Winter Snowstorms and Surgery

December brought with it another surgery for my back due to a re-herniated disc after my surgery in October. Not fun. I do not like being on relative bed rest, and unable to do my usual "mom" stuff. I look forward to being able to get back to swimming and cycling.
The week prior to Winter Break was busy in our house. Lauren was working on her science project, having just finished their play performances and singing at the Oregon Zoo. She did a FANTASTIC job in all her activities. The boys were finishing up their first semester at community college and taking final exams. They both worked very hard, and did amazingly well. I am so proud of both of them. College classes are hard work!
As the week of finals wound to a close, we began to hear weather reports of a bunch of snow storms coming our way. While snow is not unheard of where we live, it's not usually around for very long, and is minimal. As I am writing this, we've had two weeks of snowstorms followed by freezing rain, followed by more snow. Cameron enjoyed a week long trip to California to visit family and friends. He made it home safely, despite some weather related delays. We had a white Christmas yesterday- as large flakes fell fast from the sky they added to the nearly a foot of snow in the yard. It was beautiful.
We had a wonderful Christmas eve, with all of our children. Even our "adopted" daughter Kristal stayed the night. We played games and read the Nativity story from the New Testament. Christmas morning brought a "first" in our house- the parents were up before the kids. I was able to make breakfast, as is our tradition (we have a big breakfast that lasts all day). Bill was up taking care of Molly and the kids didn't get up until after 8 AM. We enjoyed breakfast together and then took turns opening presents and enjoyed watching the happiness on each face as they opened their gifts. It was wonderful having all the kids there for Christmas eve and Christmas morning.
I reflected on how much I love each of my kids and my wonderful husband. What a blessing it is to have a wonderful family to love and how our family has grown to include Kristal and Ibrahim as well as Cameron and Lauren and the love of my life, Bill. I am grateful for all that heavenly Father has blessed me with and know that the trials serve a purpose known to Him. Hopefully I will be a better person for those trials, and one day be able to help others because of what I have experienced. I am grateful for the ultimate sacrifice of my Savior, who suffered for my sins and died that I will live again with my Father in heaven and those I love. I am truly blessed.
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

November: Boys' Birthdays and a Baby Puppy

In November we celebrated the boys' birthdays. Ibrahim's dad came up for a visit for his birthday. We went to dinner, had cake and ice cream at home, and of course, presents! It was a very enjoyable weekend.
Cameron's birthday came later that month. He and several friends went ice skating, then came home for video games, pizza, cake and ice cream and more PRESENTS! His friends stayed over night and everyone in the family was tired from the all night fun.
We also celebrated Thanksgiving in November. My dearest friend, who is a sister to me, Adrienne, came down from Washington and cooked our family an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, since I was still recovering from spinal surgery. I am truly blessed to have some wonderful friends that I consider my sisters.
November also brought with it a new addition to our family. We adopted our Labrador puppy, Molly from a local rescue group- Must Love Dogs NW. She is growing very fast, and has quickly become part of the family. She and Rascal, our cat, are still learning how to get along with each other. Molly wants to play and now is big enough to tackle the cat, so we're teaching her that's not acceptable behavior. Training a puppy has been an interesting and challenging experience. Were it not for my loving husband and his unending support and time spent caring for the dog, things would be completely crazy! He has been wonderfully supportive and giving of his time in caring for the puppy's many needs. She is now crate trained to sleep in her crate at night, but still needs to go out once during the night. We're still working on the housebreaking, but it's more success than accidents at this point, so that's great. We love having Molly in our family, despite having to take her to the Emergency Vet the third day we had her due to a parasite infection. The joys of pet ownership... :) We love our new "baby"!

September 2008

As we came through the pass from Denver to Vail, it started SNOWING!  We were very surprised, since it was the beginning of September, but it was BEAUTIFUL!