Snakesgetti, Melting, Helmets and Reflections

I've been meaning to post several updates over the past week or so and just haven't made the time to get them done... soooo, you get blessed with the mini-series blog edition today.

*SHE LOVES ME YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!*
Since Emily still isn't allowed to travel the stairs without a chaperone she gets all excited when we let her go upstairs/downstairs with us a few times a week. I came home from work one night last week and followed Em up the stairs to change out of my work clothes. Now, to truly do this story justice, I must remind you that it's mid-winter here in Ohio and my skin has not seen the sunlight (nor tanning lights) since maybe August... and even then it was probably only long enough for me to stroll from my sister's house to get in her pool. I think I wore jeans most of the summer this year!

Now that that's been said, I headed to the bedroom upstairs to change into some comfy jeans for the night. I dropped trow, grabbed ahold of my jeans and to my surprise Emily marched over and gave my white, pastie thigh a big ol' hug and added an "Awwwww". I'm not positive, but it might have been a sympathy hug! (And, NO, I'm not including pictures of this event for your amusement! I don't carry a camera with me ALL the time!)


*SNAKESGETTI*
Emily's favorite books right now are picture books with all sorts of food, animals, toys, and other day to day things in the them. She's been really fascinated lately with the pictures of skunks, scorpions and snakes and always makes an accompanying animal sound or motion when she sees the pictures.

Last week, I made spaghetti for supper and I believe it might have been the first time she's had spaghetti when I didn't cut or break all the pasta up for her. She looked in her bowl and looked back at me with big happy eyes. She proceeded to pick one of the spaghetti noodles up and held it up for me, all the while going, "Sssssssss"! This kid cracks me up!


*I'M MELTING!*
I think I mentioned in a previous post that Emily is growing FAST! She was wearing size 12 mos. for most of January and then all of a sudden she's had to jump into 18 mos. clothes because so many of her one piece outfits are getting too short and tight on her. She had some pajamas that were getting too small on her so I decided to move up to the next size.... Oops! I think maybe I jumped the gun a bit on this pair! I accidentally grabbed a size 24 mos. and I didn't realize it until she stood up with them on. (Don't worry, we changed clothes before she went to sleep that night!)

Maybe it's just me, but her feet look like the Wicked Witch's after they shriveled up when Dorothy's house landed on her!



*HELMET HEAD*
Nothing too exciting here. For some reason Emily AND Tom have been wearing this blue, plastic bowl around the house on occasion. If you ask Emily where her helmet is she will go looking for this bowl.


*REFLECTIONS*
Tonight while eating supper Emily caught her reflection on the back of her spoon and it made her laugh pretty hard. I tried hard to catch this one on "film" but I couldn't get her to look at the reflection again... maybe another day.


Have a great day and be blessed!

Spoon Training

Tonight was our first official "Spoon Training Night". Yes, we've eaten (read: played) with spoons before but tonight was special because we actually cracked open the textbook (mommy's mouth) and learned the real way to use one... scoop and eat! Emily's been practicing with a fork for a while, but I/Jenni just got brave enough to let my arm flailing daughter try her hand at eating with a spoon by herself.

Here's the play-by-play on how it all went down.

1) A few scoops in, we take a break for a photo-op. On the spoon-friendly menu for tonight was mashed potatoes with a few peas mixed in... and peas on the side for finger-eating pleasure. We're doing pretty well, but we haven't picked up momentum yet.


2) After a few more bites we learn that apparently either mashed potatoes make your eyes itch or they're just fun to wipe on our face. Note the mashed potatoes acting as eyeliner and mascara. She's still too young for make-up but she's learning to improvise well.


3) Apparently this spoon stuff was proving to be a bit too challenging tonight and Emily initiated a prayer break. (Seriously, she wouldn't keep eating until we prayed! Deeply spiritual, this one is.)


4) Partway through the 30 second prayer we realize we have mashed potatoes between our fingers and our hands just might stick this way if Mom doesn't hurry up with this prayer.


5) And, on occasion Emily ends her prayers with a big ol' "Yeah, God!" pose. (She doesn't actually say it, but the arms go up like she just scored a touchdown!) Apparently, she's thrilled that God just answered her prayer and her hands didn't get stuck together.



6) Proving to be the ever flexible switch-hitter, Emily is effective with using her right hand...

... and her left!

The next few items have nothing to do with eating... but I found them on my other memory stick tonight and knew you just had to see these!

I took Emily's hat off really fast on Sunday before I hopped in the front seat and then glanced in the rearview mirror to see this....


And, just a few snippets of video of Emily chatting and being her normal cheerful self when she just wakes up from a nap.

Be Blessed and May Others Be Blessed By You!

Hey Homies!

Hello, sdrasvoitcha!

Today's post was typed by none other than Miss Emily herself!

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Das v'danya! (Goodbye!)

Growing Like a Weed!

It's lunch time again and time for another update. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to write about today and the main thing that keeps coming to mind is how fast this little girl is growing! We've been very blessed to have received hand-me-downs from my sister-in-law, Pam, and a former high school classmate of mine, Amy.

As we've received things, I've promptly looked through everything to make a mental note of everything that we had and I sorted everything into big tubs that are stored in our basement. We had a 2 tubs of each of the main sizes (6/9 mos., 12 mos., and 18 mos.) and we have one tub of 2T and 3T clothes. The higher up we go the less we have because the hand-me-downers are still working on some of those sizes. I was even organized enough to attempt to sort the clothes in warm weather/cold weather clothes, hence 2 tubs for each of the smaller sizes. (I blabber on about this system in hopes that someone out there can learn from it... when we started getting stuff I had NO IDEA how to organize everything. With my first batch I had tubs of shirts, pants, pj's, footwear, blankets, etc... and that quickly grew out of hand once we started getting various sizes!)

So! Back to Emily. At one and a half years old, Emily was still wearing a LOT of clothes that were size 6/9 mos. She was an itty-bitty thing but mostly has/had an itty-bitty waistline. (She'll be bummed if that doesn't stick around until she's 50!) Then, all of a sudden she started growing! Apparently this Kazakh Hillbilly (as Daddy likes to call her) thrives on cold weather and lack of sunshine. She does come from the frozen tundra after all! Anyway, something happened around November/December and she had a growth spurt and almost overnight outgrew ALL of her 6/9 mos. clothes and adorned a whole new wardrobe of size 12 mos. (Really cute stuff, too!)

Emily had all sorts of new clothes to wear for Thanksgiving and Christmas and then we started noticing that a lot of her onesies were starting to get too short. Thankfully, while we were on Christmas vacation we ran across several outlet malls that carried a lot of baby clothes and I stocked up on some 18 mos. onesies that I knew were we short on in the hand-me-down department... Remember the mental notes I made??? They're important!

As I was reflecting on Emily's attire over the past couple of weeks I noticed that now a lot of her pants were getting too short for her. She was wearing 18 mos. tops with 12 mos. bottoms but it looks like she's finally going to be graduating to all 18 mos. clothes before too long. The fun part in all of this is that she still has that itty-bitty waistline and Grandma G. gets a lot of practice taking tucks in Emily's clothes. It's a good thing she keeps her sewing machine ready to go at all times!

In essence, Emily spent about 4-6 weeks wearing size 12 mos. and jumped into her bigger size. It's a good thing we didn't have to fork out tons of money for new clothes for her! Hand-me-downs rock!

Along with these wacky growth spurts, we had Miss Em re-evaluated at physical therapy. In mid-January I noticed that she was starting to do a lot of tiptoe walking again and I thought we might need more help. I also noticed when we took her to the play area at Polaris Mall that she wasn't nearly as mobile as I thought she was when compared other kids even younger than she was. The fun part with growth spurts for any kid is that their bones grow faster than their muscles and a lot of times they end up tiptoeing until they catch up with each other. In Emily's case, this takes a lot more work and a little extra help because she's had such high muscle tone all along.

Prior to the re-eval, Tom and I decided that we're going to try to take her to the play areas at Polaris Mall or Marion's Southland Mall once a week if possible so she can crawl, climb, run, etc. and pick up some tricks from seeing how other kids work on stuff like this. We're also going to kick the PT up a notch and see if we can't get the stiffness worked out before another major growth spurt kicks in.

Okaaaay, so I know you really came here for the pictures and didn't really want to read all of that without some sort of reward at the end. So, here is the chocolately center of your virtual Tootsie Pop.

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On Feb. 5, Shrove Tuesday, our church had a pancake extravaganza at the Isler's house.
Emily and I are at the far end of the table and Daddy was taking the picture. Also on the wall by the door you can see Mr. Pineapple. For some reason, this past spring Emily was really taken by this and in the middle of our Bible studies would just jabber to no end to this thing! It was pretty funny, but I guess you probably had to be there (or be me) to really enjoy it to it's full extent.

Here's a better view of Emily with her pancakes.
She was especially fond of the ones with REAL blueberries in them!
Check out how much hair she has now!

The next morning, after our tummies were properly filled, I drove Tom to the airport so he could spend a few days with a couple of pastors on a mini-retreat in FL. He had a great time, learned a lot and came back refreshed. It's a shame he had to spend so much time in such a God-forsaken place. (Yeah, that's sarcasm.)

This picture was taken from the back porch of the house they stayed in!

I picked Tom up from the airport on Saturday night and on Sunday morning he was still awake enough to inconspicuously snap a picture of me playing under the table with Emily at church! (I was a bit surprised to find this when I checked the memory stick in the camera when I was looking for pictures this afternoon!)


And, for your video enjoyment... my sister, Michelle, created this lovely little clip for Emily for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure how long they keep the link active so enjoy it while you can!

After getting inspired by Michelle, Tom decided to try his hand at this and created a little clip of all four of us strutting our stuff! Again, not sure how long it will last so enjoy it now!

Enough for now... Be Blessed!

Happy Homecoming Day, Emily!

Can you believe it's been a WHOLE year?!?


It's been a whole year since we brought Emily back home to the states with us. In many ways I can't believe how fast this year has gone and yet it still seems so long ago that we walked through the Columbus Airport with her to meet my family that had come to pick us up.

For a refresher of that experience, visit The Looooong Way Home. I know we got up at 4:00AM Kazakhstan-time and didn't get home until around 2:00AM Ohio-time. I "think" we were traveling for at least a good 26+ hours from start to finish and I remember like yesterday how exhausted I felt.

I've never run a marathon before but I can only imagine what I felt like was similar to how exhausted a marathon runner might feel when they finally cross that finish line. And when we crossed our "finish line" I think being that exhausted seemed to make all the emotions I was feeling that much more magnified. I felt like crumbling to my knees in a pile on the floor as I handed Emily to my dad but the adrenalin was so strong that I wanted to take in every moment of watching the excitement in my family as they got to meet her for the first time.

Here are some pictures from that awesome day!

Below: I knew I had to give Emily to my dad first because he might not ever get a chance to hold her again! Also in the picture are my sister, Michelle, peeking in from the background and my mom.

Aunt Shell finally got a chance to hold Miss Em for the first time. They're now great buds and enjoy rough-housing and making messes together.
Here's Aunt Laura with Emily for the first time. Aunt Laura will be thrilled if Emily turns out to be left-handed and a sports fanatic. They love laughing together and teasing each other. Hehehe... I remember when Emily had no hair! Never fear, there are recent pictures of Em at the bottom of this entry with more hair!


UPDATE FROM THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS: A couple of weeks ago Emily's friend, Kael, came for a play date. They get along great and Emily turns into Kael's shadow when they're together. I recently put together a photo album for Emily with pictures of family and friends and when she gets to Kael's picture she pats it and lays her head down on it like she does with Mommy, Daddy, RyRy and Spencer (our cat). She loves Kael.


Here are Emily and Kael playing at the kitchen gate as I was getting a snack ready. Feel the love!

Emily gets to play with her cousins Brooke and Logan when we need someone to watch her. She has a lot of fun with them and I think they kinda like her too.


One of Emily's new tricks in the last couple of weeks is to climb up on her stool and get up onto the couch like a big girl. So far, she's been very safe and doesn't teeter on the edge of the couch. She loves to be a big girl and read, play with her toys and sit by Mommy and Daddy on the couch. (The cool part is that the stool belonged to my/Jenni's grandpa and I believe he may have even made it.)


Well, that's enough reminiscing for today. It's time to sign off and rest up for a new day with the kiddo!

Oh, and please drop us a note either in the comment section or via email to let us know if you're reading our blog. We're aren't sure how many people we have still following along. We'd love to hear from you!

Email: tjhypes@yahoo.com
Jenni's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=800359711
Jenni's MySpace page: My MySpace Profile

Happy Gotcha Day!

Today is yet another important day to remember in the life of Miss Emily. On January 29, 2007, (which also happens to be Ryan's birthday!) a baby girl named Nadezhda, lovingly called Nadya by her caregivers, became an official member of the Hypes Family.

We spent years praying about adding another child to our family and we spent several months researching agencies and another couple of years filing paperwork and getting poked by doctors and having our backgrounds checked by the FBI. No amount of preparation could get me ready for the joy that coursed through my body as we carried Nadya/Emily out of the babyhouse for the first time and brought her into our home. At the same time, no amount of preparation could prepare me for the fear that I faced once she was "home" in our Kazakh apartment.

As we were preparing to take Emily back to our apartment, we learned that there were respiratory infections spreading around the babyhouse and that Emily was highly susceptible to them. The day we took her home she had a very high fever, was very somber and lethargic and wasn't eating or drinking much. She also had quite a few of the messiest diapers I had ever seen in all my years of babysitting! I brought basic baby medicines from home (the States) but was told by the babyhouse doctor via our translator that I should NOT give any of them but instead we should give a battery of medicines they had prescribed for her. I could not read the labels to know what I was giving, what it was for or how much I should give. I had to solely rely on what these people were telling me and trust that they knew best. Worse yet, I couldn't pick up the phone and call my mom and ask what she would do. I was alone, in a country where I was now illiterate and I was trying to get my baby healthy again so we could travel back to the states in roughly a week. We asked our family and friends to pray for our situation and boy, could we feel those prayers!

Here we are a year later and our daughter is doing great. I had a hard time getting into the celebration of Em's first birthday because we had only known her for 4 mos. but on her first Gotcha Day I feel like putting on a party hat and doing a jig. As another adoptive mom once told me, "I've managed to keep her alive for a WHOLE year!" Yeah, God!

As I frequently try to do, here are some fun pictures to remember the occasion! The picture at the top of the page was taken shortly after we were granted custody of Emily and it was the first time we were permitted to take her outside of the babyhouse. (And, yes, I'm pretty sure I went back after I took the picture and closed the door that Aliya left open!) We were told we needed to by a snowsuit for this occasion and this was the smallest we could find at the market. It cost about $20 and should have only cost about $10 because Emily only filled it up halfway. She was so small inside it but it kept the wind off and kept the old Russian ladies from yelling at us since they couldn't see her skin peeking out. ;-)

This was one sick baby. She had a very high fever and what little hair she had was wet with sweat by the time we made it to our apartment. This is still one of my favorite pictures of her. She was so peaceful when she fell asleep in my arms.


Here we are exactly one year later wearing the same snowsuit and hat and feeling healthy. This is the first time she's worn this since we came home from Kazakhstan and it fits her perfectly! Of course she couldn't move her arms and she walked like a zombie and couldn't get herself back up once she fell down... but it fits and she cracked me up!


Here's our Kazakh Snow Bunny!



Ahhhh, the memories. Happy 1st Gotcha Day, Em and Happy 16th Birthday, Ryan!

No deep thoughts, just an overview

I started a really cool blog entry this morning and then my laptop ran out of juice before I saved it. So, here's a simple version...

On January 12, Tom helped Emily with her shoes... and taught her the value (?) of giving them a good sniff test before lacing them up. Make sure you have the volume turned up. There's some pretty good giggling going on here!

This has to be the absolute funniest picture we have of Emily so far. I took her to a dollar store on Saturday to get some supplies for church and picked up a handy-dandy pint-sized Elmo backpack while we were there. I wanted to get a picture of her with it and this one just cracks me up. Must have caught her in mid-word or maybe it's the result of all that stinky shoe sniffing!


On Sunday, we tried on a new outfit. It's a cute little corduroy ensemble that we got as a shower gift. She opted to leave the hat at home for church since she had to put her heavy duty earmuff hat on because of the cold weather. (Note the fingerprint smudges all over Daddy's TV!)

I didn't have to go to work on Monday because of Martin Luther King, Jr Day so we opted to send Em to Grandma and Papa Daycare for the 1st part of the day and then Emily, Grandma and I went shopping the 2nd part of the day. We stopped by Polaris Mall and tried out the play area for the first time. Em wasn't quite as adventurous as a lot of the other kids but she did enjoy going down the slides, crawling through the tunnels and watching the big kids run amuck.


I went to get Em out of bed this morning to find that she'd tossed her cookies sometime in the middle of the night. We started our morning by taking a bath and throwing every bit of bedding and clothing into the hamper. I stayed home from work and we took it easy on the meals today and enjoyed several cups of pedialyte. She got a new chair for Christmas and spent part of the morning lounging around watching Elmo's World. Usually she sits like a big girl in her chair but this morning she was definitely lounging. She didn't get sick any more today but was more mellow than normal and enjoyed a lot more cuddling.


A funny story for the day: As you learned in the video above, Emily makes typical signs and noises for when something stinks. After I changed her this morning, I walked over to the diaper pail with Emily in one arm and her stinky diaper in the other hand. I opened the pail and as usual said, "Ew, does it smell bad?" She responded by leaning into me, smelling my breath and going, "phew". I had to laugh. But, to my defense (maybe?) I HAD already brushed my teeth right before going in to wake her up.

Another walk down memory lane...

It's time to reminisce again.  I can't believe that the Kazakh Epiphany Day came and went and I didn't even think about it.  If you were following along last year at this time, you'll remember that Epiphany (Jan. 19) is a day that Russians and Kazakhs alike take the triple plunge into the icy waters of Ural River to cleanse themselves of their sins.  They do this in all temperatures and disrobe down to their swim suits and trunks. (Speedo-style for most of the guys -- young and old!)   

To walk down memory land with me on that one...  The Freezing Cold Epiphany!

The other fun thing that happened a year ago was my first feeding of Miss Emily.  Oi Vey!  

What an experience!  No high chair.  No bottle.  No sippy cup.  No baby-sized spoon.  Just a giant bowl of Cream-o-Wheat stuff and a tea cup filled with lukewarm tea.  I couldn't shovel it into her mouth fast enough.  This girl knew what she wanted and she wanted it now.  (Yes, she's still a little like this.)

Updates and new pictures coming soon!  I promise!

Where Was That Memo?

Apparently there was a memo that was circulated amongst the appliances, vehicles and other electronic devices in our home. We've had an interesting run the past couple of days!



It started with the belt on our sweeper breaking. Simple enough. But the sweeper sat in my kitchen a few days before I could tear it apart to see what was wrong. As of 6:30 this morning, it's fixed.
The night before last, I went to put Emily to bed and when I went to turn on the CD player it just clicked. I bought one similar to the one above on sale at Big Lots around Christmas time and it's worked just fine... until the other night. Now it's been reduced to a glorified radio. But a least it's a radio.

Then, yesterday, I got a call from Tom around lunch time saying that he had been in a car accident. He was broadsided as he was pulling into a turn lane. He's okay, the people that hit him are okay... but, alas, his Mazda Tribute that was nearly paid off is not. They hit the rear axle and bent the tire and the frame up. It was being hauled away as I got there and I didn't get to see how bad the damage was... but it was bad enough that it can't be driven and that Tom had to get a rental car. The other people were cited and their insurance is supposed to cover everything. Tom's hooked up with a pretty little rental car for the next couple of weeks until his can be repaired.


Tom was also kind enough to inform me last night that our dryer seems to have croaked yesterday morning. I started a load in the morning before I left for work and 4 hours later when Tom went down to switch over laundry the dryer was still tumbling but without heat. He turned it off and tried to restart it and it now it won't turn back on. Fortunately, when we got married 7 years ago, Tom moved his washer and dryer in with him. They've been sitting beside my old washer and dryer waiting for such an occasion to be used. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to unhook the current pair, move the newer ones over and find someone to haul the old ones away. (The washer still works and we'd like to donate it to someone that can use it.)

I pray we've seen the last of the choas and that we can just focus on getting things back in order. Other than this, our family is doing great. Emily hasn't taken any more spills lately and for the most part, we seem to have avoided the sickies that have passed through here recently. Ryan's going to be turning 16 at the end of this month. Yikes!

Until next time... have a great day and be blessed!

Ah, The Memories

The past week has been flooded with memories of last year in Kazakhstan. Wow! It's feels so weird to be saying that. Has it really be a WHOLE year since we were over there? Has it really been a WHOLE year since I held my soon-to-be-daughter for the first time and fed her a bottle of tea???

We have been so tremendously blessed this past year. In the past year, we've:
• felt the many, many prayers of our family and friends.
• traveled to Kazakhstan.
• adopted a 9 month old little girl that was born 10 wks. premature (with pneumonia) and was unable to sit up on her own and possibly didn't sit up on her own until after we met her.
• grown to love and care for a handful of people on the other side of the world.
• gained great respect for the caregivers at the baby houses in Uralsk, Kazakhstan.
• learned the value of a tenge (Kazakh money).
• traveled on planes and through airports for over 26 hours straight with a baby who was ready to be home on about the 16th hour.
• met a whole slew of guardian angels that helped us through airports and onto the correct flights in cultures where we couldn't understand the language or the customs.
• grew to understand the deeper love of a family after a long absence.
• met the incredibly caring people in our local Help Me Grow program.
• learned the value of a great pediatric physical and occupational therapist and the education they can provide for the parents of a child with delayed development and extremely high muscle tone.
• met the incredible support staff that helped with Em's PT.
• gained an even greater appreciation for the love of our church family.
• learned to laugh and smile every day with our daughter and her bond with her teenage brother.
• learned to not take for granted the help and support provided by "Grandma and Papa Daycare".
• celebrated Emily's 1st birthday (in May).
• traveled to Tennessee with the kids for summer vacation and family bonding.
• learned to clean up messy diapers, really messy diapers, vomit, runny noses, and ear wax.
• learned that apparently in Em's world cats really do say "BAAA!".
• celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of 4.
• learned that regular blogging is invaluable in remembering the details of the things that you really don't want to forget.
• learned that at the moment there is nothing better on a rough day than a sticky kiss and a pat on the back from Miss Em.
• celebrated Em's first Christmas and New Years' as a family in the USA.
• and, yes, I could go on and on and maybe some day I will. ;-)

Since you're all dying for some more photos here is a link to where we were a year ago!

A Year Ago Today...

On this day (Jan. 7) at this time (9pm) last year (2007) we were hopping on a plane in Minneapolis and heading to Amsterdam on our way to Almaty, Kazakhstan.

As I was giving Emily a bath tonight I was reflecting on our past year. I can't believe how much she's grown in this past year and how well she's progressed. She was off to a shaky start when we met her but we fell in love immediately and she's come so far.

Some fun facts to lighten your reading...

1) Emily still emphatically believes that cats say "Baa!".

2) She loves to play "flutter" with her daddy... (which means putting her hand over his eye while he flutters his eyelashes on her hand).

3) She LOVES watching Elmo sing and dance and frequently joins in on the dancing and clapping.

4) Emily loves to rock in her big girl rocking chairs.

5) Emily still makes me smile every day even when she's teething up a storm.

6) There are days when I go to work with a sticky kiss on my cheek after saying goodbye to Em and it stays there until it dries up.

7) Emily is immediately drawn to anyone that vaguely resembles her RyRy.


Enough happy thoughts for now, Em's already in dreamland and now that I've given you a photo for today's entry, I'm on my way to join her there! Good night!

Post-Christmas Update

As with most families, the Christmas season kept the Hypes family very busy this year. Tom stayed busy at our store during most of December. Ryan took up skateboarding recently and has been happy to have a mild winter so he can practice learning new tricks. Emily and I have been hanging out at the house quite a bit and did quite a bit of Christmas shopping together. I love shopping with Emily because she's usually pretty good riding in the cart and with her facing me while we shop we get a lot of bonding/talking time in. She also makes a lot of people smile in the stores because she's constantly saying "Hi!" to everyone we pass and blows quite a few kisses as well. Some day we'll tell her this isn't particularly appropriate behavior, but at her age it's very heartwarming and this time of year a lot of people can stand to smile at a small child.

Emily and I went to the Isler family Christmas get-together on the Sunday before Christmas. (Tom opened the store for several hours in the afternoon to try to boost business a bit and he wasn't able to join us. Ryan had family stuff going on and would be joining us the day after Christmas for our vacation.) At 94 years old, my (Jenni's) grandma still spends all year long
quilting pillows to give away to family members at Christmas. This year she had over 60 pillows so I believe all of her children, their spouses, kids, grandkids, etc. all got pillows. Here's a picture of Grandma Isler and her pillows from this year!


All of Grandma's kids were able to join us this year. All of her kids live within about 2 miles of her except for one and he lives in Wisconsin. He usually makes it home for Thanksgiving but this year he joined us for Christmas. Here's Grandma in the middle and my mom and her 5 brothers. (Jim, Harold and Howard [twins], Grandma, Nancy and Chuck [twins] and Fred... yup, Grandma had 2 sets of twins!)


Emily had a great time playing with her cousins and aunts and uncles. We spent most of the afternoon with the family and then went home after supper and went to bed early. It was a long, napless day but we both held up pretty well. Here's Em with her cousins Brooke and Abby.


On Christmas Eve, we traveled to celebrate the season with Tom's family. Once again, we had a nice relaxing evening with family. Emily loved her gifts and after warming up to everyone she was laughing and teasing along with everyone else. If I remember correctly, she surprised Keegan by sneaking up on him and tickling his toes. She entertained Mama and cousin Rachel and blew kisses to everyone when we had to leave. She was certainly a busy body on this night and kept me hopping!


Emily's cousin, Rachel,thought she would make a good Christmas present!



On Christmas day we took our time waking up and then ventured over to Grandma and Papa Gaston's house for brunch and presents. Unfortunately, I don't think I took my camera out of the bag so I don't have any pictures of the event. Emily was a pro at opening presents by this time and had quite a bit of fun playing with her new toys. She's still not a holy terror at unwrapping gifts. She takes it pretty slow and makes sure she gets every piece of paper off the present... just like her mom!

On the 26th, we packed up our bags and headed out of town for a week with Ryan. We took the family to Townsend, TN and had our family Christmas down there. We gave Emily some of her presents while down there and she really got into a couple of her new books and like the new piggy bank she got as well. She practiced her skills of being a "big girl" and found great pleasure in sitting on the stone fireplace all by herself and practiced crossing her arms with pride.


It's no wonder she loves her RyRy... look how cute he is!


Emily handled the 7 1/2 hour trip to TN pretty well again. She took her regular morning and afternoon naps in her carseat and spent the rest of the time perusing some of her new books, looking out the windows and watching her brother sleep.


And, just for the record and because I haven't included any pictures of Tom in this entry yet... this is what he looks like when he surprises me with an Orange Crush from the store and tries to sneak in a Grape Jones Soda for himself. What a nice guy.


Here are some fun shots of Ryan doing some skating while on vacation. I haven't been able to see him in action myself yet, but from the pictures it looks like he's getting pretty good!





And, just for kicks... one more shot of Em since she was posing so nicely for me in the cabin!


Have a great day and be blessed!