Chase's Christmas Tunes

NOTE: Please make sure to turn the volume to about half way on the video volume control.

Chase has gone back to piano lessons and seems to love it. His favorite song is Silent Night and he can play it by memory. He gets to play at the local theatre this weekend and might have a chance to play at church for the kid's program. It's been a couple of years since he has taken lessons but jumped right in and has moved on up to the more difficult books.

He is very proud of his achievements so far. If you take a listen to his music, make sure and leave him a comment. Yes, we know the piano needs to be tuned. Enjoy the holidays.

Christmas Pics 2008

If you look really close, you can see Carson riding around on the train behind Julia and I. Tim timed that photo perfectly.

Group pictures for our annual Christmas card do not exist this year. I have not been able to have everyone at home at the same time so far. I figured I would just use two pics on one card..one of Carson and Chase together - check - and then one of Matthew and Julia together - check - wait... what's on the side of Julia's mouth? meatball sauce. I don't seem to possess the photo software that allows you to paint away blemishes. We might not get those cards out this year.

On a side note, Julia went right up and sat on Santa's lap with Carson, WOW! Tim and I about fell out and yes, we did buy the picture. I think I would have paid a hundred dollars for that photo and the Santa was absolutely awesome.

Look Who Showed up at Mother's Day Out

Meet Julia's new companion, Snowball's sister.. whose name is no other than Snowball. Thank you Ms. Kim for finding his sister.

1st Class Health Care @ UAB!

Six hours after surgery the nurse suggested we get her out of the room and take a stroll to see the Christmas trees in the lobby. She decided to give Julia a little codeine before our little trip. Can you say WOOZY?

Top Notch entertainment for our little princess. They had a clowns come around after dinner to see each child. Julia was still floating on the meds so she mainly just stared at them like they were out of their minds.

Note Snowball continued to stay with Julia up until our departure the next day. You know when they ask you to check the room and make sure you packed everything up but leave your cell number just in case you forget something. We got about 10 miles from home and it hit me that Julia wasn't holding Snowball. Oops! We got home and called our precious nurse. Snowball obviously is now living in the laundry area of UAB. He was swallowed up by the sheets.

Julia asked for him every day and wanted to know when he was coming home from the hospital. Uggh.

Hospitals,doctors,needles....uggh!

We decided since Julia's surgery was so early on Monday morning that we would just get a hotel two exits up and spend the night before relaxing, sleep until 5:00 a.m. versus 3:00 a.m. and have to travel. We were looking for two things - Get a good night sleep & receive a wake-up call. It was the worst night sleep and they forgot to give us the wake-up call. Needless to say, I was not a nice customer to the front desk as we walked out the door.

Julia's surgery went just like clock work. She was the first on the schedule for the day. Julia received a nice gift from the best Mother's Day Out teacher on this planet prior to her surgery. She named her new horse Snowball. Julia refused to put on the nice little hiney showing gown until Snowball put one on as well - Tim's brilliant idea. Snowball actually got to go to surgery with Julia. I requested that they give her a little giggle juice prior to taking her back and that seemed to work well. We asked her what her name was just to check the med level and she replied, "My name is Julia Suling Yufen..Fun Fun.. Thomas." Juice is working - check!

Hanna Tanna Party-- I'm 4!!!!

























Julia needs no practice in the gift opening category.
























Olivia was her bestiest friend for her party.

Let's not forget her favorite, Uncle Tony.

Carson stood beside her Hanna Tanna cake all day wanting to just touch it a little bit.

We had Julia's party a little early this year due to her surgery the Monday before her actual birthday, Thanksgiving Day. We didn't invite friends again this year because I don't think she is still quite ready for that. She loved her small group party. It didn't turn out exactly as we planned though. Matthew decided to join the wrestling team this year. Tim and Matthew were intiated the day of her party with what all wrestling consists of. They arrived at his meet at around 6:30 a.m. and didn't get home until 8:30 p.m. that evening. They did miss Julia blowing out her candles but she was okay with that.

We cannot believe she is growing up so fast and has turned into the sweetiest, prettiest little girl. Lovin that she's ours!!!!