Hot MamaJama

It's always going to be hard to figure out when to cram a birthday party for this girl into our schedules. Poor thing. Well this year it was January 2nd & we just had a few family members over to have some brownies & ice cream. Ella was all the entertainment we needed. She enjoyed all the attention & took each new toy or book around to the people to show them & show off. The toys with music were great as she would stand in the middle of everyone & just sway & dance for them. What a ham! Aunt Teddi made the perfect little cake for her...a ladybug! Ella enjoyed daintily picking off each purple spot on it's body & then eating the whole piece of cake that was the head.

Let's just get it out of the way...Ella is one of the cutest Christmas children ever (since Jesus, I'm sure he was the cutest!) (grin) And it's incredible how every one of her uncles just eats her up & will make a fool of themselves to make her smile. Uncle Justin Uncle Charles (reading to her, of course I would expect nothing less from an English major) Uncle Jeremiah And finally, Uncle Philip! (I love the look she's giving him here) She gets those cute photogenic genes naturally...( eg . My sister & I) (or...Tim & I) (Then again, there are the non-blood relatives being photogenic as well...lovely sisters-in-law) I LOVE this picture of my honey & my baby! Oh & one of my gifts was EA Active 2 - a workout program for the Wii . Yeah! Hunter was thrilled with his light sabers. Savannah is loving her look-alike American Girl Doll Dawson was so excited to get a Toy Story puzzle & Buzz SpaceShip . And there are lots of pictures of the kids GIVING gift...

Whew, what a crazy last month we've had. So many amazing things happening, along with some bizarre happenings, learning experiences & everlasting memories. With Tim's truck going out on us the 3rd & him going back in the hospital December 6 th for 7 days. I was extremely blessed by so many WONDERFULLY generous people in many different ways, including helping out with the kids while I went back & forth visiting Tim. Meals were brought, surprise checks came in the mail. Many people prayed & God just did some miraculous providing (& sometimes even fun) stuff in our lives. The truck got fixed for less than we had expected. We still got to get together with friends to make Christmas treats. I got Christmas cards out. Gifts were bought or made & school got completed for the year. Savannah nailed it at her piano recital...unfortunately I did not remember the video camera. But Tim did get discharged just a couple hours before, so he was able to make it. (Hallel...

It was such a beautifully sunny day on Thanksgiving. I just have to say that I love my in-laws. They're so great. We were with them ALL day of Thanksgiving. first we packed a lunch & had a picnic at a nearby park. Then we all played wiffle ball. It was so much fun. Even Tim, who still seems to be recovering from pancreatitis really got into it. Tim's Dad, who had surgery a week prior to this (gall bladder removed) and his finger chewed up in a bandsaw 2 days prior to this, was pitching & batting & loving it. Tim's sister & brother-in-law & their kids were there, to make it a pretty decent game. The whole family was involved. The 2 babies were our outfielders. Savannah was getting batting lessons from Grampsies . Hunter was one of our strongest batters I think. Ella was quite amused by all of us running & yelling in front of her. After that we did go home & get to cooking the traditional turkey dinner for us & some friends that came over. F...

Thank God for bringing opposite people together in marriage. I hate science. So, Tim does science with the kids.... here they were making some sort of molecules I think. He's so good at teaching them & with the hands-on stuff. They're doing Chemistry this year (Holy Cow, huh!?) Ella is a big goofball. She's the highlight of my day & everyone else's day too, that happens to get to see her. I love to see her developing her personality. She claps, when we all say Yay! Or when Hunter is clapping for his favorite football team, she happily joins in. She stands on her head, over & over, just because she can & we all laugh at her when she does it. She also, follows anyone she can down the hall & into the bathroom. This is her, checking to see if Savannah actually closed the door all the way. Then, she just waited & went int when Savannah came out so she could get in there. Boys, are such a unique creation! (this, of course, coming from a woman!) Gotta...

Here are 2 pictures of each of my kids. I considered putting them up & seeing if you any of you readers could identify which was which, but decided that might be too hard. :-) Let me know which ones you think look the most alike. Have fun! Ella Savannah Hunter Dawson