Christmas Past

Since I did not start blogging years ago (which I regret) I thought I would go back and highlight a few of the Christmases past. I did not have a digital camera when Ricky and I first got married (because that has been so long that they weren't invented yet, lol!) So the pictures I have of us, I had to scan in. While I was looking for a picture of us from way back in the day before the kids were born, I ran across another Christmas picture that I just had to share. I do rather expect to receive hate mail after this post, when the other person in this photo sees what I have done.
 First up, though is me and Ricky. Back in the day before we had kids, guess what we had? KIDS! We had about 60 of them, and those kids always had their kids during the sub-freezing temperatures around Christmas. I know at the time it was alot of hard work for us to keep up with, but the time we spent working in that barn hold some of my favorite memories of the two of us. It is really where we spent most of our time. And, since we didn't date long (I mean, really not long!) we got to know alot about each other on those long, freezing nights, huddled around a 50 gallon drum barrel with a heat lamp on, trying to keep new baby goats warm, while bottle feeding them. I know that may not sound like a love story, but it was for us. In this photo is the back of my other love, Sam. For those of you who think we are not dog lovers, this is proof you are wrong. I just don't have a fondness of every dog, actually I like very few, but Sam was my dog. I loved him more than any other dog that has ever lived, bar none.

We may not have had much, but we were so happy and are arms were very full!

Now this second photo was taken when I was 14 and my cousin was 13 ( I think). Her parents decided to take her to Branson for her birthday and she could take along one friend. So, she picked me and we had a blast (as she would have said back then). Katie has been my cousin/friend for my entire life. When we got along and agreed, we were friends. When we got on each others nerves and fought, well, we were still stuck with each other as cousins. So that has made us stick it out through alot of things...and I do mean alot. Of the people in the world who know about me, Katie probably comes in really close to the top of knowing all about me. She is my friend (until she sees this) and I love her so much. And I know that she will forgive me for this:

Katie and me in front of a scary porcelain doll tree

Ok, that is enough about Christmases before the kids. Let's speed it up to when our family started growing. Laney's first Christmas with us was 2007. Having her changed everything for us, including Christmas. She has been an absolute delight since the day she was born and brought us such joy! Nothing compares to the excitement of being a kid at Christmas, or so I used to think. Now, I know that nothing compares to watching the excitement of your own kids enjoy Christmas!

What a cute little baby!

Then there was Laney's second Christmas, which included Caleb all snug and warm in my belly. Christmas was all the more anticipated in 2008 because less than a month later our family would grow to be a family of 4.

She was just a baby and we had another one due in less than a month!

Then our first Christmas with Caleb, wow, I do remember how hard it was that year to get everything ready in time. With a 2 year old and a baby, we had our hands full. But that was such a fun year. Laney was getting into the excitement of Christmas and it was Caleb's very first!

I've always loved this picture. Her little bed head hair and face are so cute

Sweet little babies

Then in 2010 ~ I was sure that our Christmas would be alot less stressful than the last year, but then we decided to move. We spent all of December "flipping" our house and it was crazy! None-the-less Christmas was special, as we knew it was the last Christmas we would spend in the house we brought our babies home from the hospital in. It was bitter-sweet to say the least and I remember us tearing up on more than one occasion over it.

We also got snow that year on Christmas morning, here Laney explains snow to Caleb

Goodbye to the old house and moving on to the new. Our home is where we are blessed to be together! They are cute!

So that's it. An overview of our Christmases up to this point.