Miracles do happen!

It seems like life has been hold for a month or so waiting for a call we recieved Friday morning. Pfizer announced that they were doing major lay offs and we were sort of stuck in a holding pattern for a while now wondering if we were going to still be employed. We were also worried about Ryan's dad and my brother who work for the same company. I had a pretty good feeling that we would be okay whether we were retained or not, but we were still really anxious to know. Thanks to lots of prayers, all three of us (Ryan, his dad, and my brother) were able to keep our jobs for now(there will be more lay offs later in the year because of a recent merger). I feel so thankful and really do feel like it was a miracle because in some areas 70% were cut. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who were not as fortunate. It was a little wake up call to us to be more grateful, take less for granted, and to BE PREPARED for something like this.

Chrismas Eve

Loves to Grandma and Grandpa

Lego Star Wars on the Wii

Check out that intense face!

Sadie finally sat on Uncle Chad's lap because he fed her brownies and icecream.

Despite being sad that Emily, Tom, and their kids couldn't come due to the bad weather, we had a great Chrismas Eve. Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Lance and Chad made the drive from Portland. We had already had the traditional ham dinner in Portland, so I decided to try to make the Cafe Rio pork recipe I found online along with all the Mexican fixins'. Connor got to open one present and it was Lego Star Wars video game for the Wii. Much of the evening was spent playing that. I managed to get it turned off an we sang some Christmas songs and read the Chrismas story out of the Book of Mormon and Bible. It was a great evening. After putting brownies, milk, and carrotts for Santa and the reindeer, the kids were off to bed. With the motivation of Santa coming it was easy getting the kids to sleep. Ryan and I were up until about 3am helping Santa put Sadie's new kitchen together. Yikes! I have to say that the spirit of Christmas must have come over Ryan because even though there were hundreds of screws and lots of parts to put together not one swear word came out of his mouth1;).

"Christmas" in Portland

Sadie opening her baby doll

Connor couldn't be happier!

Sadie modeling her new Baby

Sadie and Grandpa

We braved the roads to go to Portland to see Ryan's parents and brothers for what we planned to be a weekend, but what turned out to be 5 days. They live in the west hills of Portland where the homes are literally on stilts and the streets are very steep. We all had a little cabin fever, but it was fun relaxing and spending time with one another. I just got a little concerned because I knew that Santa was coming to our house. On the 23rd I convinced Ryan to attempt going down and barely made it. (We were down to 1 diaper for Sadie and I was not looking forward to improptu potty training.) Even though we didn't spent the actual day of Christmas there, the kids definately had a Christmas there. They got so many fun toys that they didn't get bored at all being in the house for 5 days straight. Connor's favorites were his new Star Wars ships and discovering Ryan's old ships and figures. Sadie LOVES her dollhouse and her American Girl Bitty Baby. It really pays to be the first grand kids. Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa Johnson.

Snow

Ryan and Sadie sledding at the Park

Uncle Lance and Sadie

All Bundled up like the kids on "Christmas Story"

Connor and Cooper in front of our house the first snow day.

The accumulation on our picnic table out back!

Okay...so I am really late, but I have to document since this is how I am journaling these days. We had the craziest snow storm ever in December. I think we had close to 2 feet accumulated in our backyard. It was fun for a few days. Connor and Sadie had fun playing in it, and since the roads were so bad Ryan didn't have to go to work. After a while it began to get really old. The thing about Washington is that because it doesn't snow often, they are not prepared at all! They simply do not have the equipment to plow any side streets. Besides that we have some environmental cooks that refuse to salt the roads because of damage to the environment. (Seattle's mayor has already said that next time Seattle will use salt.):) Anyway all of these factors make the snow here not so fun if we get more than a few inches. The worst part about the snow was that I knew that if the weather did not get better, my sister and her family would not be able to make the drive from Utah for Christmas with us. I guess we could not complain about not having a "White Christmas."