After Thanksgiving we had my niece, Morgan stay with us for several days. She is the same age as Parker, and they are great friends. When it was time for her to go home, Parker wandered around the house looking for her for a few days. It was so cute.
Then, the first part of December, my dear friend Charlene called with some shocking news, she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. That just has blown me away. I haven't known anyone that has had cancer that I'm really close to. What a hopeless feeling. I just love her to death and we've been close friends since right after Chad & I got married. After visiting with her Dr. they decided to do a double mastectomy. Her surgery went really well. For her hospital stay, I decided to try my hand at quilting. I made her a quilt with pictures of her sons on it. I was so excited to make it. I felt like it gave me something worthwhile to do for her. I finished it in about a week and a half working on it constantly. Many thanks to my husband and friend Ann for helping with my kiddos during that time. I'm not much of a sewer and taking on a project like this was huge for me, but it ended up being such a spiritual experience for me. I know it probably sounds so lame, but I know I wasn't sewing by myself. I can't sew a straight stitch if my life depended on it, but everything turned out just right. I cried the whole time I was making it...I know she was really happy with it and grateful. I'm really thankful for the whole experience, it has helped me see what is really important to me because things can change at any second. I am so thankful for my family, that we are healthy and have the tools we need to be together for eternity.
Russell turned 8 on December 21st and was able to be baptized on the 22nd! We had lots of friends and family in attendance! Russell was pretty nervous about being "dunked" but he did great. Afterwards we went over to Grandma Robyn's for some lunch. Some of us weren't very keen on getting pictures taken, but I'll post one anyway.
Christmas was awesome this year! The kids were very excited that Santa was able to make it to our house...and that he didn't leave coal in their stockings. We were able to spend Christmas Eve with my family for dinner and a gift exchange. Then Christmas Day we spent with Chad's family. I love this time of year. Being able to spend more time with family and the cool weather of course.
