Fourth of July

We had the chance to spend our Fourth of July with friends we see too rarely, as we have the past couple years. It was a day filled with...

...sweet sleepy boys...

...fun...

...and more fun in the pool...

...new friends...

...and chillin' by the water with old friends.

And to top it off, fireworks and fireflies, with some initial confusion between the boys as to which it was that lit up and made noise and which just lit up.

Hope you had a nice celebration, too.

Better Late than Never

At long last here is our holiday update! We had a nice Christmas this year, despite the inevitable moments of stress and exhaustion. It was a particularly precious year with the boys, as they had all the excitement without the wish lists. That's not to say they weren't excited about presents, or didn't have their moments of asking for more... But there wasn't that expectation that they should get certain things in order to have a good Christmas. They just loved reading stories about Christmas, and seeing Santa and all manner of decorations everywhere we went (including, our favorite, giant donuts with lights). They "helped" cut down our Christmas tree from our yard and decorate it. Getting the mail each day was a cause for excitement in hopes of new Christmas cards to open. We had lots of chances to see family and friends, all of which were nice as well.

It was interesting seeing the Christmas schedule from their perspective. It always seems busy, traveling here and there and fitting in all the preparations. But seen through the perspective of two little guys who are so excited about each toy unwrapped and don't understand why they can't open it right then... Made me think about how little time we give ourselves to fully enjoy and be present to our celebrations. Don't get me wrong, I love the excitement and in some ways the busyness and the chance to go to so many celebrations. But maybe next year we'll find a way to work in a little more space to play with our toys as we open them...

For more pictures of the festivities, just look to the right.

Since then, life has been full speed ahead, with major routine changes leaving us spinning. Sometime in the midst of the holidays, Garrett, our champion sleeper, abruptly stopped going to sleep, dragging Drew (who had just gotten the hang of sleeping!) with him. In a last ditch effort, after several nights stretching until midnight, we decided to cut out naps and move up bedtime. That was this past weekend, so needless to say we are all still reeling a bit (or a lot, as the case may be) to this unexpected change to our days. Bedtime seems to be going better, on average, so we're continuing along this path, hoping that the days will sort themselves out. Time will tell.

We hope that all is well with you as we start this new year. It is sure to be an eventful one here, with hopefully more frequent updates as we go. So stay tuned, and keep in touch when you can!

Holiday Wrap Up

The holidays are over, and things are starting to slow down a bit once more. We hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year, or at least found a few moments of joy in the middle of it all. It was so nice to see so many friends and family, especially those of you we don't get to see as often as we'd like.

It was a wonderful holiday season for us overall. By all accounts a much better Christmas than last year. Somehow it all seemed much more manageable, and was much more of a joy to have Drew and Garrett around to "help", and to add their excitement to the season.

Some highlights included:

- Having Jim home for almost two weeks straight

- Seeing Annie's family the Sunday before Christmas for pinata breaking and present opening (not to mention balloon punching bags... which remain a hit to this day)

- Jim's brother John coming home from Portland, OR for about a week, and the time we were able to spend with him

- Seeing Jim's family on Christmas Eve for some good food and presents

- Spending Christmas morning together as a family, sleeping in, opening gifts and watching the boys play with their new tools

- Spending the rest of Christmas day with Annie's mom & dad, including a nice quiet game of Quiddler while the boys napped (a Christmas gift in itself!)

- Getting to see our group of college friends and enjoy some fun and craziness as our group grows larger with little ones

- Having some down time around the house together over New Years and even getting a few things done, or at least started.

It wasn't perfect, but it was a joy-full time, and we're sad to see it end... Luckily there's always that stack of seed catalogs and dreams of Spring to come to cheer us up...

May you each have a wonderful new year!

2008 = A New Year

This year we are going to try to look at things a bit differently. We're going to make a more concerted effort to enjoy all our time together as a family.

(We're open to suggestions about how to get beyond all the exhaustion and work and be more present to the moments of joy and spontaneity...)

Other hopes include continued health for all and a bigger, more deerproof garden. Hopefully there will be some spring updates about a new fence.

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007 was a blur for us. I (Jim) got sick on Thursday the 20th after we put up our Christmas tree and lights and was out of commission until Christmas Eve. Annie was flying solo with the boys, plus trying to take care of me and get our final shopping and wrapping done. My parents came over so she could make one last run to the stores (Thanks, Mom and Dad).

Once I was feeling better we put ornaments on the tree and were off to see my side of the family for Christmas Eve festivities at my cousin Scott's house with his wife Maria. Christmas morning we opened gifts by our tree and headed out to Chardon, then to Chesterland for more festivities. Attached are some pictures of Drew and Garrett getting their first cracks at the traditional Christmas pinata. 10 months old and taking on flying purple people eaters. We're so proud!

So Christmas was exhausting. We were listening to our Pastor preach recently about "the darker side of Christmas". That there is a lot of sadness, pain, illness, and unmet hopes that don't go away just because it's December 25th. Remember Herod ordering the massacre of all boys under 2 years old in hopes of killing the baby Jesus? It was into darkness that the light was born. And we recognize that darkness if we are at all honest with ourselves. We didn't have a Hallmark Christmas, but I don't think anyone does. It was great to see family and friends and exchange gifts, but it seemed a lot like going through the motions this year. I'd rather it include more wonder, more awe, more spirit... especially experiencing Christmas for the first time with Drew and Garrett. I did manage to laugh and smile a few times while watching them open the many brightly colored packages. By the end of the day, I think they were dreaming of giant balls of crinkley paper and huge cardboard boxes to whap.

Update: a novel idea

So, the first update, the first picture. Halloween came and went with Drew, the jumper, being very hoppy and Garrett, the dino, roaring. These costumes were obvious choices.

Next year they'll be running all around. They might even want to pick their own outfits, or at least have some input.

The Christmas pics are taken and going out in our Christmas cards. I imagine some of them may find their way onto this blog...

The first big snow storm of the season hit Sunday. Driving was bad, so we stayed home instead of meeting up with Annie's family for dinner. Our Christmas tree isn't up yet, but we have made cookies once. Thumbprint cookies with black raspberry jam. Mmmmm.