We miss you Grandpa!

God decided that on the same day he gave Levi new life 3 years ago, it was time to take Tammy's dad home. Tim passed away unexpectedly late last night. He will be greatly missed.

Thank you for your prayers.

http://www.funeralplan.com/welchcornett/obits?id=192910

Happy Birthday, Levi!

Mama made him a birthday shirt, and he can almost keep that third finger up! He had to wade through balloons in his bedroom and go through the birthday curtain of ribbons to come wake us up this morning.

Daddy measured him on the wall.

Stats. He's the tiniest kid! Shorter even than Evia was at 3, but growing at his own pace. :)

Happy birthday big man! We love you!

Evia's best morning ever.

All the world is sparkly this chilly morning. She could hardly control her squealing on the way in to school. :)

No news is good news, right?

This blog is so low on my list of priorities right now, that I just can't get motivated to update it often. I can't even think of any one thing that occupies all of our time, it's just life.

Luke's job is the same sort of crazy it's been for the last year or so. He's been in upstate New York for the entire week, due to arrive home late tonight. He's usually gone between 1 and 3 nights a week, but not usually for the whole week. His job is stressful, and having him gone is stressful for us, but we're trying to get to the point where it's just normal. Hopefully when we get there, something more consistent and calm will come along.

The kids are all great. Emma is doing so well in school. She can now read pretty well, tell time, do simple math, and her teacher says she's an excellent listener, which is a skill she apparently only uses in school. ;) Evia spends most of her days in a tutu and just oozes mischief. She just likes to see how far she can go before Mommy loses it. She's wild and crazy, and she makes us laugh. :) She hits the age cutoff for kindergarten next year, but I think we'll wait another year and let her dance her way through another year of having fun before she has to buckle down and start school. Levi is such a little man lately. He's talking more every day. He's starting to get quite a mind of his own with two bossy sisters, and he's getting picky about what he eats. We usually hear "nevah, nevah, evah, nevah eat dis" at least once a meal. :)

We've got a house to-do list again, starting with finishing our bedroom, finally, 7 years after we bought this house! Papa came last weekend to help put doors on our closet, a frame on one of the windows, and an actual door on the attic opening. We'll be painting, installing ceiling fans, acquiring some storage furniture, and making new curtains.

See, it's just life in general. We're looking forward to starting plants for the garden in a few months, planning some warm-weather projects around the house, and something fun to do for our anniversary. Life is busy around here, but it's good. :)

Sorry for the lack of posts and pictures lately. It's been one crazy life around here. We also lost our camera at Thanksgiving and just got another one, thank you James! We are still trying to figure out how to work it, so sorry if some of the pictures are a little blurry. On top of that our computer is growing into a bigger piece of junk and we lost the main editing software we normally use.

I'll start with some pictures from this past weekend. After the whirlwind of Christmas weekend, we all headed down to do the Carroll party this past weekend. While it would have been nice to spend Christmas day together, it was nice to be able to relax a bit and not have to worry about doing a million things in a couple days.

I took Wednesday and Thursday off work we headed to Lafayette. My folks watched the kids during the day while Tammy and I had a long overdue date day. We had dinner at Matt and Michelle's and visited most the night with them. It was great to catch up and we could not be more excited for them. We headed down to Linton on Thursday and spent the New Year with Tim and Helen.

After that, more and more "kids" showed up every day. I think there were 24 of us total in the house!

Here is Tabby with the monkey!

Grandma started the gift opening with reading a story to the grandkids that told them where they can find God, especially on Christmas.


Here is a shot of some of the crew and some of the goodies!


Grandma has made 22 stockings, I think, and always fills them with goodies. Grandpa decided this year that she needed a special stocking. Tammy made her this huge stocking and all the kids and grandkids filled it for her. It was a great surprise!

After gifts we all ate dinner together. Levi didn't last too long. I think this is the first time I've seen him fall asleep in a highchair. We discovered 3 hours later that he still had a mouthful of broccoli salad, and some mighty fine breath too!

We got to see one of our many new nieces this year too. Here is Audrey trying out her rice cereal. This was the first time Tonia used applesauce. Audrey wasn't so sure about it!

We'll try to post more when we are able, but our schedules are not too conducive to spending time on the computer right now! Later!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!

God's richest blessings to you this
Christmas season and into the New Year!

With Love, The Vandercars

I have to laugh, so I don't just lose it.

Luke left for Dallas yesterday morning, for a sales meeting that would send him home late Friday night. I didn't get a chance to take a shower before he left, with all the feeding, watering, and ferrying to school. Tried to run a bath when things calmed down...tried for an hour, thinking the washing machine was just using all the hot water. Nope. The water heater was on strike. I called Luke, who walked me through disconnecting wires and jumping the sensor with a piece of wire to get it going again. It's nothing serious, just the west wind blowing back down the exhaust pipe, tripping the sensor, and preventing the water heater from heating water. So, that's done. I finally got a chance to take a bath when the kids went to bed. Stayed in for two hours.

Nana called when I was in the tub, so I called her back when I got out and we talked for a while. I was heading up to bed, so I started to turn the lights off on the Christmas tree. Just got my hand near it, when it tipped over. All 9 feet of it. Glass everywhere, ornaments everywhere, needles everywhere. 10 pm. Called Luke and told him I'm so done being a single mom.

I didn't cry, even though I wanted to. What I've been hearing the last few weeks is That voice, lean on me. I'm working on it. It's not usually my first thought. I try to do it myself. And so He reminds me, usually when Luke's gone, so I don't have him to lean on. I get it, Lord. I'm trying.

*EDIT*
Definitely frozen, possibly busted hot water pipe to the kitchen sink. Thawed it with the hair dryer. (First, tripped a breaker with one space heater on the pipes under the sink and one on the pipes in the basement.) Still a little drippy, but not major. Finally got it thawed after I pitched all the dishes in the downstairs tub, deciding I am not going to sit around and cry about it until Luke gets home. Kids think Mommy is "a-larious," if a little off her rocker. Note to self: next time the tree falls over, don't think, "geez, what else could happen?"

I think it's time for another "Mommy-only" vacation to California.