A Very Merry Christmas

We were most blessed this Christmas. The only thing that would have made it better is if it had snowed...but you can't have everything. Savannah had lots of fun this Christmas and is now really good at ripping wrapping paper. Joe wins the award for being more childlike than his daughter as he woke me up numerous times on Christmas Eve to see if we could open presents yet! Bless his heart I love him. Savannah had a hard time that night she was over tired and over stimulated so neither she or I got very restful sleep until after about 2:30am. And I don't know what time I finally fell asleep after that. But Joe boy he was ready to go. Finally at about 8am I decided he wasn't gonna let me rest until we opened presents. So he went in and woke Savannah up and led her into the living room. At first she wasn't sure what to do cuz we had been telling her to leave presents alone now for a couple weeks (the ones I had wrapped under the tree for family) and all the sudden it was okay to rip into them. We had more fun watching her open presents than we did with our own....its fun to be a parent.

Savannah is seen here playing with her Geo Trax train set that daddy helped her build....hours of fun! She also got a baby doll to get her ready for her new baby brother that will be here in about a month! As you can see these pictures are only a day old and thats because I got a digital camera for Christmas from my parents! I feel extremely spoiled this year because I also got a new dishwasher and my own set of tools as Joe has scattered my former set of tools to the four winds. And let us not forget a new washer and dryer. What else can a girl want? I feel very very blessed and grateful. Joe got his "Gigantor" star wars Lego set that I forgot to take a picture of but is very impressive. So I'll post one next time....it is actually motorized and walks around.
We hope you all had a merry and bright Christmas too!

No sense of smell

My nose if broken....I mean to say that it doesn't preform a basic function for me....I can't smell. I've always been aware of this but recently it has come to my attention just how much of the world I am missing due to my broken nose. My washer is old like 20 + yrs old and Joe got it from his parents when he moved out on his own. So its been worked hard. They've got a ranch and all manner of farm animals and that was the machine that used to wash their grimey clothes. Well fast forward a few years to the present day when I am washing my family's clothes in it. Apparently there is a leak of some kind and it smells like mildew in this washer making our clothes smell that way (didn't know this...) on top of that all the years of washing farm animal stink out of clothes has compounded the smell to some odd mildew, poo, dead animal smell (didn't know this either...). So apparently this smell is getting worse. (didn't know this....my nose really is broken) and finally a brave soul (who I am very grateful for) decided to let me in on what the rest of the world has been smelling for a while. I now thinking about all the hours I've spent washing clothes for nothing. It does seem that washing them still gets out stains and stuff just doesn't leave them smelling fresh. I'm so embarassed. I want a new nose. My mom is the brave soul that very kindly brought my attention to it. And it is her theory that when I had my head surgery...the one that I had when I was a brand new baby for being born without a soft spot....(some of you may not know this story) anyway I have a scar from ear to ear so that they could fix my brow bone and give me a soft spot. The brow bone broke during birth because my head wasn't giving at all and if it hadn't we both would have bled to death. Anyway so what does this have to do with my washer and my nose??? Well to preform the surgery they cut me from ear to ear and then peeled the skin downward even with my nose. It seems that there may have been so wires crossed when they put everything back in its place. I have a short in my nasal system...sometimes I can smell things sometimes I can't and I can't always count on my nose to alert me when something smells bad. So....my nose is broken. I need a new washer.... and then I have to wash every single piece of clothing all over again to get rid of the smell....it might take a couple washings....I won't know unless I ask if the smell is gone. So my friends who love me please just tell me, I'm beggin you. It will be much less embarrassing coming from you than nobody ever telling me and I just have to stink in ignorance. I mean it please tell me. I love you all Merry Christmas!

Its all business!

We made a gift basket for some of the people we do business with and needed a card. So I added a few "christmas-y" touches to our logo and printed them up as tags. I was pretty happy with the finished product. Whaddaya think?

Christmas Past.....

Here is a little stroll down memory lane. This Christmas will be our 3rd Christmas together as a family. Christmas is an extra special time of year for us because Joe proposed to me on Christmas morning 2004 we were sitting in about the same spot we are in the family picture of us a year later! Savannah wasn't in the mood to be photogenic....

This picture is of Savannah in her special Christmas dress. Mom decided to have a little Christmas photo shoot. Savannah just knew she was pretty....

These are of last Christmas....we had just barely finished the bedrooms in our "construction site" home and it was just in time to put up the Christmas tree in the new living room we had been using as a community bedroom. I was so excited...It felt like a real house!

Merry Christmas!

I am almost done with the craziest part of Christmas....the shopping. I'm so excited. Savannah is loving every moment of the holiday season and I just love that she loves it. We got up our Christmas decorations and brought our family pictures out of storage....they've been in there for over a year! It was so fun to see them all again. So now our house looks more like a home with things hanging on the walls and everything. It was such a relief to get those up on the wall. I have all these goals to accomplish before the baby is here...many of them I have done. I just want this stuff done cuz otherwise I won't get to it for like 6 months to a year. So far all thats left is:
1. Finish organizing the kids room and find a place for all the baby gear that I will be needing.
2. Clean and organize our room so the baby has a place to be for the first little while before he seems old enough to put in a crib.
3. Organize our business files and paperwork to prepare for doing the books ourselves.
4. Get all the home improvement left overs out of the house (they've kinda blended into everything else I'm so used to seeing them there... things like boards and empty paint cans we don't need anymore.) I think that I'm forgetting something but thats a good enough list.
Wish me Luck! I am going to be 32 weeks or 8 months along on Monday! Yahoo!