Christmas Gifts in Action!

EZ Bake

Electric Scooter

Ears Pierced

Angel Breakfast

Macie and I went to the annual Angel Breakfast at church;)

Santa's Workshop

Macie's Pre-School
Santa's Workshop

Christmas 2010

What did Santa bring??

Macie...Easy Bake Oven stuff

Caden...Electric Razor Scooter

Abbie...gift certificate to get her ears pierced

Before we open any more gifts, Aaron read the story of Jesus' birth:)

Those are my parents in the background! They drove in late on Christmas Eve:)

Michael Jackson The Experience (Just Dance)



I made Macie a photo book of her first year of life:) She LOVES it and wants to show EVERYONE!!!

We went over to Aaron's parents' house for dinner. Purple seemed to be the color of the day!

Christmas Eve 2010

We hosted Christmas Eve this year:)
31 people! Fun times!

Aaron and Caden decided to get a few cool Christmas sweaters this year:)

Christmas pajamas

Cookies and milk for Santa...carrots for the reindeer:)
These three were on the....."Nice List":)

Dinner at Aunt Pepper's!!

Our annual dinner at Aunt Pepper's and Uncle Dick's house was delicious and fun once again!

Macie and Kylee

Macie and Jacob
Jacob and Tyler

The tough guys with their sunglasses from Pepper!

Fancy girls with their purses from Pepper!

Thanks again Pepper and Dick!

Shayleen...We will miss you

December 19, 2010

My friend Shayleen passed away this morning.
She was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer 5 years ago at the age of 33.
She went through chemo, double mastectomy, and radiation. Two years later she returned to teaching...so of course I put Abbie in her class for 1st grade:) She always told me that it meant a lot to her to have Abbie in her class her first year back from treatment:) Shayleen did not complete teaching that year. In February of 2008, her cancer was back...in her chest wall. She began chemo again, but her cancer did eventually spread to her liver, lung, and brain.
She fought to stay alive as long as possible for her sweet daughter Ashlynn who is now 8 years old. Ashlynn is such a sweet girl! She smiles all the time:)
Shay's husband Darryl cared for Shayleen 24/7 until the very end. He is amazing!
Shayleen was a wonderful friend, teacher, colleague, mother, and wife. She was an animal lover. She cared for others. She loved her husband and daughter so much. She was beautiful on the inside and out. She considered herself extremely blessed...she was.
Please keep Darryl and Ashlynn in your prayers.

Shayleen and Ashlynn

Shayleen and Abbie

Logan's Candy Store!

A new tradition to add to our list of traditions!!
We visited Logan's Candy Store to watch them make candy canes by hand!
It was really neat!

Warm freshly made candy canes (cut into bite sized pieces:)

Guess the Nativity Piece

One of Aaron's family traditions was guessing the wrapped nativity piece:)
We have been doing this too!
We take turns guessing each wrapped piece, unwrap it to see if we are correct, then explain its importance!