March Update

The big news around here lately is that we are looking to buy a house and possibly rent out the duplex. The house buying process has been quite the roller coaster ride this month. Although it's been a difficult process, it's been awesome to see God answer our prayers in many ways. We also have learned more about ourselves and each other. We have learned that when we walk into a house, I'm all-out optimistic. I emotionally fall in love with everything about a house. I don't want to hear anything negative (rose-colored glasses). Mike, on the other hand, walks in and sees everything "concerning" about a house. After the first tour of homes, we left with my feelings hurt and him feeling like I was bullying him into liking homes. We learned fairly quickly to just let the other person have space to have their own opinion. We don't have to agree right away. We figured out the best way to agree on a home is to sit down together and make out a pro/con list. This makes the good and bad things about the home tangible so we don't end up arguing or with hurt feelings. After 10+ years of marriage we are still learning things about one another!
We currently have an offer in on a house very close to the duplex. We both feel good about this home and think it would be a great place for our family for at least the next 3 to 5 years. We'll keep you posted on the outcome!

Here's Elsie with our naughty puppy. Joy loves to chase Noah and steal a sock off his foot, so he'll chase her around.
We have all enjoyed having a dog again. She has a very sweet personality and loves the kids. We have to baby gate the stairs at night so she doesn't sneak upstairs and wake the kids to play with her.
The other morning, I was thinking about how Joy wakes up so excited for the day. She bounds out of her crate in a frenzy of happiness. She greets the kids and I as if she hasn't seen us in ages. She attacks her toys and rolls around on the floor in glee. I have to admit I'm jealous of her energy and spunk. :) I wish I woke up every morning with that much excitement for the day to come! Of course, maybe I would be that excited if my responsibilities were limited to sleeping, eating and playing.

Joy with her contraband sock.

The girls love to snuggle with their puppy!

Elsie is so proud of her puzzle skills. This is a 100-piece puzzle and she did really well putting it together (with some help)!

Grace loves puzzles and Fancy Nancy! This is one of her birthday gifts.

Grace is 6!

Here are a few photos to celebrate 6 years with our sweet girl!
February 24th, 2005

1st birthday party

Age 2

Age 3.5, with Noah.

Age 4

My mom threw Grace a ballerina/heart birthday party in Bend the weekend after her birthday. Her cake was a base of red velvet cake, a heart of white cake, and ballet slippers with ribbon.

Although Grace was disappointed she wasn't going to have a "friend" party this year, she loved being at Papa and Memaw's house with all the snow. My aunt, cousin, and my cousin's daughters were also able to attend the party. My cousin and her girls are from Arizona, so it was a special treat to have them there.

We are so blessed to have Grace as our daughter. I'm so thankful for 6 wonderful years and pray we get to enjoy many, many more as we watch Grace grow into a woman.

Sewing Class

I'm not sure how it happened, but I found myself caught in a promise to teach the kids to sew this week. A friend from church put some extra fabric in a bag she gave me on Sunday. The kids happened to be sitting at the table when I pulled it out. Somehow the words, "I could teach you guys how to sew with this" just popped out of my mouth. Oops. The problem is that I really don't know how to sew myself :) I can sew straight lines with a machine but not much else. The kids were so excited about sewing I didn't have the heart to back out. I did, however, manage to delay it until Friday and get a return promise that they would work really hard on home school this week and finish their work by Thursday.
Somehow I kept my promise and they are about halfway done with their little pillows. Our stitches are definitely not pretty, and I'm not sure I'm teaching them correctly, but we're having fun! I think I can safely say we will never be sewing our own dresses (I realize this does make us "B" team homeschoolers), but I'm okay with that.

Grace is sewing her pillow slowly and carefully. She cried a few times when she messed up. I keep telling her it's okay, she can't ruin it.

Even Elsie got in on the action with a little heart pillow. I might have to go back over her stitches and do some reinforcement stitches, but she did wonderful for 4 years old!

Weston was most excited about the sewing. Not excited about the photo though.

Happy 4th Birthday Elsie!

Elsie's special request for her 4th birthday cake was rainbows and Hello Kitty. My mom came up with this cake made from a rainbow of M&M's and two cute kitties. We all thought it turned out so cute!
I've been remembering back to when Elsie was born and the craziness surrounding our home purchase, remodeling, c-section, new infant, and moving all within 1 month! It was a very difficult time, but also so joyful! We have now been at our duplex with the Rasmussens for 4 years and we are still enjoying our home and our friends. Elsie has grown into such a sweet and fun little girl. She is quick to laugh and joke and also quick to pull out the pouts. Elsie has a special fondness for sweets (more than the other kids) and loves to color and cut paper. She can sit for hours at the dining table doing crafts with the bigger kids. She is pretty shy away from home and is not known for being friendly toward strangers, but she really knows how to cut loose at home. As a 4 year-old she still follows what Weston and Grace are doing most of the day. We pray she will learn to be a leader as she learns more about whom God has created her to be. Elsie's speech is continuing to improve and she enjoys going to a preschool speech class on Wednesdays. This girl loves to be in the kitchen helping! We are so thankful for our little "Elfie" Noelle! It's so fun to picture what she might be like in 10 or 15 years!

This is at our special Red Robin birthday date on Friday night. We like to take each of the kids out to dinner alone around their birthdays. With 3 other siblings they rarely get to spend time with Mike and I alone, so we enjoy this tradition. It worked out great that Elsie wanted Red Robin since she got a free kids' meal for her birthday and Mike got a free burger for his birthday (the 18th). They both also got free ice cream sundaes, balloons and the birthday song :)

3 years old

2 1/2 years old

2 years old

21 months old

9 months old

2 or 3 months old

2 days old

1 day old

Christmas Puppy!

I forgot to post a few photos of our new labradoodle puppy, Joy. I'm sure most probably saw these on Facebook, but I'll post here also.
This was the day we picked Joy up 5 days before Thanksgiving. She has already over doubled her weight since then. She is expected to be about 25 pounds fully grown.

This photo cracks me up with her tongue sticking out.

First day home with Joy.

There were many outtakes before we got this photo with everyone looking ahead.

Christmas puppy!

For some reason this photo always flips sideways when I try to post. These are the stockings I made with my mom and my friend, Judie. I was really happy with how they turned out and I have a new appreciation for anyone who sews. Hours and hours of work went into these. I don't think I will be tackling any sewing projects for a long, long time!

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here are a few new photos from December.
We had a blast decorating sugar cookies with our friend, Naomi. Well... most of us decorated anyway. Some of us, like a certain unnamed 2 year-old, only consumed the cookies or enjoyed pounding them until they were just bits of crumbs.

Cookie decorating station.

The Dahls hard at work.

I could not resist a photo of these two. Elsie went upstairs and came down totally decked out in ballerina stuff. She even added the pink bow herself. Noah spends most of his day in these cowboy boots that are about 2 sizes too big for him. He even wears them to nap and bed. I did have to make a rule that he wear socks with them. They were starting to stink!

This is a sword Weston bought for Noah for Christmas. I was proud of Weston for using his own money to buy gifts for his family.

Noah was certainly into opening gifts this year. He got in trouble more than once for sneaking and opening other people's gifts in Spokane.

Here is Elsie with her princess shoes and wig. We bought the girls princess outfits for Christmas, complete with shoes and long, braided wigs. The only problem with the wigs is Joy thinks they are some sort of animal. If the girls wear their wigs around her she jumps up and attacks their heads.

I posed Elsie for some photos in Spokane. She's just being silly here :)

This girl wins the prize for fake, cheesy smiles.

Pretty photo of our soon-to-be 6 year-old.

Sisters in plaid.

Cousins in plaid. Baby Vera is 5 months old now! She is such a happy engaging baby. We are all wild about her!

Kyle and Haley bought Noah this cowboy outfit for Christmas. He loves it!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Recent Happenings

The other day I asked Weston and Grace to finish pulling and wash the carrots from our garden. I couldn't figure out what was taking them so long. There were more carrots than I realized, but they were also being very detailed with their washing and drying. Notice the drying system they came up with.

Unfortunately, the carrots were getting dirty again from the dirt on top of the wood. Oops.

Today Mike helped me finish up some homeschooling I didn't quite finish this week. We are studying the history of the United States and are at the Revolutionary War. The kids made their own tricorn hats and goatees. I don't think the Yankees wore goatees, but the kids looked cute anyway! They even practiced their marching to "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

Watch out Redcoats!

Noah came in from playing to say "hi" to me the other day. I'm not even sure what to say to this one. I think you can tell he's got an older brother AND older sisters :)