Elsie and Her Bear Cake

On Saturday we did a small get-together for Elsie's 1st birthday. We had the Rasmussens come from next door and Elsie's little friend, Lise de Lijster, also came (she brought her parents, Guy and Becky, with her :) My parents came from Bend and my brother is also home on leave from South Korea right now. We all ate pizza and then watched Elsie dig into her bear cake my mom made for her. We decided to keep it low-key for this birthday as Elsie's not even aware of what's going on and Elsie's mom doesn't have the energy for large parties anymore ;)

Elsie liked her birthday cake and hung out on the table eating it casually for about 15 minutes. I decided I am a big fan of "low-key" parties, especially when I'm the one hostessing :)

Flu Mania!

Monday night began our flu "adventure" here in the Dahl household. Monday afternoon Elsie started us out by losing her dinner on our carpet (luckily we own a steam cleaner ;) Shortly after that I started to not feel so great. I was up almost every hour that night with flu "yuck" (Mike was up also). Mike started to feel sick the next day and had all the symptoms by evening. Around midnight Tuesday night Weston threw up in his bed (all over his bed, clothes, stuffed animals, etc). An hour later Grace started in with her symptoms. Weston and Grace took turns the rest of the night being sick which ended up being about every 15 minutes throughout the night. I think I did 5 loads of laundry that night alone! Even though it was hard, and we were exhausted and sick, it felt like God gave us an extra dose of patience and energy that night to make it through.
It's now Friday and the kids are still not feeling great. It's hard to see them just sitting there with no energy or spunk. Thankfully, Mike was able to take 3 days off work, but he's back to work today. We've been hunkered down all week trying to get better. Sometimes it feels like it's never going to end! It's made me realize how tough it must be for people dealing with chronic illnesses with no end in sight. I'll gladly take the flu with a good attitude when I think about it from that perspective! Here's a few photos from our week. Grace is especially good at looking very ill and forlorn ;)

Elsie is 1 Today!

Here's a few photos of Elsie on her 1st birthday! I caught her just as she was waking up from nap so she's a little cranky. Over her crib I stenciled a verse that Mike and I have chosen to pray for her. The font wasn't what I was picturing and it turned out a little bigger than I wanted, but I've gotten used to it and now I really like it. In the second photo you can tell she was trying not to smile but couldn't quite keep her cranky face on.

Weston Writes His Own Name!

Here's a photo of Mike's birthday card from Weston. I went over to Julie's for a minute and when I got back he had written his name all by himself! He's been working very hard practicing his letters on a little dry erase board. It's amazing how fast kids learn! Grace loves to write her name also but, so far, she's the only one who can read it :)
By the way, Mike turns the big 30 on Friday and Elsie is 1 today! How fast time flies!

Backyard Fun

Here's a few photos from playing outside on Friday. As you can see we've had a bit of rain lately ;) I dressed the kids up in their snow bibs to try to keep them dry (it didn't really work). Even though we're still sad about not having grass this winter, the kids sure did have fun in the mud!

Laelie also joined in on the fun!

Holding Baby

Here's Grace holding a new baby. Baby Kayla, is the daughter of our friends, John and Beth Opferman. We went over to see their new baby after we attended the adoption party for the Chupps. Lot's of new baby girls to hold! Grace is in heaven!

Adoption Blessing!

Here's a picture of our friend, Kara, holding her new baby girl, Selah Noelle. Jason and Kara Chupp just adopted Selah from here in the U.S. through a private adoption agency. Selah is their 4th child as they have 3 natural children already. I took this picture at Southwest Bible Church where we went last weekend for a little adoption party. We are so excited for their family to be blessed in this way. John and Noelle Piper greatly influenced the Chupps to welcome another child into their home through their website, Desiring God, and specifically their own experience with adopting a daughter. Here's a link to an article from their website.

Christmas with Carrie's Parents

My parents came to visit over New Year's weekend. They were nice enough to babysit the kids on Saturday while Mike and I went to a friend's wedding reception in Newberg. On Saturday we did our Christmas with Papa Craig and Memaw Mary which was Christmas #3 for us and Christmas #2 for them. We barely mustered enough strength to open more presents ;)
On New Year's Eve my parents treated us to dinner at Claim Jumper's restaurant and then we repaid them by whipping them at a game of Hearts when we got home!

Elsie loved the bright colors and the big boxes.

My brother sent Weston real army camo paint, flight patches, and an army hat from South Korea.

Christmas in Spokane

For Christmas we drove up to join Mike's family in Spokane for four nights. We had a wonderful time although most of us were sick with various ailments. Mike's mom hasn't been feeling well, we all had colds, Mike got the flu, and his brother, Tim, had pink eye. We were a pretty sorry group the Saturday before Christmas (especially Mike). Despite not feeling 100% we had a great time spending time with family, playing in the snow, visiting John and Shirley's church for a Christmas Eve service, and just relaxing. John and Shirley prepared a wonderful Christmas dinner of roast, crab, and other delicious side dishes. Unfortunately I realized later that I didn't get any photos of the kids in their snow clothes or of the snowman they built together. On the day Mike was sick Tim was kind enough to go out with the kids, build a snowman and pull them up and down a hill to sled.

You always have to do a bow on the baby's head.

One package was mismarked so that Weston opened Grace's pink poodle puppet from John and Shirley.

Tim graced us with this sweater all day on Christmas. The best thing about the sweater is that all the polar bears on the sweater are wearing Christmas sweaters too!

This is Grace with her new Aunt Christi. Eric and Christi also live in Spokane and were married in October.

Little Christmas at Home

Here's some photos of our "at home" Christmas. We began our celebration by finishing up our advent calendar. We have an advent calendar that includes reading the Christmas story and placing one "character" under the stable every day. We decided Elsie would place Baby Jesus in the manger this year (this avoided whining from Weston and Grace).
The advent calendar is one of the highlights of our Christmas and helps the kids grasp the significance of the our Savior's birth. They became very good at playing "Mary and Joseph" over the month of December. They would stuff a doll up Grace's shirt and she would ride the little plastic scooter (this was the pretend donkey). They would arrive at the stable (under the kitchen table) where Jesus was born. Usually it was during the day that they would play so I was the only one there to be the angel, shepherds, wise men, and innkeeper. This game is especially a favorite of Grace.
After the advent calendar we sang some Christmas carols which included "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". We sang this song at least once a day during the month of December so Mike and I are quite good. Grace belts this one out very well and even opens her mouth very wide to form all the words just like people in real choirs :)
We finally moved on to our stockings, which are always fun, and then on to our presents.
It ended up being a wonderful evening and left Mike and I feeling very blessed and thankful.
We are so thankful that God sent His Son to be born as a man and to die to pay for our sins!
A gift that none of us deserve yet He gives to us freely!


Weston and Grace each got their very own box of fruit snacks! Whoo-hoo!

The kids' big gift was a mini-trampoline. They love to jump their energy out and I love it too!

Here's the kids with their stockings. Elsie's was empty but she didn't mind ;)