All is Calm All is White

Santa did great this year

Without the other 5 kids around, Christmas morning was calm and Qyntn enjoyed every minute!  Except when we told him it was time to leave his new toys and go to church.  We even woke up to a dusting of snow.  It was a white Christmas after all.

Christmas Eve

Dinner out for Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve jammies

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve with Nick and Tiffany.  We did dinner Winger's style, delivered Christmas presents to some families in our ward, and watched the nativity.

A Waffle Love Christmas Party

The owners of Waffle Love moved into the ward and offered to make everyone waffles for our ward Christmas party.  It was Scrumptious!

Ben made his ward viola debut

Christmas Card, Carols and Concerts

Bah-hum-bug Holly

Tiago and Halle sittin in a tree

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Alyssa is taking piano lessons again, hurray!

65 and Counting

My mom has made it to 65!  This poor woman has been sick for 35 years, so honestly, 65 is a big deal!  I thought we were going to lose her while I was on my mission (20 years ago), but she's still with us.  She will be having a kidney transplant on January 3rd and is super excited that she won't have to be on dialysis anymore. Praying everything goes well for both her and my sister who is giving her a kidney.

Tonight, as is our tradition, we had our family Christmas/birthday party.  Fun times!  Love you mom!

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

A few weeks ago Ben told me that he had found a lump on his testicle, so we made an appointment to get it evaluated.  The doctor checked it out and seemed concerned, so he had us schedule an ultrasound and then Ben went out of town on business.  I didn't sleep very well for the next several nights.  When Ben got back from his trip he had the ultrasound and the tech was also concerned and told us that there were abnormalities. Waiting for the radiology report was no fun, I didn't sleep very well for another few nights.  The radiologist looked at the images and said he thought the mass was probably benign, but wanted Ben to see a specialist.  I slept a little better that night, but was still concerned.  Finally, after 2 long weeks of wondering and waiting, we met with the urologist who gave us the great news that the lump is just an epididymal cyst and that we should not be concerned in any way that it could be cancer.  Phew!  What a relief!  I feel like a dark cloud has been lifted.  Tonight I will hopefully sleep in heavenly peace.

12 Days of Sickness

It's a little hard to be jolly when everyone is sick...

Holly....cold/laryngitis
Ayzha...sore throat
Alyssa...croup
Qyntn...nausea/vomiting/runny nose
Shannon...yeast infection
Ben...torn gastrocnemius

Our enthusiasm to LighttheWorld this Christmas season was dimmed by illness. Now that we are all on the mend we hope to finish off strong!