Keeping on keeping on...

Today's already the second?? Where did December go? Not only that, where did the last THREE YEARS go??

Tomorrow is January 3rd and my sweet little Brianna will turn 3 years old! We're having a small get-together for her at 3:30- which my parents have said they'd be showing up at 3:33 for :) I hadn't realized the coinciding with the time... I just hoped the kids would be up from naps by then and that it would give us enough time to hang out together and eat cake before feeding the kids and heading out to church that evening. Check the blog out later for my special BIRTHDAY background for Brianna :)

The past few days have been nice and somewhat relaxing even. Mike worked on New Year's Eve but in the evening we had a few friends come over and bring in the new year with us. The kids all slept through it (as they should! who wants to bring in the new year with kids up at midnight?? :) ), and a few people that were going to come weren't able to due to sickness, so that's not so fun for them. We did have a nice time, though, and were able to get to know a 'new friend'. She has visited our church and they split the visitor cards up among staff and Mike made the call to her on New Year's Eve. He then found out she's here learning to be a helicopter pilot and is from Ghana! She joined us on New Year's Eve and we look forward to getting to know her better over the next 6 months as she completes this program (we have a helicopter school here in town).

New Year's Day we hung around inside quite a bit as it was COLD! Ok, maybe not for some of you, but it was in the mid-50's when we finally did go outside after naps. The kids played with their new Christmas toys- Kristopher loves his soccer goal and ball and is a pretty good goalie :) Brianna wanted to just walk up and down the front walkway and down the driveway so as long as she didn't go near the road she made laps. Micah's new "ride on" toy that has a handle for an adult to push it was a big hit and all three of the little ones took a turn on it. Emma's legs are too long to sit up on the foot rests properly, but she LAUGHED as I pushed her in it and eventually got it moving backward by herself. Brianna also figured out how to make it go and did great scooting herself with it (tho she didn't get far, we are proud she figured it out!).

We also picked a TON of oranges and Mike and Kristopher juiced over 2 gallons of juice! The tree still doesn't look like it's been touched (so if anyone's local and wants to come pick oranges, give me a holler!). The juice is really good!

Let's see, backing up a bit... on Tuesday the kids and I made a 'surprise' trip over to Orlando to meet up with Mary, who I have until then only known online. Her family lives about 4 hours away but were up in Orlando for the day and we met up with them for a little bit! Her family is so sweet, her children were ADORABLE, and we had a great time meeting up! Mary had 10 kids and 3 adults with her (3 of the kids weren't hers, but one of the adults was... she's a busy mom!). Mary is now the Mommy to a little guy that was originally adopted through Reece's Rainbow and she has him through domestic placement. He was so adorable! And believe it or not, he wasn't all that much bigger than Emma!

The kids had a great time-- once we GOT there... The road TO get there, well, it was a bit rough! First I typed the name into the GPS and it didn't recognize it so I went to look for the address of where we were meeting... and it's not publicly listed many places. Ten minutes later I found it after finding just a map and realizing the street name then googling the street name with the organization and FINALLY a street number! Then, I realized I didn't have the toll pass (it was in Mike's car) so I grabbed change- no big deal. Until I got to the toll lines and waited for TEN MINUTES to pay a $1 fee.

The drive is already almost an hour so this was irritating! Then we finally get through the line and my new GPS which was sending me a new way to get there flashed up "low battery." And where is the charger? Nope, not in the car! Actually, though I just got the GPS for Christmas, somehow the charger was in Mike's car... not quite sure about that one yet ;). So I figure I'm not that far off, maybe it will work. I follow the directions until I'm pretty close to my destination and it tells me to turn right and then DIES. Oh, this is after being stuck in traffic for about 15 minutes as well, so I'm now about 30 minutes later than I thought I'd be.

So, finally, I get Mike on the phone and ask him to quick tell me which way to turn on the next road, as I know I'm close but I don't know which direction to go down the main road (I don't drive in this area very often). He says he will then says- oh, that's the security guy beeping in, I can't, I have to leave. He was meeting someone from our house security system office at the house to change our account over. Now he had to leave and had no computer. So he can't help me. Next I called my dad and luckily since I'd looked up the address I had it in my head still and asked him to tell me if I was going in the right direction and what the streetname was I needed to turn on. I knew I was only a mile or less from this place but I didn't want to drive the wrong way for an hour first.

Finally we did arrive and had a great time visiting with Mary and her beautiful family! Mary has 4 children with Down syndrome and three of them are 'older' (8 and up) and I loved getting a peek at her family dynamic :) We had a great time!

So... tomorrow's the bit 3 yr birthday, Sunday will be a "down day" and then Monday will be K's first day back at school after a 3 week break. Tuesday Brianna and Micah go to the church program and Wednesday- God willing- Brianna will start Preschool!

Off to a busy 2009...