Colorado Family Christmas

We spent Christmas in Michigan this year, but before we left we enjoyed an early celebration with Brett's family.

It was hard to tell if Truett liked the car or the box better!

Aunt Tiffany got Maren her very own microphone, which was a huge hit! We're still enjoying concerts and performances on a daily basis.

Maren loves spending time with Aunt Tiffany, Papa and Gigi. We missed having Brett's brother's family with us this year. {Hi Derick and Shannon!}

Truett was his usual happy self!
We are blessed to have some of our family close to home. Our Colorado Christmas was a great way to start our week of celebrations!

Truett at seven months

Truett is seven months old! According to our visit to the cardiologist last week, his little heart is functioning normally, and we won't be needing to return for an entire year. I felt like skipping out of the office, and I might have had I not been carrying a growing baby in a car seat and holding the hand of one wiggly 3-year-old. *wink* While we waited for the elevator, I couldn't help but think of a very different feeling I had while leaving the office just about 6 months ago. I was sobbing, holding tightly to my tiny baby boy while Brett held his arm around us both. I have learned a great deal about the Lord's mercy and grace in these past 6 months. I rejoice in God's presence on that difficult day when we first learned of Truett's heart condition, and I rejoice in God's presence while I carried my 'fixed' baby away from the heart-testing machines, doctor and technicians last week. I pray that I remember the consistency and goodness of my God in the days and months to come, whatever they may bring.

Truett is a content, active, curious growing boy! He is gobbling up his doses of solid food...sweet potatoes, carrots, and pears are his early favorites. Occasionally he gets to experience puffs and a sippy-cup of water, and he thoroughly enjoys both. He's recently learned to army crawl, and is beginning to figure out 'regular' crawling, too. He can sit up unassisted now, but he prefers to be on his tummy. I expect this next month will come with many adjustments as we make way for our mobile boy. It's not uncommon now for him to make his way across an entire room in a matter of minutes. Oye...my life is about to get significantly more interesting! Maren has taken well to Truett's recent growth, and has begun to gently wrestle with him. I am thankful he is such an easy-going kid, because his big sister has some big plans for how he is to spend his time. I just love that they get along so well, and love each other so dearly.


Judging by the amount of drool he is producing, we expect to see Truett's first tooth any time now.





I'm pretty much in love with this boy and his sweet smiles. Time to go read some books and soak up some afternoon post-nap-snuggles with my kids!

Everybody's doing it...the tacky sweater Christmas party

It does seem like tacky sweater parties are all the rage right now, doesn't it? Apparently there are people making lots of money selling tacky Christmas sweaters on Ebay...who would've thought!? Brett and I hosted our first one way back in 2005. I like to think we were on the cutting edge of the trend. If you know us in real life, you might find this humorous, since we're rarely on the cutting edge of anything. We actually hosted our first tacky sweater party before we ever had internet access in our home, if that tells you anything.

But, on to the fun! Our friends did not disappoint this year...they showed up adorned in their festive holiday ware. We ate some great food, swapped tacky white-elephant gifts, and played Christmas minute-to-win-it games.



Our tacky party continues to be one of my favorite traditions of the season. We're blessed to have such fun friends!

Meeting Santa in 2011

I told you I was going to do some Christmas posting...

We enjoyed seeing Santa at the bank (where Brett works) again this year. This Santa is the real deal...the beard isn't even fake, as Truett quickly found out.

Maren was very interested in telling Santa about her one wish (a chicken bag...I'll explain later), but she didn't want to get much closer than this. And she definitely wasn't going to sit on his lap. {Do you like her shirt? I made it, and she finally likes to wear it. Thank goodness!}

Our boy, Truett, is very tactile, and so he made quick friends of our white-haired Santa man. Thankfully, Santa was kind enough to endure a few tugs and twists of his very real beard.



August made it into the picture again this year...Santa brought her a new outfit for Christmas, which was thoughtful of him, seeing as how she lost one set of clothes during the great debacle of 2011.
Tomorrow I'll share more about Maren's chicken bag. You won't want to miss it, trust me.

Working on it...Monday morning thoughts

Good morning!

I've obviously been missing around here for quite some time. Something happens to me during the Christmas season. And, I don't think it's all bad. I tend to abandon my time on the computer in favor of soaking up every last minute of holiday cheer. Our family took a 2-week vacation to Michigan, and I only opened my computer once. It was wonderful. I may just make a yearly tradition of taking the last 2 weeks of December 'off'. It really was great to be unplugged for a while. Truthfully, I didn't miss much, either!

I do have a few holiday things to blog about, so you can either participate in my holiday reminiscing, or you can just ignore those posts and wait another week to hear something new from me. *wink*

I have put together a bit of a plan for my blogging this year, which I've never done before. I like the concept of being more intentional with what I write about. My hope is that I'll have some more meaningful and thoughtful posts tucked in with the usual family updates, funny stories, and crafty projects. You'll find out a little more about what I have planned in early-February. Stay tuned!