Leaving on a Jet plane....

In a few short hours we will start our journey to Bangladesh. I am not sure I will have the time or the opportunity to blog but I will surely post pictures and tell stories when we get back. Nojah and I are both a little nervous with a few active butterflies in our tummies, but looking forward to the time we will spend together helping the little ones at the orphanage as well as people from the surrounding villages. The hardest part will be saying goodbye to my little girl and my husband and missing them along the way. 10 days is a long time when you are half way across the world. Christmas was good, low key at our house this year, but nice. The kids were entertained and seemed happy with their gifts which is always nice and Tob and I just appreciated our time together as a family. We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas's as well. If you could all keep us in your thoughts while we are traveling we would appreciate it!
Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!

Christmas eve jammie's

Enjoying the new wii

Safety first! You must have a helmet on prior to unwrapping gifts.

and even though Santa was pulled over by our local police department for poor lighting on the sleigh and for Rudolf nose not being so bright (a whole other fun story) Santa still managed to not forget about our sweet Myah and her Kitty cohorts!

My precious....

For years I have said I don't need or want a kitchen aid mixer and was adamant about it for fear my mom might buy me one (I know an odd fear, but she really likes me to have all the cool kitchen appliances). Let me explain, I have a SMALL house with a SMALL kitchen and didn't feel like I had the need or space for such a bulky piece of equipment. In fact I was quite sure I could get by just fine with my dandy little hand mixer (After all it hasn't failed me yet). Then I suddenly had a craving after eating breads and pastries for the past month in Spain and Christmas coming up. I decided maybe I could really use one, and maybe clean up wouldn't be so bad, and just maybe I could get a RED one, that way if it just sat on my cluttered counters and took up space without much use, it would at least look pretty. :-)

After having these thoughts for a couple of days and spending the morning at my beloved friend Chelsea's home, I went home and called my mom saying, you know what I really want for Christmas??? and Low and behold Toby and I together scored this beauty as OUR Christmas gift and I (we) LOVE it!! In fact I love it so much I think I will donate or dispose of my hand mixer (to free up space). So far we have enjoyed cookies, muffins, cinnamon rolls, dips and bread. Now I just need to equalize my time between cooking, eating and exercising because the first two seem to be taking over. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!! I never thought I would refer to a mixer as "My precious"

We love this man

For those of you who do not know, this is Toby's dad. He is an incredible man to say the least and never ceases to amaze me. He was injured in a motorcycle accident, leaving him a quadriplegic when Tob was only a couple weeks old and has been living on his own the past 35 years. He is a generous man with a huge heart. He is creative, funny, and smart. He is involved in the city, helps outs his neighbors with his knowledge and expertise as a mechanic and gardener as well as a ham radio guru. He grows his own gourds and drys them for numerous projects, built an intricate fish pond, not to mention, he built his own handicap motorcycle from old motorcycles and parts. He always has a smile on his face and a positive attitude to go with it.

He lives about an hour and a half from us and we wish we got to see him more as we adore him. He is a wonderful Dad and Grandpa who continues to enrich our lives. Thank you Neal for lessons you have taught us by just being who you are. We love you!

Picking out the perfect tree

On Sunday we went Christmas tree hunting with the Plew family. We climbed a few steep hills, slid down a few steep hills and then sent the boys on a mission up the steep hills again to find us girls the perfect trees. They did a pretty good job giving us a couple to choose from.

The kids did some sledding and the dog did some pulling. This was how Lex got tree #1 back to the car.

and this is how the boys got tree #2 and tree #3 to the trucks. We then enjoyed hot cocoa and sugar cookies while the kids warmed their feet. Now our tree sits fully decorated in our living room much to our delight. We have been enjoying lots of Christmas music, sled rides (courtesy of Myah), and various treats and plan to continue with this as long as possible. Hope everyone else is having an enjoyable holiday season!