twin nephews: need prayer

i would ask that anyone who comes across this blog to please pray for the boys - john and gabe. many of you know they've been diagnosed as being developmentally delayed - with the main concern being speech. they've recently been enrolled in a special education pre-school class, and the teachers have recommended they be tested for autism in the coming months.

while we love them to no end no matter what, we hate to see them struggle... and i know that God has specifically chosen tim and bridget to take care of these precious, beautiful, special boys... and His plan in perfect!

here are a few pictures of the boys from their first christmas in their "new" home!

christmas 2008

here are a few pictures from the past few days.

tess decided to use me as a bed:


so santa brought her a bed:


she gets on it but doesn't stay long:




bri reading on christmas night:

bri looking at my music box that i got for christmas! (i LOVE it!):


my christmas socks that were adorable but made my feet look weird: (note that one of santa's hands is missing because my dog took it off without me knowing)


tess in her christmas coat:


playing a christmas story monopoly this morning:

dec 23rd

holy crapola it's christmas eve eve. did christmas sneak up on anyone else??

here are the finished products: the pink yankees blanket for mom, and a new york mets blanket for mike and thea. and i'm hoping they don't follow this blog. if they do, they better act surprised on christmas morning :)

dec 22nd

this morning my mom went into work early, so i had to get up early to get her christmas present made. she's always hogging my red sox blanket, so i've decided to make her a yankees blanket. as i was laying out the bottom fleece, my lovely dog decided she needed to sit and wash her face on it. too cute.

december 21st

i didn't have my real camera today, so... a picture i took this morning from my crackberry will have to do!

you want a photo amanda??

HERE YOU GO.

oh amanda!

catch up

the internet on my laptop stopped working about 2 weeks ago... so i stopped posting pictures for the daily photo project... so naturally i stopped taking pictures, too. here are a few i've taken since then... and i promise to be faithful from here on out.

ps, amanda - your husband is a genius. all it took was rebooting the router and voila! i'm back online. tell him thank you very much :)

from 12/9: the advent calendar mike & thea bought 2 years ago... we love it!

from 12/10: the reindeer antlers on my car - the day before i lost them on I-95 :(


from 12/11: the advent wreath at church:

last week i took some pictures of my band kids hoping to print them out and make cards this week for their parents... i only got to take pictures of 1 of my bands...
yes, these are the children i get to work with every day:
(l-r) trumpets: jonathan, elijah and nicholas

drummers (note how many... and this is ONE of my 7th grade bands):
back row, l-r:david, nico, merfy, anthony, fred.. front row: austin & jake

clarinets: kelsey (look how happy she is!), chayanne, autumn and kim
julio (sax), isiah (flute) and donald (sax).

from 12/12 - a picture of my puppy cuddled up on the red sox blanket amanda and christie made me:

then i stopped taking pictures... until today. consider this my december 19th photo... so far we've had about 8-10" of snow, with more expected sunday! i'm hoping for a white christmas... haven't had one in i don't know how long!
my bedroom window:

the back yard... near the garden:

back yard again:

front porch:

dpp # 8

so we're a week in, and i've been feeling pressured just to get a dumb picture up! it's usually an after thought, so this week i'm attempting to bring my camera with me wherever i go so i can get something more than christmas things from my house :)

dpp # 7

last year my dad got a hand made manger scene for my mom's birthday. we absolutely love it... i couldn't get a good shot of the entire set... so here's the most important part:

photo # 6

this is in loving memory of my friend daniel brigham. today we finally got around to decorating the tree (it's been up since the day after thanksgiving)... daniel loved all things christmas... loved being an emt... and loved life. we still miss him every day, but especially during the holidays.

when daniel passed away in august of 2003, at just 23 years old. his mom had christmas ornaments made in his memory, and each year when we take it out we think about the good times we had with him.

photo # 5

ok so i admit... it's actually 12:05am and i just got in from being out for the night... but i did take the picture before i left, which was technically on december 5th. i'm only posting on the 6th... in fact i think i'll change the date of the post :)

here's an ornament on our tree - and it's a reminder of what this season is truly about:



rachel - i'm a little disappointed that i don't see a picture yet. hopefully you're more of a night owl than i am and will be posting one soon. :)

photo # 4

goodness gracious my life has to slow down. i feel like there's no time for these stinkin pictures! this is something i was hoping would allow me to expand on my picture taking skills, but i feel so rushed and as though i just have to get a picture posted!

tonight's photo is of my baby girl. stay tuned - later in the month i'm sure she'll be appearing in some pretty cute outfits :)



ps THANKS FOR STICKING UP FOR ME, RACHEL. those pregnancy hormones have apparently gotten ahold of our dear amanda!

day 3

i miss my old house so much... in fact, when i dream about things that happen at home, it's still my parents old house... not their current home.

there is one thing that is nice about this house - if the sun is shining and it's not cloudy... there's always a beautiful sunset.

day 2

well folks, i didn't think this one was going to happen. pretty sad seeing as it's only the 2nd day. tonight i decided to take a picture of what i see coming home every night during the month of december:


this week is going to be a tough one - especially tomorrow: school, staff meeting, then dinner, youth group and choir all at church. i'm determined to do it though! :)

dpp

i heard about the december photo project from rachel and thought to myself "i have no life, i can do this!" and i might even get a little better at taking photos than i am now (i have a TON of room for improvement!!!!)

i'm starting with a photo i just took about 15 minutes ago. we sprung for an electric fireplace yesterday, and dad asked me to take a few pictures so he could show the guys at work (for a guy who didn't want it in the first place, he sure is enjoying it!). so... there's nothing spectacular about it; it's just the only picture i've taken today! the rest will (hopefully) get more interesting and artsy. i think it'll be interesting to see the progress of the month! :)