An Entry in Pictures
01-05-2005, 5:10 p.m.

Since it's been a while since I've really added many pictures, here is an entry full of them.

Stephen and I on Christmas Eve. We spent it at my brother's house. We had such a nice time.

Brian and Megan on Christmas Eve. I was going to take a picture of Megan and Brian jumped in. It turned out so adorable! They look just like my brother and I when we were little, except that I was older than my brother. Still Megan looks very much like I did, and Brian is a spitting image of my brother. He acts like him too, which makes me laugh constantly. A quick funny... on Christmas Eve, Rachel and June locked Brian in the dog cage and left him in the basement as they went upstairs to play. When asked why, they said because Brian told them too. I asked Brian if this was true to which he replied "Yes I told them to, but I didn't want them to listen to me"... guess they picked a good time to listen. He walked away mumbling... "girls never listen usually..."

A picture of my nephew, Little Kevin and I on Christmas Day. As you can see, he isn't so little anymore. He will be 15 at the end of this month, and that in itself is amazing to me. I can't believe how much taller than I he is... and our nephew Jacob (who is 2 weeks younger) is even taller... I picked this picture though because I love Sarah in the background.. how cute she is too.

June and I at my brother's house. We were over for my newphew Matthew's birthday.

My brother and my nephew Matthew at Matthew's birthday party. This was our first birthday of his that we got to celebrate as a family and it was wonderful. We are so thankful to have him back in our lives and I am so much in awe of him. He is a wonderful kid. You can just see how happy he is to be with my brother, and how at home he is now. He loved his birthday present from us... we got him a sweatshirt and hat of his favorite football team, you would have thought we gave him the world the way he carried on... makes me feel good just thinking about it.

Cory, Jen, Tonya and I on Jammies Day. We forgot to take any pictures of the four of us until right before Cory and Andy were leaving. I am glad that Jen remembered... I love having it. We have pictures from each of the past couple of years, and it's nice to compare them from year to year. I am so glad that we have this little tradition, it means the world to me.

Rachel, June, Nicole, Maddy and Andy on Jammies Day. We certainly didn't forget to take tons of pictures of them, giggle. Aren't they just so adorable? I think that this is probably one of my favorite pictures from the day. I remember our first jammies day, the pictures of Nicole, June and Chrissy.. it is such a blessing to have Maddy and Rachel and now Andy in our group. Life is good that way.

After Jammies Day, we celebrated June's birthday. As Cory was getting ready to leave, we were giving Andy some birthday cake. Got him good and wired for that long ride home. I just know that Cory was grateful for that. I love this picture too, he is such a cutie. Guess we could have hidden that evidence a little bit better, but who could resist.

New Year's Day is our niece Kimberly's birthday. She turned 11 this year. Everyone but me went to her party. I was sick over New year's eve and day (throwing up and feeling horrible) so I didn't go. Tonya took tons of pictures for me and she couldn't resist taking this one of my nephew Konner. He got this shirt from our nephew James for Christmas, and James was so excited to see him wearing it. I am sorry I missed that.

Today! It is snowing so hard, and Ton and I took half the day off and came home early because of that. Stephen was home with the girls and they were so excited to see us (we surprised them). We all went outside to play in the snow, and had a blast. The girls loved it. Rachel exclaimed that it was the best snow day she's ever had, and that you can't do this with sand. It was sweet, and yet sad knowing that they are going back to the sand next week. I hate that, but we are going to enjoy every last minute that we have with them. I let them get cups full of snow, and we made slushies (we did this when we were kids) and they LOVED that. Now they are getting a bowl full of snow (obviously clean snow), and trying to make ice cream. It's funny and cute, and I just love watching Tonya love it. Well it's time to taste their ice cream. They just love experimenting with things, and we love letting them. I need to make some cookies for work tomorrow, maybe they will like to help. Maddy is quite the little baker. She has been wowing us with her baked goods all week. Diet time begins the day they leave, hehe.