Days with the Dorans

The stockings were hung, the presents were wrapped and Christmas morning 2007 was the best yet! Although mom forgot her camera at the Christmas celebrations in Saginaw and at 4132 Vanstone... she did take a moment after the presents were unwrapped at home on Christmas morning to snap a few pics of the kids in their Christmas flannel (and of course mommy and daddy have sleeper pants of the same pattern as well...). Joey & Zach woke up first with a sleepy Ali Jane following. Their eyes were wide to see all of the presents that Santa left for them including gifts in their stockings. Ali Jane did get the white dog she'd hoped for and Jonasen his giant truck! (There was no doubt that he was nice) The giant cookie that they had made Santa and the glass of milk was also gone... We think that Pele' may have heard Santa's sleigh or seen the reindeer or something, because he started barking shortly after one in the morning to go out, but all of the Doran kids were too busy dream...

Christmas Eve is also Mommy's birthday. It was great to wake up in Saginaw and have everyone sing to her! It is a busy day which began with a drive home after a wonderful visit with family up north, dinner, presents, church & then cake. It is always nice when people remember her birthday since it is such a busy time of year! Mommy was shocked at dinner when the waitress brought out her wine in a cute, hand-painted, "birthday girl" glass. At first she thought it was a gift from the restuarant until she learned that it was really a gift from her mom and was her's to take home. What a great surprise! Is it obvious that Zach is not the first? Not only would Jonasen NEVER have had table food at eight months- he certainly wouldn't have been able to shove birthday cake into his mouth. Mommy and Daddy paid for it- with a very awake Zachy- who crashed hard... sugar will do that- if there is a "Baby E"- I don't think mommy and daddy will allow all that ...

One of the highlights of December was the Christmas Program that Joey and Ali Jane were in through their school, "Hearts & Hands" which is a preschool/daycare that is an extension of their church. They go there two times a week and love it! On this night Joey wore his suit, and Ali Jane her black velvet Christmas dress to sing. Mommy and Daddy and Zach were there of course- but Nana, Great-Nan, Uncle Dan, and Auntie Steph were also able to come and watch us sing! Besides being the best-dressed little boy in the whole program, Jonasen proved himself to be quite the peformer. While most of the kids knew none of the verses to the songs but belted out the choruses at the tops of their lungs, Jonasen knew the words to almost all of the songs and sang everything in one volume... LOUD! He made all of the adults so proud singing up there and smiling at everyone who was watching. He also waved the blue angel that he made high into the air as he sang. This tugged at mom's hear...

The second Thursday in December you will find us at the hospital making ornaments for Andrew, Jonasen's twin who spends Christmas each year with the real angels. This year Jonasen, Ali Jane, Mommy and Nana got to paint ornaments to add to the trees. After the painting, there is a nice ceremony out in the memory garden for all of the babies who spend Christmas in heaven. We have yet to make it to that part of the memorial because mommy has always had little ones who need to get to bed- Joey's ornament took a lllooooong time to dry because he had A LOT of paint on it. Here is Ali Jane working on her ornament. Ali Jane loves to paint, stamp, color and do anything "Artsie" so this was right up her alley! When Joe and Al were done with their ornaments, they ate cookies that were as big as their heads (literally). Joe almost finished his. We had a lot of fun adding our special ornaments to the tree and remembering our big brother, who mommy still blows kisses to each and ev...

The Monday after Thanksgiving, Mommy didn't have to work, so her Nana and the three kids piled up in the van to go see SANTA! They were so excited and couldn't wait to see him. We all had fun walking through the mall and the two "big kids" got to ride the escalator a couple of times which was second only to meeting the one and only Mr. Claus. Ali Jane and Joey both know all of the words to Santa Claus is coming to town and have been singing it non-stop. Mommy and Daddy also have a direct number for Santa which had to be used only a couple of times to give updates on whether they were being naughty or nice... Joey began his chat with Santa telling him that he would again like a blue present for Christmas. He didn't know quite what he wanted in the blue present, but Santa suggested a few things and "truck" stuck- and ever since the visit, Jonasen has been hoping that the elves at the North Pole are busy working on his big truck. After Ali Jane told Sant...

Happy Thanksgiving! This year we went to Nana & Papa's house for Thanksgiving. In the past, Mommy has had it at our house. She was happy to have it somewhere else. We were also very excited that Uncle Dan and Auntie Steph came too! Here we are "cheersing" with our "wine" (AKA sparkling grape juice!) We had a lot of fun and have much to be thankful for this last year. Here is mommy posing with Uncle Dan and his new wife, Auntie Steph. We've been calling her Auntie Steph for a while now, but they made it "official" in July. When mommy made our annual Thanksgiving video, it was no surprise that she was at the top of Uncle Dan's "Thankful" list. It's also no surprise that Great-Nan isn't looking at the camera... I don't know if we have a single picture of her looking at the camera. Papa and Daddy were too busy eating to smile for the camera. Zach has quite the appetite! Actually, mommy has this same picture of Joey and...

This was my very first Halloween! It was o.k. Mom put me in this little suit that says, "Little Devil." I didn't think that that was very nice, since I really am a pretty mellow baby! I had my little pumpkin bucket, that you can see in this picture. I enjoyed the walk to Independence Village, but all that fresh air made me pretty tired. I went to sleep pretty early and didn't get on the annual Halloween video that my folks take... oh well, there's always next year. I knew right away that I wanted to be a white bunny rabbit for Halloween. Mommy and Daddy read the Velveteen rabbit to me a lot, so I called myself, "The Teen Rabbit." Mommy, Daddy, Papa, my brothers and I went to Great-Nan's house to start our Trick-or-Treating fun! It was cool because there were all these old people sitting around giving out candy. Then I saw this very scary man! (who had a mask) and I wanted out of there pronto! On the way back home, I didn't want to go to any hou...

Fall Fun! Can you believe this? Our non-tech saavy mommy told us how to start our very own blog! (Actually Joey's Godmommy Pammy told us about it) This is a pic of us from the Pumpkin Patch. Every year we have gone to Long's Pumpkin Patch to get yummy donuts and cider, pick out our pumpkins, and say hello to all of the animals. Nana Drapal comes as our personal photographer and has taken this picture for 5 years now! Our first pic was when Jonasen was just a month old. It's not easy to take good pics since mommy keeps spittin out the kids! Mommy can't find all of the pics, but here you can see how we've grown a bit.