Happy Valentines Day!

It was pretty low key around here today but nice all the same. Cade left for a work event yesterday and sent these beautiful flowers. The kids & I sent love notes in his luggage. I heart-attacked our bedroom door because the kids slumber partied in my room last night (and probably until Cade gets home). Leah is smiling in front of it but with her face still so swollen from surgery you can't tell. It's already gotten better but she says she looks like a monkey until it goes away. She's really a brave, tough, and blessed little girl and we love our little family to pieces! Hope you all have a "love-ly" day!

Jan Recap

Mostly, January for me is a nauseous blur spent in bed or on the couch. Thankfully, I have wonderful kids and husband who stepped up big time in the chores and helping area. Leah did have a Daddy/Daughter Western Night at school where they learned country dancing and had fun. We met Cade at the school because he drove back in to town to make the event. You can tell she doesn't mind dressing up or posing. :)

We also gave our cat to LeAnn to use as a barn cat and to see if my allergies would get any better if she wasn't around. Unfortunately not but at least there's one less thing to clean up after and feed, etc... You can't really tell in the picture but she weighed twice what Bella does and yet she'd let Bella drag her around by a paw. We'll let them visit each other when it warms up in Wyoming.

Holiday Blitz

Rather than try to go back too far with full pages of stuff, I'm going to blitz through the months of Oct - Dec with a quick re-cap of what happened.Carter started wrestling and this was his first opponent, first meet. The kid turned out to be 3 years old and weighed more than Carter. Overall, he learned a lot and enjoyed most of it. He gets a very serious, growly face whether he's winning or losing which is pretty cute. I think we'll do it again next year.For Halloween, we had all the Galloway cousins and my nephew Keaton's family come for pumpkin painting, carnival, trick-0-treating, and fun. The adults all came for the ribs and brisket that Cade and Chip spent time smoking. Yummy! FYI, that's Chip in the big Transformer suit, what a good Dad.For Leah's baptism, we had lots of family come back in to town to celebrate with us. We made a poster of the family and friends that couldn't be there with us, you'll see in the background. Here's the favorite Keaton posing with her too. He's a hit with all the cousins.Christmas! We hosted the Galloway's this year and slept 22 people, hopefully comfortably in the house. We have an adult white-elephant gift after the kids go to bed and here is a pic of the "Moo-moo's for every day of the week" gift. It's not hard to believe that Melissa can look good even in a moo-moo. We all had a blast and the cousins wore each other out.Lastly, our family picture. It was too cold to do an outdoor one, especially with new baby Sadie so we found what we could that was open and did the best we could. It makes it easier when there's so many cute people / kids in it. :) Of course, I'm biased. Hope your holidays were as fun and filling (literally we all gained weight) as ours.

Slacker / Family Update

Yes, that's me...a blogging slacker! I haven't posted in 10 months and I'd even forgotten how to log in. I'd love to be so ambitious that I'd post all the fun and adventurous things we've done since that last posting but I'm still not done with a Christmas letter so that's not going to happen. What I will do is post the most recent family pic's, maybe post some pic's from Cade's accident, and then be re-dedicated to keeping the posts updated at least monthly this year. :)

As for our family, we're all doing well. Cade is back to his normal self (or as normal as he was prior to the accident) except for his taste and smell. I count this as a blessing because it's the only thing that makes the accident real to him and it's still oh too real for me. I'm actually writing the experience down like a book so we'll see what comes of that. His business is going well and he'll be traveling out of state a lot over the next few months because of it.

Leah, turned 8 and was baptized (in our religion, children are not baptized until they are accountable for their choices and this is deemed to be 8). This was such a wonderful time with many family & friends making it to support her special day. She also got her ears pierced which was exciting for her. She's so tough she didn't even flinch. Her final palate surgery, the bone grafting, will be March 4th which will be good to be finished with.

Carter, is quite the stinker! He's been experimenting with alternative behavior at home and at school...swearing, not listening, throwing tantrums (most of which are quite poorly acted out), etc. We've started a new system in both places to stop this behavior quickly and get my sweet boy back. The tantrums are slowing, he does not like the taste of soap so no more swearing (darn that YouTube), so we're just working on listening. If he wasn't so cute we'd have traded him in long ago but thankfully he's "stinkin' cute" as we call him.

As for me, I'm an very, very grateful for the blessings of this last year! From Cade's miraculous healing, well that's the biggest one right there. I've struggled with doing a traditional Christmas letter recounting the travels, fun, and accomplishments of the year because quite frankly nothing is as important to me as the daily life together as a family. I appreciate so much more, I am grateful for simple things, and I am especially humbled by the love and blessings of our Heavenly Father. He has drawn our family closer to Him this year and for this I am eternally grateful!

May 2010 be absolutely fantastic for us all!
Love,
The Galloway's (Cade, Jill, Leah, Carter, & new arrival coming in August) That's an awesome blessing too, only 5 years in the making! :) hee hee

Introducing "Super" Bella!

We got a "Porkie" puppy today, whose 7 1/2 weeks old. That means she's half pure-bred Palmeranian and half pure-bred Yorkshire Terrier. So no barking, no hair, & lots of cuteness! Carter even loves her & he's afraid of every animal. Leah named her Bella but Carter wanted to call her a super hero name like "Super Man." So he started to call her Super Bella and I think it'll stick. I'm hoping she'll potty-train faster than Carter did. :)

Leah has off school for the next couple of days and I'm sure she'll get no shortage of attention. Carter was already wondering when she could sleep with him. :) Cute!

Kids in 20" of fresh snow

Ok, where have I moved to? Seriously, one day Leah comes home with mud freckles because it rained mud. I can't even see out of my car or house windows. Then it warms up so much that all the snow melts and we're starting yard work. Then in 24 hours it dumps 20" of snow. Aaah! The kids did have a bunch of fun though and that is what it's all about...I guess. :) I did get to make hot chocolate at least. Yes, Carter ate snow until his face was red and freezing.

Cousin Weekend Extravaganza!

We got to have several days jam packed with cousins on both sides of our families. We had a blast and the kids all got along great. No drama, no fights, even over toys. Loved it. Mom Galloway watched Tom & Suz's kids while they were gone for a wedding so she brought them up for a few days. LeAnn came over with Nora and then Trish came over with her 3 boys to play too. All the kids played, the husbands worked or snowmobiled, the women worked out and went to "He's not that in to you" movie when husbands came home. Fun! Then my Bassett cousin's came up for a visit and caught up on the last couple years. Cade & Nick re-lived the BBQ fest they had in Lovell. Carter loved teasing Nick until he'd get tickled. Love these guys!

Carter's kissy face lined with pizza sauce...yum!