more from Christmas

Some more snapshots of Christmas day with the family

David reading from Luke 2 on Christmas morning

Austin opening his first gift

Playing with one of his toys

Playing between the chairs

Playing hide and seek

Uncle Toph, Austin, and Rico

The hilarious shirt my mom got Matt (totally not true =)

Matt with his first child

Excited about another gift

Uncle Matt wrestling with Austin

Christin with their second child

Uncle Toph and Gigi trying to get Austin to smile

Uncle Toph and Austin in the tree

my future sister-in-law

My brother Matt proposed to Christin on Christmas night and our family couldn't be happier. We are thrilled to welcome Christin to the Miller family.

The Spence's love the two of you and can't wait to celebrate your big day.

Family

My family came to Memphis this year for Christmas. We had a wonderful time celebrating with my brothers, mom, and Christin. Austin loved the extra attention he received from all the family. He especially loved all the dogs running around. We had 5 dogs in our home. Sadie (85 lb. lab), Diesel (50 lb. bulldog), Deliah (65 lb bulldog), Rico (small dog) and Buddy (small dog). As you can see, my family loves dogs. This is the first Christmas we haven't added a new dog to the mix in 6 years. It was so nice to celebrate with all of them. We missed my dad but he and Sheryl (his girlfriend) are coming to visit in January and we can't wait to see them.

My brothers...Christoph on the left, Matt on the right.

All the kids

Rico (Christoph's dog)

Sadie in on the action

Deliah checking Austin out

Diesel hiding in Austin's fort

Buddy (mom's dog)

Christmas day!

Merry Christmas from the Spence's. We hope your family enjoyed celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Merry Christmas

This is the Christmas card we sent out this year. (The yellow around it

should be green, my scanner made it yellow instead of green.)

Click on the card to see it bigger.

With a little surprise at the end =)

Merry Christmas from all 4 of us!!!

Forrest Spence Fund website

We just launched our new website for the Forrest Spence Fund. I am so very proud of the new website and even more proud of what the Fund has accomplished in 2009. Go take a look at the website and learn more about the Forrest Spence Fund.

www.forrestspencefund.com

house all decorated

I LOVE Christmas! I love the smells of fresh trees, wreaths, and baking. I love listening to Christmas music. I love turning on the lights around our house every morning and seeing the house lit up so nice. I love the anticipation of Christmas morning and spending time with family. Here are some pictures of our house decorated for Christmas.

This is our den. We put our tree in the room we spend the most time in so we can enjoy it.

Our kitchen table

Our dining room table

The hutch in my dining room

My living room

My living room with our little tree and my favorite nativity scene

Our Christmas cards of friends and family. I LOVE going to the mailbox and seeing pictures of people we love. We hang each card up as soon as we get them.

dancing at the Enchanted Forest

Austin and I went to the Enchanted Forest the other night and he really enjoyed dancing in front of the Disco tree. There were colored lights going along with music.

pillow jumping

Every morning after I get Austin up, the first thing he does is run to my bedroom to jump on the pillows from my bed. He has the best time jumping and rolling around in them.

meeting Ryder

Austin and I had lunch with one of my favorite nurses, Jay, on Tuesday. She brought along her sweet grandson Ryder. It was so fun to see the little guy and to catch up with Jay. She is such a blessing to our family. Forrest loved Ms. Jay!

Dingdad with his grandsons

Jonathan and Austin sitting with Dingdad

cousins

Jon, Anne, Jonathan, and Olivia were in town this weekend and we loved hanging out with them. We spent a lot of the weekend laughing at Olivia and Austin playing together. Olivia definitely understands playing together more than Austin but I think he's getting it. We would hear Olivia say, "Aussttin, cum here". It was precious. We are so thankful for cousins that are so close in age.

Trying to get them to both look at the camera.

Austin chillin and Olivia saying Cheese!

Austin's tired pose

Austin with a belly laugh and Olivia's not so sure about him

Austin deciding he's done with the picture taking

for sweet Forrest

We went to visit Forrest this weekend and put up a little tree at his gravesite. It breaks my heart that this is the way we celebrate Christmas with Forrest. I miss him so much and the holidays make it all the harder. I know he is having the best time in Heaven getting ready to celebrate Jesus birthday.

Finding the perfect Christmas tree

We went on Saturday to find the perfect Christmas tree. Austin enjoyed picking out the best one.

Getting in the middle of them. Trying to decide which one to pick.

I think he found the perfect one.