MarkAndKelley.com

By the way – if you click on these pictures, they will enlarge, and you can click through the slideshow that way. Some of them even have captions. I know, I went all out.

We hope your holidays have been as blessed as ours.

We obviously didn’t take enough shots with anybody other than Logan. For the record, Logan was very aware of the fact that Christmas is not all about him, but you’d never know it by the evidence provided here. He reminded me, frequently, that Christmas is not about presents and Santa Claus. It’s about Jesus and loving and giving. Such a wise little soul.

To all our family and friends,

As we reflect on the blessings of our lives we immediately think of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and then our thoughts turn to you.  Thank you for being a part of our lives!  We wish you a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Peace!

Oh my goodness. Five years old. Logan has been wanting to turn five ever since he turned three, so this was a good day. Of course, we celebrated with some of the most awesome people ever, as is tradition. His birthday is always a great opening to the Christmas season because we are so clearly reminded of how blessed we are, and how amazing our support system is. Thanks to all who participate in our lives, near and far. We love you! Here are some highlights from the Toy Story inspired get-together. It wasn’t really fancy enough to be called a party, but those alien cupcakes and ice cream tasted like a party enough for me.

I can hear Logan downstairs singing, “…a pirate’s life for me…    …give said the little stream…”.

I wonder which will win out.

Okay, so we like the place! There’s nothing saying we can’t go to Disneyland more than once a year, right? Especially when we are within driving distance, my parents and grandma paid for the entire trip, we had a sweet hotel, and my whole family was there to play with us. Logan, unfortunately, was sick the entire time. But, he still had fun at Disney and California Adventure. His favorite part – by far – was spending time with his cousin from Michigan. Who knew they would be such good buds? Besides me, I mean.

This trip was in celebration of my grandma selling her home of … 35 years? I’m not sure of the exact number, but she was in that house for a long time. It was a difficult and relieving moment for her, but we are sure glad she’s here in Phoenix with us, and we’re glad for the memories we created this past week in California.

For the first time ever – we hosted Thanksgiving for as much of Mark’s family as could make it to Arizona. We had so much fun, and so much food! Here are some pictures from the visit.

Mark’s parents visited us this past week to celebrate our birthdays. It was so much fun to have them here – and since pictures tell more than words can, here’s a gallery of some of the fun we had this week.

I don’t know if anybody else really cares to see these soccer pictures, but I just think it was too darn cute. After only two practices, these kids did an amazing job at their first game. It was hot, and they were introduced to things they haven’t experienced yet, like the net, the referee, the whistle, etc. Wow, they have a lot to learn, but they sure had fun running.

Look at Logan dominating the ball. Unfortunately, he’s going the wrong direction. Ha!

But, he listened to his coach and got it turned around.

He even scored a goal… after the whistle.

That didn’t stop him from celebrating. “I did it! I win!” That didn’t stop me from cheering like the goal counted, either.

It was a good game with great friends.

Bugger. Adoption possibility number twenty-something fell through – but this is bound to end well at some point, right? This time it was not a scam, it was just a legitimate change of heart, and completely understandable. We still think she’s pretty awesome, and hope this is the right decision for them. The hardest part was telling Logan. Ugh. He’s okay, though. We’re all okay. We are disappointed, but still happy with life, and we trust that the right baby will come at the right time.
Until then… we’re keeping busy.
Logan starts soccer on Tuesday. He’s loving his Let’s Play Music class, and doing as well as can be expected in his second year of preschool. His communication ability has surpassed my expectations, and is over half-way to achieving the goal the speech therapist set for him for this year. I really feel like he doesn’t need her any more. We’ll continue through this year, since we have the funding to do so, but I am really happy with his progress. He has caught up to his peers, and even passed up some of them in his hard work.
He makes a point to make people smile, often telling random women (at the grocery store, restaurants, church, public restrooms), “You are SOOO beautiful!” Boy, does that make them light up. And every once in a while he’ll follow that up with a wistful sigh, “I just love people!” It’s true, he does. It doesn’t matter what gender, ethnicity, age, disability or hygiene standards the people have, he loves them all equally. I have to watch him very carefully because he refuses to NOT talk to strangers.
His favorite word is why. I think he says it at least twice a minute for the entire time he’s awake.
Mark is under a tight and stressful deadline at work. I can only tell because of the extra hours he’s putting in. He remains happy and fun to be around when he’s off work – one of my favorite things about him. He’s loving working from home, and I’m loving it even more. Not losing so much time to a commute has made a huge difference. He is contemplating a contract opportunity, helping me develop our creativity website, and trying to keep up with his callings. He has three, and all of them keep him really busy.
I also have three callings. One is temporary, one is occasional, and one continues to be a challenge for me, even though I’ve had it for about two years now. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve come to know some great women because of it. I’m spending all of the free time I have writing, organizing the house, or doing little projects like the pictures below. Check out Logan’s room! He made the decision of what theme he wanted, and I was overjoyed that he said sports instead of super heroes, so I jumped on it. For my limited skills in interior design, I think it’s pretty cute, and Logan loves it. It could use a couple more things, but our decorating budget is shot until next November.