christmas fun

well, after a month full of making cookies, watching christmas movies, reading christmas stories, shopping for gifts, and decorating, the fun of christmas has proven to be exciting and crazy at our house! we've now had christmas with the larrison extended family at my cousin kelli's house where santa came and visited. i don't think caleb ever stopped talking to him :) then we had christmas with the teipens down at their house. my kids absolutely love their cousins and enjoyed every minute of playing with their new toys together. then we had christmas at our house after going downtown on christmas eve to see the pretty lights. i hope the zoo parking lot didn't mind some extra moisture on the ground as we had to make an emergency little boy X 2 pee pee stop! santa spoiled the boys, of course, and even left some surprises for mom & dad too this year. we have one more christmas left at my parent's house which will make for another house full of lots of fun toys, i'm sure! despite the chaos of toys, stockings, candy, etc, the boys are very mindful of why we're celebrating christmas and often talk about jesus' birthday and why God sent him to us. it's quite precious and i'm so thankful that we live somewhere safe where we can celebrate and talk about jesus! merry christmas!!

ouch

well my first day of work was great...the people were very nice, the job seems very interesting, and i was excited to go home and tell jerry all about it...until...i crashed our pathfinder. it was totally my fault. i honestly don't even remember seeing the red light until it was too late, but i did see the big red truck that was coming at me. i can't really explain what happened. i think i glanced down at my phone and was so focused on what road i was gonna take that when i looked up i was in the middle of the intersection. it's stupid and i feel like an idiot for causing such a preventable accident, but it truly was an accident. the driver of the truck was very understanding and even the police officer didn't give me a ticket for running the light. we both were not injured. of course i'm very sore and i'm sure he is too, but considering what could've happened we are both very lucky. it's totally by the grace of God that such a horrible accident resulted in only damage to metal! what an incredible power i have on my side!! i feel very fortunate and thankful that i was able to go home and hug my family that evening :)

new opportunities

we, jerry & i, have decided that i'm going back to work part time. i have been trying to pick up shifts at methodist on and off, but i need something with guaranteed hours/pay and it's time for jerry to take a break and only work 1 job! my search began and i felt like i was getting nowhere. you'd think with 10 years of pediatric experience i would've had an easier time, but i felt very discouraged. finally after emailing my previous manager, i got some great leads and was offered 2 different positions. this made for a difficult decision, but one that i was excited to make. i've accepted a position on the medication reconciliation team at iu hospital in indy. it will be completely different than bedside nursing and an awesome learning experience. i'm very excited to take on a new challenge. i'm going to stay supplemental at methodist so that i can keep up my pediatric nursing skills also, but my focus now will be on learning how to be a med rec nurse!

don't ever turn your back on a 16 month old

life lesson...
while i was trying to discipline caleb in the corner tonight and was tied up for quite some time, abram decided to...
1. empty this kleenex box.
2. take the leftover syrup on eli's dinner plate and completely cover the telephone with it. i didn't realize this until my sister-in-law called and i picked up a VERY sticky and sweet smelling phone.
apparently abram was trying to teach me a lesson...

our tree

here is our 'perfect' tree...cut down and brought to our home to be decorated and adored by 3 little boys.

here's my poor baby abram. beaten and bruised as he may be, he's still precious. i thought he was gonna have to take a trip to the ER after he fell/was slightly pushed into the corner of the coffee table. he's the first one of my boys to get a goose egg and boy did he get a doozie. then a few days later he was trying to play trains with caleb and caleb wasn't havin' it so he knocked him in the face with a bridge. it originally just left a small mark on the corner of his eye, but as you can see, it quickly turned into a black eye. on top of all of this, he got very sick with 2 ear infections, a sinus infection, and wheezing. this picture is taken the day i took him to the doctor. i thought for sure the doctor would file with child protective services as soon as she saw him. i told her i completely understood if she was obligated to do so. instead she laughed at me and hugged abram while encouraging me to buy a helmet for the poor baby. this has got to be the most pitiful picture i've ever seen. it needs a title like, "save the child" or something. i assure you, he's healthy now and healing up just fine! in fact, he's getting good at fighting off his 3 year old brother!

thankful

this thanksgiving was spent with my dad's family at our house. cousins, grandma, parents, and brothers were all together enjoying a few old home videos of 'the 80's' while we stuffed our bellies with yummy food. lots of laughs and a little togetherness is always good. now we have christmas to look forward to. this weekend we'll venture to wagoner's tree farm in greencastle to find the perfect tree. then we'll spend hours trying to make very heavy ornaments stay on real tree branches and pray that all of the lights still work. every night we'll look for a christmas movie to watch while we play before bed. then we'll read christmas books before we open the the next window on the advent calendar with a little piece of chocolate waiting for one of the boys. every year christmas is so special and as thanksgiving comes to a close and we look forward to this wonderful season, i must stop and thank God for absolutely everything and everyone in my life. some days i do forget to say thank you, but during this time of year, it seems a little easier to slow down and remember what we've been so blessed with. if you're reading this, then you've come into my life at some point and put your little handprint on my heart in some way, so thank you...i truly am so very thankful!