Danville Christmas & Oregon New Year

Alright, well, better late than never. This is our Christmas and New Year in pictures. I have no idea how to get this to stop with the underlining. Things have been pretty busy since we got back from Oregon. Andrew has been on call a whole lot and the kids have spent almost the whole month sick with something. Last week's flu was the worst so far. It's over now and I am praying for a healthy rest of the winter. Each of these pictures will have the explanation on the underside of it. Enjoy!

This is John getting ready for an outing. I actually made this hat back for Peter, but since we were in CA when he was tiny, he only wore it once for pictures. John has had a lot of use from it though :)

On Christmas Day, Andrew got home at about 1pm and we opened presents before going to the Lehman's for dinner. This is Ella unwrapping the little gifts from her stocking, mostly from Gramma Paula and Pop Pops because this year we didn't really have any ability to Christmas shop for them. Luckily, they didn't know the difference, and we have less toys to clean up!

Peter was so excited about his little farm animals, he still plays with them all the time. I spent a while wrapping all these tiny little presents, but it was worth it to see them open them.

He snipped the cow from Ella the minute she set it down and still claims it as his own. He calls most things a cow and loves seeing them on our drives.

Ella with her stocking presents, I feel like she's just getting cuter and cuter as time goes on. She's been such a help with baby John and her fun personality as well as her knack for knowing what she wants have been shining through these days.

For Christmas, Andrew got me a camera that will fit in my bag. This happens to be the first picture I took with it. Me and my Dutch Brothers Cocoa. This is a chain that started in Oregon and has spread around, but it has GREAT drinks.

We went to visit Andrew's childhood friend Jon Turnage and his family. Clayton, their son and Sarah his wife were there. This is Peter with Mr. Potato Head glasses on playing with Clayton's toy.

Andrew and Peter with Jon and Clayton.

Ella loves having her picture with John. I thought this one was pretty cute.

Peter wanted me to take his picture with John too! Of course. They are going to be great friends I think, Peter sure loves his brother "Non."

Aunt Jenna got John this bib and he wore it proudly, so of course I had to take a picture.

This is me with Katie and Rebekah, my sister in laws and Jana, our cousin that married Andrew's oldest cousin Josh. We were able to get away one afternoon to Fred Meyer, just the girls with no kids. It was quite fun!! Funny how a store like Fred Meyer takes on a whole new element when you can spend time in the scrapbook aisle with a coffee :).

John and I before the family picture one evening. He's getting so big! I put him in this cute little vest with a collared shirt and he looked like a little man.

Apparently when Andrew was little, his favorite thing to do was take a ball and roll it down the railing. Peter and Cousin Curtis shared his liking and Cousin Mark was helping them.

Here is Peter wearing Aunt Ruth's shoes, he's still obsessed with shoes if he can get them on his feet, especially ones that aren't his.

Great Grandpa Ralph and Great Grandma Mary meeting John. Grandpa Ralph is big on his family ancestry and told us all about his Grandpa, John Cornelius. Ralph's dad was named Lewis, so John's name is pretty special to him. We have some pictures for his baby book now and an explanation of John Cornelius' history.

John is smiling at Great Grandma, and this was the first time I caught his smile on camera! Pretty special picture.

Ella outside, probably pulling her hair out of her face. What I love is that her mittens are backwards and the thumbs are sticking out!

Peter boy in the hat I made him for this winter, playing outside.

The frost in Klamath was pretty crazy, Andrew took this picture of it.

Ella loves seeing animals. Grandpa and Grandma live next to some people who have horses they could see up close.

Sleepy John and I outside. I figured if I had a snow suit for him, I may as well take him out in it at least once!

Grandma Barb helped Peter and Ella build a snowman. The next day it rained and the eyes and nose fell off, part of him melted and he looked more like a skeleton, but they had fun!

Andrew's friend Ryan and son Miles came to see us. Peter still talks about Miles, especially because now they have the same green Nalgene sippy cup (Thanks Deans!) :) It was fun to see old friends and catch up while the kids played.

The Fam. It's always such an ordeal to get a picture of all of us.

Grandpa Ben took Ella on the 4-wheeler. She's turning into quite the little adventurer.

Andrew didn't pass off a chance to climb up a tree at all. He and his dad cut this one down while we were there.

Peter found Great Grandpa Ralph's cane and thought it was a great toy.

Andrew Smith (Andrew's classmate from high school) is a dentist in Klamath, he and his fiance' Brooke came to say hi.

Peter was beyond thrilled with himself for putting all these toy soldiers by John to play with him. He and Ella called them "shoulders" and they were all over the place the whole time we were there visiting. I'm sure Grandma is still finding them around the house!

Grandpa took Peter for a walk down their 1/4 mile driveway. Here they are throwing snowballs.

John loved sleeping on everyone who wanted to hold him, here he is with Grandpa.

There is no shortage of food at a Cornelius gathering. Here's Ben, Dallas, David, Mark, Lance, Ralph and Mary having a meal. They make some good food, and lots of cookies too!

Katie and I went to Fred Meyer the day of the Rose Bowl and these sweatshirts were on clearance, so we got matching ones :).

Katie, Darlene, Jana, myself and Rosie on New Year's eve, while the guys are lighting off fireworks. None of us are "original Cornelius" blood, but we're glad to all be family now!

Jonathan, Nate, Mark, Dallas, Andrew, and Josh. Cousins and brothers.

Aunt Rebekah with all the kids! She is Andrew's older sister who hadn't yet met John so this visit was fun and special!

Aunt Rebekah with Peter and John.

John with Grandma Barb. I appreciated all the help she gave me with the kids by spending time with them.

Peter loves to give John kisses.

After New Years and all the extended family left, we did a family Christmas. Here is Ella opening her stocking gifts.

Peter with his stocking! Grandma Barb made all these stockings, the kids have their pictures on them.

Here are our stockings. We all draw names for our big gift, but we each get everyone a little stocking gift. We opened ours after the kids went to bed, it was much less chaotic :)

John and Daddy. I really liked this picture of them. John looks really content.

Great Grandkids.

Smiling at Grandma Barb.

This was the family picture we had taken. It turned out very nice! Next time we have a picture like this, there will be one more baby, Katie and Jonathan are due in June. I will hopefully meet my niece in August when we go to Oregon. The kids were so happy for tootsie rolls when this was over :).

We sure have been blessed as a family. I could not ask for better in-laws. We all enjoy each other's company and it's amazing what a great Christian heritage this family has. Their family tree goes back a long time, but the ones that are here now are Godly examples for us and for our kids. We had a really nice time in Oregon with everyone.

Christmas 2009

I love this picture.

This Christmas Andrew and I have so much to be thankful for.

Among them, three beautiful, healthy, energetic children who make us cry and laugh, sometimes in the same hour.

We have a new kitchen, which we are loving. It's open and light and there is no more green! I love green, but in excess it's not good.

The town we live in is small, quaint and safe. We have made wonderful friends and are so glad for the support we have here as a family.

The kids have made some friends whom they mention throughout the day and love playing with.

I am able to be involved in the mom's program MOPS and that has been encouraging to everyone.

Andrew was able to bowhunt his first deer. We are now enjoying jerky and Ella still thinks that the meat from the deer is for giving back to the deer. She calls it "deer neat."

Ella is 3 now and is a bundle of words, expressions, questions, and sometimes the occasional talking back of her own opinions. This, we are working on. She is gentle and caring with a sweet spirit and gets so excited for things that sometimes all she can do is squeal with a smile on her face. She loves babies and singing. She dances to music and loves sweets. What kid doesn't? She is learning how to be a big sister to 2 brothers now and helps Peter with everything, but also stirs up trouble with him too. She likes to make sure John is wearing the kind of character diaper she wants him to wear. Elmo on the front of the diaper is her favorite and she wants to pick that out every time. Her quotes frequent my "facebook" and she is very witty and has a mind like a steel trap. She remembers everything. Ella likes to say, "tomorrow when I am taller, I will drive the car." She calls anything that ends with "ool" an "oodle." Like "stoodle or toodle" for stool and toole. It's great, I never correct her.

Peter is 19 months and keeps me on my toes at all times. I cannot turn my back on him or something is bound to happen. Whether good or bad, unsafe or innocent, he's always moving. He wants to do everything Ella does, even if she just got in trouble for doing it. He runs from one end of the house to the other with a huge smile on his face and his right arm in the air (not sure why). He's full of one-liners. He gets the point across with one word and he's also very smart. He tries to repeat everything that we say. He hears me say "careful" all the time and he says, "care-fo." His new thing is, "I do it." He wants to do things himself and he is learning well and sometimes the hard way. He recently burned his hand on the pellet stove. I was mad and felt sorry for him all at the same time. He won't do that again. He also loves music and dancing. He likes the song "Move it" from the movie "Madagascar" and he calls it "moe-in." This is a favorite of his to dance to. He is a free spirit and thinks he's funny all the time. I don't think that at any time, this middle child of mine is going to go unnoticed. He will make sure of it.

John is almost 2 months and has the most laid back personality of all the kids as babies. He's easy going and has this way of looking at you as if to say, "don't worry mom, it will be ok." Sometimes when it feels like the house is chaos and the kids are running all over, I just sit and hold him. He's been my little calming agent lately. I am so glad to have a sweet little baby, and even if he gets the energy and spunk the other two have later on, at least for now, I can count on him to keep the peace.

This year, Andrew and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. We are still learning a lot about each other and as time goes on we both grow and change. We have a lot of fun together and sometimes when it's busy and crazy, we still just like to sit and hang out or even just watch football with a bowl of ice cream. The kids bring us so much joy, but we often talk of when they are bigger, the things we want to do and places we want to see as a family. We have fun exploring new places together and are excited to see more. Residency is busy and hard work for all of us. It seems like time is going by fast some days and others not so much. Andrew loves his work and we are all glad for that.

I love staying home with the kids, though sometimes the tasks seems endless. They are a lot of fun and I am learning more from them than they know. More character building goes on for me in one day than I would like to admit. God has been so good to allow me to have this time with them while they are little. I am still doing photography, which I enjoy a lot. Knitting and other crafts have taken the back seat for now, but maybe next year I can find some time again. I like to have my friends over during the day to pass time and let the kids play together. It seems they have a hard time sharing toys, but love sharing illnesses! This is the way it is I guess. We have had lots of visitors and help this year and we have been so thankful for that. We miss family a lot, being so far away is hard almost all the time, but we have a good support system here. Well, as I write this, the kids have escaped up the stairs, so I'd better go. May God Bless this Christmas season for everyone.

In the arms of love (and sometimes right back out).

Well, little "non-newis" as Peter calls John Lewis does get held a fair amount. I will not lie and say that I am practicing making him fall asleep on his own right now because I just want to soak up time with him while he's still a little lump on my shoulder.

Soon, though, John boy, you will have to practice the art of getting yourself to sleep. Until then, your brother, sister, daddy, myself, and any one who wants is welcome to take part in enjoying your sacked out slumber.

Mommy told Peter to smile and this is what he did. He likes to "home 'em." This is what he says when he wants to hold John. One day Peter was trying to "help" mommy by getting John out of the swing since he fussed a little. Mommy was coming down the stairs when Peter did this and John ended up on the floor. It scared everyone and I don't think Peter will do that again.

Gramma Paula was here for Thanksgiving and enjoyed that John liked to be all snuggled up next to her.

Ella loves to hold baby and will climb up on the couch and get a pillow all ready so he can be next to her. But, if he starts crying, she says, "he's trying to be sad, you should take him back."

This is our first Thankgiving with John. We love holding him too!

The first thing Pop Pops did when he sat down was get John and hold him. He got a lot of time for this while watching football or NASCAR over Thanksgiving. Gramma kept telling him to "put the baby down and help." :) I love that Pop Pops likes to hold babies.

50 Toes

It was chaos trying to get this picture. Mister "funny man" Peter kept kicking his foot in the air and keeping him off the baby was a challenge too. Andrew just wanted to give up and I could not stop laughing. Ella just wanted her tootsie roll reward for laying still. I am glad Jenna was here to capture this silly moment with us.

There is nothing more special than tiny feet in black and white. I have wanted a shot like this of the kids since Ella was born. For her I just wasn't ambitious enough to get her to hold still, for Peter, his feet were so fat so quickly that it didn't look right, and for baby John I was finally able to get his daddy to hold a heart around his 10 stinkin' cute toes.

Our wedding rings around his big toes, I saw this shot once a long time ago and what it symbolizes is so neat. Good idea whoever thought of it first.

Aunt Jenna

Dear Aunt Jenna,

Thank you so much for coming to visit me and my kids here in PA last week. You are dearly missed already. Peter keeps calling you "gramma" but he's still mentioning you. Ella keeps recalling things she did while you were here and even wanted a tootsie roll tonight after I took her picture. :) You are such a special sister and friend and I am so lucky to have your help and company when you're around.