Christmas

We had a great Christmas!! It wasn't big, we didn't get a ton of presents, but we had a great time being together as family. The kids sure loved the gifts that they did receive though.

Making Cookies

I decided to bake a whole bunch of sugar cookies for our neighbor gifts. They were Santa shaped, and I included frosting and other toppings so that our neighbors could decorate the cookies themselves. After I was done baking all the cookies, Alayna and Matthew decided that they wanted to make their own cookies using the leftover dough. They had so much fun doing this. Their cookies came out really well. They were very tasty.

Christmas Choir

The kids participated in their school's Christmas Choir this year. They practiced every Monday for 6 weeks for an hour and a half. It was a lot of work, and time, but it was so worth it. They performed tonight at the school for many parents.

Santa

Tonight we went to our Ward Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun! There was a ton of food, including a variety of desserts to choose from. While the kids were in line to see Santa, the adults played a game of Bingo. I won a small Care Bear's puzzle. Finally, after much waiting, the kids made it to Santa's lap.

Lots and Lots of Snow

We got over 8 inches of snow overnight. It was a pain to shovel the driveway, but the kids sure had fun playing in the yard.

Alayna's Baptism

Alayna was baptized today. It was a week later than the Stake Baptism Day because Jeff had drill last Saturday, but Alayna didn't mind waiting another week. She was so beautiful. Her face was so bright and she was so excited to be baptized and become a member of the Church. Here are some pictures that we took on her special day.

Alayna with her daddy, dressed in their
baptismal clothing, before the baptism.

After the baptism, Alayna changed into her very

pretty white dress. Here she is with Jeff and I.

This is Alayna with her Grandma and Grandpa Miller.

Here is Alayna with her Great Grandma and

Great Grandpa Burgener.

It's Been Forever

I don't have any pictures for this post, but I do have a lot to talk about. So, let's play catch-up.

Jeff was able to come home for Christmas time, he was only here for a total of 9 days, but we enjoyed every minute of it. I don't think we could have made it through the holiday without him. Ttwo days after Christmas, Alayna went in for surgery to finally remove her tumor. Boy, was I ever grateful that Jeff was there for that, Alayna really needed him. She healed so quickly, and today you can't even see the incision site. I love that plastic surgeon! Finding him was an answer to many prayers.

Jeff went back "over there" on the eve of New Year's Eve and celebrated the New Year on an airplane while the kids and I fell asleep before midnight. Because Jeff had not been able to find a job while he was here over Christmas, we decided that he would extend his contract until May. This would allow him to come home in March for 25 days, we thought it would be great to go to California during that time. Little did we know, things weren't going to go as we had planned.

In the beginning of February, Jeff called to let us know that the company would not be extending his contract and he would be coming home on February 24th. It was a time for mixed feelings. I was so excited that he would be coming home for good, yet at the same time, extremely worried because he didn't have a job to come home to. I spent a lot of time crying and praying, but I knew that this was the way that things were meant to be.

So, here we are today, together as a family once more. Jeff still has not acquired a new job, but we are confident that he will be receiving an offer shortly. Thank goodness for food storage and savings, otherwise, we'd be in some serious financial trouble during this unemployment stage. To be honest, it is nice that Jeff doesn't work yet. We can use this time to get our lives back to normal, actually things are a lot better than normal, it's sheer joy.