Christmas Day

We mainly took video on Christmas day, but here are some of the pictures of the girls with their gifts and all prettied up for Church.

Christmas Time for Two Little Girls

It was Christmas time for two little girls. One was excited and couldn't wait to open gifts, the other was too small to know what the excitement was about. Hannah, the oldest, loved all the running around and wrapping of gifts and decorations of the time.

She played in the snow and cried out to go sledding. Daddy takes her out to play because Mommy hates the cold weather.

Becca just smiled and enjoyed all the attention...she such a happy girl.

Aunt Collette gave them matching jammies, and don't they look cute? Hannah was so excited they matched and wouldn't let me take Becca to bed...she just wanted to snuggle and hold her.

Hannah made a gingerbread house, and so excited about the candies...in fact many got eaten even before touching the house.

Mommy baked sugar cookies with Cinderella. Cinderella loved to cut out the shapes and decorate with the coloring food markers...plus they make your mouth and tongue pretty colors!

All decked out in their Christmas sweaters we went to the church for holiday cookies and punch. Mommy and Becca played Mary and baby Jesus...Becca did a good job.

Becca

Since mom's package didn't arrive I ran by Old Navy after work and found a rat costume for $5...I used the body, but cut the top half off like a belly shirt and used that material to make a couple ears to put on the hat so she looked more like a mouse than a rat. I spent all in all about 5 minutes coming up with this outfit for her...It turned out pretty cute though I would have liked more time to make it look better. She was still adorable and thankfully slept like an angel most of the night so I could deal with Hannah and her fits (Hannah didn't get her nap that day, and there was just way too much noise and chaos for her to deal with).

Hannah

I only had time to send a hand full of pictures last night, and they all seemed to be of Hannah...so today we'll just take a look at the Big Sister Smoochy Bear Hannah & tomorrow will be Becca's day.

Hannah loves to help out and she was so excited to help make waffles, and mickey mouse shaped waffles taste the best!

Hannah the Kid

Here is the beautiful Cinderella...she looks so much more grown up for some reason in these pictures. For most of holloween night she went barefoot because the glass slippers stretched out and kept slipping off.

Paths

I don' t know why, but it always amazes me the way God works in our lives. In my own it seems that He always leads and blesses out of times of trial and struggle. I think He is really trying to strengthen my trust because I do have a hard time not taking the reigns and trying to solve all life's struggles immediately. In the last few years though life has proposed problems that I cannot seem to resolve on my own, and I am forced to just keep walking in faith that He will get us through. The house we just bought is totally a God thing. I didn't think we'd buy a house until we were done with Kevin's child support and moved out of the area, but the plan changed when his mom decided she wanted to live with us. That got us looking for homes, and we found the home that we just bought which was really a great find compared to the other homes we looked at in this price range. Now the week we shared our rental with his mom was a nightmare for all, and when she left and we were stuck with a home we are supposed to buy but unsure if we could afford and we were to move out of our rental in only a few weeks things were anything but calm. But everything worked out (at the very last minute of course), and the house (though it needs a lot of work) it immediately felt like home to us and we feel really good about being there. So I guess I should try harder to thank God for struggles (frown).

Prayer

Well life is just throwing us some real obstacles lately that we just have to believe will be a benefit to us in the end. Now there are two things that I would like to ask for prayer for. First of all we still haven't closed on the house, and on the 18th we absolutely have to move out of our rental so we need prayer that the house will close and we will get everything moved. Secondly I have had the feeling that at work they are trying to get me to quit...they piled extra work on my knowing that I already was overworked and then they changed my hours to 8-4 and then again a few days later to 8-4:30 for no real beneficial reason, but that really messes up my schedule with Kevin to watch the kids. So he is now forced to work till 1:30 in the morning and get way too little sleep. Anyway now that I am coming in early to get all the work done and I am working till 4:30 work they are telling me we have been getting complaints from referring physicians offices that I am being rude and threatening to cancel patients appointments which is utterly ridiculous...I have never threatened to cancel a patent's appointment and the offices they named I am always overly nice too. The problem is when I was out on maternity leave they realized that they had to have someone to do my job because it was too important so they hired a girl who has been trained to do billing and knows a whole heck of a lot more about the billing process than I do and now that I am back they don't really have anything for her to do. So anyway...I feel like they are really trying to get me to quit which is an impossibility because we couldn't survive without my salary so if they want me gone they will have to fire me...I don't know when that point will come for them, but I am beginning to feel like it is certain to come. I am nervous because this is happening just as we are buying a home and our family would be without insurance for a time, but I have to just keep walking and trust God is in control of this whole situation. Please just be praying for us.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well we're getting closer and closer to becoming home owners. The house is no dream home by any means, but it is good for us right now. It has plenty of room, a nice sized yard, and we hear the neighbors are nice and have little kids. We have lots of plans to improve the house and make it more our home, but we will have to be patient for financial reasons. It will be so nice though to not have to share a wall with other people and to have no stairs and a good sized yard, and a basement to store all our extra stuff with room down there for Kevin's archery and building and stuff. So hopefully we won't have much longer to wait.

Becca is doing well. She just loves to be talked to and held...she is such a little smiley-bunny. Hannah and I will sit and sing to her and she will just smile along. Hannah loves her little sister. I cannot wait until Becca is big enough to play with her...I want to hear my children laugh and play together.

Hannah loves this outfit & wants to wear it every Sunday!



Lots of hugs and kisses between these sisters.



Wearing Daddy's big hat

Hannah's got the most fun daddy!

Life as a Christian is anything but boring

Hannah and Daddy went fishing...Hannah caught her first fish!

Hannah loves to help take care of her little sister...she is real good at hugging and kissing on her too! She tells us she loves baby Becca.

My beautiful girls at their cousin Ashlee's birthday party at the water park.

I knew God had some big changes in line for us for once Rebecca was born, but this just seems like too much all at once. Our lives have been extreamly busy here lately, not only with the addition of our beautiful little Becca, but we are trying to help Kevin's mom get her house sold and buy a new house for all of us down here. It seems things are coming together, but not without issues that have to be resolved or dealt with in the mean time. Kevin's mom's house is not closing for a couple weeks because the buyers are waiting on their house's sale to close which puts off our close of the new house; then the new house we just found out has radon issues that have to be fixed before we move in. We are trying to coordinate moving all of Kevin's moms things and selling and trashing all her other things, and we have to store them until we get our new house which is another issue. Plus once we get the new house we have to have new carpet installed and the second bathroom put in which is more work for Kevin that he isn't too sure how he is going to work into his schedule. So in conclusion, lots of work, very little time and going insane!

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I started back to work this week..whaaa...it really stinks. To make matters worse they have decided to add more responsibilities to my day and have me change my hours from 7-3 to 8-4:30. This causes Kevin to have to change his work day and eliminates any time we have to see one another Monday -Fridays. I also obviously miss out on an additional hour and a half of time with my girls which breaks my heart! Needless to say I am looking for another job that will fit our needs better...it will be hard because not only are there few job opportunities up here, but to find a job that ends at 3pm at the latest will be tough, but I have to believe that God will provide. I am doubting that they will keep our billing department for much longer anyway...they make threats of outsourcing the billing department every time there is a mistake lately so I think it wont be long. Hopefully I wont be here a whole lot longer.

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The girls are doing real well. Rebecca is growing so fast and really chubbing out. She has been smiling more often, and she has one of those smiles that brightens a room. Hannah is real good with her...every once in a while she'll ask me to put the baby in the bouncy seat and play with her, but most of the time she wants to feed the baby a bottle or hug and kiss on her. I'm so glad she is adjusting so well...I wasn't sure how she would be. It's hard though not getting to be with them both all day...I feel as though I am missing out on so much. They are changing and growing so quickly. Please pray I find another job soon that will allow me a little more time with them and with Kevin.

Trip to Texas

Week One