wrong or needs fixing, and she never fixes anything. Our neighbor that shares the house with us is just crazy and making our lives hard, especially Kevin, and we just think for our own sanity we need to move. So we have till February 5th to find a new place. We are praying God will provide a place for us, and are unsure if we should just give in and buy a small house in one of the crowded towns like Jessup that we can afford or if we should continue to wait so we are not stuck with a house when the time comes for us to move out of PA. So just pray for a clear direction and provision for us. Thank you.

Christmas Pictures

Last night was a busy night for myself and Hannah. Last year I didn't get our Christmas cards out until after Christmas, and I am determined to get this years out earlier. Thanks to the sweetness of my husband who said I could leave my Christmas tree in the living room this year I was able to get some really cute pictures of Hannah all dressed up for the card. She was very distracted by every little thing and wouldn't stop taking all the candy canes off the tree,

but I finally got a good picture for the Christmas card (though I had to doctor the

background a bit because I couldn't get her to stay in the center of the tree).

Attached are some of the pictures that didn't make the cut.

My morning sickness has gotten much better, and I have been able to stay up past 8:00 recently which is so nice because I can actually get some things done around the house. I have all the Lepori gifts bought and wrapped, and this weekend they will go out in the mail. The rest of the shopping we will have to do this weekend. Still lots to do, but it's all in fun of Christmas!

Speaking of the baby, I told Kevin that if we had another baby he could chose the name...we are really thinking it will be a boy, and he chose the name Archer. I think he is letting me pick the middle name, but it hasn't been decided yet. So unless the Lord surprises us with a girl,

our new (and last) child will be Archer Thomas.

Our First Blog

I've been wanting to do a blog for a while now, but I always felt it too daunting of a task with the busy schedule I already have. I hope to continue this so that you all can know what we are up to and how Hannah and the new little one to come are doing. I plan to do my best. I hope you all will enjoy reading and seeing the pictures we will share together in the future.