Where to start…what a fun 5 days we had up north in Ringsted. We survived 3 Christmas celebrations and brought home a van loaded with more presents than any 5 kids could play with! Even though he didn’t really understand what was going on, Josiah thought the present thing was A-OK and of course Anya tore into her presents like a mad woman! It was a great trip and the best part was the time we got to spend with the family. Here are some pictures of all our holiday fun.

The kids have so much new stuff to play with right now that Jason & I decided to postpone our family Christmas for a few weeks and give the kids something to look forward to. We are hoping Papa Ronnie, G’ma Jeryl, Aunt Joni & Great G’ma Bertie can come for a weekend and share our family Christmas with us.

With the holidays fast approaching, we want to take this opportunity to wish you a “MERRY CHRISTMAS” from our family to yours.

The years seem to go way too fast, and 2008 was no exception. Our biggest adventure of the year was the birth of our son, Josiah John Paul, on April 4th. He was born 3 weeks early, spent a few extra days in the hospital due to jaundice and finally came home a happy and healthy little boy. He has been another easy baby and boy do his mom and dad appreciate that! It is hard to believe that our little boy is now 8 months old and is sitting up, rolling everywhere and not so little anymore! Jason & I enjoy watching him grow and change every day and look forward to seeing what he will learn next.

Anya turned 3 in July and is busy being busy. She has quite the independent streak and imagination–both seem to keep us on our toes most days! She has started preschool while at daycare and is always telling us something new she has learned. She has adjusted well to being a big sister and is a great mommy’s helper (unless, of course, the diaper is too stinky)! She adores her little brother and spends much of her day smothering him with kisses and hugs—-something that may come to an end when he gets mobile and starts stealing toys from her! Throughout the year she has kept busy with swimming lessons and gymnastics and also attends AWANA Bible Buddies on Wednesday nights at church. She is definitely growing up.

As for Jason & I, work life hasn’t changed too much for either of us. Jason is still running McArtor Design from our home and I continue to work part-time at Walgreens. After Josiah was born, I returned to work 2 days a week and have really enjoyed my extra days at home with the kids. We have fun playing and we don’t even have to leave home to go visit daddy at work! We continue to stay busy with many church activities and enjoy the weekly small group bible study we are involved with. Jason again spent the majority of his fall weekends in Iowa City cheering for the Hawks and I even tagged along for a few games too. Jason is looking forward to next season when he is planning on taking Anya to her first Hawkeye football game….wish him luck!

Looking back at 2008, we are thankful for the good year and all the new blessings it brought. We are looking forward to the holidays and the opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus with our family and friends. We hope this year brought many joys to you and your family and may God bless you in the new year.

Love,

Jason, Brandy, Anya & Josiah

Anya & I just got done making gifts for her & Josiah’s teachers at daycare. Take a look at our handywork…..

I got the idea off the internet and think they turned out so cute. The best part……eating some of the kisses while we were working!

This weekend we were all geared up to head North on Saturday to celebrate Zachary’s 9th birthday. Unfortunately, while getting ready for bed Friday night, Anya proceeded to puke all over our love seat (luckily it is leather and was a breeze to clean up) and continued getting sick every 20 minutes for the next 4 hours. What a miserable way to spend a Friday night! Once she finally stopped and was able to get some sleep (around 4am), I started not feeling good. Needless to say, Anya & I were worthless on Saturday—we finally dragged ourselves out of bed around 4:30pm and were back in bed for the night at 9:30pm. Luckily, Jason & Josiah haven’t gotten it (so far anyways) and had a nice father/son weekend that mainly consisted of avoided us girls at all costs!

So today (Sunday) we are feeling much better and have managed to eat some food and show some signs of life. Good thing the 24 hour flu only last 24 hours!!

This weekend we had lots going on….good thing the bad weather held off. Saturday morning we headed to the annual Gingerbread House event where Anya made a very cute house decorated with all her favorite candies. She did manage to sneak a few pieces of candy into her mouth every now and then, but she wasn’t the only one! We sat by a couple that Jason has known for years, Mindy & Som (I met them for the first time on Saturday), so it was fun to meet them and Jason enjoyed catching up with what has been going on for them lately. It was so cute because they have 3 kids and one of them is a little girl who was around 6 years old. Everything she did to decorate her gingerbread house, Anya wanted to do to hers!!

Saturday night we headed 2 houses over to Paul & Lois’s house for their annual “Christmas in the Neighborhood” party. They had delicious food and a huge table full of desserts. We had fun catching up with everyone on the street and meeting the new family that moved in a few months ago.

Sunday we were suppose to go to Maxwell to celebrate Christmas with Jeryl’s side of the family as Jason’s cousin, Ryan and his family were home from Connecticut for a few days. Unfortunately, on Saturday their whole family came down with the stomach flu, so it didn’t work out for us to get to see them. Instead, Papa Ronnie, G’ma Jeryl and Aunt Joni spent the day here spoiling the kids!

We hope everyone is surviving the winter storm…..I hear it is much worse up north than here. They can keep it up there (sorry Mom & Dad and Jason & Jill)!!

Here are a few pictures of our weekend.

Wow….does anyone else find it crazy that Josiah is already 8 months old! Tonight when I was rocking him, I could not believe how BIG he has gotten. He has really started to show his personality lately too….he seems to have his daddy’s temperament (probably a good thing), he is sweet like his mommy (Jason says I am delusional about this) and has his sister’s silliness (no doubt about it). Not to mention all the new things he has mastered in the last few weeks…..sitting up, rolling (here, there and everywhere), starting to clap, putting food in his mouth, the list goes on and on. Makes me wonder what he will be doing at 9 months! Time will tell……

….that we updated the header on our website. Josiah is glad to finally make it into the picture!

Tonight we had a photo shoot for our Christmas cards. Both kids were actually cooperative (bonus) at the same time (double bonus)! We got some really good shots of the kids alone and together. It is just such a sight to see your kids sitting together smiling and laughing with each other….such a good feeling. Anyways, after the photo shoot was over Jason jumped on the computer and worked some of his “designer magic” and whipped up our Christmas cards and updated our site. But, you will have to wait for your Christmas card to see the really good pictures we got!