Last Post of 2009

This will be the last post for 2009. Can you believe it? Tomorrow we leave for a 2 1/2 week trip to Texas. We are going to visit with some of the families we adopted with and go to the beach. We are all very excited about going on vacation.

I decide that I was bored with the layout of our Blog so I decided to change it a bit. Over three years looking the same was to long. It needed a change. I hope you like it. Basically, it's the same with a different layout.

Anyway, Christmas was crazy as always. Poor Josh had four days of presents. He is so abused. It was awesome to spend so much time with our family. Unfortunately, we couldn't get together will all our friends, but we will do that when we get back from Texas.

We went to Christmas at the Zoo. It is always beautiful with all the Christmas lights. Matt couldn't go with us this year because he had to work. Bummer!

Mom and Josh

This was my favorite light display. It looked like a water fountain, but it was made of lights. Beautiful!

Santa came on 12/24 at our house because dad had to work. These are Josh's new LeapFrog Tag books. He is starting to parts of words together amazing. Maybe all the reading we do is starting to pay off.

Santa did bring Josh his Toyota monster truck, but Josh wanted a "real" monster truck. Can you believe that? A REAL monster truck.

Josh's big gift - a Cars bike

After a little bit of practice he will be riding it like a pro.

I'm gonna get you Mom!!!!

Christmas at Aunt Lisa's

We all went up on 12/26. We had a great steak lunch and then it was time to rip and tear. This is Marianna with her favorite gift. A Touch and Brush. She has been wanting one for a long time.

All the kids ripped open every gift first and then decided to play with them. What a joyful mess!!!

Alex got a new train table for Christmas. It was a big hit for both boys.

Christmas at Matt's mom and dad's

Josh loved the new garbage truck and crane he got. The books we a hit a few days later.

Knock down that building!!!!

This got out of order but anyway, it snowed while we were at Lisa's and Josh loves snow. The kids went outside to play. That is grown and little kids a like. Josh got extremely upset when I went chasing after my sister when she got me in the face with a snowball. He thought we were fighting. It took a long time for him to calm down from that. Such a tender hearted kid.

Josh loved driving the gator in the snow. Maybe Santa will have to work on one for next year. Hopefully, a gently used one since they are so expensive.

Our snow angels!

The past few days have been spent working at our jobs and working around the house. We have both been working hard to get everything done before our trip. Unfortunately, Matt called earlier and said he was coming down with a cold. Nooooo!!! I think I'm gonna beat it out of him. All I can says is he better not get me sick.

Tomorrow, mom and dad are bringing over Long's donuts for breakfast. Yum!

Happy New Year Everyone,

Matt, Jenny and Josh

Ready, Set, Christmas

We're sure that everyone else is just like us, getting ready for the craziness of the holidays. Fortunately, Matt and I were able to get away for the weekend without little man. WooHoo!! Josh stayed with grandma and grandpa and then his cousins. He loved it. We went down to Bloomington for a IU game, ate lots of food that we didn't have to share and saw a movie. Unbelievable I know.

Josh is super excited about Christmas this year and very into the Santa thing. It is a lot of fun to see how excited he his. We went to the Children's Museum to see Santa this year for their Jolly Days. The best part of the whole trip was the slide. It was super fast and we all loved it.

What would like for Christmas? I want a Toyota monster truck. We don't know where he comes up with these things, but his new favorite thing to do is "crush" his cars like monster trucks do.

The slide was awesome! It was super fast. Of course, we had to ride it more than once.

Do you think Josh liked it?

Josh said he was in his "nice quiet warm spot." Of course that spot is warm he is sitting on the heater vent.

Most of the grandparents, Josh and I went to Christmas at the Zoo. Unfortunately, Matt had to work. The lights were beautiful.

Josh's newest thing to do is try and write his letters. Right now each letter comes out like a squiggle, but I guess it's a start.

Today Josh and I made cookies for Santa. He got bored with using the cookie cutters to make cookies, but he loved icing the cookies. After 45 minutes of icing I had to put a stop to it.

As far as our holiday plans:

Dec 24th - Christmas at our house. Matt works Christmas day so we asked Santa to come early.

Dec 25th - Great-grandpa's house

Dec 26th - To my sister's house in Valpo

Dec 27th - Christmas with Matt's mom and dad

We may have forgot to mention early, but on top of all the holiday maddness we are packing for a two week vacation to Texas. We leave New Years Day. Insane I know. Josh is very very excited about going because we are going to stop and see some of the people we adopted with while in Texas. Oh, we are excited too. We're excited that we are escaping Indiana winter for a few days anyway.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Love,

M, J, and J