BTW...

Kate's Dedication

Little Miss Kate was officially dedicated at our church last Sunday. We've only been going to Mesilla Park Community Church for a few months, but we had to have her dedicated ASAP because of the gorgeous white dress my mother-in-law had bought for the occasion before Kate was even born! Size: 12 months. Luckily, it still fit our 19-month-old girl!
Here she is on the bench outside the sanctuary with her "Pinky" bear. It was a nice service, and we were lucky to have several family members attend. There were four other families having children dedicated, and at first the pastor only called up three families, leaving our names out. I prodded Brian to get up and just go up on stage, and as we walked up, the pastor, seeing us, looked at his notes and said, "And you must be the Marshalls!" Jack went up on stage with u, and the pastor then asked, "And who's this?"
I told him, "That's Jack... but he's good."
"He's been dedicated already?" the pastor asked. "Oh, that's right... I can see the halo now."
The whole audience laughed and Jack, not knowing why they were laughing but knowing it was focused on him, just sat there and smiled. That made everyone laugh harder. Leave it to Jack to steal the scene from his baby sister!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's

Another Christmas has come and gone! For the first time in memory, I am not totally sick of Christmas music by December 25th. And really, I already miss all my favorite Christmas songs right about now. I'm not usually so nostalgic. Must be something about finally being content with where we are. For the first time in ten years, we've not had to travel long distances to reach family at Christmas. We hardly went anywhere, actually, aside from Rio Rancho for a few days post-Christmas. And the kids were able to do all the traditional Christmas-y things: making gingerbread cookies, decorating the tree, attending Christmas Eve services at two different churches, and unwrapping a bunch of presents Christmas morning.



For New Year's Day, we were at Grandma Pat's for brunch. I got several funny shots of all four cousins and their great-grandma. Miss Kate is figuring out how to ham it up for the camera!