Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! :) We typically take family pictures after the Christmas Eve Program at church, but this year, we took pictures before we left. This seemed to be easier to get us all happy, everyone was still awake and happy! Jake was in a strange mood and thought it was funny to not look at the camera, so this is the best shot of that evening! :)

A little blurry, but here is Emily and Jake singing with the 3-1st grade church choir - they sang a song about a little wooly lamb, Jake didn't get the message to put down the sheep mask, so he's still holding it up during the second song also!

Jenna and I spent most of the program playing in the nursery. She was so thrilled to not have to sit still! She is loving getting to push this car around whenever we stop in the nursery! Soon she'll be walking all over! Yikes!

Cousin time!!

We enjoyed a great day on Sunday. Matt, Danielle and Britton came for lunch and we got to spend a little time with all of them, then we had a Pauls gathering in the evening and the kids each got to share a little snuggle with her to wake her up while Aunt D was feeding her!

House Update

From the outside the house is looking pretty complete - work continues inside. We still enjoy a regular visit to the house to see what the workers accomplished since our last visit (often daily).

Emily and Jake find somthing to do each time we're there - here they are playing hide-n-seek with the cabinets prior to the upper set going onto the wall. This cabinet is now up and will be above our microwave. It will probably be fun for them to remember them playing in this when they get bigger and it seems hard to imagine fitting in the smallest cabinet we have!



This is a view of our kitchen from the front door, standing in the living room.




Kitchen cabinets really make it seem like we're getting closer. Here we see the kitchen from the dining room side.

Happy 60th!!

"Happy Birthday to you!"
Pat's mom celebrated her 60th birthday last Monday - we enjoyed an evening out with them to celebrate. To make things more special, my mom came to watch the kids so we could visit and eat in peace with Pete and Marilyn and Matt and D. It was such a fun evening. I am so blessed to have such great in-laws. And I'm not just saying that because we live with them right now! Having a husband who grew up in a home that taught him to love the Lord is more of a blessing than I probably even know.

We were happy to leave our kids at home, but just as excited that Britton joined us! Here is Grandma at 60 with Britton who was only two weeks old! Such a content little baby!

Why can't I accomplish anything??

Because of this darling girl! Jenna has been on the move for quite awhile now (pour third child, I can't even remember without looking at her baby book!!) and she is into EVERYTHING! Emily and Jake try to help her stay out of things, but that is usually with a tackle ending in tears! So for now, I'm getting lots done only at the expense of what Jenna can find in the meantime! :) She LOVES books and has fun looking at them, I just have to be watching so she doesn't get too into them and pull things out!


Jenna is busy crawling all over - soon she'll be walking, then I'll laugh at this post because things will be even more busy!

Jenna's latest thing is to share - she likes to hold things out for others to take. She really gets a kick out of sharing her drink with me - I make sipping sounds and the imitates them! It makes me laugh each time!

I love this little lady, even if she is adding to the chaos we call home right now!! I can't believe we'll being singing "Happy Birthday" to her in a few weeks!! How did this year slip by so quickly?? Tonight as I cuddled her before putting her in her crib, I held her sleepy body extra close and tried to forever pin that memory in my heart - soon she'll be too big to cradle in my arms --- until then, I'll cherish each chance I get!

Britton Nicole

We happily welcomed our first neice into the world this evening! She has given her mommy quite a challenging pregnancy, so we have all been counting the days until we could take turns holding her. Danielle and Matt are so thrilled. We are excited to watch them being Mommy and Daddy. They will be such wonderful parents!! Please keep them in your prayers as they begin the miraculous adventure of parenthood!

Britton - praying that you will be a blessing to your parents and to the One who created you! I can't wait to see how the Lord will use you for his Kingdom! We already love you SOOOO much!

Giraffes, Princesses, Ladybugs and a fever...

This Halloween was pretty simple for us! Emily created her own outfit from her dress-up clothes, Jake changed his mind hourly until it was time to finally get dressed to go out, and Jenna felt pretty crummy all day, she had a fever, but was patient with us as we put her in her ladybug jacket.


Jake was excited to put on his giraffe costume, and a little shy for pictures.

Grandpa and Grandma were in Florida for work on Halloween, so we snuck out the garage door and rang the doorbell the night before to come "trick-or-treating" at their house while they were still home - you'll notice that Jake was a construction worker. All along that was his plan, but he changed his mind daily about how he would dress up. We had the giraffe costume in a bag of hand-me-downs, and I just had him try it on to see if it fit and then he decided to wear that the next night.