Merry Christmas to all...

We hope this if finding all of you ready for the holidays and remembering the reason for the season. As I was reminded in Church this week...no matter how clean your house is, how full your menu for Christmas dinner, the number of gifts wrapped or unwrapped, stockings hung, counters dusted, or gifts received, Christmas will come no matter what. And, the reason is simple. Jesus IS the reason for the season, and all we need to guarantee Christmas, is Christ. So, try not to get caught up in the other details of the celebration. Keep it simple...we have all we need!!

It sounds like a storm is moving in. I pray that all of you will travel safely and arrive to your destination as planned! I hope that everyone in my family is able to make it to the farm. I don't think our entire family has been together since last Christmas! Now that the older grandkids are the age they are it is harder to have them at other family functions...so it is very rare to have everyone in once place anymore :( Vicki...just a warning...I WILL make you take pictures:-)

Harper got to open his first Christmas present courtesy of Landon and Jamison and seemed to have fun. Naturally he didn't do it fast enough and big sister needed to help!! Back tracking a bit, Landon is a big brother now! Courtney and Eric had a baby boy Friday, Jamison Bradley. All are home and healthy! There is a picture below of Charli in an adorable outfit from them. Man, Landon has great taste in picking out clothes!!

Charli has really taken hold to the big sister role. She feeds him every bottle that she is awake for. When the weekend hits she literally fights me to feed him! Chad gets to enjoy the bedtime bottle each night, so the weekends are mine during the day! Well, this weekend I had that taken out from underneath me too! On the flip side, Chad lost his bedtime feeding tonight too...Harper decided he didn't need his dad to eat anymore :-)

Have a very merry Christmas...and remember Jesus is the reason for the season...

I am sorry if you did not get a Christmas card this year...we did not order as many this year, and quickly realized that was not the best idea!

Charli and the "ginger-bread barn"!

she was so excited to help make our barn :-)

i love this gummy smile! Charli's eyes were green by this age, so it is fun to see the blue eyes still hanging around. I imagine they will quickly fade too!

Harper has one of the cheesiest smiles...he is pretty goofy. These three were riding the horse around the house.

both charli and harper collected a piece of the nativity each week during advent. Each year the sets are made a new way so each year a new nativity can be collected. What a fun memory to make and fun story to build on each year...

Chad teaching harper how to fix our sink. The leak stopped so I am pretty sure it was Haper that did that, I am not sure Chad knows how :-)!!!!

she looks SO grown up on most days!

visit to santa! Charli took her own sucker and was given a candy cane, which was pretty exciting and fun for her! Harper took hold of Santa's beard, glad it didn't come off :-)

Charli's new outfit from Landon. Thank you!!!

Charli won the game of "pretty pretty princess"! She thinks that game is pretty fun! She is also enjoying the game ZINGO, candyland, and UNO!!

Charli has decided that she more than strong enough to carry him around, and will randomly grab him if we aren't there to tell her no! She "can do it"!

time flies

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I posted anything! I guess I will recap what has been going on, seems like we have been on the go a lot. Chad and I were just talking about how much busier our lives are now yet we see people a lot less, so I am not sure where we are spending all of our time!!

We were lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving weekend at my aunt and uncles place in KS, we
also celebrated Christmas with my mom's-side of the family. My grandma has been gone for over 14 years and the family is still getting together every year for Christmas as well as other holidays, I think that is great. So many times that gets put off to the side and quickly ends - we are still going strong!! Charli got to do lots of fun things while we were there! Her list includes:
-sleeping in a BIG (queen) bed
-falling asleep watching cartoons
-swimming
-being pulled in a wagon by big horsies
-riding a horse
-eating lots of popsicles!
We had a nice time there, it is always a nice trip to Kansas!

We have already started with Christmas parties, hard to believe!!

Harper is getting big, fast. He is a really good baby. It was new for us to have a baby that rolls around! If you remember charli never did that, so when we put harper down and turn around to find that he is 180 degrees in a difference direction and on his tummy - it is surprising :-) He has been eating beans, peas, carrots, and squash tonight...seems to like them all so far. He has really enjoyed playing with his tongue so after he swallows he puts his tongue out and pinches it with his lips. He is totally in love with his sister and smiles from ear to ear when she is around. They enjoy the morning time together a lot. After almost 6 months the "newness" has not worn off one bit for Charli and he is still her "little buddy". Harper is sitting up, mainly with support...but big sister has a hard time letting him to anything alone which makes learning a little less easy for him! In the flip side I am sure he will quickly pick up on some things that we are less than excited about that she will pass on :-)

Today is a snow day at our house, we are enjoying our time at home. I do find myself wondering...just how many times can a person play uno and candyland before being a "professional"...I have to be getting close.!!

Charli's great-aunt Janice gave her a little goody bag of body glitter and lipgloss. Every inch of open skin has been initiated with glitter...and mom and dad can say the same. Janice, thanks :-) Actually, she has been having a great time with it so we really do appreciate you thinking of her!

Charli got a new dollhouse from Lynn for Christmas, she has enjoyed playing that in her room too...she is starting to grow up. I had to take her to the dr last week for a sinus infection. The dr. informed me that she is no longer a toddler, and asked if I was ready for "this". The answer is no, not even close! Harper is almost closer to be one than a "newborn" and soon Charli will be closer to "4" than "3". When did I become a mom of two kids...let alone two kids this big?!! Times DOES slow down, right?!! (if only that were true!)

Off to the pictures. They are out of order, but I did the best I could between games and rationalizing with a 3 year old why we can't have m&m's, cookies, candy, and other "not yucky" things between breakfast and lunch!

We hope things are going well for your families...
on a quick note, I hope you are all keeping up with Landon and his journey via his page. He has had a rough week after treatment last week. Courtney will be having the baby next Friday, if she makes it that long. her poor body is ready for a break and went into labor last week, which they were able to stop. Please pray for this family...they are so important to us and we can't wait until they can say this nightmare is "behind" them, whatever that means for us.

as charli would say "one girl and one boy"

Charli the wizard and Charlie the grandpa

my mommy and daddy! They have been married for 45 years - that is becoming unheard of anymore...way to go mom & dad :-)

aunt Joyce always has a lot of answers and wisdom to share, but to find out she was holding out on sharing this little book with me was heartbreaking. Who new there really was a handbook on how to raise a harper...man, this is going to make life easy-street for us!! Joyce actually let us keep this book and it is sitting in Harper's room! It is actually a grammar book :-)

the three amigos!! On my side of the family these are the only girls...the boys far out number them, but these three can give all of them a run for their money any day :-)

ryen- macey-charli

these two were in heaven!

"one boy and one girl"

showing off his muscles

she gets so excited to see and help with him in the morning! he is great motivation to get her out of bed some mornings! :-)

"no pictures please"

Charli playing with her two doll-houses!

this house even has a door-bell! how exciting, don't ya know!!

she was too funny opening this gift - she was running around in circles to get the paper off, she just couldn't do it fast enough!

very excited about candyland!

buds from daycare!

christmas bingo!

this is what happens when dad is in charge of putting on the tights. it never ends well. Lesson learned.

she is a super-star!

we decorated the tree, I found my "first christmas" pretties to hang too!

she was a great helper!

blessings counted

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

We hope that everyone has a great thanksgiving and takes a special moment...a real moment...to think of all you have been blessed with in this life, this year, this week. Things may not always go our way or on our time schedule, but it is important to remember that He is at the heart of all of our blessings, and our blessings in disguise.

God keeps His promises...

5 months old!

Harper passed his 5-month mark and we celebrated our 5-year anniversary!

Chad sent me beautiful flowers last week for our anniversary - red and yellow roses, I had never seen anything like it - they are amazing!!

We hope everyone has a great thanksgiving...we all have so much to be thankful for.

quick update....

Wanted to send a quick update before I felt like time got away from me!!



I was lucky enough to participate in some state-wide training for the ACS (American Cancer Society) this weekend. Janelle and I presented a course to 50+ about leadership/development "type" stuff for team captains for the Relay For Life. We had a good time...since we were focusing on "team" stuff we had a sports theme and we 'sported' husker gear for our session!!! Janelle even out did herself and got us the little black things for under our eyes!! This is our "football" pose! We look tuff, right?!!



I am very excited to share with everyone some awesome recognition Platte County got this weekend at the event. We were the #3 event in the STATE of Nebraska for money raised! We had over $216,000 for ONE event! The #2 and #1 counties had over $400,000 but also had four or five events. Yeah, we rocked!!



Other awesome news...and this is owed to a LOT of you reading this now...Charli's Angels was the #3 team in the STATE this year!! That is amazing!!! WHOOP WHOOP!! We really proved that our county can run with the "big dogs" in Nebraska...heck, we are one of the big dogs :-) I am super honored to be able to be co-chairing the event again next year!

lost memories

A fun perk of having a great friend have a baby the
same time as you is sharing in all the things that the kids are doing! Another fun perk is when you have the opposite babies at the same time. I have a friend who has a 1 year old boy and a 3 month old girl. So...we swap the kids' clothes to share, it is great :-)

I was going through clothes last night for miss sadie and got to the 6-9 month tote. Grrr, what a weird thing to make a person remember things! I was about half way through the tote when I saw an adorable green and white shamrock dress. This is the dress that Charli wore down to children's the day we were admitted. All of a sudden each outfit was marked by some kind of memory surrounding the hospital, treatments, tests, etc. I am so glad these clothes will be making far better memories on Sadie!

It is amazing to me how much I forget, and how much I remember. Also amazing to me is how I can realize things that I forgot...if that makes any sense.

Another thing that gets me, is after all of this time, it can still occupy so much of my life and my heart. ...it is a lifetime membership - yet at the same time I didn't think the feelings would always feel so fresh at random times. I know that some of you reading, sadly, know what I mean. And, others of you think I am nuts. I wish there was a way I could adequately put it into words, I guess kind of like "husker nation" for some of us...this is also just 'in my blood' now.

We were not able to attend Landon's benefit this past weekend, broke my heart. Charli was running a fever on Thursday and Friday morning and I just felt it was irresponsible to take her even a few days later. I know for a fact that
had the tables been turned I would not have wanted anyone doing that to us! I so badly wanted to be there to support Courtney the way she was there to support me at Charli's benefit, but I know she had a lot of loving arms to hold her up that day!! Still so weird that she is going through this now too...I mean seriously does this kind of thing EVER happen. We are like a BAD lifetime movie! But hey...any lifetime movie makers out there, if you pay us enough we could fund some major research if you give us a movie deal ;-). Just sayin'.

looking for a good home...

I have a few baby items that are looking for a good home! If you or anyone you know are in need of new bottles, please contact me. We have probably 10-12+ Playtex vent bottles that need a new home! I believe they are all the 6oz size and we both the "standard" and "wide" design. I would much rather these get used by someone than packed away at my house! We bought them all this summer when Harper was born, so they are all less than 5 months old.

Spread the word and let me know if they have a new home to travel to!!

trick or treat!! :-)

Does anyone need some extra candy?!! We seem to have surplus of it at our house.

This year was going to be Charli's first year of "full" trick or treating...but we had a last minute change of plans. Her two girl cousins (Ryen and Macey) happened to pick the same costume as Charli, so all three girls were going to travel around together! But, Macey ended up getting sick with the cruddy stuff going around :-( Charli still had fun though. We went to her Aunt and Uncles house to hand out candy and then went to trick or treat at the farm. Just as we drove into the farm dad told us that he had cattle out, so we literally threw the kids in the house and took off to move cattle. Typical life of a "farmer", doesn't really matter whats going on - cattle come first!! :-) It was Chad's first time doing this for my dad, so it was kind of fun to see him help! I haven't ran that far in a long time, luckily the cows turned in the drive way on their own, and I didn't have to run the entire way :-) All 61 were safe and sound at the end of the night!!

Anyway, hope you all had a nice Halloween and made some great memories with your friends and family too!! As you will see, Charli is Minnie Mouse and Harper is a dinosaur!

Harper - Charli - Braxton

"been trick-or-treating long"?!

two little thumb suckers...well three if grandpa could have gotten ahold of his hands :-)

Colton - Charli - Harper....poor Harper! Colton is thinking...man, rough life!

Colton and Charli. He was a football player that played baseball he told me!

Harper - Charli - Braxton

Minnie

ROAR!!

no comments on which mask if the scariest...

just the two of 'em :-)

she tried to life them after we carved them...the lids kind of come off!!

i tried to get her to eat the goo...she wasn't into it!

"she can dig it"

her exact words..."mmm, smells like lemonade"

Charli's pretty hair, courtesy of Lynn!

she is "so strong"

for the record, I am so mad at my camera. A great picture of the two of them and for some reason my camera "ate" 1/3 of the picture :( On Friday Charli dressed up in her halloween garb from grandma and grandpa preister and Harper was a "hunter"!

even wearing hunters orange! Believe it or not...this was a hand-me-down from his sister :-) (I didn't realize how many boy clothes she owned!!! I guess I thought if you put pink with anything it would girl it up, if the occasion called for it!!)