Two VERY different days!

For Christmas this year Brad had to work so first his parents came up and we had a great time (pictures will be coming)  and then my family came up and again we had a great time.  The gifts this year for all of the cousins was a big surprise....the girls were all going to American Girl at the Mall of America for brunch with their dolls! (Ainsley got a doll and Selah a bitty baby from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.  Layken got a doll when she was 7 for Christmas too.)  So Exciting! 

The boys would not have fun having brunch with dolls clearly so they all got tickets to the Vikings game  for the next day!  They were so pumped to go!  Early the next morning the boys took off to make Piper's church before the game, and the girls left a little later for their brunch.  

Poor Jude had to join the girls, I hope he wasn't scarred too much, there was an awful lot of pink around!  He was such a good boy the whole day. So the dolls get their own high chair, menu, drink, and oh yes food.  Cups of whipped cream and fruit.  This is Selah's bitty baby having her drink, I realize it is ridiculous to take a picture of a doll unless you are 10 years old but can you stand how cute this is?  The waitress even knew Layken and Ainsley's doll's names.  The bitty babies aren't named already and when she asked Selah what her doll's name was she said "Monnah" which was a complete surprise to the rest of us.  Monnah Se? Okay! This is Ainsley's doll Kaya, she is so pretty, she's like an indian princess!  And Ainsley is feeding Kaya her whipped cream here (and a little for herself)! Layken's doll is Nellie and she happens to now be discontinued!  She is such a pretty doll too, she looks just like Layken.  As we walked in I thought it was so funny all the girls were checking out Layken and Ainsley's dolls to see who they had.  I was saying something to Leah about it and Layken says "Hey Mom, I've seen 4 Nellies!"  I guess the girls were doing the same on the way in. This is the drink Ainsley ordered, "Don't mind me over here Ains, just feed Kaya and I'll watch your smoothie!"   The ladies out for brunch and shopping! (and baby Jude) How cute are they?  Thanks Grandma for brunch! Now onto the boys!  Thankfully Brad made it, he woke up the night before with a fever and chills and felt awful but toughed it out to go to the game!  He asked if they all cared about riding up in the car with him sick and they said "let's go!" Now that's family!  Brad did take the other camera but don't expect too many pictures.  What do men have about asking someone else to take a group picture of them?  So what if his face is painted purple and yellow and he's wearing horns, he can still take a picture can't he?  He did get some good shots of the field to show us what they saw.  The big ship that Luke told me all about, apparently it deflated shortly after this?

The boys hanging out at the game.

They had great seats on the lower level that Brad got through Mayo.  I didn't get a lot of details other than that the boys were hollering the whole 2nd half and it was a great game, the Vikings won by 1 point!  

Thanks for coming up to all of our families, we had a really great Christmas with you all, and we hope you don't get sick!

Snuggly Girl and Cool Guy

After playing outside in the snow Selah likes to  snuggle in her blankie over the heat register drinking hot chocolate to warm up.   I remember doing this on cold days when I was little! Jackson is in full basketball mode everyday and now Daddy got him wrist bands at the Timberwolves game.  Matched with his I'm a member of God's team headband and his YMCA jersey from last year, I think he is for sure the coolest guy on the court!

Snow Tunnel

This morning I looked out at Jack and his buddy Sam playing in the snow and saw they had made (or I guess finished what some of the bigger boys had started) a tunnel and a fort out front.  I had to go out and take some pictures.  The better pictures would have been of me in my peppermint striped jammies, a coat, and boots holding an umbrella and taking pictures!  Clearly I know my neighbors don't care what I look like, I wouldn't be surprised if Monica posted those pictures of me. How awesome is this? It doesn't get much better than this, the week of Christmas, hanging out right before a blizzard building tunnels in the snow with your buddy!  They have proceeded to come in and have hot chocolate and cookies too!  These boys have it hard.

More Snow Pictures

We were outside the other day sending the kids down our mini hill and Brad was having a snowball fight with some of the neighbor boys. Selah and Luke didn't even notice the snowballs flying by, they went down the hill again, and again, and again! And Luke got to build his snowman with Daddy,  a day after this it warmed up a few degrees and the poor snowman's head melted off.  Luke had to go out and fix it so now our snowman has a mini head with a carrot sticking out of it. Cute though isn't he?

Love

I have really been hit lately with so many examples of what love means,  the biggest clearly being reading the Christmas story and being humanly unable to understand why God came to earth as a human baby for us because he loved us so much.

I was at New Life Family Services today and was struck by how they open their arms to help in so many ways women and unborn babies in need, without requiring anything in return just to be Jesus' hands and feet.  It doesn't matter if you are a believer or are thinking about or have had an abortion, they just want to show the love of God to those in need, no strings attached.

In a newsletter I got from Samaritans Purse I read about how in an area where shoeboxes were sent in Kurdistan, the governor, who was a Muslim said that the Christians serve with a pure heart and he would be happy to put the cross on their building with his own hands.   Christians serving with a pure heart.

My friend Jenny who misses her Mom who has gone to be with the Lord, and the lessons she has learned about loving your family and people above all, which she is sweet enough to let us all share.

My friend Roberta who has such a heart for the orphans of the world that in the five years that I have known her she is continually doing all she can to raise money and awareness for them!

That I could serve like that is my prayer, love how I am made by Christ to love, unconditionally.  In everything that I do not wanting anything in return or holding back.  Doing this because Christ first loved me. With strangers, my friends and family, with my children, and with my husband. Nothing is impossible with God right?  That was Jack's verse to memorize a few weeks back and it convicted me so much then and still is. 

Happy Anniversary Brad, we have had a big year and I am looking forward to our future.  I love you, Missy

Making Cookies

Not Pretty! I love to bake, breads, cookies and all of it, but sugar cookies make me crazy!  Our cookies never look pretty when we are done either!  I know I insist on having the kids help so what do I expect, but come on it's a lot of work and they should look pretty!  This is not one of the treats we hand out to people for sure, our misshaped cookies are just for us!  I am going to leave this to Grandma Cathy, she does a great job with sugar cookies, pretty ones. Pink sprinkles and licking fingers. The random blobs were the kids attempt at snowmen, upright snowmen mind you.  Well, there is only one way to see it won't work.  Selah didn't have an owie by the way (this time), the band aids comfort her when she gets a bonk. This was a different day of treat making and these are so easy the kids can do them all by themselves.  I got this from Family Fun magazine when Jack was Selah's age and they are really easy and taste like my favorite, chocolate covered pretzels.  More finger licking, will anyone eat our treats again?  The best part is they look pretty! Selah is in a princess dress for baking. Jack is dressed as a knight again. Luke is Mr. Serious and gets the job done. This is what they look like done, these should have had the kisses melted a little more or maybe the kids didn't press down quite hard enough but they are still cute, and yummy!

My new favorite Christmas treat is the Toffee recipe from the Make and Takes site, it is also very easy and really, really good!  I think I am making it again today.

Christmas Program

The kids sang in church this morning for the Christmas program.   Jackson did really well, he stood nice with his friends and sang out, he's the little guy in the middle. Selah stood nice with her friends, but didn't sing a word, she just stared out at the audience frozen in place! Luke was carried up to the stage crying, not wanting to participate in the program, are we surprised?  I will spare you the video!  But Brad took him to the second service to watch and while his class was singing the song, he sang out all the words perfectly that we had been practicing the last few weeks! 

Here is video of Luke and Selah singing at home, the songs they didn't sing with their class.  Also Jackson's performance.  Jack's is so bouncy I am sorry, I am TERRIBLE at video taping and then I just bounce more because I try not too.  I am warning you if you get motion sickness to take some medication before watching the last one.

Snow, lots of snow!

Daddy built the boys a mound of snow to start snowboarding, Luke was happy to try it out.... but Jack didn't think it was big enough!

Selah has been loving the snow and going out every day.

I have to brag this year, the boys are great scoopers! They did the driveway all by themselves one of the last snowfalls. I know they would be helping harvest by now if we lived on a farm, but I think that it's pretty good for my city boys!

Look at it fly!

Selah will help too, for about two minutes!

She is just too cute in her new hat though so we let it go.

Climbing the hill.

This is Jack's whiney face, I can look at his face and remember exactly the tone when he said "But Moooooommy, I can't snowboard down the little hill!"

Then after me telling him we were going to the sledding hill in a few minutes... "oh, okay"

By the way mommies, you should all get a pair of snowpants, Brad got me some this year and I love being outside now instead of wanting to go in after a few minutes. You can tramp through the snow with no worries of wet, cold pants! Sledding is so much more fun, scooping is not so bad, I was even eyeing the mound they made for snowboarding this morning! The only downside is you don't realize you should probly get the little ones in before they start having meltdowns because they are so cold!

To Bethlehem

This Christmas we got a new game to play called To Bethlehem. The kids want to play this every night they are having so much fun. There are really funny things you have to do if you land on certain squares. Brad had to wear his socks on his hands the rest of the game because he landed on one that said it was getting cold!

Jack loves the shekels everyone gets and he always wants to be the banker.

There is also a square that says you need to cover your head like a shepherd because it's getting hot. Luke thinks it is hilarious when we land on the square saying it's the last rest stop before Bethlehem and you have to go flush the toilet! We also have cards to read to talk about favorite things about Christmas as a family.

I got the game from a website called http://www.familymanweb.com/

All three in front of the tree

So the kids got new outfits for Christmas and Selah was sooo excited! She couldn't pose enough in front of the tree for her picture to be taken.

Spinning around, singing for the boys......

Wait, what happened Se? What's with the face?

Let's try Luke, not so excited about his new shirt but it is blue so okay.

Then Mr. Handsome posing nicely.

And then all three together, looking at me and smiling? Leah thinks it is very funny the way Selah puts her arm around her brothers like this for pictures, if you happened to see the pictures in the snow she really does!

Sweet kids!