God's Artwork

We had a snowfall just a few days ago that left amazing scenery for us to enjoy. Mike went out early one of the mornings and captured these beautiful photographs. They were taken at Rotary Park (about 1/2 mile from our home.)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas! We have been truly blessed with wonderful family to spend Christmas and Christmas Eve with. On Christmas Eve we went to the 4 p.m. service at church (Brooke did a great job sitting through the program), and then we headed off to Grandma Denyse and Grandpa Mark's to open presents. Uncle Chris & Aunt Alicia joined us for their 1st Christmas as a married couple.

On Christmas morning, Santa came to bring us presents for Jesus' birthday. We opened gifts with the Kostanski's, had our traditional Christmas dinner, and of course birthday cake for Jesus. We're especially grateful that Uncle Eric and Aunt Laura could come from Texas to celebrate with us.

And...although we aren't the Partridge family...here is our rendition of Happy Birthday to Jesus. We have Kenny on the tambourine, Mike on the cymbals, Grandpa Ken on the harmonica, Uncle Eric on the maracas and Brooke (lead singer) on the drums. We're hopeful that our Lord and Savior finds this to be "joyful noise!"

Breakfast with Santa & Singing at Church

Earlier this month we went with Grandma Denyse & Grandpa Mark to have breakfast with Santa. Brooke got to decorate cupcakes and talk with Santa and Mrs. Claus.






Brooke also sang during the Children's Program at Church this year. Click on this link to view the service - Brooke sings towards the very beginning, but the whole program was very nicely done and very cute.
http://www.springcreekonline.org/site/cpage.asp?sec_id=1992&cpage_id=10399&time=6:05:19%20AM

Let it Snow!

Yesterday we had a great time with our friends, the Seiler's on "Killer Hill" (a sledding hill right by our house.) Brooke and Tommy went down the hill this year all by themselves and were very proud to do so. After our excursion, the Stanley's took a trip to the sporting goods store to load me up with the proper clothing...as it looks like we'll be spending quite a bit of our time at the hill. (Who needs to workout at the Y? Just climb the hill a few times!!)

Going SOLO!!


Mr. Tom, Samantha, and Tommy

Eventually she'll grow hair...

Brooke finally has "enough" hair to sport a pony tail - or our version of a pony tail anyhow. She's so proud of it! Slowly but surely she is growing some hair...I still think Clayton may beat her to it though.

And of course...more stories...

• *Grandma Nancy was watching Brooke on an afternoon that Brooke was having a "rough" day with lots of meltdowns. (She wasn't feeling well and lacking sleep.) Brooke asked Grandma Nancy for a cup of cranberry juice with some apple juice in it. So Grandma poured the two juices and the proceeded to stir the two together...oops! Apparently, according to Brooke they shouldn't have been stirred and the meltdown began; however, a very quick thinking grandma quickly "unstirred" the glass by stirring the spoon in the opposite direction and all was well.

*This afternoon Brooke was put down for nap and after about 30 minutes was still playing with her stuffed animals. I went up to tell her that she needed to go to sleep now. Her response, "Just a minute mommy - the animals are all lined up to sing Happy Birthday." I asked who they were singing to. "Baby Jesus!" - How could I not let her finish?!

Walking footage...

Clayton gets a little bit better every day - here is footage from last Thursday morning (12/6).

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Millie!

Great Grandma Millie turns 83 today. Happy Birthday - we love you and hope you had a very special day!