This one's for Janene

Some of you, including a very persistent friend of mine, have been asking for a photo of my pregnant belly.  I don't know what's the fascination with large round-ness, but since it's Christmas I guess I'll indulge you.  This was taken yesterday, so I'm about 3 1/2 weeks from my due date.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Jaron and I have loved this Christmas season.  We've noticed an increase in love and the spirit of giving, both in our home and in the community.  We're so grateful for the birth of Jesus Christ, for His perfect love and healing that still touches the world thousands of years later.  We hope you all had a wonderful, peaceful, and love-filled Christmas as well!  Here's some of the highlights of our Christmas day (photos of our beautifully "white" Christmas forthcoming...)

Our sweet angels posing by the tree on Christmas morning.

They became not-so-sweet after Santa brought them some dart guns.

Mikey's breakfast of root beer and Pringles (stocking treats)!

Adventures in Babysitting

'Tis the season to be giving, right?  Well, Jaron and I thought we'd start a Christmas tradition of offering our babysitting services to the families we Home and Visit teach...all on the same night!  In a community with lots of graduate students and residents, free babysitting is a hot commodity!  So we considered it a big party, and I planned to decorate Christmas cookies and watch a Christmas movie with all the kids.  Well, it was a great idea, and then all of the sudden we had 13 kids in our home, 4 of them one-year-olds (who don't all do stairs, and we don't have baby gates yet!), and a lot of noise.  Oh, and I can't forget to mention that when Jaron came home from work (which was when the kids started arriving), we realized that he HAD to shovel the ice from our driveway and sidewalk--it's a city ordinance that it must be done 24 hrs after a storm or we get fined.  SOOOO, the kids start rolling in and Jaron has to run to Lowe's for an ice-chopper, and I'm giving Spencer any incentive I can think of to help with all the madness (he did an amazing job, by the way).  Since the parents all dropped off/picked up their kids at different times, I would joke with them not to pay any mind to the "controlled chaos" going on in the basement or kitchen.  None of them seemed too concerned, though; I think they were just grateful to have a night out and that their kids actually survived the ordeal!  And Jaron busted out the scraping and shoveling and was able to help out inside before anyone got mortally wounded.  It was certainly a party, and while pretty crazy at times, it really was fun, and it made us feel good to do something for other families. (ps...please noboby call CPS on us for exceeding the 5:1 child-to-caregiver ratio!)

Winter FREEZING-land!

So today we went to church (Emily and the boys--Jaron was on call).  I step out of the car and am almost blown over by an arctic blast.  Check it: -25 degrees with the windchill today! (and I'm talking about the Ferienheit, not Celcius degrees here).  I opened the back seat door, bundled the kids up, and told them to run for the church doors as if their lives depended on it.  A second later I hear a "thud" and then a wail and a "Mommy!  Help me!!!"  Spencer had slipped on the icy pavement and couldn't get his legs under himself to stand up (probably cause the wind kept blowing him back down).  I reached out to give him a hand, trying to steady my large-belly body on the ice so I don't go down too, and thankfully we both made it.  We ran (or shuffled over the ice) as fast as we could into the building, with me chanting over and over, "I love Iowa...I love Iowa...I love Iowa..."  I think I finally thawed out sometime during the second hour.  That's what I call a Winter Wonder-land!  At least we'll have a white Christmas!

Thanks for the visit, Hamilton's!

We're so glad our Texas buddies from Med school (who are now in Ohio), met up with us at my parent's house in Indianapolis.  It was great to spend a couple days with them and their adorable boys!

Thanksgiving in Indy

We had such a wonderful time with my family at Thanksgiving!  I felt so blessed that, after it looked like Jaron was going to have to work all week, he was able to arrange to get the whole week off, so we had a nice, long trip!  All my brothers, their spouses and kids were there, as well as our special friends from med school, the Hamilton's (see other post).  We ate good food, enjoyed fun company, watched movies, read, slept, had a date, and recharged our batteries.  One highlight of the trip is that my brother, Chris, brought out several paintball guns.  The adults had a paintball adventure on Wed, but the kids got their turn Friday.  It was Chris's bright idea to let the kids have the guns (with adult supervision, of course) and let loose on the dads who would serve as moving targets for the novice sharpshooters.  I'm not sure if any of the dads really expected their kids to actually hit them, but Jaron's several welts prove that his sons are quite good shots.  At first the dads just ran from tree to tree.  This then evolved into a contest of "who can scale the tree fastest without getting shot", all while paintballs whizzed around their heads.  Us wiser (and pregnant) adults had the time of our lives laughing at those lunatic dads, but I think we also secretly admired the length these brave men will go to to show their posterity a good time.  That's true love right there.