Christmas Day 2011

As the boys get older,
thankfully -
they don't wake up with excitement at 430am.

We got to "sleep in" all the way to 630.

That doesn't count getting up with the baby at 1am -
but I'll take it.

After checking out the goods from Santa,  (*photo dump below)

we went to church and celebrated the birth of God on earth

with our awesome church family.

There was no children's church - 

and I enjoyed hearing children's voices 

singing with no reserve 

the beautiful songs of Christmas.

There is nothing sweeter to me than a child's sweet and tender voice.

Starting early afternoon, we did a Progressive Dinner with our sweet friends

the Scotts and the Cooks -

The Scotts hosted for appetizers 

and the Cook family made the Christmas spread.

We all traveled back down the block to our house for dessert.

It was such a great time of food and fellowship -

that there are no pictures of the event.

Sometimes it's good to just soak it into your heart.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Polly Pockets at Christmas is something totally new for me....

Santa took care of Mia too...she's a good dog!

Meleah fell asleep in the swing waiting for Santa...

but he ate his cookies and took some carrots for the reindeer
(look at how tiny my babies hands used to be....sigh)

Family night movie and Wii time is coming for New Year's Eve

Christmas Eve 2011

I am so thankful
this night
and every night
for the men and women
serving our country
away from their families,
homes
and favorite traditions
so I can sleep in peace.

THANK YOU and 
MERRY CHRISTMAS
to all our armed forces.




This is the first year in a long time that we haven't had a church service on Christmas Eve.
The CO of the base had an Open House and we stopped by there for an hour.
When we came home - we opened gifts from the grandparents
and decorated some cookies to leave out for Santa.

Meleah tried to eat the paper.....OPPS!

First Christmas and SPECIAL stocking from Nanny in Michigan
THANKS NANNY!!

And then there is the new jammies!

Zion has been begging to buy these two books with his own money -
and I knew my mom had already got them for him, so I didn't let him.
He was a TAD excited!!

Merry Christmas everyone!~

Now - off to bed before the boys are up again in a few hours!

December 23rd

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today we added two girls to our home.
They are sisters - ages 6 and 7.

As with our foster son, we can't tell you their names or post pictures.
But they seem to be adjusting well.

It's a blessing that each time we have added children to our home -
Mike has been off work.
We didn't plan it that way - but we feel like God did.

It was spring break when our foster son came and Mike had taken the week off.
It gave us a lot of family time and adjustment time without the normal running around
to practices and school and homework.

Meleah came in the summer - right before Zion's birthday - and we had planned a
Stay-cation on the island.

And of course, Mike is off for a long weekend for Christmas and the kids are out of school.

We also have a great network of Navy friends and church friends that have been so loving
and supportive -
(*even though we wonder if at times they think we have lost our minds....
it's okay, sometimes we feel that way ourselves.)

People have showered us with clothes and toys for the girls.  THANK YOU!

We have two families in our neighborhood that we are particularly close with.
We went Christmas caroling with them in our neighborhood.
It was a perfect, starry night -
not a cloud in the sky
and enough breeze to keep the mosquito count lower than usual.

We had a good time, even though - ahem.....
I know we didn't sound very heavenly.

For those who don't know...
I come from a super musical family.
Everyone can sing -
most folks can read music and play an instrument or two.

Here is a (*bad) recording of my family singing to me -
But it still brings a smile to my face.

I miss you all!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

December 22nd

Baking day!

I spent most of the day baking...

Michael had basketball practice in the afternoon -
and straight from there - Michael and Zion went to swimming.

Mike and I took Meleah and Isaac to an OPEN HOUSE
and enjoyed good food and good company of many of our CEC family
here on Guam.

After picking up Michael and Zion -
we went to the St. Fidelis Friary Christmas display.

It was really amazing to see!

I can't imagine how many hours and hours this set-up took.  The line started in the sanctuary
of the church - since it was only a few days until Christmas - there were a lot of people there.

in the hallway - getting closer!

At the door to the "Manger in the City"

December 21th

WTH?
(*heck!)

It's December 21st??

I missed yesterday - I mean, I was around, but didn't blog Tuesday.

I really do love the idea of December Daily.
I am a scrapbooker -
and I love Christmas

So I love the idea of remembering the details of the month -
But Ali Edwards has a few things I don't have.

1)  She gets paid to scrapbook her life
2)  I think she must have a maid or a nanny or something
          (*who can take photos,
            organize them into a scrapbook page idea in your head,
            print them, scrapbook them
            and have all the supplies on hand after your kids go to bed every night?)

The answer is NOT me - but Ali Edwards.

ANYWAY.....If you like to scrapbook, she does have great ideas and you can click on the
words "December Daily" and hop right over to her page and see how cool she is.

OH AND....
number 3 -  CLEARLY, her life is more exciting than mine.

On December 21st I worked on Christmas cards until 11pm and only got to "M".
Do we really need pictures of that?

How many days have I been saying that I have 101 things to do?

I still feel that way.

But I know that Christmas will come and everything will be perfect and peaceful
even if the list in my head doesn't get completed.  And for those of you hoping to
see the Thornton Christmas card in your mailbox....don't give up hope.
I'm shoot for Three Kings Day at this point.

SO....let's move on to Wednesday,
shall we??

Guess who was the guest reader at the Navy Base Library story time?

Isn't that the cutest thing?

The boys were THRILLED forced to go and hear their dad read to little kids.
In their defense, it would have been a lot more COOL if he would have been invited
to do this like.....6 years ago!

This is what they did instead.
< -------






You forget what funny things little kids say
and do when you are reading to them.

(*one little kid shouted out, "You can't say GOD!")

But we will be reminded soon -


We are getting two little girls (sisters) on Friday that are six and seven.   They are actually younger sisters of our foster son that we had from April to August.  It's such a long and complicated story.  But I am looking forward to having a big, happy, family Christmas with lots of toys and laughter!!

I know I said this before...

but doesn't every child deserve a home for Christmas?