Merry Christmas!

It's been a crazy month and so much has been going on. We had Zana's 5th birthday a week ago and today was Zeth's first Christmas. Just prior to the big birthday/princess slumber party, to my horror I lost my camera's battery charger and was without a battery for a week. On Saturday 12/22 just as we were loading up to make the long trip to the store to buy a new $40 charger, a Christmas miracle occurred and the battery just popped out from under my car seat - which I had checked under twice before. What a relief. So just in time to let the shutter fly for Christmas, we are back in business.

Zana was so excited about Christmas this year. She finally really gets the concept of giving gifts and even reported a few Santa sightings of her own as gifts mysteriously kept appearing under the tree. She proved herself a worthy secret-keeper not even letting on to either of her parents that she knew of/about our gifts for eachother, which she did. She volunteered to open all of her little brother's gifts in advance. What a great helper. :)

For me, this has been a really sweet month of reflection, appreciation and awe. Having a baby boy for the first time during this season of celebrating Christ's birth has been humbling and wonderful. I love looking into this baby's face and seeing the sweetness of heaven there. I love having my arms filled with our 2 children and my loving husband and realize how incredibly blessed I am. I appreciate all the wonderful cards & gifts we received from so many people and apologize for not getting as much done as I'd have liked to in time for Christmas this year.

So many cute pictures from the past few weeks to share like Zana's Christmas morning anticipation...

Happy siblings

Cheetah-licious makeover

A darling little elf

The birthday gift tent suprise

The Princess Party

And finally, Zeth's fabulous funny face of the day

Half-Half

It's been a quarter of a year since we adopted this cute little boy already. Our family celebrates (or at least recognizes) half-birthdays (6-months after your actual birthday) so on Sunday, my hubby mentioned it's Zeth's half-half birthday. What does all that mean? Well, nothing but if you ever get a birthday card from me, and it's late, consider it an early half-birthday card. :)

That's mah boys!

A few recent developments from the past week or so: Zana just sang the alphabet to us in reverse order tonight and it blew my mind how quickly and effortlessly she did it. She also updated us on her future career plans: "I wanna be a Doctor, a pop-star like Hannah Montanna and a Police Woman." Thank goodness "mermaid" dropped off the list - at least for now.


Zeth passed the 3-month mark, started sucking his thumb, quaffing down slightly larger (4oz) bottles and coincidentally started sleeping through the night. Yay!!! Zeth is a spiritual giant stuffed in a tiny body. Several times in the past few weeks while singing Christmas songs with him and even at a recent Christmas devotional, when the Spirit grows strong, it really affects him. He gets a really cute sad face with the furrowed brows and a big trembling lower lip then just cries this sweet sad cry like he really misses heaven or something. The veil between heaven and earth is still very thin with this baby.

We snapped a bunch of family photos last weekend to make into Christmas cards. The only one with everyone looking in the same general direction at the same time was not my best shot but I used it anyway. So while you're watching your mail boxes for that little treasure to arrive, here's a sneak peek at one where I look a little less constipated, "Ram" The Man is dashing as usual and the kids are cute too even if they are doing their own thing.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Service

So this is not to brag or pat myself of the back but more to remind myself of a good thing that happened this past week. I have been reading some of my friends blogs and noticed how many service opportunities they've been having and started feeling (rather strongly) that I need to do some special service - outside of the regular service I am accustomed to doing. So with everthing else going on in my life, I started thinking on what I could do to satisfy this urge. It's December so there's no shortage of opportunities to help the less fortunate if I just look around - right?

So literally, it was Wed night I started feeling this and the very next night as I was rushing home from work through the rain with a trunk full of groceries and an aerobics class to get to in 15 minutes, the city bus stopped in front of me and off steps an elderly lady from my ward who I don't really know but recognized. The Spirit wispered to me, "here's your opportunity, how sincere are you?" So as the bus pulled away, I pulled over to where she was surveying how to cross the large puddle (it was more like a small lake), to walk up the road to her home. I offered her a ride and she was so grateful. I made it home, got the groceries unloaded, kissed the kids and hubby, changed clothes and dashed off to aerobics. By some celestial twist of luck, the teacher had been delayed and our class started a bit late so I only missed half the warm-up.

It sure feels good to recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit and even better when I act on them. I realized that night that doing service doesn't mean you have to sign up for a committee or a large-scale event. I do some sort of service daily but I think I overlook a lot of it because it's with people I interact with regularly. Reaching out to a stranger helped me recognize that.