Halloween

I know it's been awhile since Halloween, but just couldn't resist posting a few pictures. For Halloween this year we went trick or treating with some friends from church. It was super fun. Elisa was once again Tinkerbell. Here she is with her little fairy friends:

Jonathan was a doggie. This is the costume Elisa wore two years ago, and it is Jonathan's absolute favorite thing in our dress up clothes. He often wears the doggie, so it was very appropriate for Halloween. 

This was the first time that the kids went trick or treating with friends. Jonathan didn't quite get it at first. At the first house he wandered inside as the homeowners were passing out candy. He was quite a ways inside by the time I got up to the front door and started calling for him to come back out. As we walked to the next house I tried to explain to him that we don't go inside, we just get our candy and leave. But at the next house once again he wandered in. Well, after the second house he seemed to get it and things went smoothly. He only wandered into one other house before we were done... funny kid.

Jonathan's Birthday

 Guess who's a big three-year old now?

newborn

1 year

2 years

3 years

We celebrated Jonathan's birthday with a simple party with family and a few close friends. It was a beautiful afternoon so we took the celebration outdoors. Jonathan is super into Thomas the train right now. He loved his Thomas cake; and I loved that I didn't have to make it. He got a little extra help from the wind in blowing out his candles... but I don't think he noticed.  

Jonathan, you are such a fun little boy. You are cute, funny, easy-going, and cheerful. You are a great playmate to your sister. I love to hear you guys giggling together. You are outgoing and like to make other people smile and laugh. You love your cars, trucks, and trains and spend hours each day playing with them. I'm so glad we have you in our family!

Easter Festivities

We had a great Easter weekend. Couldn't have asked for any nicer weather. We had a lot of fun with friends at our church's annual Easter egg hunt. Then went to church on Sunday and then headed out to Grammy's house for the afternoon.

I taught the 3-5 year old class during church. Which, honestly, I wasn't really looking forward to. I was envisioning a lot of extra kids in class... and it can already be a little crazy in there. But there ended up being fewer kids than normal, and it was a complete pleasure to spend the morning with them. It was such a privilege to tell them the Easter story. Of course, most of them have heard it by now, but they're still young enough that it's somewhat new. We talked about how we all do wrong things that make it so we can't be with God, but Jesus took our consequence, so that now we can know God. One little girl adamantly refused to admit that she had ever done anything wrong. When I asked if she'd ever gotten a time out she said that once a really really long time ago she had gotten a time out. One little girl was looking more and more serious as the story went on. Then when Jesus raised from the dead she looked relieved, and broke into a little smile. For some reason, being with the kids made Easter fresh and real to me in a way that sitting through the service wouldn't have. It ended up being a total blessing.

After I had told them the story, we broke out a small set of resurrection eggs that I had made up. I just did 6 eggs (bread, cross, cloth, rock, angel, empty) and had a child volunteer to open one and show it around. Then had the kids tell me about that part of the story. It's such a great activity for kids this age. They loved it, and we ended up going through them twice. Today, I had Leesi go through them with Jonathan and tell him the story while showing him the eggs. They did it quite a few times, and then Leesi said that she wanted to do it with Arthur (a baby I watch), so she did it with him too. Arthur did his part by happily chewing on an egg.

At Grammy's house we had a wonderful lunch with the family. Then relaxed (I even napped!) for awhile. Leesi and I made resurrection rolls in the afternoon. When Jonathan opened his up we explained that it was empty just like Jesus' tomb. Jesus isn't there anymore, he's risen! Jonathan kept on looking in his roll and then saying, "It's empty! He's not there. He went away." I don't think he had the slightest clue what we were talking about, but it made some sort of impression on him nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Chocolate face after the church Easter Egg hunt.

Dying eggs.

Jonathan kept asking, "Can I eat it now Mommy?" I finally gave in, and he spent most of the time peeling and eating the eggs while the rest of us dyed them. (By the way, he's wearing an apron, not a sundress... at first he didn't want an apron, so we took his shirt off. Then he decided he did want one, so we put one on... made for quite the fashion statement.)

Doing a fun cross craft from my friend Christa's blog. As we were doing it Leesi told me, "This is going to be the most beautiful craft I ever made." So sweet.

Easter morning and on our way to church.

Leesi proudly showing off the eggs she found in Grammy's yard.

Happy Birthday!

To my wonderful husband, Greg...

who makes me laugh when I need to lighten up,

who folds countless baskets of laundry without complaint,

who is an expert bath-giver and tummy tickler,

who is always up for an adventure,

who works tirelessly to build relationships with and mentor students,

who loves me well, even when I'm not so easy to love.

I love you Babe.

Happy Birthday!

Hello Kitty Birthday

Elisa will turn four tomorrow. On Friday we had her birthday party. She wanted a Hello Kitty party. Which was super easy to do, since Hello Kitty is absolutely everywhere right now.

At Jonathan's birthday party back in October. I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Every time Jonathan saw me he said, "Momma! Momma!" In this heartbreaking way. Like, "It's been sooo long since I've seen you, where have you been?" I learned some things the hard way from his birthday party:

1) Do easy food.

2) Don't try to decorate the cake the day of.

3) If possible, delegate! And talk about any expectations you have of your husband.

4) If you aren't throwing the party in your own home, but need to do set-up and decorations in the party location, give yourself adequate time.

5) Remember that the point is to make a fun and memorable day for the birthday boy/girl... not to impress others or outdo yourself in some way. It will be more fun for them (and you) if you are not stressed out!

This time around, the party preparations went much more smoothly. We ordered pizza; and I assembled fruit, veggie, and cracker/dip trays. So the food was easy. I did the cake the night before. I had Greg make the balloon flower decorations while I was doing the cake (I'm so glad I did this, since these ended up being a little more complicated than one would think). I started decorating the lounge where we had the party the morning of, instead of waiting until the hour before. And I paused to refocus myself and pray the afternoon before the party instead of frantically working all day. The fruit kebabs turned into a fruit plate because I ran out of time, but I was in a much better frame of mind by the time the party rolled around. I had a great time at the party. I was able to talk to my guests, and enjoy watching the kids play. I think Leesi had a great time too.

We had the party in the lounge which is separated from our apartment by a small hallway. Both doors were open, and so at one point the older kids disappeared into our apartment. All of a sudden the parents looked around and thought, "Where did all the kids go?" We found them in our downstairs, pushing the button on our Skiing Santa, who sings a little song. (He used to also actually ski across the room, but this year when I pulled him out, I found that he no longer does that.) They had this whole routine worked out of freezing in one place while Santa talked, and then starting to dance when Santa started singing. It was so cute, and it just goes to show you that sometimes the funnest party games and activities are not the ones you thought up.

Here are some pictures of the festivities:

Hello Kitty cake and kisses.

The food table (pre-food).

Greg made balloon flowers and animals for the kids

Pin the bow on Hello Kitty. Mysteriously all bows ended up perfectly placed.

Party favors and prizes

(Prizes never were given out. Prizes are a bad idea for this age, unless everyone gets one.)

What was I thinking?

The big birthday girl and Momma.

Christmas tree time

Most years that we've lived in Portland we have gotten our Christmas tree from this great u-cut place called Sandy Farms. It's cheap (this year it was $15-$20 per tree, in years past we've gotten trees for as little as $5), it's fun, and it's tradition. Every year we wonder, is it worth the drive? Couldn't we just pay five dollars more and get a tree down the street. But each year we go, and each year we love it. There's something about it, the whole experience, that we love... the drive, the search, the cold, the sawing, the hauling, the hot chocolate at the end. This year was no different. We had a great morning on Saturday finding our tree.

It was quite cold. Right around freezing. All the shady places were still covered in frost. Leesi kept saying, "I'm freezin!" and "I'm getting really icy!" So after we found our tree, and while Greg was still trying to figure out the big tree, the kids and I went back to the barn for hot cocoa. I think this was their favorite part.

We found a tree for us, as well as a tree for outside at the school's Christmas party. After some discussion about whether or not it would fit on top of our car Greg chose the largest doug fir he could find. When the workers were trying to put it through the baler, it got stuck and it took a little time and ingenuity to get it unstuck. We cheered when it finally made it through the baler. It took 4 men to load it onto the top of our car and I think it bent our roof rack a little. It was quite the adventure. But now the Christmas party will have a beautiful large tree. And we have a beautiful tree too. It's only half way decorated so far. We're looking forward to finishing it up tomorrow!

Halloween

Just wanted to post a picture from Halloween. Tigger and Tinkerbell. We had a fun time this year. Leesi is now totally old enough to realize that Halloween means she gets candy. Also, she was excited about her Tinkerbell costume (although she didn't want to wear the wings). Jonathan didn't want to put on a costume at all. But he saw some other kids in costumes, so he was a little more willing to let me put the Tigger costume on him. He started to protest a little as I put his legs in. But once it was on, he was totally fine with it. This was Leesi's costume two years ago.

We went to the school's halloween party. Greg was doing balloon animals for the kids there, which was fun. But he didn't get to go trick or treating with us. So after we were done at the party we just went around to the student apartments on campus and came home with a perfectly reasonable amount of candy.

Earler in the day on Halloween Elisa and I did a Jack-O-lantern sponge painting project. It was super fun, and has made me want to do more sponge painting!

Jonathan's Party

Last weekend we had a birthday party for Jonathan. We decided to go with a theme of "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles" since that encompasses so many things Jonathan loves. Here are some of the highlights:

A masking tape road went in a circle around the room. The kids just ran and ran and ran pushing their various big vehicles. They loved it!

A coloring table was a good place to rest for awhile after all that running.

We also had a bean pool which the kids loved. They played in the beans with various cups and small trucks. It was a popular station.

We had really yummy food. We (by which I mean Greg) grilled chicken in a yummy marinade. There were so many compliments on the chicken. We also had chicken nuggets (for the kiddos), fruit, caesar salad, crackers and cheese, chips and artichoke dip, jello salad, and bread. I tried to make a variety of things that would please both the kids and the adults.

The piece de resistance of the meal was definitely the cake. My friend Lori and I made the cake. Actually, I did the grunt work and Lori was the cake artist. She sculpted the cake and did all the decorating work at the end. Isn't it amazing? I helped her until we had gotten all the train cars frosted. Then I left to get set up for the party. When I first saw it at the party I couldn't believe how good it looked. The kids loved it too. On the caboose door you can see where a little finger tried to get in. :-)

When we sang Happy Birthday to Jonathan he sang along. He even inserted his name in the proper place. So cute. For a few weeks beforehand we had been singing Happy Birthday at lunch or dinner time and then Jonathan and Leesi would dip their fork into their applesauce, or ketchup, or yogurt and hold it out, saying "blow-out-the-candle." And we would all take turns "blowing it out". I'm not exactly sure how this got started, but Jonathan had plenty of practice blowing out the candle. So when it came time he blew out his candles, no problem.

We put up pictures of Jonathan on one wall, along with our happy birthday banner. And I put out his first year photo book for people to browse through. I love looking back on old pictures and remembering! We had a gorgeous day for the party. It was warm and sunny. You can see the beautiful sunlight streaming in the windows in this picture.

Greg and I spent a few hours (while watching t.v.) folding red and blue paper airplanes for this garland. I was trying to think of a cheap way to bring something festive to a large white room. I think it worked pretty well. Although, the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

At the end of the party we had a competition for the adults. A paper airplane contest: one piece of paper, one throw to see who could get the farthest. Everyone got into it. The kids loved watching too. It was hilarious to see all the airplanes that only made it a foot or two.

We had the party in a room on campus that's across from our apartment. It worked out great. Plenty of room for everyone and for the kids to run. But it was a little bit of a challenge in that we didn't have much time ahead of time for setup. We also had to bring everything over from our house. I was running a little behind (of course), so it was craziness right before the party started. I enlisted the help of everyone who showed up early. My parents, brother, sister-in-law, Wanda, and my friend Becca all helped with the crazy set-up process. We couldn't have done it without them. And then at the end, so many people helped us clean up. I ended the night feeling so thankful for friends and family. (And feeling like next time we're going to have a simpler party!) Overall, the party was a fun time to celebrate a little boy who has charmed us over the last two years with his smile and his funny little ways. Happy Birthday Buddy!

Happy Easter!

How siblings show affection...

Don't worry. Jonathan is not always the one getting picked on, he sits on Leesi all the time too.

For some reason they think this is a hilarious game.

Look! My kids actually match! It's rare enough to have Elisa wear a whole outfit that doesn't clash in some way. To have them match each other is like, another level. And they even somewhat cooperated for the picture: miracle.

Happy Easter to you all!

Easter Fun

What a beautiful day we had for our Easter egg hunt at church today. It was sunny and warm, a perfect spring day. It was both kids' first egg hunt, and I think it was a hit. When we got home Leesi dumped all her candy on the floor and said, "Let's count my candy." Which was such a big girl kind of thing to say. She's growing up.

Jonathan was in the 2 and under area, which meant there were a bunch of eggs just laying in the grass. He opened an egg and inside he found... fruit snacks!!! Fruit snacks are like his favorite thing ever. He held them out to me and said, "open." Then he wandered around eating fruit snacks for the rest of the time.

On a somewhat related note, I made this purse for Elisa:

I gave it to her this morning for the Easter egg hunt. At first Elisa was walking around trying to hold her eggs and her purse. She didn't quite get that she was supposed to put the eggs in the purse.

It was a great day and we're ready for all our Easter celebrations tomorrow.

Lent

Happy Ash Wednesday to you all. I don't know if that's an oxymoron or not... do you wish people a "happy day" to remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return? hmmm

As I think about entering the season of Lent this year I'm wondering what I can do to make more space for God in my life. What are the physical things I can do to help my spirit enter into stillness before God? Of course there are things that can be given up: chocolate, coffee, t.v., etc. And there are things that can be added: special times of prayer, repentance, Bible study, worship, etc. I haven't decided what I'm going to do this year yet. Have you? I want to do more than dye eggs and make baskets in preparation for Easter. I want to prepare my heart as well.

If you'd like to read more information about the season of Lent, or Ash Wednesday here's a link! http://www.crivoice.org/cylent.html

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Remember this post and this one? Well, guess what!?! I finally finished our stockings. I'm so excited about it that I couldn't even wait until tomorrow to post a picture!

I can't stop looking at them! Aren't they cute? Maybe I'll leave them up until Christmas.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today was my mom's birthday and for the first time in a few years I was able to be with her to celebrate. It was a fun to be together. Leesi was also very excited to celebrate with Grandma. She loves birthdays, particularly birthday cake and birthday presents. She told Grandma, "I am going to give you a present! I am going to give you blue pajamas!" My mom was nice enough to still act surprised when she opened the gift.

Happy Birthday Mom. I love you and I'm so happy that now we live close enough to visit you on your birthday! I have learned so much from you. Your conscientiousness in all that you do inspires me. And it's fun to watch your excitement for your grandkids. Hope this year is a great one!

Christmas kids

We had a great Christmas. It was so nice not to have to travel. We spent time with Greg's family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then spent the next few days up in Tacoma with my family.

Two of my favorite kid moments over Christmas:

A couple weeks before Christmas, Elisa requested that I put "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus" by the Jackson 5 on repeat on her CD player during rest time (she doesn't nap anymore). "Are you sure you won't get tired of it?" I asked. She assured me that that is what she wanted. So, I obliged. She listened to it over and over again for the next 2 hours. After rest time she told me, "I didn't get tired of it; I got awake of it!"

Jonathan is such a little ham... during Christmas at Wanda's he made an entrance wearing this...

...which got a great response. He was super happy with himself.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmastime! And Happy New Year! (Yes, I am a few days behind)

Christmas preparations

What we've been up to lately...

making a Christmas paper chain

cutting our Christmas tree

decorating the tree

undecorating the tree

making our own spiced nuts and packaging them up for friends

ringing bells in our church's bell choir

listening to over 200 Tubas play Christmas carols at Pioneer Square

making salt dough ornaments