It's a HAPPY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Often times we just don't realize how blessed we are or how much something or someone is worth to us until you face the possibilty of losing it. On December 17th it will be ONE year since our entire families lives were changed forever. Millie being diagnosed with luekemia brought a whole new meaning to life and a reason to look at life with a new prespective. This last year for my family has been spent doing our best to grow and our best to count our blessings even when we didn't feel like counting them. All though I think the worst thing you can say to anyone when they are going through a trial is, "You must be really strong for Heavenly Father to give you all of these trials" or "Heavenly Father will never give you more then you can handle" I believe this is true. I believe that all of the things we face in this life are given to us so we can grow and learn, to keep us all leaning on one another istead of just ourselves, to keep us strong by never letting us feel so comfortable that we quit asking for help,guidance, and understanding. Not to say we don't all want to scream ALLRIGHT I promise I get it. I guess for me I think we never really get it. There is always more to get about the same thing. Through Millies diagnosis we have watched more families then I would have thought or imagined possible, suffer through more then I even want to imagine exists. They go through more heartache, fear, anger, resentment, sadness and nightmares then we can even imagine. Yet they all do their best to find joy, happiness, laughter, peace and understanding in something that makes absolutely no sense at all. I am amazed by these children and their families. By Amelia and her parents. This year has gone SO FAST but SO MUCH life has happened that it seems like more then a year has had to have passed. It's been really interesting. I am grateful to the families that have aloud us into their lives. I have loved this Christmas season. I loved it when I went to my sisters house and saw their Christmas tree and saw Millie and thought although she is still going through treatment and still fighting cancer, we KNOW is WINNING her fight and we KNOW she will WIN. I am grateful for all the other things that were terrible last year are not happening again this year. I am GRATEFUL I will never have to do last year and last Christmas EVER EVER AGAIN. I am not saying we will not have to face trials and most likely some of our hardest are yet to come, but I am grateful we are making our way through these trials. ANYWAYS!!! My kids are all walking in the door from school and my minute of thinking is over... These were taken on December 3,2010. When I saw those girls in the bathroom playing with each others hair I couldn't help but try to capture the moment. To see Millie in the bathroom with hair (still not long enough to curl), but long enough to style and play with it, when in December last year what was in our minds was Millie losing all of her hair, and how in the world we were going to get through that time. Here we are through the bald stage. Time passes. This moment thrilled me!

I just am thrilled to have these kids, this tree, this home and this life and I am grateful I can these words today. When you think about asking someone how they handle the trials they are handling the answer is because none of us have a choice to deal with what we are given. The only thing we have choice over and only in our time is how we handle or feel about our trials. I thought these we pictures were on a different post, but as my kids were looking over this post I saw they were on here without any explanation. They deserve a explanation. In June I found these busweiser lights at a house that was being forclosed on and a plan was formed. I brought them home to Roscoe and we decided they belonged on our best friends house to the east of us. We put them on the shelf and counted down the days until the christmas season came. Then Ben and Nicole without evening knowing it provided the perfect opportunity for us to hang them without being caught. They went out of town for a few days after Thanksgiving, so Roscoe and I tip toed over and hung them up, where they hang today. We were laughing hysterically actually so it is good they were out of town because I am not sure we could have stayed silent and avoided getting caught if they had of been home. We got a good kick out of ourselves, and thankfully they have a sense of humor too! All done in the spirit of Christmas

Teaching by love ,example and laughter