Merry Christmas!

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas this year! Last year, Claire was just 1 month old, hooked up to her oxygen and monitor, and oblivious to all that was going on around her. This year, on the other hand, she was very much into everything!!

We got to spend some time with my parents and also celebrated on Christmas Day with Justin's brothers, their families, and his parents. It was great to be together!

Claire all decked out in her Christmas outfit

Our family

Showing off her standing skills with her beloved new ball.

New Christmas jammies!!

Playing with Grampy

Opening presents... she really got into it!

Kisses for her new stuffed puppy

Reading her new book with Daddy

Happy girl!

Cousins in matching jammies

Showing her cousin a little love

The neverending project

... is finally done!! Justin turned our wall with a closet (that we couldn't use since our TV sat in front of it) into beautiful, built-in shelves! Check it out....

Finally done!!

Visit with Gpa & Gma Shoe

We had a fun visit to northwest Iowa with Claire's grandparents! Despite the frigid temps (7 below zero!!), we enjoyed our time together touring around the area. Highlights of the trip included watching Claire watch Max, Gma and Gpa's dog. She was eye level with him and he's a big dog, so I thought she might be scared, but she just squealed with delight! This girl loves dogs!

The other highlight of our trip was that Claire took 3-5 steps several times in a row. She did it at least 10 times!! She would take the steps with a big smile on her face, waiting for claps of approval before she would fall over. So cute!! I think we're going to have a walker on our hands before too long!

Thanks for a fun visit!!!

Fun in the SNOW!!

We're in the middle of a winter wonderland here! Although I'm the first to say how much I despise cold and snow, I must admit, all this talk about the big storm has me excited! We took advantage of the snow, Justin's "time off", and our neighbor's sleds and had fun introducing Claire to snow. She was hesitant at first, but eventually LOVED it after seeing the other kids playing.

Dear friends

You know those friends that are just sooo dear to you? I got to get together with two of these special friends today. Amy & Sarah... I love them! Amy and I have been friends since... well, birth really. Our parents have been friends forever and Amy was just an automatic, built in friend from the beginning. And I became friends with Sarah in third grade Sunday school. The cool thing about these women is that we went to three different high schools and three different colleges and have lived in three different places since then, but that doesn't really matter. They are the kind of friends that are safe, comfortable, and easy to be with. I love these girls!

And who doesn't love to reminisce?! Here's our picture from today and then I thought I should throw in a few oldies to look back on! :)

The reason Justin has the day off for his Bday

It's been an interesting few days around these parts. I know someday I might regret it if I didn't record all of the details, since my memory can be selective at times, so here goes...

About a month ago, Justin was told that his company would be doing a realignment and laying off 30% of their sales force on December 1. Since then, we've been anxiously awaiting and praying about this day. Here's how it all went down...

November 30: Justin (and all of the sales reps) are told to stay home from work the following day and to expect a phone call sometime between 9 am and 1 pm.

December 1: Justin's phone rings at 9:10 am. His manager is on the other line and tells him that he "hasn't been placed." AKA - his job is no more. The crazy thing is that it is effective immediately and he had unknowingly already worked his last day on the job. By 5 pm, his work email account has already been completely deleted.

December 2: Happy Birthday to Justin! Someone comes to our house at 9 am and collects all of his work belongings - laptop, samples, ipaq, etc...

Tomorrow we have to give back his beloved Jeep (we wanted to buy it but that is a no go!)and we become a one car family. He has now joined the ranks of the unemployed.

My husband is so amazing though... he wrote on his Facebook status yesterday.. "I managed to get the day off for my birthday tomorrow... well actually, I have every day off until I find another job." Isn't it great that he can find humor in a situation like this? :)

It's been fun spending the day together on his birthday, but weird knowing that we have no idea when he'll be going to work again.

We are praying about options and resting in the fact that we serve a good God who we KNOW will take care of us.

Happy Birthday, Justin!

Today we are happy to be celebrating Justin's birthday! Here's the birthday boy with his little girl...

And here they are last year on his birthday, the day Claire came home from the NICU.

Birthday kisses for Daddy