A Fast Break!

Isaac excited to receive his new Jets Mark Sanchez jersey!

Marina hanging out on her new pillow, demonstrating how she'll watch her new movies.

Leilani's baptism! Between Vycci, Marisa & Ginette 9 kids in 9 years.

Grandma & Grandpa Mortensen telling a story on Sunday's Christmas Dinner!

Without recapping everything, I just want to take a little inventory of all that's happened in the last 14 days. That should seem like a lot of time, but somehow it feels as though it was just Friday, Dec. 18th and Danny's birthday. Because we celebrated the weekend before for his graduation, his day was a regular work day, and even when he finished his work, he came to my work and helped me clean and load up all the spoils of the day. I did not want to think about work until I truly had to be back. I used to go in to school over breaks, but now I do just about anything I have to, to insure that I don't work during a vacation. It is necessary for my sanity. Danny did reap the rewards of some re-gifting from my students to me, to Danny. Even some Russian chocolate treasures. So I suppose it wasn't all bad for him.

The next 9 days consisted of traveling to the northwest side of Denver everyday for some family event. When your only sister has all 3 of her children in December, it makes for a lot of birthday parties in short amount of time. So including Danny, another niece on his side, and my brother, there is a total of 6 birthdays in December (there are even a few more, but those are the closest and most celebrated). Making the already crazy holidays even crazier! So from pirate parties to tea parties we are all partied out!

Leilani, my sister's 2nd girl, turned 8 years old and was baptized the day after Christmas. I was bad and let everyone else take all the pictures. But she looked beautiful despite her embarrassed state of being. And we were all very happy to be a part of her exciting decision to embrace the gospel.

We have also taken the only spare days we had in between the events to work on making room for the new baby boy in our house. We actually have a large home with plenty of room, but we had to do a little condensing and moving rooms to make it all work. It actually involved needing to carpet the back bedroom for Isaac's new room. I am thrilled to say that today, the major work is done, and the carpet is in. Making it possible for us to have Isaac sleeping in his new room, before school starts on Monday. I am so glad we got this done during this break. It was such a big project, I don't know when it would've gotten done before the baby get here otherwise. So while there is still lots to do...we've tackled the big stuff!

So, as I start to think about returning to work in 2 days. I am very grateful for the break, the chance to see extended family, spend time with friends, spend lots of time with Danny (who was home for just over a week), but amazed at how FAST it has gone by!

Happy New Year!