Merry Christmas!

Joshua took this picture of the girls. My mom Linda (right), Aunt Deb (left) Mommy and Maddie.
Joshua is so excited about his army stuff and Power Rangers Robot

This is probably one of the best "oh my gosh" shots! Our family got a Wii from my parents - ok so we are all loving it!

Maddie is fixing Dora's hair on her new vanity

After all the excitement of the day.

It is after a day like this that I look back and realize just how many blessings G0d has given our family. Christmas was a wonderful day for all us of. We got to see the excitement on Maddie's face as she experienced her first Christmas, we saw our 6 year old son jump for joy at getting the gifts he wanted. We sat down to a wonderful meal both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And most of all we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's so hard with all the hustle and bustle to keep the real meaning of Christmas alive but we certainly try our best. Christmas Eve church service is my most favorite of the year. At the end of the service, all the lights are turned down, only the candles we hold are lit and we all sing Silent Night with no music in the background. What a wonderful way to keep the Spirit of Christ alive at Christmas time and to remember why we celebrate this holiday.

Hope you all had a joyous Christmas and wishing you a very Happy New Year!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Joshua and Maddie aka Mickey and Minnie
Joshua and Sarah....they are the best of buddies but she is NOT his girlfriend.....or so he says.

The four of us

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Joshua's Tree in his room

Maddie's tree in her room

Power ranger/hippie/princess in her PJ.s????

It's been a while since I have posted, let's see since that time what has happened? Last Monday Maddie visited the plastic surgeon who told us he wants to see her in a year then he can tell IF, yes I said IF she needs any surgery at all on her lip!! She continues to heal well and you can hardly tell there is a "booboo" as she calls it! She is completely speaking English now, although sometimes hard to understand she NEVER....did I mention NEVER stops talking. Her new things is "but mommmmm". Funny and typical three year old! She is getting very...shall we say.....opinionated about her attire for the day. She tells me what she wants to wear and what "accessories" she will choose for the day. Of which she is totally like her mother since I am always wearing jewelry, so shall my daughter, haha! Oh and we do not go anywhere without our purse, which of course holds our cell phone, car keys, chapstick and her new thing, gum! We were coming home tonight and Joshua wanted gum, I went to search my purse and I hear from the backseat "here you go Joshua".....Maddie pulls some from her purse!

Joshua had his Christmas program yesterday which included 1st-8th grade, all children....I would say about 400 kids. They fill the gym and along with 400 sets of parents, siblings and grandparents, it made for interesting seating....hince, not enough by far! We got there an hour early just to get a seat! Joshua did fantastic. They sang about 12 songs and he belted them all out, knowing all the words and sign language to them. All the children were dressed in their best Holiday attire...so cute! My pictures are very dark so I need to work on those before I try to post them! Joshua decided tonight he might want to play in the winter league basketball which is from January - March, one night each week. We are trying to teach him responsibility by committment so we shall see how this turns out! He continues to excel in school and we are so proud of him! Both kids are very excited about Christmas, although Maddie has no idea that she will be getting gifts....too bad it won't stay that way, haha! We took them to see Christmas Lights the other evening and they both enjoyed that alot!! Along with their parents :)

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Our Family

The Four of Us
Our kids.

We had our family pictures taken back in October and here are a couple of my favorites. I made the mistake of letting Madelyn take a nap first and of course the first 30 pictures or so she would not smile. They turned out well anyway, Joshua loves to have his picture taken!

Must tell you about our wonderful son, once again! Sunday night at Church was our fellowship Thanksgiving meal. After the feast, our Pastor opened the message to anyone who would like to give thanks for anything. After about 15 minutes of those giving thanks, he started to close when Joshua rose his hand. There were about 150 people in the fellowship hall and my heart starting beating hard....what was he going to say? Pastor Rick asked him what he was thankful for this year and he simply said "My sister"........ok so tears started running down my cheeks...and many others I might add, they even started clapping for him. What an amazing six year old son we have, can't begin to say how proud of him we are. And he is so right, we are very thankful for this past year and for God allowing our daughter to be home with us for her very first Thanksgiving and our first with her. We have been looking forward to this for almost three years now!

Madelyn's lip is healing more each day. It is more becoming more evident that at least one plastic surgery is going to be needed to rebuild the lip portion that is gone but really she looks just great! The pictures above were taken before the accident, by the way!

Joshua has been battling broncitus for about a week and last night Madelyn decided to wake us up numerous times coughing and crying.......seems the medicine works immediately so I am thankful for that. If it wasn't for her coughing you would never know anything is wrong with her, she is such a tough kid!

Thanksgiving is at our home tomorrow and we'll have about 14 for dinner. Looking forward to the Turkey and all the fixin's. Joshua's favorite is pumpkin pie with cool whip so he is excited to.

Wishing all of you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving.
Matt, Jennifer, Joshua and Madelyn