Christmas 2011

Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May the season bring you joy and peace as it has us!
We relocated 15 minutes south of Longmont to Erie this February. It was probably the best move we’ve ever made. We live in a community that is so tight, that just thirty minutes ago my doorbell rang. When I opened the door, I received a plate of cookies from the three adorable munchkins next door. We have friends all around us who have kids in the same school and it’s really just one big party. We are so thankful God brought us here. The sense of community leaves you feeling as if you are in a constant embrace of friendship.
Three days after moving into the new house, we found out that God wanted to stretch us a little. No surprise, He does that with great regularity. We just hope we are growing in the way He wants us to. We thought three kids were all we could handle but He thought four was a better number. The kids were in shock when we broke the news to them up in Breckenridge on a ski trip. I video taped their responses. Watching Eden reject it out of hand then ask if we were serious while Kaitlyn instantly embraced the news and Nick hopped around like a little pogo stick was priceless.
I racketed my way through the year grappling with how I would possibly manage four kids, two dogs and a rental house across the country. There wasn’t an epiphany. I am just taking it one day at a time. Hm, that makes it sound mundane which my days are anything but. I’d give you some highlights but I have to remind myself that you were expecting a joyful letter about the blessings of 2011.
We took a little camping trip up in Estes Park with my sister Ginny and her family this summer. If I hadn’t been six months pregnant wearing flip flops, the epic six mile hike to a high mountain lake to see blooming lily pads probably would have been a little more thrilling. As it was, I think the grueling trek was a feather in every kids hats and that is a treasure in itself.
This fall we took our annual trip to the mountains to see the fall colors. Somehow we waited one week too long and wound up driving up to Frisco in a snowstorm. It was surreal to see snow with patches of golden aspens peeking through. Jody’s dad and Marcy met us up there and we had a nice little mountain jaunt. The kids loved the trip but I kept having contractions which was giving Jody the jitters.
Two weeks later our lives changed forever. Hazel Ann was born. Each of our children have brought a profound change in our world, filled our hearts to bursting and made us want to laugh and cry all at the same time. Hazel is no different and if anything the senses are heightened. The unexpectedness of her arrival in our family makes everything about her presence more amazing and incredible. I sit and hold her for hours every day, marveling at everything about her. I haven’t been caught up on laundry since she was born but I wasn’t very often before anyway. Jody and I are swept away in love with our baby and so is everyone else in the family. It’s like we got a puppy. We love her, dote on her, carry her around and can barely stand to let her sit in her swing or bouncy seat. My favorite thing is to lay out the sheepskin by the fireplace and lay her on it so she can watch the fire. She is the most peaceful child in the world. All is as it should be.
Thanks to so many of you who have given Hazel such lovely presents. We are so blessed and thankful to know each of you. Thank you for the beautiful Christmas cards. I love the photo cards. I can’t believe how the kids grow and change each year. Please call or write anytime!
Love,
Jody, Elizabeth, Eden, Kaitlyn, Nicholas and Hazel

Thanks Anna

Little Hazy is already six weeks old. She's alert, smiley, demanding, cuddly and completely adorable in all of her little clothes she's been blessed with by family and friends. Tonight she's in a dark pink sleeper with pale pink hearts and a froggy. My friend Anna sent it to her today. Anna is one of my most treasured long term, low maintenance, generous, genuine and completely unique friends. I think back to when she became my friend when I was working two jobs trying to make it on my own. We would drive to downtown Denver, go to a little hole in the wall coffee shop and pick up a latte for me and a steamed almond milk for her then we'd go sit on the 16th Street Mall and watch people. Strange people, funny people, weird people... one time a naked person wrapped in a blanket running around confused... We were as different as night and day but we always had common ground. We made memories, shared some pretty special experiences and then when our lives changed we saw each other less but my friendship with her has always been a link to a different lifetime that practically nobody else in my life is linked to. I do pity her being my friend for so long. Somehow she's managed to supply each of my kids with darling gifts and I just keep having them. Most people knew me during one birth or another but Anna has always claimed me and always kept our tenuous friendship alive and always gifted adorable things to the family that just won't stop growing. So, thanks Anna. It seems like I'm only ever saying thanks to you but thanks. You're a peach.

A sunset and a tree

Two nights ago I was driving through the neighborhood right as the sun sank behind the Rockies. In a rare display the entire sky radiated colors in an enveloping glow. I was overcome and told the kids to look at the sky. I twisted in my seat and could see little whisps of pink glowing all the way to the eastern horizon. There were billowing dark clouds high in the sky which I suppose reflected the sun into a breathtaking display. As soon as the car stopped Eden was out and running for the house to take a picture with my high dollar camera. I find it shameful that she has had full camera privileges since Nick was born and I still treat Kait like a two year old. She dashed to the back yard and snapped several pics. I was carrying baby, groceries etc... in and asked her if she got it. Her face was neutral. I did but they aren't great. I didn't think any more of it until this morning. I was rousing my poor tussled blondies in my usual no nonsense fashion; offering the unwanted lecture of falling asleep sooner so it's easier to get up. A completely hypocritical utterance but habitual all the same. Eden sat up in her bed and in a gravely voice she said "Mom, are you going to take a picture of the tree by my window today?" I leaned over and glanced out the window and the tree took my breath away. I wish I were a real photographer but alas, you will have to use your imagination to visualize something far more sensational than what I captured. I will say that what I saw both times left me aghast that anyone on this planet could doubt the sure evidence of a master design. It also gave me great appreciation for Eden's eye and her instant appetite for raw beauty.

I had a hard time picking which of her pictures of the sunset to use, so I chose the first and last. It shows the lapse of time and I have no idea why she thought they were less than great. If you click on them you can see them bigger.

This is the exact view from her window.

It wasn't good enough so I tromped out in the snow in my boots, pj's and bathrobe to take a couple close ups.

This is too amazing to attribute to chance. This is the product of a divine being making beauty for his enjoyment.

Kind of like... this...

Happy December world, Hazel beckons to me.