Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Adventures in Snowmobiling!

Tuesday morning we drove out to Beaver Creek Lodge where we rented snowmobiles for the day! We followed a trail going 14 miles north into Idaho.
The state lines were marked on each side of this tree.


We entered Idaho just a couple of miles into our ride.

Papa & Ashlee


A view as we were coming down the side of a mountain.


We arrived at our destination for a warm lunch! (a very little cafe at a very little town in Idaho)


All of us before we left the cafe!


Papa & Ashlee in front of the sign.


We had a great time and the scenery was just beautiful. At one point the trees were so tall and everything covered in snow, and I told Michael, "talk about a winter wonderland". It was so beautiful!



Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve just before we left for church. The kids led the song Angels we have heard on high. Madilynn went up, Elizabeth wasn't old enough yet. I got it on video, but it's too long to post! Here she is as she was coming back to her seat.
When we got home we made bagel pizzas and white chocolate/peppermint popcorn!

Christmas morning before breakfast we read the Christmas story....(I thought it was cute how Elizabeth is pointing to Jesus on the little nativity)

and put on the last figure - baby Jesus!

Then we lit the candles for Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy. We put them all together and lit the candle in the center that symbolized Jesus. We kept it lit all day.

For breakfast we had french toast with strawberries, scrambled eggs, and bacon. French toast was special since that's what we had on each of our birthday's for breakfast this year, so it was only fitting we had it for Jesus' birthday as well!

I thought this picture was so funny, so I had to include it...it looks like the girls are posing - so funny that they are doing the exact same thing.

the girls


ready to dig into their stockings!




Madilynn took our picture - she did a great job!

Madilynn with her new hat

Elizabeth with her new bunny hat

Our family - Christmas morning (gotta love that timer!)

Then the girls opened their gifts from Granny & Pepaw while they watched on skype. Cat bicycle helmets!

The rest of the day was spent together playing their new games Candyland and Let's go Fishing. We made a roasted chicken for a late lunch that was so good. Then after naps we watched the movie "The Nativity Story" all together. Madilynn was so into it and was counting the days of Mary & Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, she couldn't wait to see baby Jesus born.


Afterwards we had some snacks and they colored their nativity pictures...

and decorated with Happy Birthday Jesus stickers!



We had a great day together and loved being at home to celebrate our Savior's birth!


Then at about 7:30pm Nana, Papa, and Ashlee arrived to spend the week with us!




"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."


Matthew 1:23

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas Cookies

This past Sunday we lit the last of the four outer candles which stood for joy. The girls are coloring what Joy looks like to them. What a fun activity! It's been so cool to see what they color each week!

Eva just a swingin' by the table enjoying us singing too!
thought it would be fun just to capture an everyday moment!

Can't leave Eva out...here she's in the swing again while we baked cookies yesterday!

Just after breakfast the girls helped me make cookies for our neighbor's for Christmas.

They really enjoyed washing everything for me as we finished!

Putting them in packages

All ready to go! I included Isaiah 9:6 onto the little card.

All bundled up and ready to deliver the cookies!

The girls were so excited to give the cookies. They took turns giving them out!


We made another batch this afternoon to add to the ones from yesterday to take for dessert for our small group dinner!

I love making special cookies for Christmas each year and sharing them! When we're in Arkansas we give them to family and friends for Christmas and it was fun to get to share with our neighbor's this year! It's so fun to get to share this time with the girls too!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Seven Years

Today is our 7th Anniversary!


We went out to celebrate last night. Some friends (the Cook's) came over to take care of the girls for us and we went out to eat at our favorite place Elements. We also got to do a little shopping!

It's kind of hard to believe seven years ago it was just us...and now we are a family five!

We thank God for all of our many blessings!!
And still, we wait to see what God has planned for us!

And just because...here's a picture of Eva before church this morning!


Reading, Singing, Laughing..Oh my!!!

Lately, Eva turns onto her side (from her back) I think she's trying to roll all the way over onto her belly but she hasn't gotten there yet! She can scoot herself around on the blanket though.


Here's the picture we're adding to one day at a time till Christmas, while telling the Christmas story (Luke 2) everyday...
Madilynn has been doing really well with her reading lately and has progressed to copying words that I write and then writing words that I say. She wrote 'got' and 'she' from me saying them, then she decided she wanted to write 'I got a fish' so she sounded it out and did it!


Another day she wrote this sentence. (She loves cats and loves playing cats- all the time!) (And no, we don't have one and don't plan on getting one!)


Friday night I took the big girls and we went to see a Christmas figure skating show at the local ice arena. The girls had fun and I enjoyed getting to do that with them! We only made it through half the show and left at intermission for bedtime.


Also, Friday night Daddy put the table back up in the dining room...it's all finished and looks great! Now we are on the lookout for 6 new chairs!


So, onto the Singing! Elizabeth has been singing a lot lately and can now sing her ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, and I've even caught her singing along to the radio. The song on the radio I notice her singing is called 'Your Name' and she sings 'Shout your name, shout your name filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise, Yahweh, Yahweh' it's so sweet!



Singing her ABC's



Jesus Loves Me




Peace like a river



Eva is starting to giggle some lately and I tried to catch it on video, I think I got it a little bit here right at the beginning...


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Eva is FOUR months old!

*Update* Since her doctor appt. this morning Eva weighs 14lbs. 140z. and is 25in. long! She was in the 75th percentile for both height and weight! She surprised me, I was guessing she'd weigh about 13lbs.

Eva we can't believe you are four months old already! You're getting so big, but yet I see that you are still so little! We go to the doctor on Monday, so we'll have to update her weight and height then.

She is such a good sleeper and still sleeps a solid 9hrs. at night! By this age the other girls were going 4rs. between bottles, but I haven't felt the need to change Eva's schedule yet, it's still working well for all of us that she has a bottle every 3hrs. If I change it, it may lessen her nightly sleep by an hour and I don't see why I need to do that if she's sleeping so well, so we'll see. I'm sure we'll adjust to some sort of new schedule once she starts some solid foods in the next few weeks.

She loves to smile and coo and talk to us, sometimes long conversations. Lately we've been able to get some giggles out of her and they are just precious! I'll have to try to get a video soon.


I've noticed the last couple of days when I put her down on a blanket to "play" and few minutes later she'll be turned around opposite from where I put her. So, in other words she can turn herself in circles on her back. She's trying to roll over from her back to belly and she gets all the way onto her side and that's how she does circles it's so funny to watch. She doesn't stay still that's for sure!
She's doing better with tummy time and will "play" a little now before getting fussy. She's started playing with toys more now, everything goes to her mouth. And her favorite thing is to try to fit her fists in her mouth.

Elizabeth wanted to get in on the picture taking. I love how Eva is looking at her!


All the girls - so sweet!


They love each other so much! After baths tonight Daddy brought Eva in and said night night and Madilynn & Elizabeth both gave her kisses before bed!