A Fun Visit

Saturday afternoon we had company -- the kids love to have people come for dinner and a visit. My good friends from seminary - Marvel and Jim and their daughter Emi came up from the Denver area (they recently relocated to Colorado from San Diego). It was so fun to see them again and to meet Emi! The kids enjoyed having a new friend come visit. As soon as our guests left, Hannah told me she missed them. It was fun to watch our kids play -- reading books together, playing hide-and-go-seek with their Daddies while the Mommies got to catch up a little, and concluding the evening with a game of ring-around-the-rosie. It was an action packed few hours especially in our cozy apartment. We're so glad they made the trip up here! It was especially fun for me to see Marvel in the role as Mom -- this was a first for me. Emi's a sweet girl and it's evident she is loved very much. We look forward to seeing them again soon!

Prayers for Grandpa

You're in our thoughts and prayers Grandpa.

We wish we could be there with you today to tell you we love you and to give you hugs.

We love you Grandpa!

Hannah's favorite things....

Hannah took the Fisher Price phone into her bedroom and closed the door. I checked in a while later and found her sitting on top of the hamper talking away. She told me she was having a private conversation. I quickly grabbed my camera, snapped a shot, and left her alone. A sign of things to come....? Hannah loves music and loves to dance. She had fun dancing with baby Gigi this week.
She also has been asking to wear dresses daily -- not great timing as we are currently in a cold snap. Luckily I have been able to find nice long-sleeved, warm dresses at a reasonable price at the local thrift store.
A comment that melted my heart yesterday....
I was reading a book to Hannah about a boy who loved to go to the library. There were three librarians in the story who loved to help him in his pursuit of knowledge -- in the way librarians can help --- categorizing, organizing, etc. And I stopped reading and said to Hannah, "maybe I should be a librarian. I love to categorize and organize." And she replied "no, I want you to be my Mommy."

Precious Gifts from God

My days are starting to feel endless -- as I attempt to take care of three kiddos as I'm entering the third trimester of my pregnancy. But as I started uploading my pictures to create a new blog entry (football), I came across these three faces (taken in the last few days) -- and realized how special this time is right now. I don't know how many times I have heard people tell me - "they'll only be little once". But tonight it really sank in as I looked at their precious faces. I am so blessed to have each of them and to have the privilege of staying home with them. I wouldn't trade this time for anything.

Football Games

Week 1 of the playoffs:
Pat played football with Jacob and Hannah and some neighborhood kids last weekend during the break in NFL games. They loved it! And so did he ;-)

He was calling plays....... and trying to get the kids to run plays -- which worked some of the time. Jacob loves to run and Hannah seems to have a natural inclination for sports.

Luke and I watched them play and he played a little too (his feet actually reach the pedals) -- he may be cruising around soon -- trying to keep up with Jacob and Hannah.Week 2 of the playoffs:
It was a little too cold this week to go out and play football. The kids found a way to integrate their play with football -- Animal Football. They divided up the little plastic animals and set them up in formation to play football. We chuckled when we heard the teams names -- the Bears vs. the Giants. The sea animals were the officials.

Memories from Christmas 2007

Christmas in Colorado -- this was the first year since Pat and I have been married that we didn't travel at Christmas. Every year since we've been married we have traveled to both families for Christmas. It was a hard decision not to go home (my first Christmas not seeing my family) -- but in the end I'm glad we stayed put. It was nice to develop some of our own traditions and a relief not to hassle with traveling -- packing, long car rides with three little ones - not to mention a tired, pregnant Mommy. I was glad to escape swollen ankles and fatigue from travel. Staying put has it's challenges too -- the biggest one - shipping gifts to arrive on time for Christmas. The kids were troopers each weekend leading up to Christmas. They loved shopping for their cousins, aunts, uncles and grand parents. And had so much fun making handmade gifts, baking, packaging everything up - decorating the boxes and shipping them off to loved ones.

Christmas morning was beautiful -- we had fresh snow to play in! It was a joy to have Lois and Mike here with us. We enjoyed many days of beautiful skiing right from our apartment. The kids skied on the quad with Nana and out on the big loop/hill once. They still seem to prefer sledding behind Daddy as he skis to skiing on their own -- I'm sure that will change soon.

An Early Package to Open

Nana Haertel sent a package which was to be opened before Christmas, in case of snow (which we have had plenty of this winter). The kids were thrilled to have a package to open early. What could be in this weird shaped box? They were truly stumped. Cross country skis for Jacob and Hannah and new jammies for all! They had fun trying on their new ski boots with soft, fuzzy insides and modeling their new jammies.Luke had fun putting his on his head.

Preparation for Christmas -- gifts, cookies, homemade gifts and cards to be mailed
Last year I didn't bake any cookies or make any candy because we were traveling for 3 weeks and I didn't want to come home to loads of goodies to be eaten. But this year I had fun baking! And it was fun to share this joy with Hannah - she loves to be in the kitchen with Mommy. We made several kinds of cookies and several kinds of candy. It was fun to share these goodies with friends and family and have a little sample of each kind at home too.

The kids made hand made place mats for their grand parents. I found the idea in a MOPS magazine. We had the hand print paintings laminated before sending them off in the mail. Here is a picture of all the place mats the kids made before they were mailed. Reading the Christmas story to her baby dolls was a top priority for Hannah this year.

Our Advent Calendar/Advent Wreath
Mom and Dad found this neat advent calendar made out of metal and wood. Behind each door is a magnet to place on the nativity scene. The kids love opening the doors and rearranging the people/animals/stars on the scene. Luke was able to reach the bottom row of doors and take the little pieces out. He was very proud of this accomplishment. I thought we had hung it at a height that was out of his reach -- but this can change in a month's time -- especially for a determined little boy. Jacob and Hannah took turns opening the doors throughout Advent. Although Hannah loved to get all the pieces out and create the scene (on a daily basis) and Jacob (a boy who loves order and structure) would put them back (on a daily basis). They keep each other on their toes!I didn't get a picture of our Advent wreath. We used the same liturgy that I used growing up each week as we prepared for Jesus' coming on Christmas. The kids love the "Hey, Hey" song that is part of the liturgy and Luke wanted to sing "Happy Birthday" every week when we lit the candles -- we obliged. And then on Christmas Eve we had a birthday party for Jesus. I baked the traditional black forest cake (requested by Jacob) for Jesus' birthday cake -- no pictures of this either.

Our Christmas Tree
Last year we found out that Hannah is allergic to pine, so this was our first Christmas in search of an artificial Christmas tree. We bought one from K-Mart, set it up and then I started getting a head ache from the chemical smells from the tree (probably a flame retardant of some sort). So we returned that. A few days later, I went to the local thrift store and found a cute little tree that had been aired out and didn't smell. This became our tree. It was too small to put lights on so we hung the lights around the top of the apartment walls -- it sure felt festive (maybe a little reminiscent of college days...). The kids had fun finding the ornaments that would "fit" on our tree. The highlight for Luke was playing with this jingle bell he found in the box of Christmas decorations. The best thing about this little tree -- it fit in the tote set aside for Christmas decorations - very compact! (a necessity for storage in a 480 sq ft apartment!)Christmas Eve

Dressed up for Christmas Eve Service

Lois and Mike arrived safely on Christmas Eve just in time to join us for an early dinner before church. It was a beautiful, candlelit service with lots of singing. We came home and the kids opened their gifts before heading to bed. It was a frenzy! But so much fun to watch the kids open their packages. Luke clued in rather quickly to opening presents -- he kept getting presents from the pile and saying "open, open, open". He even was somewhat interested in what was inside.Hannah's new fishing pole
Jacob's new bike

Santa's Visit
The kids were up at the crack of dawn (actually before) to check and see if Santa had paid a visit. He had! They ripped through their stockings and asked if there were any more presents to open. Luckily we had saved out the gifts from great aunts and uncles and the opening continued after breakfast. Now it was time to play! They had fun discovering their new toys -- especially the Fizzy Foamy Science kit. They looked forward to doing an experiment with Nana each day she was here.

I am thankful for the memories we have of Christmas 2007.

A New Discovery

We took Luke to the play land at the mall on Saturday morning for his first time. He LOVED it! His favorite thing was kissing himself in the fun-house-type mirror. He ran around giggling with glee -- and did not like being stopped from his play to have a stinky diaper changed. It had been a while since we played there, so Jacob and Hannah were happy to play too. These indoor play areas are nice when it's too cold or too messy to play outside. I'm glad I brought my camera (I'm back in the digital world) to take pictures of the kids playing. Jacob loves being dramatic -- he loves to dance and make funny faces. Here he is doing what he does best..... (check out the big gap in his smile -- he lost his first two teeth in the last month - a big event at our house!)

Taking a break from play.....

Future basketball stars???
(I tried to get Luke to pose here -- but no such luck - he's a man on the move!)