HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE!

Today is Katie's birthday, so we are in celebration mode around here! She will open presents from family today and have her favorite meal (steak and salad!) for dinner. Then we will sing to her and eat cake. She requested chocolate cherry cake again this year, which makes the whole family happy, because we all love it! :-)

On Saturday she is having a birthday party at a local water park. She has always wanted a pool party, but since her birthday is in the dead of winter, we never really gave it much consideration. But, when she asked for a pool party again this year, we looked around for a way to make it happen. She is SO excited! Her dad and I are excited that this party involves no preparation or clean up afterward! :-)

It is hard to believe that our baby is NINE years old, already! Wow, the years have sure flown by. She is getting so tall, too. Kate is such a hard-working, helpful girl. She like to do things well. She loves music and art, playing with friends, her stuffed animals (she has named every one and talks to them as if they were her children) her American Girl dolls, playing soccer, cooking and hanging out with her family to play games or watch a movie. She is thoughtful, kind and loyal. She is smart and funny and fun to be with. Kate is an incredible blessing to her daddy and me and to her big brother. Dave and I love her so much and are so glad that God gave us this delightful little daughter!

Happy birthday, Katie!!!

(Here's a look back at Kate at ages 4 weeks, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 years.)

I, Too, Sing America

I found this poem written by Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967) on the Desiring God blog today in honor of the poet's birthday.

I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I too am America

Art Class

I am teaching an art class for 2nd and 3rd graders at our home school co-op. I have not studied art, but I have found the most wonderful blog to help me come up with great ideas and lessons for this class!

Art Projects for Kids is the blog of REAL art teacher, Kathy Barbro. She shares lesson after lesson, with instructions and pictures. I wish I had more classes to teach during the year so I could try out more of her ideas! I will definitely have to do some of these at home with my own kids. If you need some inspiration for teaching art to elementary school age kids, check out Art Projects for Kids!

Yesterday, my class made these great Abstract Winter Trees from Kathy's blog. Aren't they beautiful?! :-)

Princess in the Kitchen

Saturdays are "Pancake Day" at our house. I get the kids up and we make pancakes together on Saturday mornings while Dave sleeps in. (On most other mornings, he gets the kids up and makes breakfast. I know, I am spoiled!) Anyway, this morning a princess made the pancakes and boy, did they taste great! :-) Here she is, whipping up our delicious breakfast.

Baby, it's cold outside!

These pictures were taken yesterday when the temperatures were not quite as frigid! We are looking for a HIGH of FIVE BELOW today! BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! We are staying inside!!

This morning, Kate helped me make some cranberry bread, which has filled the house with a delicious fragrance. We have soup cooking in the crockpot and right before dinner, we'll have breadsticks in the oven. Good smells, warm food, cold day. That sums it up! :-)

January 2009

Christmas flew by this year and then off we went to the conference we go to every year a day or two after Christmas. This year, around 1500 college students attended. On the day of outreach, they went into neighborhoods on behalf of local urban churches to deliver boxes of food and share the gospel. Grant and Kate got to go with a group of kids to Feed My Starving Children. They filled bags of food to be sent to Africa. The kids like living at a hotel for a few days, hanging out with other staff kids and playing in the pool.

When we got home we had some time to relax and the kids enjoyed playing with the new things they got for Christmas. Kate was excited to try out her new Easy Bake oven!

Dave and I celebrated our 16th anniversary on January 2nd with a low-key night out. We usually keep it pretty simple since we are kind of tired from being at the conference

This week we started school and are now trying to get back into a normal routine. It has been cold outside, which makes it especially nice to snuggle on the couch while we read together. Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wrestling

This is Grant's first year in wrestling and today he participated in his first wrestling tournament! He did really well for his first time and had fun, too!

Dave has been taking Grant to practices twice a week up at the high school. Today he helped out at the tournament. There were around 400 people who came from all over to wrestle in this tournament!

Our friend, Josh, and his little boy, Ethan, came to the tournament. Josh used to wrestle at this school and when Grant was younger, Josh taught him some wrestling moves, so it was really special to have Josh come to see Grant wrestle today!

Christmas Tour of Homes 2008

This is the first year I have joined the Christmas Tour of Homes that Boo Mama is hosting. It looked like a lot of fun last year, so I decided to try it! So,thanks to Boo Mama for hosting and to you for dropping by! :-)

Welcome to my home!
When you first walk in, you are greeted by this snowman, who says things like, "Come on in! It's cold outside!"

And it usually IS cold outside!

Here is our dining room~
And here is our tree and stockings~
No mantle for hanging stockings, so we used the bookshelves next to the tree where I would like a fireplace to be someday! :-)


Some ornaments~
My son made this one when he was in preschool. :-)

This little lady came on a package when I was a little girl. We put her on the tree and I used to play with her every year. Now my little girl plays with her every year! :-)

On the buffet~
We have a basket for Christmas cards and a Nativity with figurines that my kids can play with and act out the Christmas story with. We are celebrating the fact that God stepped into history as a baby and lived and died so that we could know and love Him.

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas!

Tree is up!

Getting Our Christmas Tree

A couple of days after Thanksgiving we went to a local tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree.

We took a hay ride out to the field of Balsam Firs and then started looking for the "perfect" tree.

Grant and Kate selected our tree and "helped" Dave cut it down. :-)

Thanks, Mom!

My mom sent me a Borders giftcard last year and while I have used it to purchase a book or two, I mostly use it for "dates" with my kids! They like to go to a bookstore with me and enjoy a snack while looking at books. It makes for a fun and cheap date! :-) I enjoy these relaxing times with my kids and I am always game for a cappuccino, too! :-)

Tea Time

Recently, Katie and her friend, Krystal, went to a fun place in town for tea time.

This shop has hats and gloves and necklaces that young ladies (and older ladies :-) ) can choose from to wear for tea. The girls selected their tea time attire and then were seated.

Along with plenty of giggles, they enjoyed tea and scones with whipped cream and jam.

When you are eight, you can only act like a young lady for so long...

As soon as the girls took off their finery, they were done with all of that sitting and acting proper! Thankfully, their moms agreed to give them some time to run and play together to get it all out of their systems! ;-)

Election 2008

News reports about the election repeatedly use the word, "historic." And so it is. I have to say that I am glad that Americans chose an African-American president. I am glad my children will see that the man in the most powerful position in the world is someone who looks like them. They will see children living in the White House who look like them. They won't see barriers holding them back because of their skin color. They will see that the sky is the limit for what they can accomplish in life. Alleluia! This makes me so happy it moves me to tears.

But, it pains me that I could not vote for the first African-American president of our country. I could not vote for him because of his unwillingness to protect innocent lives. I believe that life is precious; even the life of a baby still growing inside their mother's womb.

So, I feel a mix of incredible sadness and great elation at the outcome of this election. Now that Barack Obama has been elected, I want him to be a great president. I hope he is successful. I will pray that he will make good decisions for our country and be a great leader. I will also pray that he will become a champion of every American-even those yet to be born.

Football Game!

Dave surprised Grant one morning by telling him that the two of them were going to a professional football game that day! Grant was so excited he could hardly stand it. They had their first ride on the light rail, too, since they took it instead of having to deal with parking.

The guys had a great time together watching the game, eating snacks and getting some autographs. And to top it all off, their team won the game! Here are some pics from their fun day.

About This Blog

There are so many interesting blogs out there and I have discovered many that I love to return to again and again. These bloggers have such an engaging way of sharing their lives through words and pictures. I have bookmarked several blogs that I check on an almost daily basis because I like to see what they are up to. When I started this blog three years ago, I wasn't exactly sure what kind of a blog it would be, but it soon became clear how I wanted to use it.

This blog is mostly a scrapbook of our lives, so my kids can look back someday at some of the daily and special things we did while they were growing up. (In fact, I plan to get the blog printed into book form for them at some point.) In an effort to keep up with our busy days, I usually just post the pictures with a brief description of what we were doing and leave it at that. Occasionally I have shared more in depth about things close to my heart and it is fun to interact with others I have met in blogland, but I just don't have the time to post lengthy daily reflections about life most days.

So, if you happen to stop by, you are welcome here and I hope you will leave a comment to say hello! And I would love to go to your blog as well, whether it is a newsy place, a spot for deep reflections, or just a simple family scapbook. Happy blogging!

Halloween '08

This year, our friend, Melissa, and her daughter, Cecily, joined us for some trick-or-treating. We usually just go to houses where we know the families, on our street and the one behind us. After that, we get in the car and head to a nearby church that hosts a, "trunk-or-treating" event we have gone to the past few years. Families from that church park several cars in a big circle with the trunks facing in, decorate their trunks, and hand out candy to little trick-or-treaters. After going to all the trunks, you can go inside where they have pizza and some carnival-type games that kids can play. Attendance at this event has really increased in the last couple of years and we heard of three other churches that hosted their own versions of trunk-or-treat this year. It is a safe way for kids to dress up, get lots of candy and have fun.

We also heard that Chipotle restaurants will give free burritos to anyone dressed in tin foil on Halloween night, so of course we had to check it out! When we got there, we saw a long line of people wearing tin foil hats, belts and other creations, waiting for their free burritos. So, we joined the line and started twisting and crimping foil into headbands, bracelets, hats and belts. And, yes, we all got free burritos! We took the burritos home and will enjoy them for dinner tonight. That was a fun way to end the evening, and how can you say no to a free meal? ;-)