Slowing Down...

Little Snowman

Hello! We've had a whirlwind of a few days and we're just now settling down. Kind of. Christmas was good, in the sense of seeing family and sharing good times and good food with them. What we're learning, is that we just can't fit that much in anymore, due to having our busy little family. I don't know how we can change it. We want to see everyone as much as they want to see us, so it's hard to know what to do. I sure would like it if there were more time to relax and take in the moments though. Ryan read in the paper yesterday "twelve things to do after Christmas." One of them was to write down what you'd do different next year. We know something has to give, but we haven't figured out what it is. By next year, we may forget how stressful it was to make it to everything, so we probably should write it down. I guess I'm doing that right now. Okay, done!
Miles and Asher had a good time. Miles was so good with all this gift stuff. He opened one thing and wanted to just play with it. He could have cared less that there were more to open. I love that. I know it will change as he gets older and has more of an understanding of what's happening, but for now, it's refreshing. We hope to instill some healthy ideas about this whole gift thing. For instance, we only got him one gift for Christmas Eve and two small things to open Christmas morning. The "big" gift we got him was a garbage truck. See picture:

Miles is CRAZY for this truck. It has a little garbage man and garbage can. The can lifts up the side of the truck and dumps into the back. It's awesome. If this is all he received, he would still be happy. I hope he holds on to that somehow. That's up to us, I realize. But he has lots of friends and family that love him and want to get him things, so there's really no limiting Christmas to one or two gifts. I just hope he can understand that the gifts just aren't what it's all about. It's hard to instill that when most of Christmas seems to revolve around that stuff. One thing we do is, after a big gift event, we take some of the "old" toys from around the house to good will. Miles doesn't fully understand what in the world we're doing, but he will one day. Hopefully by then he'll be comfortable with it just because he's always done it. I need to come up with more creative ideas for instilling a little selflessness. This parenting thing sure has new challenges at every turn.
For now, we're happy that he had a great time with his cousins. Asher loved watching everyone and trying to take it all in. He got tired from all the hoopla, but he hung in there like a champ. Today we're spending time at home and then going to hang Mackenzie, Caleb, Olivia and Ellorie. Here is a photo of Olivia with her new baby sister:

Ellorie looks a lot like Olivia did as a newborn. They're both so cute with their round faces and full lips. Miles and Olivia are going sledding with the daddys today while Asher and I hang out with Ellorie and Mackenzie. Hopefully Asher and Ellorie will hit it off!
I'm so thankful for this little family and the opportunity to share life together.
Tonight I get to go out with Sabrina and Kelly. I can't wait! It's going to be so much fun. Those girls are so great. Thank God for a husband that is so good with our kids that I get to have some free time every now and again.
It doesn't really sound like we're slowing down today, but believe it or not, this is a slow day in comparison to what we've been up to. We do love to be busy with family and friends. Life is full. Life is good.