Hiking Beacon Rock

Sunday was a beautiful day and we have been wanting to start hiking as a family when the weather is nice. It would be nice to go once a week, so hopefully that will work out. Issie is finally at the age when we could go together and she is so independent that she wants to walk most of the time. It does make everything go at a 2 year old pace but it is a start. We live in such a beatiful area that it is like an adventure each week. Plus it is nice to look at things that we can embrace with the kids getting bigger since there is always that temptation to dwell in the sadness of them growing up. It was good thing to do the week we took the crib down and started packing up the nursery.
My family, so cute to see them taking off, and Issie smiling over Daddy's shoulder on the way. I just love these guys. What a blessing they are to me.

Issie determined to do it herself even on the rough terrain, so funny.

Happy girl with her Daddy.

Kadie was all about the "short cuts", trying to cut corners and find secret ways to get ahead of us.

Me and Issie, pulling up the caboose. Jack was not really understanding why we were so slow, we offered to let him walk with or carry Issie and see how fast he would go but he was not interested.

UP and Up and Up we go, it was such an amazing day, really feeling like spring here. So nice.

Had to put this one in, our little nut. She loves this smile, Kadie used to do the same thing. She certainly has no fear of heights or anything else for that matter. We had to keep a hand on her at all times. Brad actually brought a rope in case we needed a leash but she stayed close. That would have been a sight.

Sweet boy, at the top. It was good lesson in patience for Jack as he probably could have climbed the rock in half the time. But he had a good attitude about it. The sunshine sure helped.
Our family. What a nice day. Hopefully we will do more and more of this all spring and summer.

Every day stuff.

Always lots going on around here. Jack continues his cooking lessons and we are trying to get to the point that he cooks dinner on Thursdays but we are not there yet. He learned how to make burritos last week. Including fresh salsa, and guacamole. The beef was a bit crispy but that was likely because I had him multi-tasking too much. It was really good. One of his favorite things to eat so it was a good one for him to learn. It is good for me too, he wants me to write down instructions for everything so he can try to follow the recipe without my help. I realize how much I just cook stuff without thinking. I have never really written down how to brown ground beef or how to cut an avocado. It was fun though, he even took the initiative to clean up the entire kitchen after dinner, this was a huge thing for him since we usually have to nag and nag to get it all done. I think American Idol being on may have been a big motivator too.

It is hard to get any pictures of Jack since he is in that stage where it is totally not cool to pose for mom. So when I catch a shot where he is not givign me some snarky look, I need to share it. I love this boy.

Issie got her first official haircut last week. I have been trimming her bangs for a while and at times it really has looked awful. She has had a full on mullet and it is embarrassing. So I finally had my hairdresser fix in right. She was incredibly still and obedient. She loves being the big girl. So independent.

The update on the transition to bed: it only took 2 nights to get her to stay in bed, amazing! She is still often the last to fall to sleep but she just lays quietly there playing with her hands until the wee hours of the night. So cute. We moved her to her bed for naps too later that week and she has done great. Sleeping 3 hours and going right to sleep almost every time. Our issue now is how to keep her in bed beyond 6am! She is an early riser and we used to just keep her in her crib and she would play or fall back to sleep. But now she is up and running. Kadie is up right with her and soon they are fighting and then Jack is mad since he actually likes to sleep past 6:15am. Let me tell you it is not the wake up call you want every morning. I will take any suggestions on this one. Kadie was trained early to stay in her room until the clock said 7 but Issie is younger and when one of them wake up everyone is up. Baby steps.

Kadie and her best little friend Rylie. We have small group together so these girls play every week and just love each other. They decided to coordinate their outfits so they looked like twins. It was so cute, calling back and forth to decide on jeans and what color socks, so funny.

Re organization and Bunk Beds!

We have been doing a ton of transitioning and reorganizing and purging as our kids move into the next stages. We put up bunk beds and have been slowly transitioning Issie to a big girl bed, using the Super Nanny stay in bed method. She does not stay in bed, well she stays in bed but jumps around and hangs from the bars and whispers constantly which is completely distracting to Kadie. But it is a transition and as much as I want it to be easy, I understand that is the wrong expectation. The crib is still in her room for back up and for naps, I am totally not ready to tackle naps in the big girl bed.
Kadie loves the top bunk, but we did have to remove the blades on her ceiling fan so we did not have fatal injury. She is a monkey and climbs up without a ladder since we are not ready for Issie to venture up there yet. Good old IKEA, nice simple bed for a fraction of the price else where. It is not as cute as her other bed but it will work for the time being.

Issie, very excited, looks like she is saying "peace out". She ended up in her crib the first night, we were too tired and forgot to read the super nanny section on this as it has been a while since we have had to deal with it. The second night she went to bed at 7:15 and fell asleep at 9:30- about 30 min after Kadie. We are now on the third night and she went to bed at 7pm and it is 8:21 now and she is still flopping around on her bed. When I go in to lay her down she does this cute thing where she puts her hands over her eyes, thinking if she cannot see me then I cannot see her. Not really working well for her.
Had to take a picture as this room will likely not be this clean for long. My little girl is a pack rat and has an interesting way of organizing that does not really allow us to find anything.

Sisters

We reorganized both the kids closets, it looks great and every thing is easy to access.

Jack's closet too.

This is phase one of the loft. I have a before picture but it is awful so I just want to focus on the now. I will post more when we get the desk in. Busy weekend, but feels good to get organized and get rid of all the stuff we do not use or need. Off to get my toddler back in bed.....

Ages and Stages- Issie

Issie is 2 years old and a few months, and she is really something. She is definitely our most strong willed kiddo. She absolutely knows what she wants, although it does change moment by moment and often I am the only member of the family that is fully fluent in Issie talk to figure out what she really wants. She can say a lot and she will repeat ANYTHING you say, so you really need to be careful, but she has such seemingly random thoughts that you really need to spend the time with her to see what she is talking about.

She is are mathematician, she likes order and sorts things and has pairs of things or things she things should be paired together all over the house. She is likely our overachiever, she taught herself her ABC's using her sisters Barbie computer and she is constantly practicing picking out letters on signs and magazines. She is now teaching herself the sounds. I say teaching herself because she does not want help, she just uses little technology games we have had for Kadie and Jack and sits in a corner and practices. She is also potty training herself. She goes to the bathroom for all diaper changes and likes to sit there forever, only occasionally does she go in the potty but she is not open for suggestions on how this should proceed. It is really quite funny.

I know it probably sounds like we let her just dominate the family, we really try not to, but honestly it does happen at times. But usually her desires or plan are perfectly acceptable, just different from what our plans may have been to do the same thing.

She is still tiny. She has yet to gain a full pound in about a year. She does not seem underweight looking at her with her peers and she is not super skinning or boney, she is just a lightweight. She has been 25 pounds since she was 16 months old. She was running around the house with this little vest from Kadie's Paci Bear ( a build a bear outfit!) and crying because she wanted it on. I kept telling her, you are too big, it won't fit, you are too big. Then to prove it to her I tried to put it on her, and lo and behold she was not too big and it did fit, well kinda. She reminded me of one of the village people, she wore it til bedtime. So funny.

She has had some food and skin issues but we took her to a specialist and we are in the process of treating her for yeast and several food intolerances and it is really amazing how much of her attitude and "meanness" appears to be related to her food issues. She is so much happier and although she does not like other little kids coming up to her and trying to touch her in any way, she is considerably more friendly and if she initiates the move she will hug just about anyone. It is good to know she is feeling better and nice to see she can be sweet to people outside of the immediate family.
I decided to try to find some panties for her, trying to put my own thoughts in this potty training process. It is very hard to find tiny panties. She was obsessed with them, but they could not go on her bottom. She wore all three pairs at once, two over her diaper and one on her head. This is how she spent her day, saying "yeah!!! Issies panties!!!"
The funniest thing about her little potty training efforts is that she prefers to read Better Homes and Garden magazines over her board books. It is really hilarious. She is looking for letters she can spot. She has 2 issues that she likes the best and she will spend 15 min or more browsing them. Brad really thought this was sad, so I spent several days, convincing her to read her books so now she will look at Clifford or Bible Songs but I still think she would rather the magazine.

Issie is at that fun stage where she squeals with delight when you first come home.... "Daddy, daddy, daddy..." and runs to give you a hug. She loves to snuggle in our bed, although we both realize this is the ultimate stalling technique before bedtime and naptime. She love oatmeal and would eat it for every meal if we let her. She still loves for me to snuggle her before bed and she now sings along to her "Isabella" song. So sweet.

We are about to transition her up to Kadie's room. We are in the market for bunk beds as I type. She seems ready, although I may keep the crib available for naps, not sure about that one. I am so excited for her and Kadie can not wait. But I am totally grieving the finality of the nursery. No more babies, no more crib, and no more nursery. I really loved creating her nursery and it will be so sad to change it back to the guest room. But you just cannot keep them from growing up.

Love you Issie Bee.

Ages and Stages- Kadie Girl

Kadie is six and it is a hard age. Seriously, I feel like I say every age is a hard age. The truth is every age has its blessings and challenges. Kadie is in Kindergarten and she is very smart. She is not very motivated however, which is OK, I do not need her to be an overachiever but it is hard to understand how she views the world at times. She is sweet, and super creative. Her imagination is incredible and at times reality and imagination overlap and cause quite the conflict. But in most situations she seems to be a drifter. She usually is just happy to go with the flow. She has her opinions and preferences but she is a follower and content to be most of the time. She is also a pleaser, she likes to make people happy. You can see where some of these qualities may lead her to easy peer pressure and moral ambiguity. She has a super strong love for the Lord and she really has an advanced awareness of spiritual warfare, she does know right from wrong she just has a stronger desire to have people happy and have people like her. When she chooses poorly, she often will tell us the "devil made her do it". It is hard not to laugh, but she is so sincere in her explanation that it is hard to argue.

Kadie is funny, and she can make us all laugh by saying the most hilarious things. She knows she is funny but I don't think she really knows how to be funny. She just thinks about things in a funny way. I wish I had an example, I will think about it and post it later. She is super tough too, she loves to wrestle and play ball and tag with Jack, she is crazy really. She is also very dramatic, as I have said before, she feels things very strongly. She can be very mad, very angry, very excited, very forgiving, and very happy in the same 20 minutes. It really keeps you on your toes.
Kadie at school with her new sunglasses. After she got her sunglasses we walked out into the cloudy, rainy weather and she says in a matter of fact voice, "now if we could just buy some sunshine". She is a nut.

Kadie is the middle child but at times she is the big sister. There are many times due to Jack going to his dad's house that Kadie is the oldest. She LOVES to take care of Issie. It is a bit smothering at times. She so wants to do everything for her and control her every move and choice (probably what Jack does for her and she does not mind), but Issie is way too independent for that. And it quickly becomes a battle. We are constantly asking her to listen to her sister the first several times and she would not get punched in the face but I am beginning to think that the natural consequences of not listening to a 2 year old when she is yelling to stop is getting hit in the face. Eventually she will learn, I hope. She does take good care of her and Issie loves her a lot, most of the time.

Kadie and Issie, cleaning my floors as Brad drags them up and down the hallway for fun. they just love this stuff. If I had to pick one thing that I most admire about Kadie Girl, I would have to say that she is very forgiving. She does feel things very strongly and her feelings get hurt and she really wants people to be nice to her, but she is so quick to forgive and so sincere in her forgiveness that it is really a blessing. She feels her pain then forgives and moves on. If only we all could do that. I love you Kadie Girl.

Ages and Stages- Jack

It seems like forever since I have posted about the kiddos, they are all into so much right now and if I don't documented it I feel like it will be lost in the dark hole of my memory. I never seem to have enough time to write these days so I thought I would break it up and just update one kid at a time.

Starting with Jack, it is funny because I could not find any recent pictures of Jack. This explains partly the stage he is in. He cannot be bothered to pose for a picture and when he does he wants it to be some action move that comes out blurry or some funny face that I end up deleting since it ruins the picture. Or if I do get him to pose it is with attitude or solemness, so if I am lucky I catch a quick picture when he is enjoying life and unsuspecting. Like at the beach.

Jack is 10 and a half, turning 11 in May. He is growing up fast and we are already in the beginning turmoil of adolescence. He is moody and feels like he deserves a detailed explanation for every decision we make. He questions our logic and tries to negotiate a more "sensible" plan. He has burst of anger that when I just let him express it, he recovers from in very short time. But if I try to tell him it is not ok to feel how he is feeling, we are in for a battle. I have a lot to learn about giving him the independence to feel his feelings and to not make it about me all the time. He has a strong sense of right and wrong and justice. It takes him some time to forgive but if he is allowed to express himself fully, he forgives quickly. He is in a stage of really trying to know what and who he can trust. His dad is remarrying this spring and it is creating a lot of uncertainty and transition for him. He has done some serious soul searching recently... about what he believes and accepting the fact that some people just choose not to believe in Jesus or even in God. This was super hard for him to understand. Super hard to accept that when people are told the Truth, that they may choose to reject it, super hard to fully understand the consequences of that rejection. He wants to rescue people, especially people he loves, or he wants to reject the Truth, thinking that would eliminate the consequences. He has really been wrestling with it all, especially since the girl that his dad is marrying is rejecting God. But he has finally come to a place of acceptance and understanding. It is still a battle but it has been good to watch him make his own investigation (reading Case for Christ) and asking the hard questions. A lot of growth.

He is suddenly obsessed with football and has a football in his hands constantly, doing all kinds of imaginary plays in the living room and in the hallway. He plays football at every recess with his buddies at school and he loves the Vikings-totally bummed they missed the Super Bowl. He is even having his own Super Bowl party. Soccer is what he plays right now and he loves it but is pushing hard for football. I am struggling due to the injury rate in the sport especially at his age and because I love to see him play soccer but we are still trying to figure it all out.

He continues to love music and has been writing and recording new songs on this software he got for Christmas. He has such an ear for music that he can pick up most songs on his guitar from just hearing it a few times and has really learned the power of practice. His voice is sweet and he has such passionate lyrics that you know those thoughts run deep.

This is a fun age, I can talk with him, most of the time and he can reason and understand things at a whole new level. He is inquisitive and wants to understand things. We have just started to teach him to cook, and he just loves the independence. Instead of just doing chores we are focusing on training him to do what he will need to do as a man and the provider of his family. When we focus on it like that, he is totally willing to do it and do his best. He really wants to be strong and responsible. I just love him.

He also has kept his strong sense of humor. He is sassy and sarcastic but has a great belly laugh. He still loves to lie in bed and talk and pray with me at night, and I cherish it. He still loves for Brad to tickle his back and play catch. He reads to his sisters and plays monkey in the middle. He helps Issie get ready to go and she follows him around the house. He is really the best big brother and these girls just love him.

This is an age to keep me on my toes, to understand the purpose behind what we are doing and to be diligent in what is really important and learn to let go of all the things that really don't matter. To enforce respect but allow independence and emotions. To encourage him to be who God made him, not who we thought he should be or what we want because we think it is best. I have to constantly remind myself that he is a gift but not my creation. He is a reflection of God not of me. Ouch, how self serving we can become.

I do love him so. He makes me laugh, he drives me nuts, he warms my heart. Bless you boy.

38

Friday was my birthday. 38. For several reasons, I feel significantly older than last year. Not just a year older but many years older. Not really in a bad way. I just feel like this past year has grown me more than the average year. Some was having Caleb leave early for heaven. But that was not all of it. I think part of it might be just really moving out of the having babies stage and into the raising the family phase. Some of it is my son moving so fast towards his teenage years, some of it is giving away all our baby stuff. A lot of it is my journey with God and learning to trust Him more and more. The uncertainty of our days and the reality of how nothing is really within our control except our desire to trust God and have faith in His faithfulness has really hit home this year. It has been a great year, I would not trade it for an easier one but I feel like it lasted more like 5 years.

For the 5th year now, I had my girlfriend birthday dinner. I really look forward to this night. I love to cook and really love to just be home hanging out on the couch with some good girlfriends. So I had fun making a yummy dinner. This year we had Filet Migneon, so good. I always need the chocolate too so I created a new yummy dessert this year, which was far to rich to have at 9pm and kept most of us up all night. We enjoyed the dinner, laughed, cried, shared our lives and really loved each other. Most of the girls left at midnight, but Mel and I talked to nearly 2am. It was wonderful..... until the next morning when Jack had a 8am soccer game, ugh.

My girls- Melody, Marnee, Me, Kristi and Michelle.

My late night girl :)

Rich chocolate cups.... I made the chocolate cups then, filled them with layers of chocolate ganache, Giradelli fudge brownies, fresh strawberries puree, and whipped cream. So good!

Chocolate covered strawberries too, of course.

The next day after a nap and some recover, the family celebrated my birthday with a dinner out (no clean up) and presents and chocolate at home. I am super excited that Brad got me my new food processor- yipee! I broke mine a few months ago and have been using this tiny chopper and it sucked. I LOVE my new one, it does everything and I needed something bigger so my salsa did not explode out the sides. Thanks honey. I also got a Bread Machine from Trudy (Brad's mom) and his cousin. I am super excited to try that too.

Me and my honey.

The clan. Bunch of blondies. Lucky to get Issie to look at the camera when chocolate is involved. She is a chocolate lover!

It was a nice birthday, I am interested to see what this year has to offer.

Kid-free Weekend.... Yipee!

It is sad to say that Brad and I have not had a night away together since Issie was born over 2 years ago. We have both gone places and do things, we have had lots of dates but not really away. So for Christmas, I planned a weekend away for us. I did not want to go far, or plan anything, I just really wanted us to be together, kid-free! So we went to the Marriott on the waterfront in downtown Portland last Friday and Saturday night. I cannot tell you how much we needed this trip. No diapers, no crying, no fits, no sibling bickering, no wake up calls at 6am, no responsibilities at all. It was lovely. I slept in til 9:30 both mornings, which is huge! We walked on 23rd street and went in all the stores that are a nightmare to bring kids to. We had steak and got yummy blood orange martinis. We watched movies in bed (we don't have a tv in our bedroom so this is a luxury). We took naps and just lounged around. We went to the pool and actually both got to sit in the hot tub at the same time, just imagine that! We were together and it was wonderful.
My honey, refreshed and rested and ready to do nothing or anything. What freedom.

We had very yummy food and tried a different martini at every restaurant. I am not a huge drinker but I like a cocktail now and then, especially when we do not need to drive and do not have anybody or thing to take care of. My favorite was the blood orange martini at Joe's on 23rd street. Close runner up was the fresh berry martini at Ruth Christ downtown.
The view from our bedroom window. Even though we were only 15 min from home it felt like a real get-a-way. It was funny how by breakfast on Saturday we were already missing the kids. It was so nice to be just us but we quickly realized what a hole would be in our lives if we did not have some little people to come home to. Issie did really well while we were gone but had me hold her for almost the next 24 hours straight after we returned home. She is in a clingy stage anyway so this really pushed her. Kadie did seem to miss us at all. And Jack was happy to be at his dads most of the weekend since it was such a big football weekend and that is what they love to do. They were in good hands, and we were so blessed to get away and even more blessed to have them to come home too. I guarantee it will not be another 2 years before we do that again!

I have a new job....

well that is what it feels like. I have finally taken the plung to really start eliminating processed foods and toxins from our diet and our home. Many things have led to this season, and after much resistance and denial, here I am. I feel ready but change is hard on all of us. I have had tremendous help and support from my dear friends that have begun this journey ahead of me. But it is still hard. I am not all organic, and don't expect to be able to afford that anytime soon but I am leaning toward more whole foods and more power foods. I am also limiting refined grains and sugars. Yes this means cereal, which for anyone who knows me, knows this is a big one.

Brad has been super supportive, the kids much more reluctant. I had to describe it to Brad as a new job so he could understand the depth of this change. I love effeciency, I love structure and organization ( I think I am the only one in my family who embraces this so you may not see it much in my household, but it is in my heart). Right now, I have been changing our meals, our recipes, the stores I shop, the foods I pick, the things I pack in lunches, I have been baking more, cooking differently, changing my cleaning products and dealing the the emotional reactions of everyone who is greiving the loss of something in our household. It is exhausting. Everyone told me baby steps but that is difficult, once you really understand what you are eating and how it is messing with your chemistry and your health it is hard to just keep eating it.

So I would love prayer as I try to balance this all out. The kids need prayer too as change is hard on them too. I am embracing a healthier and more energetic future. Everyone will adjust but change is hard.

Paci Puppy!

Somehow my crazy husband convinced me that it was time to take away the Paci from Issie on Christmas Eve. Mama is not ready! The logic behind it, according to Brad, is Mama will never be ready (true) and he will be home for 4 days so this would be the time to do it together. So I surrendered, very reluctantly, I surrendered. The reality of the matter is she is not terribly addicted to it, not like Kadie was. She only has it for nap and bedtime, but it makes putting her down simple, and I am not ready for crying and hysteria (are you ever really ready for that?). But it makes sense to do it sooner and while we still have her in a crib so she has time to figure out how to put herself to sleep without it before we move her to a bed in Kadie's room. So we did it. Nap was non existant on Christmas eve, even though she watched us throw away the paci's she still just cried and cried. She does this pathetic thing when she is distraught... she calls "Paci.... Paci..... Where arrrrreeee yooouuu?" It is so sad and so cute at the same time. Needless to say after 2 hours of wailing we got her up to go to Christmas eve service and then brought her home and she finally passed out for a little bit then totally crashed to go down for the night. Christmas day was worse.. she was hysterical at nap time. And we had company, all of whom were Grandparents and totally understood but still after a few hours of that we pulled her out of her crib. Again she crashed a bedtime with only a few minutes of tears. I am thinking, I am totally not ready to sacrifice nap time. So today we took her to Build a Bear as we did with Kadie to make a Paci Bear. Kadie was older and had a better understanding but we still thought maybe if we replaced the paci with a paci bear it would eventually help.

Daddy walking the girls through the mall, so cute. Kadie is totally grieving the loss of Issie's paci with her. "It's like it was yesterday for her", she tells me. "I just cannot bear to think about it" she says.

Issie has no idea what this is all about but everyone seems excited so she is excited too.

She immediately picked a puppy. So it will be Paci Puppy. This will actually make things less confusing between Kadie's Paci Bear and Issie's Paci Puppy. Again with the cute little half smile.

Before the stuffing.

Well, she saw the paci for the first time in 2 rough days and she had to have one last suck. Brad could barely pull it out of her mouth and she was very upset that we stuck it in that dog.

But now she is over it and fluffing her up.

Such a big girl with her Paci Puppy. Hopefully she won't tear it apart in her crib searching for the Paci. We did have a minor victory today. She actually surrendered for her nap after an hour and a half of screaming and indignation. She slept 2 hours and would have slept longer if we let her. Yipee! Then only 20 min of crying at bedtime. Progress! I am hoping by the end of the week she is back to her normal routine. Please pray for that, for both her and me.

Christmas Morning 2009!

Christmas morning started with a spark, literally. Brad got a call from work at 5:35am and since the kids have been trained to not come down until 7, Jack woke up and attempted to stay quietly in his room. He decided to read but did not want his light to be too bright and was too tired to get up and close his door, so he decided to put his wool hat over his bedside lamp to mute out the light. Shortly after making this decision, I hear a calm whisper at my door saying, "mom, I think there might be fire in my room". Half asleep and confused by how calmly he was telling me these words I did not really spring into action. I stumbled up stairs and started to smell a horrible chemical smell and as I started sprinting all I could think is please do not let the fire alarm go off. Not "please do not let my house burn down", no it was "please do not let the annoying, freak the girls out and make them scream bloody murder fire alarm go off". His lamp was melting into itself and dark toxic smoke was pouring out of it. Clearly, Jack was not thinking clearly either as he did not think to turn off the light. So I turned it off and opened all of his window, turned on the fan, closed his door, not that this would stop the fire alarm if it was meant to be but I was desperate, and droggy. Thankfully no harm was done, except for the smell. The girls continued to sleep til 7 and the house remained quiet and unharmed. It will be a Christmas morning I will never forget.

Kadie, looking sleepy but ready for candy!

Jack, all smiles on Christmas morning.

This picture cracks me up. It is just the true crazy excitement of opening way more presents than anyone truly needs. They are so funny.

Jack is obsessed with football and the Vikings are his favorite. Adrien Peterson especially so this was a fun gift to get. His big gift was the Music Maker software and microphone which allows him to record several tracks of vocals and instruments to be able to make his own complete songs and then burn them to CD's. He is having so much fun with it. He can be the lead singer and do the back up vocals too.

Kadie, wearing her fun hat the Grandma Dauna made and opening one of many my little pony's. Her big gift was a Pet shop house with a new set of pet shop animals. Little girls are easy to shop for. She played all day with her imagination and all her new little bity toys. So fun to watch her with her creative imagination.

My gift to Brad, you cannot read it but it was a total gift from my heart. A friend emailed me an embroidered tapestry called House Rules that listed a bunch of scripture beneath it. I loved this idea but I wanted it to be the scriptures that we as a couple and as a family really have clung to over the last few years. So I titled it The Word we live by and listed 10 of the most meaningful things we are trying to uphold in our lives and with our kids. Like Be Humble, or Choose to Love, or Carry each others burdens, etc. Then I tried to narrow down one or two verses that really spoke that truth. It was an incredible project and bible study for me, a gift within the gift. It was so hard to not just make 2 frames, hard to narrow it down, amazing how many scriptures just jumped out at me. I am so glad I did not just copy the one I was sent but that I created the one that had personal meaning to us. Brad appreciated it but I think I might actually love it more. But it will be a gift to continually bless our family.

Jack's self portrait with a mouth full of muffin.

Mama with her baby.

Kadie already playing Pet Shop. I got her new scissors in her stocking which turned out to be the best thing since she wanted them to open all of her gifts herself. Some of those boxes and packaging are awful but she just loved doing it all by herself. Another gift inside a gift.

This is my favorite picture of the morning! Issie just this day decided she was going to start "smiling" for the pictures. This is her picture smile! I just laughed and laughed. She is really transitioning out of her mean and bossy stage and is so lovable. I just love this little picture of her sideways smile. What a sweetie.

Playing peek a boo with Lucy on the couch.

Issie just loves this hat from Grandma Dauna. She put it on and wore it most of the day even though we never went outside. I am so happy, since she has had a few months of refusing to wear hats. She got some bracelets for Christmas and she is back to her little accessory loving self. She got a little Einstiens computer toy and really amazes us at how much she really knows. She actually knows a bunch of her letters and is not just hitting the right button by accident. It is truly amazing how fast they can learn, little sponges.

Playing Pet Shop in the hat.

Watching cartoons in the hat.

Me and my honey. What a blessing to have each other for Christmas. We had a quiet day with a few friends up for dinner and we really enjoyed the simplicity of it all. Happy Birthday, Jesus!