Glad to have visitors!

Busy day today. Seems I don't leave the house much with doing daycare in our home, but the holidays bring guests... we are so happy when people stop by to see us!

Over the holidays we had a nice visit with Nelda, and with Bob and Carol. So much family so close, we need to try harder in 2010 to get out and visit.

The Perkins family stopped by today. It was nice to see Mark, Emily, Braeden, and Lucia. Of course, the visit was too short. Didn't even get a picture of them. :(

So glad to have Kendra and her girls staying with us for a couple of days. Here are a few Christmas pictures of Brittany and Carolina:



Don couldn't come as he is currently stationed in Iraq. But, here is a picture of Kendra and Don when they were in Vegas:


Kendra asked me to post a few more picture of the kids so the family could see how the girls have grown and see some highlights from their visit (sledding and seeing Maureen and Peg)...

Merry Christmas!

So happy, so thankful!

Celebrating the gift of time with family: JOY

Thankful for our other family and friends: LOVE

Thinking of those who are not with us but at peace: GRACE

So happy, so thankful for His gift of joy, love, and grace!

Christmas 2009

Another wonderful Christmas with our family! Here are a few pictures from Christmas at our house:


Loved Asher's excitement when he saw the tree and his stocking!


Asher was a big helper. He helped Ezra open his gifts (and Al and I too sometimes).


Asher was excited about being a "chef" and playing his new violin.


Ezra was excited to chew on Sophie the Giraffe and read a book with dad.



Our family in front of our tree before church.

We were a bit worried about the weather interfering with seeing my parents, but the roads were decent Christmas day. Here are some pictures from Christmas day at my parents' home:










Before we left, Asher spent some one-on-one time with Grandpa and his "retro" train set. He was thrilled to be the conductor and run a real train set around the tracks:


(watching with Grandpa)

(Asher as conductor... fast moving train!)

(so much fun)

Gleason Christmas

So happy to see so much of our family. Here are some pictures from the Gleason Christmas:


No matter who is around, Ezra's favorite is always his Grandma.

Games: Asher gets his 1st BINGO.

Dancing: girls just gotta have fun!

Walking with Grandpa always makes Asher happy.

The kids loved that Santa came to visit.

Although Asher was a little concerned about whether Santa had to park off-site. ;)

And even the "grown ups" got in on taking pictures with the man in red...

...Santa and the twins.

I think it's tradition now to take family shots in front of one of the beautiful trees:

Steve and Barb and family

Larry and Val

Ned and Grandma Gleason

Holly and Mark and family with Grandma Gleason... and Kiera b/c I haven't edited the photos yet ;)

Our family

Asher had fun playing games and with his new truck.

Ezra was happy to have some bells, a cup, and a candy cane.

Let it snow!

Asher was thrilled when we got the 1st snow! He couldn't wait for daddy to get home and take him outside to play in it. Here are a few pictures...



I love that he wanted to make a snow angel. Asher was also helpful with a little shoveling. A few days later he asked when the snow would melt. I explained the sun may melt a little but I thought it would stay until spring. I mentioned we would probably get more snow soon... boy was I right! During the blizzard, even Asher knew better than to want to go outside in the wind and bitter cold. He thought we should do a craft. So I got out supplies to do a craft I'd seen in my magazine. Asher made the whole family caroling:

Here are a few pictures from the morning of the big storm...


Al measured the snow before it drifted on the South of the house. But the front of the house had already drifted some. It was hard to tell where the front porch ended and the yard began. Not to mention that you couldn't tell we have two sets of steps leading up to the house.

But Al dug out the front walk from the door to the street, the sidewalk from the front door to the back door, and the back step and 1/2 the driveway. Of course, by lunch you couldn't tell. So I shoveled the 6 inches off our covered front porch and removed the snow again from the front steps and sidewalk leading to the curb.

One more picture after the storm: The outside play equipment drifted in snow.

But hey, I didn't have to leave the house. The boys and I had a great snow day inside. And I sipped hot chocolate in front of the TV while they napped. The next day I profusely thanked the neighbor's grandson, who so generously went ahead and cleared the sidewalks of our corner lot with his snow blower. God bless the generosity of others because we had no idea how to dig out of that much snow!