updates....

I'm feeling just a little guilt ridden that its been so long since I blogged. I don't have a very good excuse why I haven't. I'll just say its easier for me to sit down and read updates than it is to write and post. Hopefully I can improve so I keep everyone updated.
I'm not sure where to begin updating. So, I'll just give the cliff note version of some of the events in our lives this last busy month.
Christmas at our house was of course wonderful. Wonderfully messy, wonderfully busy, wonderful traveling, wonderful gifts, and wonderful time with all of our family!!

We attended 7 family Christmas parties, 2 bank gatherings, and 1 trip to see my Grandma at her nursing home. Its always so much fun seeing everyone. It always makes me wonder why we don't see each more often. My kids love playing with their cousins. Actually they are my cousins or our cousins' children. All except for Miss Addy. ( Deidra's little girl) They don't seem to know any difference at all though.
We saw almost everyone this year. We missed Josh and Kessa! They shared their second married Christmas in Minnesota this year. Kessa we hear is making a great nurse at the Mayo Hospital! We also missed a few Reasnor cousins and their new babies. I'm thankful for the Internet so I can still see these families grow even when separated by 100s and 100s of miles.

Here are a few pictures of Christmas and Family and a few new toys!!

Myra on her Plasma car. (All 3 kids got one)

Isaac and his new RED boots

Isaac with his new RED DS. Thank you Grandma Roberta and Grandpa David

This is actually a stunned/disbelief look from Isaac. I think he was almost in tears!!

Bethany with Felicity (her new American Girl doll)

Myra with the Family Sled. Pray for Snow!!

January brings Birthdays and our 9th Anniversary!

Miss Bethany is 8!! January 10
Time flies. I can't believe our first child was born 8 years ago! Bethany is growing into a beautiful young lady right before our eyes. She is a Darling Daughter to Josh and me and a Sensational Sister to Isaac and Myra. Bethany loves to read, play catch with her daddy and call her Grandma Roberta almost every morning for a ride to school. She is a very bright student and excels in all her work. I love that she loves learning. Bethany also made a very wise decision this year. She accepted Jesus as her personal Savior!! We were all very proud of her! Due to a sudden hospital visit our pastor was unable to be in services the scheduled Sunday of her baptism. Thankfully we had an experienced backup in mind. My dad was very honored to fill in. What a day!! Happy Birthday 8th Bethany!!

We celebrated by inviting family to eat with us at Shiki. It was a fun Hibachi style Japanese dinner.

(This is Bethany at 2. I don't have pictures scanned that far back yet)

Bethany's Party with Keely and Me

Josh and I celebrated our 9th Wedding anniversary January 8!
Did I mention we had just celebrated all those Christmas'? We did not have an evening out together this year. We did however grab some El Charros as a family. El Charros is a weekly staple at our house. My sneaky husband brought me home an unexpected gift. An ipod nano. A few days later we upgraded it to a touch ipod. Technology is amazing and I am enjoying my ipod. Thank you again, Josh. I love you.

We passed around 3 colds, 2 ear infections and one stomach bug before Isaac's birthday.

Happy 4th Birthday Isaac. January 24th

( Newborn Isaac with Mom and Dad)

4 year old Isaac

My little boy is so funny! He loves to laugh, trying to tell knock knock jokes, going to "his school", dinosaurs, and playing his Wii. (Which is what he's doing right now. I hear tennis coming from the living room.) I'm sure most everyone knows, "all children are different" But somehow it sinks in better when you have your second child.!!

We celebrated with a dinosaur cake, that sorta looked like a dragon. Red because Isaac requested it that way. Family all joined us at the house to share his cake and ice cream.

Today, we are warming up from a ice storm. Bethany missed 2 days of school. You would have thought it was Christmas morning the way she carried on when Hinton School Closed finally came across the tv screen. She was pretty funny!! Cabin Fever? No, not really. There's lots of days when we stay home and don't do much around town. You can't hardly tell by the pictures (because you can't see their faces) but we had fun outside Tuesday in our new Christmas sled. They had been praying for snow so really they were stoked to see anything white outside.

Isaac was very cold and didn't like his hat

Myra enjoying her new sled

Flashback Friday

Here is our little fam of 3 back in 2001. Bethany just missed Christmas in 2000. She was born Jan 10th. (10 days late) So this was her first Christmas.

Things I remember about this Christmas:

Bethany singing many many Christmas songs.

Bethany reciting the beginning of Twas the night Before Christmas.

This little purple dress I bought from Sheila Parker's store.

Our humble first little home.

The big ice storm shortly after Christmas.

"Myra and Isaac" ?

While looking through old pictures for Flashback Friday, I ran across this one and couldn't resist posting it... This seems absolutely crazy to me!

This picture was taken in 1992. Not 2008!!

This is my little brother Andrew and sister Sarah. I'm sure they will both love seeing this because they look so darn cute. Especially Sarah in her little training pants.

They remind me so much of my two littlest ones, Isaac and Myra. Just like Andrew and
Sarah they are 2 1/2 years apart.

Myra does have red hair for now. It's quite a bit lighter than the others though. We always gave/give Sarah a hard time about being the odd ball "Blondie" I guess her and Myra will have to stick together now.

Isaac looks so much like Andrew. I showed Isaac this picture and he thought it was himself!

Flashback Friday

Here I was thinking I didn't have any old Christmas pictures. Then I remembered I have an entire box full from my Grandma's house. These were Grandma's pictures that now belong to my mom. They have just taken a slight detour to my house so I can eventually scan them so I can share in all these "older" memories.

This is me and my brother Josh in 1983 posing in the den of Ma and Pa's house.

I would've been 2 1/2 and he's 4 1/2. Josh got his dark hair from my mom. I got my red hair from my dad and his mom. Aren't we sweet?

First Flashback Friday

I'm going to jump on the Flashback Friday bandwagon!

I always enjoy my friend Melinda's flashbacks, so when she requested more bloggin buddies to join in on Flashback Friday I started digging for an old picture.

Josh and I were engaged in the fall of 1999. Yes, I was very young I realize now. I was 18. Josh was 22. I was so excited to be engaged to Josh. I was so ready to begin our life together. We were engaged for a short 3 months and were married in January.

This was the just the begining of our blessed life together.

Halloween 08

This year we had an ARRR Pirate Theme. 2 Pirates and a Parrot.

I made costumes this year. I always have a lot of fun putting these together. Although I do admit it drives me crazy when the kids take it all off so quickly!!!

We do go trick or treating. This is something I never did as a kid. But honestly, my kids have always loved handing out the candy at Grandma and Grandpa's house the most. We maybe went to 10 houses and then headed to Grandma 'Bertas.

I'm happy to report that everyone is well at my house, for the moment. Unfortunately 2 weeks ago a very yucky stomach bug started wtih me on a Wednesday night.

I always wonder whose fault these bugs are. Who gave this to me!! I'm sure we'll never know.
I guess I do know that I was the one who infected nearly everyone else in my family. Sorry guys.

We thought we were being careful. I hibernated in my room for 3 days and 3 nights.

1 week after I had this yucky bug Isaac caught it on a Wednesday night on our church's floor. YUK.

By Saturday, we figure everyone is eating and well so we head to my parents house to help clean and pack. We are getting them ready to come to HINTON!!

Saturday evening I feel drained. I'm thinking its cause I've been so busy all day. Maybe the chemicals I've cleaned with..... NOPE. I got this charming bug again!!!! At mom and dad's and all the way home.

In the middle of the night Bethany gets it. She cries and cries because she wants to go to church. I understand she loves church and explain patiently 5-6 times to her she's sick and she can't. Ahhh DRAMA. My sweet little girl nearly earned herself a spankin' from me while we were both sick in bed....

Monday. The phone starts ringing. First Josh, his tummy hurts. Mom calls. Andrew and Dad have it too. ( She'd had it already) Monday evening. Sarah calls. "I'm mad at you, Liz" She's now officailly broken Stillwater in.

Once again, I'm sorry to everyone. I do think I've already had my punishment. Remember, I had this twice...

For anyone counting, this is everyone in my family except Myra, my baby. ( And my brother in Minnesota) I'm very very pleased that Myra has been left out of this experience. She must be one strong cookie. I do know she was covered in many prayers. Thank you.