Happy Birthday Jesus

Isabel all ready to head out the door to church.
(Thank you Gmpa for the very pretty/special Christmas dress!)

Our celebration started with a Christmas Eve service at our church. We sang favorite Christmas carols, heard an awesome message about the true meaning of Christmas, and enjoyed special music sung by our music director Adam. Later that evening after Isabel was tucked into bed, I went to check on her and she was wide awake and burning up with a fever. After checking her temperature which was at 102, we began to do battle with the yuckie germies!

Christmas morning, we again checked her temperature and it was still high but had gone down. So the remainder of the day was a slow one…
We had a breakfast/brunch of pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice and toast. Afterward, Isabel and Gino play Dominoes while I cleaned up the breakfast dishes. By this time it is was just after noon and we decided to open gifts. Isabel wasn’t in the mood and had to be encouraged into opening her gifts.

Isabel and I just before we begin opening our gifts.

Isabel opening one of her gifts from Gma and Gmpa.
“The First Christmas” by Carol Heyer

Isabel’s second gift from Gma and Gmpa.
“The Legend of the Three Trees” by Catherine McCafferty
Whenever she would open a book and she received quite a few, she would “read” them and then hand them to me, “Here Momma” and then proceed to the next book or gift. She’s also a very clean/tidy gift opener, she kept a pile of the wrapping paper behind her and would place all the gift wrapping in that pile as she opened each gift!

Isabel has the book, “Doctor Dan: the Bandage Man” by Helen Gaspard and we read it almost every night! She loves it! So we decided to get her a little medical kit for her to play with. Which by the way, you can actually hear your heart through the stethoscope!

Isabel’s 2008 Christmas ornament.

After her nap, she plays Dr. with Lula.
“Listen to her heart” she says.

“Lula needs a shot” she says.

December Snow

Snow in our neck of the world is a bit rare, let alone over a foot! We have been blanketed in the white stuff for over the past few weeks. Schools have been closesd since it started hitting the ground, which is unfortunate for the kids because they’ll be going to school until July! Luckily today, the temperature warmed up to start melting some of it. We are expected to get more again tonight and before the new year. Enjoy!

Our backyard looking south east.

Our backyard looking north east.

The main road to our house looking north.

The main road looking south.

Our house looking east from the main road.

Our street looking south.

Snow play

The first snow started falling about a week ago, the day it started, Isabel started asking to go out and play. After the purchase of some new all weather boots, we headed out for some snow play fun! Enjoy!

All ready!

This is fun!

More snow started falling again around 1 p.m. and continued steadily until late at night. Unfortunately, the snow was to powdery to build a snowman. Isabel didn’t care though…

Dig. Dig. Dig.

Isabel’s 1st snow angel.

House building

For some reason, I never thought that building/decorating a gingerbread house with Isabel would be a fun thing to do. For one, the first time I every built one, was for school and it was from scratch (no pretty premade pieces here!). It was so sad…the pieces were all lopsided and uneven; so the whole house leaned. Very sad. Miserable little house. Second, I just never thought of it…until my cousin Tear-a (Tera) mentioned to me. So I purchased a home and tonight we constructed it and decorated! She had so much fun! Enjoy…and thanks T for the idea!

The walls and roof are on; now we just wait for the “glue” to dry.

All the decor!

Gino and I added the icing and let her do the decorating. She was very neat about the whole thing; Gino and I walked with icing all over! I never dreamed it would be so messy…but it was fun!

Her house.

Side view.

Back of house.

Front and side.

Gino and I did the work on the tree, snowman, and gingerbread man.
Otherwise it was all Isabel.

Note to self for next year: Do this project AFTER dinner not BEFORE!

Practice writing

Today I thought I would try and see if Isabel could write some simple letters. She did rather well for her first try. We’ll keep practicing and share what she does with you. Enjoy!

This practice sample are the letter’s: A and I.
Can you see Isabel’s letter’s in pink?

This practice sample are the letter’s: B and C
Can you see Isabel’s letter’s in pink?
(Hint: her B is on it’s side)

This practice sample are the letter’s: H and O
Isabel drew a D in blue instead.

This practice sample is the letter: E
She started out doing an amazing job then got frustrated with it.
Can you see Isabel’s E?
(Hint: It looks like a perfect L)

Happy Birthday Karlee

My first real job, as most teen girls in high school, was babysitter. I watched several different kids throughout school and after high school as well. However, the beginning of my senior year, I was given the opportunity to watch a very special girl and her name was Karlee. I watched Karlee for just over a year. Then her family decided to move away, I was so sad to see her leave. I missed her and her family.

Throughout the years, I often wondered about Karlee and her parents. What was she like? What did she like to do? Was she happy? Was she ok? All normal questions to ask when someone leaves an impression in your heart and life…

1990
Karlee and I.

March 1991
She was even in my senior pictures.

1992
A few years after they moved, I got a few cards from her mom
and pictures of Karlee. Then we lost touch…

Then last year I joined a social website called “Facebook”. If you have no idea what that is, it’s a social networking site where you can connect with people you know. You can search for people you might know, too.

One night when I was online within Facebook, I decided that I would search for Karlee. I figured she has to be on there since it’s a site created for young people.  So I typed in her name and the first person listed was Karlee so-and-so, the name was different then what I knew but the face looked a little familiar to me. So I sent a message with some info that I knew about Karlee and she wrote me back! It was Karlee!

2007 – Junior year in high school.
She’s a gorgeous girl! Love her smile, reminds of her mother…

2008 – Summer before freshman year in college.
There’s that smile again!
She is going to school with a major in Nutritional Sciences;
with a minor of Allied Health.

Happy Birthday, Karlee!

God bless you on the road ahead. I have enjoyed reconnecting with you and getting to know you all over again. You were a special little girl to me and have grown into an amazing women. Keep in touch…