Christmas Eve...

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours! 

"New Baby"

"New Baby," as the boys call our third, is as of yet of a mystery gender. Stay tuned. 

New take on the nativity...

Some interesting things happen to the nativity at our house each year...last year, 3 toy firemen were added to the scene (I'll have to dig up the picture to scan and post).
This year, I happened upon the Tonka skid steer transporting Baby Jesus back to Mary. The shepherd was driving, the angel hitched a ride on the back, and Joseph was overseeing the whole operation. I'm sure the wise men were actually bowing down to worship the Baby Jesus, despite the appearance of them being run over! :) 

Moose Ribs

Thought that since I posted pictures of this season's moose while it was
still hanging, I should post some of enjoying the final product!
We all enjoyed some BBQ moose ribs...you'll have to come try some!
 

Church nursery redefined

A few weekends ago, we were at a church in Anchorage that was hosting a TruthProject training conference. The church was absolutely huge, and the kids' center was unbelievable. Most of the kids' classrooms were off a hallway designed to look like a bush plane airstrip, and the entire ceiling, walls, and floor were painted accordingly, from the airplane tire tracks down the hallway to cartoon bears and moose meandering along. Suspended over the entrance to the hallway was the plane that had just taken off!
These pictures were taken at the climbing center. It was a huge "ship," with slides and tunnels and ramps and ladders to climb, and even an orca in the "bay" and a "shoreline" of rocks, caves, and trees to explore. The boys absolutely loved it! (I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy playing)! :)
 

Re-vamped ball toss!

The boys were just too cute, peeking out from their ball toss game.
The game is supposedly a "3-in-1," w/ a basketball hoop, pitching shot,
and ball toss, but they repeatedly have a fourth use for it...a tent!

 

Love that chocolate...

Despite Andrew's general dislike of many sweets,
Jacob loves anything that smacks of sugar...
and here he's thoroughly enjoying a brownie
w/ lots of icing on it!
Hmmm...maybe this is what he'll look like with a
beard and mustache!  

O Christmas Tree

Our tree went up the weekend after Thanksgiving...the weather had warmed up to -5 on Sunday, so out we went for the tree! (Ironically, the next weekend was 30 some degrees out). The boys enjoyed watching it come down, and of course Andrew was a big help in dragging it to the van! We're enjoying the beautiful reminder of the Righteous Branch that we are grafted into!
(Just had to include the picture of Abby curled up under the tree...I suppose I should get some pictures of the boys by the tree, too)! :)
 

Church building changes

I know I'm way behind on blogging family stuff, but I keep forgetting to post these before/after pics of the church. We had a work team and some individual volunteers come this past summer, and several people have asked to see the finished results. We were certainly appreciative of the help...it's quite the difference!
 

Skiing again!

Hurray, it's that time of year again! We've already been hitting the ski trails, and it all came back amazingly for Andrew. This is Jacob's first year on skis, and he's shuffling along, slow but sure!
Hopefully today I'll remember to take the camera ice skating. Our weather has been so cold for so long now (holding at around zero during the day), that we've already had good ice for skating for a few weeks. 

New treadmill

We recently inherited a treadmill, which Mark and I have enjoyed using. The boys have, too! Andrew often tells us that he needs "to take his exercise," usually when we're in the middle of using it!
But, he also showed us during rest time the other day that we can conveniently use it as an extra child-size bed when needed! :) 

Excuse for blogging slow-down

As some of you may have noticed, I've been pretty lax about blogging the last few weeks. So, just wanted to share with you the first official picture of the culprit! We're expecting #3 in early June...we're very excited, but quite frankly, I just don't feel well! We've been dealing with fatigue and being nauseated for weeks now. So, blogging has sort of taken a back seat!

Andrew is very excited about the new baby (Jacob doesn't really "get it" yet). Andrew is certain that it's a girl. When we told him we were going to have a new baby, he said

It will be a girl baby!

We reminded him that God would give our family what we needed...if God thought he needed a sister it would be a girl, and if God thought he needed another brother, it would be a boy.
To which Andrew replied,

You ask God tonight if it will be a sister, and He will say yes!

So, we'll see! Next appt. is Dec. 15th, and hopefully we'll get an accurate gender-reading! 

More reminders from the 4 year old...

Both boys have been battling colds the last week or so, and we've been praying with them to feel better.
At bedtime prayers, Mark had just started praying with Andrew when Andrew interrupted him,

A: Daddy, don't forget to pray for me to feel better
M: I won't forget.

Mark continued the prayer, which really wasn't that long, when Andrew interrupted again,

Daddy, aren't you forgetting something?

The prayer was promptly steered towards Andrew's health!

Manners, please.

This morning I heard Andrew sneeze, so I called "God bless you!" to him,
to which he nicely replied "Thank you."
I was quite pleased with his manners, but apparently he wasn't so pleased with mine. After a minute he called to me,

Mommy, I said 'thank you' and you forgot to say 'you're welcome.'

Oops.

Steelers game...

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed sitting down together to watch the Steelers/Broncos game...Mark grew up a Steelers fan, I grew up a Broncos fan-but we kept the peace nonetheless! (And of course the best team won)! :)
Anyway, we got out the "Terrible Towel" for cheering on the Steelers that Mark's brother David had given him a while back, and the boys sort of got in on the cheering. Andrew did alright at first, but we were not happy with his second idea of what to do with it, covering up the tv screen!  

Fun birthday present!

A friend gave Jacob a set of "Wonder Colors" finger paints and paper...the paints are colorless unless they are used on the Wonder Color paper. They have been a joy for both of us! :) 

Season Switch

We had planned on this past Saturday being our major "season switch" work day. We had to get all the outdoor toys put away before the snow really flew, switch out the gardening stuff in the shed for the ice skates and snowshoes, get snow tires out for the vehicles, etc, etc, etc.
Saturday dawned clear, bright, and only 16 degrees! It warmed up nicely to 25 degrees by afternoon, and we had a blast being outside together all day, got tons done, and the boys got their first sledding in of the season! (And our timing was perfect, as God is often good to arrange...we got 3 inches of snow the next day)! 

Kitchen help

Andrew has continued to love helping out in the kitchen! Here, he's cutting out the biscuits for us. He loves helping with everything from prep work to setting the table. His favorite food to make is pancakes, and anything else for which an egg needs to be beaten! I just keep thinking of how much he'll be able to do independently in another year after helping with everything...it's a happy thought! :)