It is time...

...to usher out the old and ring in the new!

Let's celebrate all the wonderful things
that happened in 2010...

...and make wishes for each other
for the incoming year!

... so all of us can have a...

Christmas and stuff...

Ok, I've been VERY remiss in blogging over the Holidays. Sorry! Of course, y'all have probably been so busy you haven't noticed. In which case, ignore my apology. haha

Here are some of the things we did over Christmas break.

Belgian waffle/cookies. My Mom's recipe with Marc as the chef. Family tradition, we make them every year! YUMMY!!!

As you can see, we make quite a few (this was about half of what we ended up with. Usually we give them away. I'm not sure we parted with any this year, though...greedy-us! lol

Snowed the week before Christmas..

The snow was wetter than we are used to, so it clumped more. It made a lovely-heavy snow-roof on the chicken coop. The chickens did NOT leave the hen house while THIS was hanging over them. Must have been worried that the sky was falling.

Jackie went shopping with her Christmas money and this was the result!



Then, it snowed again, today! No white Christmas for us...maybe a white New Year!


...and this is AFTER I had the driveway cleared and Marc put down "Snow-melt"...It's been snowing all day!

We had a very Merry Christmas, hope you did, too.
We'll be with friends for New Year's Eve.
We wish all of you a safe and very Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas!

"For unto you is born this day,
in the city of David,
a Savior, who is Christ,
the Lord"

From all of us here at Happy Acres, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. As Tiny-Tim said... "...And God bless us, every one!!!"

O Holy Night!

I just watched this video on Youtube. What a wonderful tribute for our reason for celebrating Christmas. I hope this helps you feel a bit more of the Holiday Spirit!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sma7YVkq4w&feature=player_embedded

Merry Christmas!

Happy Anniversary!

To Caline: Who found her soul-mate in her Charlie.

To Charlie: Who loves my big sister and makes her SO happy...

On a lovely, quiet, snowy December 1st, evening - 10 years ago, they joined their lives and families.

Happy Anniversary to both of you!
With best wishes for many, many more to come!!!!

So glad you found your
"Happily Ever After"
in each other!

A Tale of Two Turkeys...and the Blizzard that never was!

The day before Thanksgiving, we had a blizzard warning. Everyone battened-down the hatches and prepared for the "Blizzard of 2010".

From the front door...

View from our backyard

What it left on my front door...

In the end, it was more hype than substance, but the snow was beautiful as it came down.

Also the day before Thanksgiving, we got word that some of the Young Adults from Kevin's Ward were without a place to go for the Holiday. We weren't sure how many would be coming. We heard it could be three or more... Given that we already had eight people in the family, eating with us, we figured we didn't have a big enough turkey. Thus the "Tale of Two Turkeys" was born.

Defrosted and waiting for a bath and stuffing.

Bath-time complete

Gotta make the turkeys dance...

This is the bird that actually made it to the Thanksgiving table...

By dinner-time, we had WAY more food than we needed, even for the eleven people at the table...but what a feast it was!

In the end, I am grateful the "Blizzard" wasn't as bad as anticipated. I'm grateful we got to share the bounty of the season with kids who were far from home and family.. One from S. Carolina, one from Ecuador, and one from Rwanda by way of Belgium. I'm grateful that we had plenty to share and enough left over for all of us to get sick of turkey in a few days!

After all...gratitude IS what Thanksgiving is all about!

PS: I'm grateful I get to blog about it
and share our experiences
with all of you!!

Happy Birthday!

...to the BEST man I know!!! Lucky me, I happen to be married to him!

He's many things to many people.

He's my Prince Charming!

My VERY best friend!

...A FUN Daddy!

...A Devoted Son and Nephew

...Sometimes Silly...

...a GREAT Friend!

...A Loving Brother...

Happy Birthday, Kevy!

I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting things...

Here are some interesting things I've seen around my house, this week...

Looking South towards Provo, across Utah Lake.

The mask Jackie made in Art Class at school...

Across Utah Lake, looking towards the Wasatch Mtns.

Land of the Free...

...Home of the Brave!!!

With many thanks to all those

past, present, and future
who bravely keep us free!

Ugh!

*COUGH!

*CHOKE!!

*WHEEZE!!!

*SNARK!!!!

*SNORT!!!!!

*GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bronchitis...my world...welcome to it! No, really...Please...take it away!

Spooky Acres...

It used to be that I wouldn't allow my kids to be anything creepy or scary for Halloween. They dressed up as cute spiders, fairies, gypsies, princesses, and other non-frightening things. Now that they are teenagers that time is over. Saturday they all went to the Church Youth Halloween-Dance. This is what they came up with for costumes...

Jackie as a "Night of the Living Dead-Cheerleader"

Jackie's friend, Jairen as a "Night of the Living Dead-Prom Date"

...and then together

Amanda ended up looking like one of the "Volturi" from "Twilght"

She ended up matching her friend, Joe, who went to the dance as a vampire.

*Sigh*
I'm sad to say THESE days are over.
I'm wimpy enough to prefer cute and silly to weird and scary.

Guess I'll just have to leave the weird and scary to my kids. haha

Birthday's are special, but...

This is the day Kevin and I remember most! We were living in Salem, Oregon. Six years of trying on our own, a year and a half of waiting for a phone call that seemed as if it would never come, and many, many miscarriages later... Our miracle occurred!!!

We had gotten the phone call the day before, "We have a baby-girl for you!". Kevin rushed home from work, thinking of all the possibilities those words foretold. More even, than I imagined. Toddler, school-girl, high school, college, mission?, and a mommy, herself. I couldn't think beyond the idea that we were FINALLY going to have a baby of our own! We snatched up Kevin's mom and drove to Portland. When we got there, we were told there had been complications and the baby would have to stay overnight in the hospital. With fear in our hearts, we took the longest drive of our lives, back to Salem. You see, by Oregon law at that time, until the adoptive family took custody of the child, the birth-mother could change her mind. We clung to the shreds of our faith, and prayed for peace.

Mandy's hospital portrait.

While we prayed and hoped, Amanda's precious Birth-mother had extra hours to snuggle and love this sweet baby-girl. She wrote to us later, describing how she held "Sarah" (as she called Amanda), sang to her, and told her how much she was loved. This extra time allowed her to find peace in her decision to give this child the home and family she felt Heavenly Father wanted for her. What an amazingly unselfish person. She will have our love and gratitude forever.

The next morning, we got "the" phone call again. This time, LDS Family Services had our baby at their Salem office. Again, we set out to meet our miracle-child. Grandma and Grandpa Webster came with us to record the event. Kevin and I were ushered into a HUGE conference room. An enormous table, surrounded by chairs and lit by a wall of windows, dominated the space. In a back corner, almost hidden by everything else, was a tiny cradle and a bundle in pink blankets. Our Adoption Counselor said, "I'll leave you alone to meet your daughter." "Our daughter".... those words almost seemed unreal to me. I was so afraid to touch her for fear that she would disappear and I'd wake up. I made Kevin pull the blanket back from her little face.

As soon as we saw her, we both knew her. It was instant recognition. "Oh, THERE you are!", I thought, "Of course you're ours!" Then Kevin said, "It's Amanda Noelle!". We had several names picked out, but as soon as we saw her, we knew who she was. Soon, she was enchanting every member of our family. She was our miracle, and brought-out the sweetest feelings of love from all our family and friends.

Right from the start, we called her our "Angel-Girl".

Seventeen years later...she still is!

We love you, Angel-Girl!!!! Thanks for being our daughter!