Xmas 2008

We had a really nice Christmas this year. It started with the birth of Slade on the 16th....My mom was there with me in the OR while he was "hatched" and she was able to cut the cord! Celia and Christina were taking care of my kids and my dogs and I am sooooo grateful to them because I don't leave my kids hardly ever and esp overnight but they did a great job with them and my kids were well taken care of!!! A HUGE thank you to them!

We came home from the home from the hospital on the 18th and on the 19th at about 530ish I FINALLY got a phone call from Tom after about 3 days of no word from him that he was in Atlanta and would be home in 3 hours!!! Words cannot describe the relief I felt to know that he was safe and would be home soon to meet his new lil son and to see all his girls-me included!! My mom and Celia left on Sat morning and on Mon Toms family arrived!!! Mom, Dad and Troy drove straight through from Denver and Todd and Nicki flew in and Tom picked them up at the Austin airport.

It was a pretty easy going week...we didn't do much except enjoy lots of great food...starting with Nicki's amazing baked potato soup and rolls, the next day was Xmas dinner consisting of ham, green bean casserole, twice baked potatoes, salad, corn, fruit salad, the amazing Nicki rolls again and cheesecake. The day after mom made lasagna with garlic bread and we had left over cheesecake!!!!

Xmas morning for the girls was pretty exciting. This is the first year Elena has actually understood and had an interest in unwrapping gifts. It was pretty cute. Bella's first question was why are all the gifts wrapped in our wrapping paper....only Todd and Nicki heard her so the question went unanswered! The girls got a ton of Disney toys that have been sitting in my closet since May and things from Iraq and Paris that Tom brought for them! I got all 4 books of the twilight saga from mom and dad and things from Spain, Paris, and Bahrain from Tom....I have already finished the 1st book and I will be starting the 2nd one today!

On Sat evening Slade was blessed here in our home by Uncle Todd. Slade looked soooo handsome in his white dress shirt and khakis. He was perfect during his blessing. We are thankful that Bro and Sis Spencer took time from their family to come and be here at our house so that Slade could be blessed and we are grateful to Dad, Troy and esp Todd for being part of his blessing.

We have a lil over a week before Tom has to head back to the sandbox to finish out his tour-about 4 more mos to go....so we will make the most of this week. Slade has his 2 week checkup this week so we will see how he is progressing! mom has all the pics from Xmas and the blessing on her camera so once i get them from her i will post pics!!!! We love and miss you all and hope everyone had a merry Xmas and a wonderful new year!!!