I'm not sure she know what was going on, but I think she had fun

Santa Baby

Merry Christmas to all

Finally.

I've been waiting for this for 133 days.

Tonight I finally got to squeeze little Harper O.
Oh how I love her.

just in time

I am so blessed to live in Colorado where a "white Christmas" is pretty common.

And where - even though I don't live in the "prettiest" part of town - beautiful pictures are within walking distance of my little home.




I nearly froze these off to get these shots. Sheesh. It was brutal.

Seriously.

Is this really necessary.

Another 5k to start the day

This one was hosted by my volleyball club to raise money for MS research.

If we look a little desperate here, it's because we could just barely see the finish line. Time to run fast and be done.
Great weather. Snowy path. Lovely company.

Oopsie-Daisy

Tonight, on the way into our friends' house, I dropped a box of beer.

Two beers broke,

and filled the box with bubbles.

Mark called a party foul

and took two dollars off of my allowance.
Better luck next time.

Over. Whelmed.

Photograph. Edit. Order prints. Deliver prints. Deliver CDs. Go to Post Office. Tutor. Prep students for finals. Grade papers. Re-learn algebra. Make gifts. Buy gifts. Volleyball Practice. Volleyball club 5K. Sister coming home. Christmas parties. Make food. Grocery shopping. Small group. Adoption paperwork. Adoption meetings. Christmas volleyball camp. Go to hockey. Clean house. Write emails. Make phone calls. Clip coupons. Balance budget. Work out.

Go to bed.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

It's been a very busy few weeks for me and, as a result, the majority of my house is a bit disheveled. It's quite unorganized really.

But this corner is ready for Christmas, and that makes me very happy.

Party Schmarty.

We had ourselves a little christmas party complete with

gingerbread house building,

an ugly sweater contest,

a three-category mustache contest,

and a white-elephant gift exchange.

Behold the ugliest sweater (individual) of the night,
and the winners of the ugliest sweaters (couple) award.
And here we have the seven mustache contest contestants in which three prizes were awarded.
Jason receive the award for the fanciest mustache,
Dave won an award for the creepiest,
and Jeremy - perhaps the greatest winner of them all - won the Tom Selleck Award.
And Mark and I received two plastic swords and a James Dobson book during the white elephant exchange. Lovely prizes, if I might say so myself.

So, how's the adoption going?

Slowly

and

wonderfully

and

oh-my

it's alot of work.

Thanks for asking.

I don't want to give anything away here...

...but this just might be his entry into the ugly sweater contest at the Christmas party tonight.

If you are also entering the contest, you should be very afraid.

Hockey According to Arlee

"DU is dumb. Can I sit by you, Becky? When are you going to open the candy? See all the people wearing yellow? That means they are voting for CC. And in a minute, we are going to have to be quite because they are going to sing the song of the American, which is always really long.

And then the referees are going to come onto the ice. They are just there in case anyone gets hurt. At half-time we get snacks and the am-bo-neenee makes the ice shiny again. Can we open the candy now? I wish that I could come to the hockey game for my birthday and then go swimming.
If CC doesn't win against DU, I am going to be really mad. I'll be mad for like a day. What are those people cheering? I think they are saying 'boo-hoo DU.' Help me watch for the tiger. I want him to come up here so I can be on the TV. Is it half time yet? I'm hungry."
Caden, however, takes this whole hockey thing alot more seriously.

Far Away

We miss these friends terribly.

It's quite painful, really, that we haven't held their tiny baby yet.

When your besties have a baby, you are supposed to be there.

But we weren't.

But in just 20 days, we will be holding that baby.

Dear Christmas,

Thank you for brining our friends home.

And oh how we miss, miss, miss this friend.

But it was so good to "see" him today.

Dear Brent,

Thank you for being talented so that we can see you on the internet.