Choosing JOY in the midst of pain: Here We Go.........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright so it has been FOREVER since I have really posted, so I have a ton of pics and I am lumping everything together! RU ready?:0) The week before Thanksgiving my sister and brother-in-law came and spent a couple nights with us. We had the PRIVILEGE of watching their three boys while they went and met with some friends who had recently lost their baby. If you think of it please pray for this couple (their blog is on my blog roll-Sara). Of course their boys were perfect and we had a blast. Noah their middle son who is two was very funny, after we put him to bed he kept calling "Auntie Niiiiiiki," well how could I resist that so he had to have a few more stories while I laid next to him! (This is also the nephew who claimed while at his home in ND, that after denying that he pooped in his pants, claimed it was Auntie Nikki who pooped! LOL!) Good times!:0)
Thanksgiving was a blast, I was so busy eating that I did not take any pics!! What was I thinking!!!! I did get some pics of our B'day celebration though!! My cousin, myself, and my niece all celebrated our b'days together, fun was had by all!!! We then were able to go cut a tree down as our annual tradition requires, and Big C was very excited that he helped to cut it down!!
Following all of this we had our "Old Fashioned Christmas" with our church, which is always a great time!! This year we had some youth help so we sat with the youth. Tradition has it that the tables are all decked out in great and creative themes that are all different. Our tables theme was Cd's, very appropriate!! Lastly, we had new flooring put in our house which we are VERY excited about!! It took about three days for a friend to put in so we had some great organized chaos, but we are so happy with the results!!! On to the rest of our projects!!!;0)

Now here are the pics.....

Cousins!!!!

Birthday celebration!!! My sister-in-law made the cakes, I should have taken a pic of the meal, tradition has it that on your b'day you get to pick the meal!!!! I had my favorite, cheesy potatoes, with turkey hot dish (not sure what it is called-thanks mom!) and my niece picked spaghetti!:)