The end of the year

well... christmas vacation was fun and unusual.

A couple months ago, Erik told us that it was getting to hard to travel with Katie, so they wouldn't be going to Texas for christmas, like they usually do. after some discussion about whether to join him in colorado, we decided to make our usual Texas trip. Since Josh wasn't there either, that left me & heidi & our families. It was sad to not see *everyone*, but the nice thing about having fewer people is that you get to spend more time with the few who are there.
anyway.... some highlights from our trip:

flew in on friday night. didn't get the car we needed to fit our luggage & family. good thing Dad met us & took our luggage in his car.

saturday, chris went motorcycle riding with Dad, & the kids & i hung out w/mom & decorated cookies.

sunday, spent the day with Glenna & chad. so fun to see them again! :)

Sunday night, had a birthday party for Evy. She's two now!

Monday: Christmas Eve! time to wrap presents... quite a challenge to figure out how to tell chris i was giving him a digital frame when we got home. finally, i had heidi draw frame made out of fingers. Then we put this picture inside:

Get it? "digit"-al? :) i was very proud of that.

we broke our usual christmas tradition, & got mexican food to go along w/the traditional hamburgers & french fries.our tree was sad because there were so few presents under it. we were done by 8 (which never happens), but we had lots of fun anyway.

Gideon got a new suit. loved this photo, 'cause he looks like a business man. :)

Tuesday, Christmas: went chris took me & the kids to breakfast at ihop. hung out at the house til evening when people were bored. so we thought we'd go up to reunion tower. but it was closed. so we decided to go look at christmas lights.

some of my favorites:
texas longhorns:

Falala:

Friday, packed up our things & got ready to celebrate Heidi's graduation from college. Just before the celebration began, we got the news that Katie died. :( had a bittersweet celebration for heidi.

Taylor asked me & mom to pierce his ears, so i said yes. that way, every day for the rest of his life, when he looks at himself in the mirror, he'll remember me. :) --and how hard can it be, right? Well, let me just say that if you want your ears pierced, it's WAY better just to spend the $20 at claire's. It's not as easy as it looks!! poor taylor. he's one tough kid! And now he has his ears pierced. :) i can't believe i didn't take any pictures!

Saturday we flew all day. got home, went to bed & woke up early on sunday, so i could fly to Colorado & be with Erik & Dawn. the whole family was there (w/the exception of Chris & the kids, and jody & her kids). it was so good to be with everyone.

Katie's service was beauitful. the thing that touched me most was to see how many people were touched by this one little life.


Flew home tuesday, & have been recovering ever since. :)

during all my flying time, i read Quiet Talks on Prayer by S.D. Gordon. Wonderful book! will be adding it to my "must read" list.

for those of you who were worried about Gideon, he had a high (105) fever all weekend. when i got home on mon. night, we laid hands on him & prayed & gave him some tylenol. Tues. morning, he woke up & was fine. Chloe & Evelyn got slight fevers, but they're fine now, too. Thank you, Jesus!

Happy new year, everyone!

if you'd like to see more photos, you can click on these links:

Colorado

Dallas

Evy's Birthday