Our Year in Pictures....

Happy New Year!

2008 was a wonderful year. Not perfect, but non the less wonderful. These pictures capture those wonderful times. Behind the scenes there were crayons on the wall, chips in the paint, arguments, pouting, cars to be repaired, sleepless nights, fussy babies, crabby Mommies and even stomach flu's (Karis has one right now:(). But we made it! And God was with us through it all.

So grab yourself a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy 2008 in pictures........

January

My 33rd birthday with my cake made by my sweet girls. (Daddy helps a bit too:)

February

My kitchen help.

The beginning of the "fort" tradition.

March


Babies growing bigger!

Spring Sings to enjoy.

Mini Vacations to unwind.

April

8 year olds to celebrate.

American Girl Doll to visit.

May
(what a month for us!)

Libby Lu with friends.
Eric's surprise trip down town for me:)!

Kiera's Graduation from Kindergarten.

Senior Picnic at Moody Bible Institute.

Eric's Graduation! !!!!!

Kendra Ruth's First Birthday!!!

June

Celebrating Rinie and Kendra.

Enjoying leisurely summer days together.

July

Parades to march in.

Fests to enjoy.

August

Family Pictures.

Yogi Bear Vacations.

1st Grader's and 3rd Graders to send off to school. Pre-schooler's to teach at home:).

September

3 year olds to celebrate.

Apple Orchards to visit.

October

Pumpkins to carve.

7 year olds to celebrate.

Celebrating Karis and Kiera.

November

Thanksgiving at our house.

December

Speaking at Uncle John's wedding.

Snow, Snow, and snow to play with.

CHRISTmas to celebrate.

God has been so good to us!

Love in Action...

As I mentioned before,one of the goals I have for this next year is to reach out to someone each month in the love of Christ.I'm hoping to do something out of the ordinary that we typically wouldn't do. I also want to include our girls as much as possible. December was an easy month to accomplish this since there are many serving opportunities.




One of the ways we reached out was by purchasing a Bible for a co-worker of Eric's. Eric had talked with this friend several times about the Lord and his friend was very interested. He had mentioned that he didn't own a Bible, so Eric knew then that he wanted to buy him one. Eric included a letter to him that gave a general overview of the Bible and some suggestions on where to start reading. This has lead to some great questions from Eric's friend already. I also made a batch of my pumpkin bars to give him since he likes them so much:).

Our girls weren't very involved with that. However, we did let them know what we were doing so they were aware of it. But the way we included them in our love in action this month was through a serving opportunity through our small group at church. The older girls and I (Eric had to work) went into the city and helped clean the school for Chicago Hope Academy (if you click here you can see their website.)

One of the best parts of coming along side a ministry and helping out is that you get to learn about what they are doing. It was so encouraging to hear about this ministry and the founders heart in reaching out to inner city kids. We let Corinn and Kiera watch the two videos on the main page of their website so they too could learn a bit about the story behind the ministry.

And once again we learned that our family value #5 to be generous (with our time) is so true....
It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35. We had come to help and work hard, but when we left I felt energized and encouraged. God is good and faithful and He raises up ordinary people to do extraordinary things. How I pray he uses my families lives to bring hope into this hurting world!

I don't have anything planned for the coming months, but I have faith to believe God will lead me to what He has planned for us. I look forward to finding out what that is!

Merry Christmas....

We are looking forward to a week of time spent together:)!

Our Week....

I began this week feeling really yucky. My bronchitis was pretty bad and I wasn't getting much sleep at night because of it. But thankfully as the week went on, I've felt better and better with each day:). It's was an eventful week.

Monday and Tuesday I did my best to survive my sickness while caring for my family and my day care. Wednesday we were told that there was a BIG snow storm heading our way and school might be closed on Friday. I had planned to get some baking done on Thursday evening that was part of the teachers gifts for Corinn and Kiera's teachers, but because school might be closed on Friday I needed to bake on Wednesday. We had a monthly meeting with our pastor and some other couples that night so I needed to squeeze the baking in before than. Thankfully I finished it up and sent the gifts on Thursday.

Wednesday night we left our little ones with a babysitter and headed to our meeting. It was 11 degrees outside and our heater decided not to work in our van. The drive is 30 minutes. BRRRR! I am so thankful for heating in our van! It is sooo cold without it! As we were heading home that night (in our freezing van) our babysitter called and said Kendra had been coughing and threw up all over her self in her crib:(. That night was eventful!The next morning Eric woke up to a flat tire on his car.

School was called off on Friday:) and the new fort that was made this week got some use...
Eric's tire is filled, our heat is fixed in the van, and Kendra and I are coughing less! I also got a little bit more baking done on Friday the snow day....



Today Corinn and Kiera did our LOVE in Action for this month (more to come on that) and this evening we are headed to Milwaukee for Eric's family Christmas party. Busy days, but fun ones!

Our Home at Christmas.....

Welcome to our home. Four little girls are excited to greet you at the door. (One seems to want to escape ?)

Before you come in, check out our cute little snow man bench. Then hurry in...it's only 11 degrees outside...BRRRRR!

Here's our Christmas tree. We put it right in front of the window this year and it seems that it is very hard to get a good shot of it during the day because of that. It normally had a huge gate around it:). My parents bought me a new ornament every year growing up. So I have lots of them that bring back wonderful memories. We have continued that tradition with our girls and buy them a new one each year that we open on Christmas Eve.

Let me point out a few of my favorite ornaments. This one is from Eric and my first Christmas as a married couple, 13 years ago. I think it has captured our last 13 years very well....it's been quit the ride:).

This next one was a gift from my friend and day care Mom, Jennifer (thanks Jennifer:). I LOVE that is has ALL four of my girls names on it!
Since the kids let you in, I'm sure they will quickly lead you to our Rockin Around the Christmas Tree penguin and snowman from my Aunt Kathy. It plays music, lights up, and they all dance. The kids love it and I have to admit it's pretty cute:). It's one of the few decorations they can play with, so it gets lots of use most days.


What we hope to be the main focus of our decorations is our nativity scenes. The top shelves on each side of our armoire are off limits to the little ones, but the bottom shelves have ones they can play with. I love to hear Karis in her little squeaky voice say as she holds the angel, "Do not be afraid, I bring good news."

Here's a close up of my 2 favorite ones.
My grandpa made this stable. A few pieces have fallen off over the years but the older girls never want me to glue them back on. They think it looks more realistic this way:).
I think Kendra is getting bored of this tour business. She has decided to look through our Christmas/Winter books I have laid out.
I find her on the coach like this often:).


If you look right above her head you can see the girls stockings that Auntie Kimie made them (we're still waiting on Kendra's HINT HINT:)
Here's a close up so you can see the details....

Of Coarse Naomi and Cinnamon need stocking too.
Next are my snowman on the bookshelves in our dining room.
And some random nic naks and pictures. The Big picture is of Rinie in her first Christmas card appearance:). She's popping our of a box.
There aren't many decorations in the kitchen, but the few I have make me smile as I stand at the kitchen sink. My sister in law, Paula made the cute little elf jar, she's crafty like my sister.
While we are in the kitchen grab some Christmas Pretzel Treats. Grab em quick, before those little hands gobble them up.
In our Family room I have a few light up decorations above our armoire. The middle tree was painted by my Mom and the church (one of my very favorite decorations) was painted by my grandma.
This is Corinn and Kiera's Tree. I let them completely decorate it by themselves. They have it right among their Barbie Doll furniture:).
In our main bathroom I have these cute little elves. These little guys remind me of my childhood because my Mom and Grandma had them in their homes when I was growing up. I think these ones are my grandmas'.
Here's our tree at night....And our house. I wish I could show you the whole house, but we have a lamp post at the end of our drive way and the brightness interferes with my picture. But there is one more peek that Eric put lights on.

I hope you enjoyed our little tour and that you and your family have a blessed CHRISTmas!

Our Week....

This week has been filled with so much fun! First of all we took some shots of our cuties in front of the tree before church on Sunday and put together a Christmas card. This is one of the pictures on our card.
These are pictures that didn't make the card:). It seems there are A LOT more shots like this then the good ones:). (Patience is a virtue when it comes to group shots of four children:)!!!!



We were thrilled to get more snow this week after last weeks snow melted!!! Daddy went out very early one morning and shoveled a ton of snow from the street( before the plows came) and our yard to create this gigantic fort for the girls. I think he might of had even more fun than them with it.

This is the view from inside.

The highlight of our week was tonight. Eric's good friend (A.K.A. Uncle John) got married today, which we were thrilled about! His wife:) and him make such a great couple. They asked our girls Corinn and Kiera to say a few verses at their ceremony. They were SO excited to do so. Daddy and I practiced for several weeks with them and they memorized 1 Corinthians 13:4-13. They said it word for word (all by memory) today at the wedding. It truly was precious. I wish I had a better picture but I was in the front row and didn't want to be a distraction as I took the picture:).

The babies were home with a babysitter so all four of us got to have a little date at the reception.

Here's our sweet girls with Uncle John.

The rest of our weekend is filled with activities. Next week is just as full.

It's easy in these busy days to be impatient and unkind, yet God has used the practicing of 1 Cor. 13 with my girls to remind me that love is patient and kind. I pray He fills my heart and my girls heart with His love these next few weeks as we prepare to celebrate His birth.

Our Week....

Since it's seems to be harder for me to get to my blog most days, I think a recap of our weeks might have to do for now........
Monday was our first snow that actually accumulated anything. I personally think that if it is cold there should be snow on the ground. I love it! And I even love to shovel it:). All of our girls played out in the snow on Monday. Kiera made this snow man:).
Later that evening Karis had her first Dentist appointment. She is such a big girl and did so well. If you click on the picture and enlarge it you will also see her new earrings she got on Thanksgiving thanks to Auncle Kimie (her name for her:)
On Wednesday and Thursday I made these cupcake pops as goodies for my cookie swap planned on Friday. They took some time to make, but are really cute and worth it. Wednesday was also the night that I took the 2 older girls to Wackie Wednesday at our roller rink. We had a lot of fun for the first 20 minutes until Kiera fell. When she did a little girl was skating backwards, not paying attention, and fell right on top of Kiera forcing Kiera's little face into the rink floor. She bit her lip pretty badly and chipped her front tooth. And no it wasn't a baby tooth:(. It was pretty upsetting for Kiera. But once she calmed down and accepted what happened she started having fun with it:).
Friday night I hosted my 3rd (or 4th?) Cookie Swap with some neighbors and friends. It's a fun night of games, laughing, and yummy treats. We all bring a baked good to share along with the recipe. It's a great way to try some new Christmas treats.

Today was spent getting Kiera's tooth fixed. It was a BIG chip, but thankfully it didnt' damage her nerve (Atleast we think it didn't. We are waiting on the x-rays to make sure.). Her tooth already looks as though nothing happened. And being the brave little girl that she is she already went right back to skating. Today was a friend of her's skating party. Corinn and Karis played out in the snow while Kiera was at the party and Kendra napped.

Tonight our plans are to eat dinner, bake a few cookies,give baths/showers, and then cuddle while we watch a movie. Nothing is cozier to me on a snowy night with Christmas lights shining:)! Eric is at a ministry event at our church so he will be missed.... but my sweet girls are so fun to hang out with.

I haven't done as much as I did last year to plan for our Christmas. But I'm hoping to start a new advent nativity I purchase at a Mom's retreat this Fall. I also plan to read our Christmas values to our girls to refresh us all on what we value most at this time of year. I want to make sure once again that our focus is on Christ...not on the presents, events, the baking, or the hustle and bustle of this season. He is so Worth spending several weeks of our year to focus on!

Even though this picture wasn't taken this week, I wanted to include a picture of Kendra Ruth:)! Don't you just love her smile!

Only God Knew....

That today would be our first "real" snow of the year. Karis has been asking us since September when it was going to snow. We would reply, "Only God knows that."

She could not wait to try out her new to her snow clothes.

Kendra enjoyed it too:). She just kept laying down and looking at it:).

I LOVE snow:).