the most wonderful time of the year!!!

i love this time of the year! i love the decorations, the food, the memories, the traditions. i love the spirit of CHRISTMAS! i love sitting in my living room with only the christmas lights on, christmas music playing softly in the background, and the smell of apple-cinnamon coming from the kitchen! i love watching my little people as they look out the windows of our car and scream with delight when they see other peoples decorations!!! this is truly a magical time of the year!

there has been a lot going on in our house over the past few weeks! the twins turned "1" on november 3rd! yes.....we all made it through the first year! they are coming into their own now! it has been so much fun to watch them grow and to see their different personalities come through! i love walking in on them and watching them talk to one another! they are wonderful!

what would we do without such a HUGE surprise! here are cardin and maxwell's 1 yr old birthday pics!

josephs mom and dad were able to come and spend a couple of weeks with us over the thanksgiving holiday. while they were here, joseph and i were able to take a few days and travel together by ourselves! it's so nice to have/take the time to reconnect with one another! i often get thrown back 15 years to when we first started dating and the feelings that i had for him then.......and how they have multiplied a million times more! it's like de ja vue when it is just he and i! i am so grateful for time we get together!

my grandfather had been declining for several months......3 weeks ago we received word that he had cancer and that time was very short. i had to make the decision to go and see him while he was still with us or wait until after he passed and attend the services. i chose to go and visit with him and to make sure he new how much i loved him! it was so hard to see him! he had fallen a few weeks earlier and was literally bruised from head to toe....he looked so weak and tired. while i was there, hospice was called in and he quickly became non-responsive. i left on a wednesday and my paw paw passed away that sunday. it was so hard to be away! sometimes living 3500 miles from "home" can be very difficult! joseph encouraged me to go back for the services if i wanted too......i had said my goodbye's and shared my feeling with him while i sat with him! i am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. i know that there is a plan for each one of us. i know that our loved ones LIVE! i am comforted to know that our paw paw was greeted and escorted to the hereafter by someone who loved him and who he loved very much! i am so grateful for family connections and that my parents chose and encouraged us to have bounding relationships with our grandparents and our extended family members! it is truly a great gift and has been a wonderful blessing in my life! what a wonderful time for paw paw to return to our heavenly home!

gracie has informed joseph and i that, and i quote, "this christmas is going to be a disaster"! we have both asked her why she feels that way and she has informed us that because no one will be here with us and because we will not be somewhere else with family, it is just not going to be good! how funny it is that our 7 yr old knows that christmas is about family! we have never spent a christmas without grandparents and/or cousins, aunts, uncles, etc with us! this is going to be a first! though i will miss not sharing this sweet time with our parents, my eyes are being opened to the 8 of us spending our first christmas together together (if that makes any sense)!

anyway, i have rambled on long enough! i am excited for 2010! it is going to be such a busy year with great opportunity and growth for us all! i am thinking about the things that i want to focus on individually, as a family, as a wife, as a mother.....i get rejuvenated with the new year ahead!

we hope that you may all have a very merry christmas and that we may remember the birth of our Savior, who is the reason we celebrate!!! how wonderful it is to have the knowledge the He lives!!!!