Christmas Is Almost Here!

We have already had a great Christmas this year and Christmas isn't until tomorrow! We are so excited to celebrate another year here in Aberdeen. We are missing our family but truly grateful to those who have adopted us into their families.

This year we had our traditional Jerusalem Supper...that is not totally traditional...baby cakes was not thrilled with the headdress or the flash...and the breakfast bar looks disgusting. Maybe I shouldn't have posted this picture...not flattering.

We had a great party with some of the families in the ward...where everyone tried (or didn't try in Jacob's case) to hulu like Santa.

 Our friend really rocked the Santa Hulu...

We decorated ginger bread houses and cookies.

Had a few fun Movie Parties

Some fun packages & crafts arrived.

We had a little laundry fun.

Last but not least a church nativity...Yes I snuck this pictures with my iPod.

Katherine at 9 Months

 Katherine Beautiful Katherine (AKA baby cakes or Kate)

Katherine is such a gem of a baby. We are still just loving this little bundle. She is our joy. Actually she is just one of our four joys. So...Katherine is 9 months old. She is 18 1/2 pounds and 27 1/2 inches. She is following the 49th percentile curve perfectly. Except her head...which is the 69th percentile curve.

Katherine is growing up so quickly. The word she uses the most and correctly is Dadda. So cute. She loves her dad...everything about her dad. She loves me too...but manly when she is sad. She rarely says momma and that is okay. I get enough kisses that it is fine. Katherine can say Tah Dah and bbbbb and makes a great noise for yucky. She says this before she eats the pine needles of the christmas tree or dropped food of the floor. It does not deter her from eating the food. She has just learned to say it before she eats it. She also loves music, dancing and yelling to the music.

 Her eyes have a  huge adversion to the flash setting on my point and shoot camera. I cannot figure out how to change it...so the quantity of pictures  are small. You will notice the really funky eyes in my post that will show up tomorrow....but here is one for today. You gotta love that crazy smile. Two teeth are adorning those gums...and we have paid dearly in sleep and sanity for them. They are painful little buggers.

To end here is another picture during a horrid day of teething/sickness. This was at 49 minutes of my 60 minute workout. I felt so bad I quit early. It should have been 40 minutes earlier.  Poor thing feel asleep sitting up.

Christmas Season in Aberdeen

My family has experienced a lot of magical Christmases, from ones close to family in Utah, to Christmases in Georgia where friends have opened their homes to us and shared their friendship. But I have to say that Christmases here in Aberdeen are the most magical.

God promises blessings that are much bigger than those things we give to others in service. I have seen his tender mercies this season and have cried with tears of joy on many occasions.

This Christmas season it all started with an anonymous package at the door after a ring and run. The package was for the first day of Christmas, but what the giver didn't know was how badly we needed the tupperware set they left. I had been bringing my lunch to work in a sleeping beauty container. Yes, we can certainly afford tupperware (and were planning on getting around to buying some), but this gift came at the perfect time.

The next night we received another gift, New towels and a gingerbread house. Again, we really needed new towels so when we received this it was with glad hearts. The gingerbread house was fun for our family to assemble and decorate. And so each night continued each with a gift that made us feel loved and appreciated here in Aberdeen.

On the fifth night we received two gifts, one was a puzzle (Misty and I love to do puzzles around the holidays), and another one was from, we think, another person - also anonymous - with some religious books for the kids, which we cherish.

As if that wasn't enough, on this same night I received a phone call from a local music store in town: "Hello is this Greg?" "Yes." "We have your item ready for you to pick up." "What item? I didn't order anything there." "I'm not at liberty to tell you. Just come and get it before we close, you'll be pleased." So I went down to the store. They asked me for my full name and then pointed out a very nice guitar amp and cord and told me to take it all home. Now I have played guitar for years and I even have an electric/acoustic guitar but I have never gathered enough money for an amp. Needless to say I was dumbfounded. I asked who paid for it or made arrangements to leave it there and the man said he didn't know and was just following orders.

I took it home and found out it is a very high quality amp designed specifically for acoustic/electric guitars like mine. The kids love listening and being blasted out by it :). Tonight we also received another gift from our 12 days of Christmas people and it was mugs with hot chocolate mix. Well, you may be surprised to learn that we are constantly running out of mugs for hot drinks during the winter and again this was a perfect gift for our family.

Through our time here in Aberdeen, we have talked to many people who, for whatever reason, don't like it here. Reasons include that it is too isolated, its just not like Utah (or where ever someone came from) or too cold, or the people aren't friendly. But from the beginning Misty and I have decided that we would like it here and we have really grown to enjoy living in Aberdeen.

We'll see what tomorrow brings, but even if nothing were to come, words can't express how thankful we are for the many friends we have made here (anonymous and known).

Greg

A Katherine Photo Shoot

Earlier this week we had some young ladies at my house who wanted to take some pictures of Katherine for me. I think they turned out cute!

Not to sure about everything...

Peek-A-Boo-Baby

 When  Katherine was ready to be done before the girls. So we broke out a sucker and tried to squeeze out a few more poses.

  The picture below is just to show those cute little toes peeking in at the bottom of the photo.

The outfit they picked out was adorable. The bottom half of it was my favorite.

 The mullet was well hidden...I just don't have the heart to cut it yet.

Soon this cute little toothless grin will be replaced with a toothy grin. The first tooth has broken through the gum. I expect to see it's twin very soon. That is probably the biggest smile I have ever seen.

(yes...my blog is currently not private. Now that I have deleted years from it I feel a little safer with the info public.)

Picture Catch Up!

I started this post last week but have had some issues with Blogger. Apparently I have reached my quota of pictures allowed for free on Blogger. Bummer. Greg did make me a fabulous blog book so I have gone and deleted all the blog posts from the beginning of the blog until we left Georgia.  That is over 1,000 pictures! That was tough. I feel like I just erased years of my life...even though they are all in a book in my front room.  I think I am going to go get the book and read it for a few hours. Blogger is still being difficult. Hopefully this issue ends soon or the end of the Francom Ohana may be near.  On to the post.

So...here is a post to catch you up on some of the happenings of the last two weeks. First of all the girls had their Christmas concert yesterday. It was wonderful. We have the best music teacher...and here in Aberdeen they still get to sing true Christmas songs. While you look at the pictures you can listen to this song if you want. Katherine was playing with the camera cord and pulling on me so it is bumpy. (Okay...another negative blow for Blogger. It will not let me post a video. I will put it on Facebook if you want to here a Christmas song that the girls sang in their Christmas Show)

First of all here are some Thanksgiving pictures. This was the first Thanksgiving at our house ever!

Greg digging in to the poor turkey. 

The dinner Party. 

The kids playing. 

Katherine loving Daddy.

Kids sleepover. Clara slept the funniest way. 

 Pre-Christmas Concert 

Clara is the second row from the top on the far left. Good luck finding her. To those who desire to play where is waldo Sabrina is in the picture below with a red candy cane dress on. The girl next to her is also in a red dress and in the lower center of the picture.

What post would be complete without a few of my chunky monkey!
Baby cakes is doing so well. Just love her.