Can we have do-overs?

Yes, God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, but sometimes it seems like it would be nice to get do-overs. Christmas has been weird for us this year. We spent Christmas trying to get to Montana. We started at about 11:00 Christmas morning, made it to Quincy and started hearing funny things coming from our engine (after a week-and-a-half of trying to get the thing running). So we pulled in to our own local Rivendell (Don't they call it something like "the last homey place" or something?) which is what we consider the Hawes house to be. After lingering there for a bit and finding much kindness and warmth, we continued on.
Eventually the funny noises stopped, praise God, and the van was fine. The weather, however, was less than cheerful. It was a bit scary, actually. At 5:00pm we rolled into Post Falls and noticed they hadn't even plowed anything but the interstate. We were barely able to get around the roads and parking lots without chains.
Anyway, we had Christmas dinner at a Flying Js and ended up camping out in the hotel across the street. Rejoicing comes in the morning--we had great weather the next day and were able to make an easy trip the rest of the way to Ronan. Usually the whole drive from home to Ronan takes about sevenish hours.
We celebrated with my parents and my elder brother's family, but my younger brother's stocking was left on it's peg, as he is still in Iraq. We did get to talk to him on the phone, though. All in all a good day, was Friday.
Saturday we had a big family gathering, the kind that flood your memories of Christmas past. The men mad a great sled run using the hill with the pile of ploughed snow on top. Lily was in her element! She was flying down fearlessly in no time! Ella's a bit more cautious (sp?). Sadly, caution doesn't always prevent accidents. Poor little Ella got her leg stuck under the sled and broke it. We took her to the ER on Saturday night and got a half cast, she'll have a full one put on some day this week. Welchs--something you can appreciate--every member of our family has now had their own ER trip! We've just never been to the same ER twice. Oh, I take that back. Lily and Bob both went to the one in Port Townsend.
So, it's late, I'm spent and my mind has long since drifted to dwell on the sadder side of this holiday, but rejoicing will come in the morning.

Some funnies

Many of you have already heard these, but I wanted to get them down while I am thinking about them.
The girls and I were eating lunch the other day and Ella said, "Mom, sniff your nose!" So I made a little sniffing sound. Ella responded with, "No, sniff bigger like this (big sniff)." So I made a bigger sniff after which Ella cheerfully said, "Did you smell that? I piffeled (tooted)."

Also, Ella likes to pretend she is various characters. If she has on a dress she is a princess. If she has on pants, she's Prince Phillip. When she wears her black leotard, she's usually a kitty. Except when she goes to the bathroom--she's never a character when she has to use the bathroom, then she's just Ella. The other day she told Daddy, "I'm being a kitty! Except when I pick my nose, then I'm a girl."

I'm on a roll

Thought I'd put up one more post while I'm at it.
Lily likes to take pictures. Here's one she took of me. I like how tall I look from the perspective of a small five-year-old











Ella took this one of Lily, I think.










Looks like Dessa's food was sneaking up on her.













Bob's birthday surprise (the man with the baby). What a great friend.



Here's some Christmas cheer, as well. The girls get their own tree in their room. Dessa has already pulled it over on herself about three times. It doesn't seem to hurt her, but she does get a little upset. Hey, there are two more new posts under this one! Lookie!

We had a great Thanksgiving

I know we're well past thanksgiving, but I wanted to share some pictures from Thanksgiving. Thanks so much to the Appels for the lovely stay and fantastic dinner! We stayed in their vacation rental cabin for two nights with some good friends. It was such a pleasant time.





The view in the morning from the front deck. The cool foggy-looking one is actually just my breath.







Living room and lovely couple
(non-permanent fixtures)








Kitchen, Loft family room, Master bedroom (babysitter, chef, and mess not included as a part of vacation rental package)

Oh, I don't know

Just thought I'd stick some stuff up. I'm going to try to put a video of Odessa playing Peek-a-boo with her legs. Just beware that it will probably take a bit of time to load. Let me know if it seems strange to put this on the web. It is cute, though.




I have a picture of the dress we got Ella for Christmas:









The girls were having their first fingerpainting experience, paint brushes included (they weren't too excited about the finger part).