Out of the Mouths of Babes

I take off Julia's tights when we're at home so she doesn't slip on the hardwood floors.  I noticed her diaper was really wet, so I took that off too and told her she could use the potty if she needed to go.  (We've been trying to give her occasional chances to practice.)

She ran in to use the potty and Carter said he would help her.  From the kitchen we heard hysterical laughter.

When they came out Julia said, "Something really funny happened in there! Carter was holding my dress so I could pee and I when I went it sprayed him all over his face!"

Carter (smiling): "Don't worry, I washed it off."

Christmas Morning Memories

We start the morning off reading the Christmas story...

Julia was so excited and surprised by her new bike.  She honestly did not know Christmas day included presents.  It was all a shock to her.  The bike is so cute with a little baby seat on the back...

 

Carter had lots of fun Marine surprises- canteen, flashlight, utility belt, new boots, and face paint...

 

Daddy completely surprised me with an incredible gift.  He had the blog entries from the past nine months bound into four volumes.  The first page is a letter from him followed by several Godly women I admire tremendously.  It was a very emotional morning... 

 

Julia loved her new hat, mittens, and socks.  She wore them all day long (all 3 pairs of socks!) She still couldn't grasp that she had multiple presents to open.  Each one she opened she wanted to play with and had no interest in opening more.  Five hours later I coaxed her into opening the last few because we had family coming over...

 

Carter has graduated from Duplos this year to Lego City.  His logical little brain loves building all the models and following the directions.  He and Daddy played for hours.  I'm not sure who was having more fun :)

 

We all had a wonderful Christmas.  We were so thankful to be together and to be healthy.  In the past few years, it seems someone has always been sick over Christmas and we have made more than our share of ER visits to out of town hospitals.  After Julia's diagnosis we didn't know what this Christmas season would hold.  She has been in the hospital several times for fevers and illnesses and we knew that was a possibility.  We are happy to say that isolation, hand washing, and wearing a mask (though not always easy) works to prevent most common illness. 

Having this time away from home, surrounded by loved ones, and celebrating the reason for our HOPE is more than we could have asked for.  Sadly, I didn't take more pictures or get a good family shot.  I was just enjoying taking it all in.  It all still seems very surreal.  I have so many moments I feel like a spectator.  I cannot believe how fortunate and blessed we are in SO many ways. 

Today that all comes to a point as we celebrate the birth of our Savior who humbly entered this world to redeem our failures and shortcomings and give us life now and always asking nothing in return except our hearts.

And there He was,

So tiny and new.

So small to be God.

Too good to be true.

It is all too good to be true.

The kids went to bed very happy and very tired...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

 

Christmas Eve

The night the kids have been looking forward to for so long is here.  They love going to church on Christmas Eve to celebrate Jesus' birthday- the decorations, the advent candles, the hymns, and the candlelight.  It is such a magical time.  We have attended this service at the small presbyterian church in Hokendauqua, PA every Christmas my entire life.  It's such a special tradition to share with them... 

I love to see the hope, wonder, and reflection in their faces.

 

 On the way to church we were enjoying all the lights along the way.  Julia saw a nativity display and asked if we could stop to see baby Jesus.  We didn't have time on the way, but promised to stop on the way home.  This will definitely become a family tradition.

 

They loved all the hymns in church, but were upset that we didn't sing Away in a Manger.  Julia asked if we could sing it to him now.  So we did.  It was so sweet to sing to baby Jesus, just the four of us in the cold on Christmas Eve...

 

 

 We are so thankful to be able to spend Christmas in PA with our family and friends.  Just being here, together, and healthy is all we could ever ask for- such a gift! We didn't know what this Christmas would hold for us.  Up to the week we left we knew our plans were tentative.  I have been savoring every sweet moment and unwrapping it all as an unexpected and blessed gift!

 

 The kids opened their stockings...

 

 

And then it was off to bed.  Tomorrow will be here before we know it! God bless us, everyone!!

 

Sledding Time

The cousins had a big time sledding at Great-Gramma and Grampa's house- on the old hill kids have been flying down for 50 years! This was their maiden voyage...

 Then it was Julia's turn to be up front.  She wasn't too sure...

 

 

One more trip and she decided to be the launcher instead...

 

 Carter and Logan couldn't get enough.  I love their faces!

 

Great times, great memories!

Family Christmas

We're celebrating Christmas early with my sister Beth's family.  The kids have such a good time playing together.  When they aren't running in circles pretending to be race cars, they enjoyed making and decorating cookies...

 

wrestling with Logan (a second cousin)...

Julia loves Mimi's nativity and sits and plays with it for hours...

 

Pappy treated us all to our annual lobster feast- yum!

 

And what do the kids eat on lobster night? Pizza of course!

 

Anderson is so sweet opening his gifts.  He cheers- "Let's open my presents. ", "I love this!", and does a little happy dance after each one.

It's such a treat for the kids to spend time with their great-grandparents and extended family...

Carter is enjoying an early gift from Grandpa.  He saved his flight helmet to give to him.  Needless to say he was thrilled and wears it around the clock.

Grandpa also saved a set of ribbons that Carter wears on his uniform. (Here he is cracking open peanuts with Mimi's Marine nutcracker...)

Carter wanted to know what each one represented, so time for a history lesson.  Grandpa pulled out the atlas and went through all the major military campaigns of his career.

Julia doesn't miss a beat and wants in on the action, too.  She'll be inheriting his cammies when Carter gets a new set for Christmas.

Christmas Cousins

Julia (3), Anderson (2), and Carter (5)

Family Snow Fun is So Fun

We've been enjoying the beautiful snow up here.  They fortunately got pure snow and it's been so fun to play in! Anderson and Julia were working on a snowman.  They rolled a huge ball and started adding decoration.  Their favorite part is adding the sticks, so in the end it resembled a snow porcupine...

 

We had some great snowball fights.  I have to say the kids all have really good aim.  Grandpa has been teaching them the finer points of ambushing and they have nailed most of the family that has come to visit.  So if you're getting out of you're car, I advise you duck.

 

It's the perfect snow for snow angels.  We always knew we were surrounded by angels and now the yard has literally, a dozen.

 

 

Here's our finished snow Marine...

 

The kids still love shoveling.  How long does this trait last? Not long enough I'm sure.

 

We also played some fun snow baseball and golf.

 

Julia was of course eating it by the handful.  She found picking it up by hand rather slow, so instead she crawled around on her hands and knees and ate it with her face instead...

 

Mimi and Grandpa's new house has a great old climbing tree in the backyard.  The kids (and Grandpa) have spent a lot of time in it...

 

Four hours later we were all worn out and starving.  Fortunately, the temps have remained close to freezing this week- so we have clear roads, warm sunshine, and lots of snow to play in, perfect.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

You know you're a parent when...

I was playing legos with the kids on the floor.  
I looked down at my pants leg...

Me: "Julia, is that boogies on my leg?"
Julia: "Yes.  I didn't have a tissue."

...you become a human tissue.

Alice in (Winter)Wonderland

Do you ever have those days were you feel like you are in another universe? Like someone dropped you into the twilight zone? Today was one of those days for us.

Our travel plans were on hold due to the blizzard in Virginia.  We woke up to sunshine on Sunday and checked Virginia's 511 website- an awesome resource.  They have live traffic cameras up and down all the interstates.  Things looked good.  A few patches of snow left in Shenandoah area, but it should be cleared before we get there.  We all had peace about the decision and decided the kids and I would launch at 9am.  The trip takes just over 8 hours and we would be able to make it before dark.

The first couple hours went great.  The roads were clear and driving was easy.  The biggest threat was all the fools driving with a foot of snow and ice on their cars- not at all funny or festive- it's illegal! and can be deadly.  It is no fun being hit by a 5 by 7 foot sheet of ice on the interstate.  I hope VA police start ticketing for it like other states are doing.  And as if that's not bad enough, another fool had the snow, ice, a mattress, and boxspring on top of his SUV! It all flew off and hit those of us behind him.  I'm happy to say I have good brakes and mattresses are forgiving.

We made it to Roanoke and were getting on I-81.  Have you ever been driving on an 8-lane highway when suddenly traffic in your lanes is driving toward you!! It was insane! Turns out 81 was closed from an accident and backed up for 22 miles, so people were bailing and driving back down toward the city.  Several of us pulled next to each other to brainstorm ideas, but didn't get very far.  We headed back and stopped for lunch and help with directions.  We found an alternate route on Hwy 11.  Unfortunately there are 3 Hwy 11s at that point.  We took one and 15 minutes later were back at the same McDonalds.  Aargh.  Gotta hate that. 

We were headed in the right direction and finally moving north.  We were cruising along in the lead, with ten others behind us- watching the standstill on 81 and happy to not be in it.  All of a sudden there was a sign Road Ends in 500ft.  The highway?! Sure enough, right in someone's front yard.  What in the world?! Now we had to u-turn on a dime in the 2 feet of snow.  We all got out and threw up our hands.  We decided to head back to the nearest gas station.  The sweet lady at the BP said Hwy 11 crossed over 81 and became Jeff Davis Hwy a few miles back, but there are no signs for it.  So nice of them. Back on track again and making progress.  I was amazed how few cars there were... then we stopped.  For traffic? accident? no.... there were 3 camels crossing the road.  Seriously!

Off to find baby Jesus, I presume.

After another hour we rounded a bend to be met by a man in sweats in the middle of the road telling everyone to turn around- road closed.  Now what?  I pulled into the gas station to talk to the sweet young man shoveling the lot by hand.  He pointed behind us and said just take that little road there to Hwy 340 and when you get to the Target, follow signs to 81N.  Turns out 340 had not been cleared yet and had almost 3 feet of snow.

So we spent the next half hour sledding in the van.  I was so thankful at this point that I know how to drive in it.  (Dad, thanks for all those skidding lessons in the empty lots in MD.)  I have to say it was absolutely beautiful, though I do not envy the hundreds of people I saw all day shoveling their mile long driveways and buried mailboxes.

We made it to the end and were on 64W to catch 81. Unfortunately, they only plowed a tiny lane down 64 and it wasn't ours. Traffic was at a complete standstill. This is the area were the humvees evacuated people from their cars last night. I'm starting to see our pending fate. We were sitting on the snow, car in park, surrounded by hundreds, the humvees rolling down the middle, and the sun setting around us. It started to hit me that we might be sleeping in the car tonight, or a shelter, or somewhere. Oh my. Traffic eventually started to crawl, after an hour, and we were back on 81N and we were moving! Yay!
 
I have never been so happy to be driving on clear pavement and free from traffic.  It took us 6 hours to go the 90 miles from Roanoke to Staunton! Now I just wanted to make it to PA safely in the dark without hitting any icy spots.  The temperature hovered right around 32 the rest of the trip.  I considered stopping at a hotel, but the thought of unloading everything and everyone just to drive again the next day was not at all desirable.  We stopped once more for a bathroom break.  The kids were getting hungry.  When I asked what they wanted for dinner, they cautiously responded, "Ice cream?" Sure.  Let's celebrate our successful snowy expedition.

The rest of the drive was smooth sailing except for one stretch in Maryland.  As we drove up 81 there were dozens and dozens of cars and trucks in the median completely buried in snow.  Some upright, some upside down.  I was so thankful to not be one of those.  As we got into Maryland, we found out first hand how they get those cars out.  The state troopers flip on their lights and stop traffic on the interstate while the wreckers haul them out and load them up.  Fortunately they work fast and we were only parked  for 20 min. 
 
The kids were absolute angels.  Not once did they complain, ask when we would be there, or get upset.  Aside from an occasional snack or drink request, I didn't hear anything from them.  I am forever indebted to the inventor of personal DVD players.  I am not at all ashamed to say they watched movies the whole trip.  It was imperative to my concentration that they be content and they couldn't have been happier or better behaved.  Julia fell asleep around 7pm. We finally rolled into Allentown at 9pm.  As we were getting close, I told Carter thank you for being so good for the drive and sorry it took so long.  His reply? "That's okay mom, I don't mind."
 
It really made me think about how much we've all changed after this past year.  We have all become accustomed to going with the flow and not knowing what to expect.  It has been our lifestyle.  They are used to being at home, not being on a schedule, plans changing, and trips to the clinic lasting all day.  We were all safe, together, and occupied and were fine with that.

Cancer has really changed our perspective.  Nothing that happened today was a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  I enjoyed the quiet time with my thoughts and time to take in the beautiful scenery.  Our experiences became downright comical.  I actually laughed a few times.  I had time to pray and think.  I had many opportunities to thank God for our safety and the many folks along the way who helped us out.  We would literally be lost without them.  Carter said, "Mom, we need to remember in our prayers to say thank you for all the people who helped us today."  And the kids were so happy to finally be going somewhere.
 
So now we are ready to enjoy some time with our family celebrating the reason for our HOPE and unshakeable joy. 

Waylaid by Winter

We woke up to a winter wonderland and VA was being slammed with the Blizzard of '09, so the car is still packed and we are staying put.

 

The kids weren't too upset today (They cried about it for almost an hour yesterday) because the snow was much more exciting.  Julia had a snow appetizer before breakfast and a cup full of icicles with her eggs.  This girl loves to eat snow!


As soon as she was outside, she was at it again.

Our neighbors came to join us for some fun.  Carter and Jackson were working on a snow fort.  Well, Carter was doing a lot of directing, as usual...

 

His brickbuilders (Selah and Julia) weren't so speedy...

 

They played some fun snow football.  Carter's squealing was hysterical...

 

..and of course sledding and snowball fights...

 

It was a great morning.  the kids are a great age to actually be able to run and play without falling or getting frustrated.

 

So, even though we had to stay home for now.  It's been a day full of memories and beauty...

 

...and after hearing about highway 81 in VA being shut down and having to evacuate motorists by humvee, I'm thinking home sounds like a much better choice (though Carter would have thought that was the best thing that ever happened to him!).  So for now we wait...