...Everything as loss...FOR GREAT GAIN

Yep, my birthday has past and I now am one year from thirty! Praise Jesus...right?? I mean I'm actually blessed to have another year to live with my amazing husband and beautiful kids and worship the Lord and be a witness for Him...who cares how old I am...it's another year! I should also tell you how fun my special day was. We went up north for three days two nights in Boyne, MI...right off the hill they ski off...well they call it a mountain. It was interesting to say the least. One thing you learn as a parent is to have open expectations of your children no matter how well behaved they are normally...puting them in a hotel room with you isn't easy! Getting them to sleep while you're in the room and not wake each other up when screaming to sleep or needing to eat was very interesting. But we made it through...barely! We did enjoy a delicious dinner in Petoskey, MI off the shoreline of Lake Michigan and took our lovely dessert back to the hotel due to our screaming inf...

When people told me that each child is completely different I figured that they'd be different in a few things....well so far that are polar opposites in almost everything accept sleep! So here goes the fun of trying solids. Malachi took to it like a regular...not Rachel! These photo's don't even do it justice. She made the absolute funniest faces and didn't swallow anything for at least a week of trying!!!! Now we're into it now that we have bananas in it! Hillariously picky girl!

So bathtime is very fun for Rachel since Malachi loves to help and here you can see how he is actually trying to help mommy put lotion on Rachel but it certainly looks like he's about to swat her bottom!! Absolutely precious! She has no idea either:)

Here's a new years tradition that Aaron is used to being mostly English....the poppers! Here we are wearing our lovely crowns that came out of our poppers! It was fun and Malachi ripped his off within seconds. And of course here's a cute outfit little Rachel got from Auntie Tiffany!!! SOOOOO CUTE

Here's some fun new shots of the two kids....the first is for Manaw....yes she made these sweaters and Malachi's head is so stinkin big I couldn't get it on so here ya go! We tried for about ten minutes to get it on...but that noggin...it is huge!!! Sorry Manaw!!! So....Rachel likes her fingers!!!!!!! Maybe...I like my fingers too!!!! Do you like my crazy laugh Rachel???? Or is it blowing you away??? Just too cute! He loves his bottom lip...and look at those bright eyes!

Here's the great hat Manaw (Grandma) made little Rachel for Christmas and then Malachi with is unbelievably cheesy smile and all his cars! She absolutely loves her fingers!!!!

So here we go with crazy Christmas gift opening! Malachi loved helping Auntie Rach open her gifts and Daddy and his own! I think he just loved the wrapping tearing sound. He of course got tons of cars, puzzles, books which he really loves, and fun stuff. Precious Avery...I think the majority of her stuff had either a college logo or sporst logo on it...hope she likes them!!! Yep....lots of stuff and boy we had a blast! And Rachel was actually sleeping during the opening of most of the gifts but that's ok...she won't remember!

This year was the first year in four year that we got to spend Christmas with any family and it was wonderful! We drove a little over six hours to Madison, WI to shack up with Rachel, Brian and Avery and Bethany (Brian's sis) at Brian's parents house for Christmas! It was absolutely wonderful. Malachi's first and favorite thing the entire trip was the two cats and of course his favorite...was "JOE MAMMA!" He would follow those cats all day and just hand them toys and even his water to share but never touched them and they seemed to like it too! It was also so nice for me to finally meet my beautiful neice Avery Joy! She's absolutely gorgeous and it is so strange to look at her and see my sister in her sooooo much! I love it! The only bummer was that Aaron and I got a pretty bad head cold and it made us very out of it but we were so blessed to be there. And now more than ever we've asked everyone we know to pray for an opening in Fort Collins to come up fo...

I love to get photos of how Malachi sleeps...this kid will sleep with his legs up high and is arms trapped in the bars and won't notice it! I'm just glad he's still real comfortable in his crib because once I take him out he'll probably be on the floor more than the bed! yes...this is only fifteen minutes later!!!!!

Every time I give my kiddos baths at night I enjoy every minute. It amazes me how incredibly different the two kids are...in sooooo many ways. But one thing I love is when I put lotion on Rachel to keep her calm I sing some old worship songs to her...and she begins to cooo along with me and smile. I LOVE THIS! I also was reminded at church that God meets us there in that moment and worships with us. It's so great to find special moments with my kids that also lead me to worship our Savior!

So...here's December 16 and I'll be brief so that you can enjoy the photos. This first is Rachel wearing my own crocheted coat that I wore when I was a baby! So cute and fun. It zips up the back all the way to the hood. Very seventies with the little soft balls hanging! And of course he had to be in the shot! I love how Malachi now likes to be in the photo's with Rachel! He thinks it's fun....at least now it is.