Consider Yourself "Carded"

Christmas: the good, the hard & the memories

I really do love Christmas. It's such a fun time of year with such a significant meaning. Christmas decorations & music, holiday parties & white elephant gifts, cold weather & warm sweaters, and the horrible for you food & yummy holiday drinks. It's all so good!

our first Christmas tree for our first Christmas in our first home (that's a lot of firsts)

The hard (but still good) thing is, everything about the Christmas season reminds me of Sara. And if you read my mom's blog, or talk to my other family members, you've heard them say it too: Sara loved Christmas. She loved the red holiday cups at Starbucks, the movie White Christmas, singing Christmas songs at the top of her lungs, fighting for the last scotchmallow in the See's box, any excuse to wear red or have red fingernails, and spending countless hours in Target finding presents. But mostly, she just loved when we were all together.

my favorite ornament pairing

I have so many great memories of Sara and Christmas. Fun memories. Hilarious memories. Countless memories. So that's what I'm going to try and focus on this Christmas and every Christmas to come. Not how sad I am that she isn't here, but how great things were when she was. And how blessed we still are.

Here are some pictures from the past several Christmases.

2006 - before all the spouses

2008 - after the Christmas Eve service with the addition of Brett & Brady to the family.

2008 - gingerbread house contest: girls vs. boys. unfortunately, the boys won.

2009 - 6 months after Sara's diagnosis, 5 months into my pregnancy with Wyatt, and days before Sam & Kimberly's engagement.

2009 - Sara and her "fake boyfriend" Jacob. Courtesy of her besties.

2010 - Playing a game of Quelf. Games with Sara were always entertaining.

2010 - Wyatt's first Christmas. Sara's last. Their only.

Miss you so much this Christmas and always!

...and now on to 2010

We're back... and although it's good to be home, I miss my family already. We had a great time celebrating the holidays and were blessed to spend time some time in Medford with Brett's parents, as well as in Fallon with my WHOLE family.

I'm a little upset I didn't manage to get a family pic, but I was able to capture all the lovely couples, including a new one some of you may be unaware of and an update on an existing one :)

Dad & Mom

Brett & Me

Heidi & Brady

Sam and his......FIANCE, Kim! :)

and last, but definitely not least - Sara and Jacob ;)

We definitely enjoyed our time together and are looking forward to it happening again soon!

And now, on to the new year! I can't believe how quickly this year went by, but I'm definitely glad it's over. 2009 will be a year I remember for the rest of my life, I'm sure of it. With Sara's cancer diagnosis and the news of our little one on the way, we were hit with some of the worst news and best news within one month's time. Needless to say, it has been quite the emotional rollercoaster for this highly hormonal preggo woman. Through it all, I've been learning A LOT about who I am as a person and who I should be as a woman of God. It's not always easy, but I'm learning how to be thankful for all the blessings, whether big or small, despite the trials and hardships that might come with them.

So....even though the last 7 months have quite possibly been the most difficult 7 months of our lives, we are hopeful and excited about what God has in store for our growing family in this new year (twenty ten or two thousand and ten...whichever you prefer).

Christmas with Family

Holiday Travel

Even though the NW was hit with the crazy artic blast this Christmas, we were still able to make it to my parents' house in Nevada for the holidays...but just barely. Our flight was scheduled to leave from the Portland airport at 8am Saturday morning the 20th. As we watched the weather Friday night everything was looking good. The storm wasn't supposed to hit until later Saturday afternoon...phew! So, we arrived at the airport bright and early Saturday morning and were delighted to find that our flight was on time. We made our way through the security lines to our gate with no problems and expected to board our plane within the hour. We were wrong- Apparently the last of the working de-icers had just broken down. They announced over the loud speaker that all flights were delayed indefinitely while they waited for their maintenance crews to fix the machines. An hour later they announced that they were trying to borrow a de-icer from another airline. Another hour later, still no de-icer. Again, an hour passes and now the snow is really coming down outside. We can see all the planes sitting at each gate, empty, waiting to be boarded, waiting to be de-iced. Still, no de-icer. It's now almost noon and they decide to line up all of the passengers on our flight to prepare for boarding. We're all standing in line, watching and waiting for the stinkin de-icers to arrive when we hear, "All flights in and out of the Portland airport have been cancelled....except for the following flights -" I held my breath as they listed 4 flight numbers - ours was the last to be called. We continued to stand in line and wait for boarding, and all the while, I'm thinking that they were going to change their minds and cancel our flight as well. Even though I knew there was nothing I could do about any of it, I was stressed. And when I get stressed, I get emotional. Finally, after about hours of waiting, we boarded the plane. As soon as I got to my seat and settled myself in for the ride I started crying. I'm such a nut case. Brett started laughing and I love him for that. He's always so level headed and never ceases to give me a reality check. Really, was this whole thing that big of a deal? Not in the least! I just over-think, over-worry, and over-react. Brett's helping me with all of that, but I have a feeling it might take a while. All this to say, we were the last flight out of the Portland airport that Saturday and even though we arrived in Nevada about 5 hours later than planned, we made it home to spend our Christmas with family. For all of that, I am very very grateful!

I will post some pictures of our Christmas with family in the next couple days. We had a great time and as always, it makes me wish we lived closer to all of our wonderful family! For now, here are some more pictures of the snow we had before leaving.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Tis the Season

I love the holiday season. Although it's been busy, and I admit a little stressful, I can't help but love everything about the holidays. Mainly it's the fact that we get to spend time with family, but I also love all the decorations and lights around town, the Christmas music, the scarfs and hats, and the snow when we get it....which we did! We had the first snow of the winter season and I absolutely love it. I wish I had a nice camera that would take really cool pictures, but I did my best...

Oh and I had to add a picture of our Christmas tree...or as I like to call it, our Christmas shrub. Seriously, how can a baby be bigger than a Christmas tree? :)

Hope you all enjoy this Christmas season and remember what's most important!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We weren't ready to come back! We very much enjoyed our Thanksgiving weekend at Brett's parents' house - and everyone (minus our brother-in-law, Larry) was home. Every day was spent playing at least 1 or 2 games of Phase 10 and Cribbage, and we threw Taboo and Twister in there a couple times as well. All were successful in bringing on a lot of laughs. Our nephew, Carson, proved to be the main entertainment for the weekend. He is getting so big and will be a year old in January. He crawls super fast, is just about to be walking, and giggles and babbles most of the time. He's such a good baby and we wished they lived closer than Arkansas. The good news is...they are having another one! Another baby-boy-Billing will be joining the family come April.

One thing I'm so thankful for is the fact that we both have such amazing families! Whether it's on the Timmerman side or the Swenson side we can't get enough of the people we're closest to. Christmas with the Swenson's is just around the corner and we can't wait for that either!