Christmas 2010 with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came to visit this week and we had a really fun early Christmas celebration!  The kids were really excited to have some gifts to open!

It's a jedi robe... a king's robe... a monk robe...  a snuggie!

They've already been sleeping in the snuggies. :)  And can't you just see the imaginations blooming with all the different characters they can play in these?

Labor of Love and Advent

We got our Christmas cards ready to mail today...  (all 500+)... well, we're still missing stamps...  so maybe one day this week we will actually get the cards in the mail.  But, it was so nice that everyone pitched in to help.  (Except Will...  he was napping...  and not really ready yet for this kind of job.)  We made an assembly line and it was done so quickly.  Most of the cards are for John's MSM clients and we found ourselves grateful for each one of those cards that we get to mail!  And it's a neat opportunity to share our love for the Lord, too!  Here's everyone hard at work...

On another topic, I love our advent tradition!  We're reading the 3 book advent series by Arnold Ytreeide and this year we are reading Bartholomew again.  (This is our 5th or 6th year to read these books.)  The stories are wonderful and every night just before bed we turn out the lights and then light our advent candles and have a snack while John reads to us.  It's really wonderful.  Tonight we had a cozy fire in the fireplace, too.  Wow, we are blessed!  We have new advent candles this year...  I'm not very creative, but I really love this new idea I had.  I've been searching for a neat way to do our advent candles for a couple of years and I think I finally found it.  It's just a kid's coat rack with little candle lanterns hanging on the hooks.  Isn't it fun?

Here's the boys with it.  (They especially love taking turns blowing out the candles!)

Balloon Swords

We spent the day in Springdale with my parents yesterday...  baking Christmas cookies and well, just having fun!  The boys got these fun balloon swords from a clown at the pizza place during lunch and so you know we had to have some good sword fighting when we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's.  But, I really LOVED the way that both of my parents parried with the boys - let me tell you, they've still got it!  I don't think they knew I was taking these pictures with my phone at the time. :)  You still love me, right, mom and dad?  (I wish the pics were better quality, but I don't think action shots are a specialty with my phone.)

Rescuing the Tree 2010

We continued our annual tradition of rescuing a Christmas tree this year.  It's always so much fun to go to the tree lot and try to find the worst tree.  The boys have a lot of fun with it.  We get a lot of stares when people see how excited we are over an incredibly ugly tree.  But, wow, the spiritual lessons are so strong!  Doesn't God love us the same way and He chooses us even when we aren't lovely?  And then He fills us with His spirit and makes us new.

Buying the tree:

We think this is probably the tree that has been the most in need of rescue that we've ever had!

Transformed (by the hands of little boys):

(I really love that most of the decorations are on the back of the tree!  You can't see them in the picture, but I can see them from my window where I sit at the computer.)  Kinda makes me think that there might be another spiritual lesson in this...  even though we are saved and transformed, we are still a work in progress!



Dry Gulch, USA

We took the boys to Dry Gulch, USA on Sunday and it turned out to be a really fun outing!  We wanted to do something special together as a family that would make a fun Christmas memory for the kids and we did!  Dry Gulch is a western theme camp town with several things to do that the kids really enjoyed - a Christmas train, puppet show, arcade, bumper cars, playground.  Fun!  It was really cold that night, but we bundled up and made a memory!  Here are some highlights...

This is a little train that the little boys rode first:

 Shepard just kicked back for the ride. :)



The boys had a lot of fun at the arcade:

A sweet lady took a picture of our whole family while we waited to ride the big train:

Will was busy making new friends all night long.  He spoke to every costumed worker he saw - he seemed to be especially interested in all the workers at the park.  He would always ask them what their name was and then tell them his name and just start talking about anything he could think of.  He went out of his way to call out to them and get their attention so that he could talk to them.  It just amazes me.  But it is really fun and we meet a lot more people with his friendliness.  He had made friends with this train conductor while we were waiting to ride the train, so when it was time to call "All Aboard" the conductor came and asked Will if he would like to say it on the microphone.  You betcha!  He ran over and was thrilled to call the All Aboard.  I couldn't see his face, but here he is:

Looking out the window of the train:

Will loved the playground - he'll climb anything and is not afraid of heights:

The bumper cars...  a big highlight for Josiah and Shepard.  They were the only two driving for this round and they had a blast.  This was Shepard's first time to ever drive something like this.

It was a FUN night!

Just miscellaneous updates...

The two peas showing off their fresh haircuts...  it feels good (and a little cold) they say.



Shepard is sporting his new "Christmas hat".  This boy has Christmas fever!  He's so excited he can hardly stand it. :)  He even picked flowers from our flower bed today and then proceeded to go ring all the neighbors doorbells (wishing them a Merry Christmas) and handing out the flowers.  I really do love his enthusiasm!  If I only had a nickel for every time he has thanked me for getting him the "Christmas hat"...  he wears it all day and night.  (He says it's a perfect sleeping cap, too.)

So, I had to get a picture of Will, too.  His latest news is that he has made another new friend.  The trash truck driver looks for him now when he comes by once a week to pick up our trash.  Will runs outside when he hears him coming and greets him like a long lost friend.  The driver is so friendly and he always gives Will a big honk from the truck.  Cool!  I really admire Will's ability to make friends!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Most of us have been a little under the weather this weekend, but we did manage to get our Christmas stuff out of the attic and set up.  We just did everything in little bits at a time.  Shepard was soooo anxious... he has been waiting for the Christmas dvd's all year and then, finally, today we got the decorations on the tree.  Will keeps saying "look at the crisscriss tree"!  I tried a new setting on my camera and I need to work with it a bit more, but I love how it captures the glow of the lights from the tree kinda like it really feels.  There is just something so "magical" about Christmas lights. 

I really do love how the kids decorate the tree.  Most of the ornaments are at the bottom and then up as high as they can reach with the stepstool, but the top of the tree is bare.  I just think that is so sweet and I love how they enjoy the fruit of their labor.  One day we won't have "little" boys and there will probably be decorations at the top of the tree...  but isn't it wonderful how it is now?!

Oh, this is so cool!! I just figured out how to blog from my cell phone! So, this is my test. Seriously, this is cool. :).

Thanksgiving 2010

It was so different this year...  small and quiet, but it was restful and fun!  Is there really anything better than going to Mom's?!  It was just my Mom and my little family this year.  Dad and Josh were in Florida at a car show trying to sell Josh's hotrod, so Joy and Caden were in Chicago and Robin and Grant were in Texas at his grandpa's funeral.  After all these years of BIG family gatherings (with my mom's whole extended family) this was a small group to cook for.  Soooo, Mom took this opportunity to teach me how to bake a turkey!  Yes, I'm 40 years old and I've never baked one!  Hard to believe...  but there has always been someone else who is making the turkey and I guess I've never had the idea of making one any other time...  turkeys are for Thanksgiving. :)  I should have taken a picture of my bird - it turned out beautiful.  Really, with mom there to teach me I know it couldn't have turned out bad.  We even tried a new recipe - the turkey bakes for only one hour and then sits in the oven until the oven is cool.  Very nice!

While the food was being prepared we had a wonderful surprise...  SNOW!  It made the day feel so cozy!  I had to snap a picture of the boys enjoying it from the window.

Here's Will and Grandma visiting...

Our Thanksgiving Feast...

Late in the afternoon the view across the front yard was so beautiful - see the ice rings around the trees?

After we were back home and unpacking, Will decided to try on John's shorts.  It reminded me so much of a picture we have of Josiah in John's "big" clothes when he was little. :)

Individual Pictures of the Boys

I snapped a few individual pictures of the boys while we were trying to get a group shot... these are my favorites of those:

Some more pictures of the boys

I found a really fun new place to take pictures - thank you, Renee!  So, I took the boys out there one afternoon to try to get a picture of the three of them together.  UGH!  Actually, Josiah and Shepard tried VERY hard to cooperate, but Will was, shall I say... frustrating!  Josiah and Shepard would hold their smiles as long as they could while we were trying to get Will to cooperate, but by the time Will did anything I could get a good picture of, the other two were just barely hanging in there.  See...

Here are a few more of my favorites from that day:

Here's Will by the end of the photo shoot...  and this is how we all felt!



Will's basketball clothes

Will has been raiding Shepard's closet lately...  because Shepard has the shirts with a basketball on them.  Will doesn't seem to mind that the shirts are a little big.  He's just so happy to have a basketball displayed there.  Here is a picture of Will in Shepard's shirt (and Shep's tennis shoes that Shep has outgrown but that are still too big for Will):



Shining the Light

It's time for trick or treating and our family chose to make this a ministry night by sharing "THE light" with all those who would come to our door.  What an opportunity!  Lots of kids and families came knocking on our door tonight to get some candy.  Along with the candy, we handed out gospel tracts.  We told the boys that even though some who come to our door may already know the Lord, there would be many who don't know Him.  The boys dressed up in costumes from their "dress up" box (picture below) and it was so neat to see them serving others on this night as they handed out the candy and tracts.  And they had a blast doing it!  They stood at the door just waiting for the next trick or treaters to come and the excitement grew with every visit.  It was such a joy to me to hear their friendly conversations with each guest.  Later we prayed for all those who received the tracts tonight. 

Here are the boys in costume:

Shepard/ King, Will/ Clone Trooper, Josiah/ Prince Caspian

Remember this line from Star Wars - Princess Leia talking to Luke:

"Aren't you a little short to be a storm trooper?"

hehehee

Earlier today on the "jump-o-line"  (as Will calls it)

A little trampoline hair:

A lot of trampoline hair: