The Weather Outside is Frightful!

We're all hunkered down here in Gresham while the storm rages outside. It's kind of cozy being snowed in for a few days. I'll have to take some of this "down" time to post some new photos soon and get back to my personalized child updates I started (I only got as far as Weston). I hope you're all staying warm!

Snow Day!

Here are Mike and the kids enjoying the snow this past weekend. Elsie made it about 2 minutes before she fell in the snow and wouldn't stop crying. She ended up taking a nap while the others played :) Weston looks upset in the photo because he had just been hit in the face with a snowball by his daddy. Mike says the wind blew it in his face, but I have my doubts. ;)
I'll do another post soon with some of my brother's professional photos!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great time in Bend Thanksgiving weekend! Kyle was able to fly out from Georgia so we enjoyed time with him and Haley all weekend. We had a special time of sharing what we are thankful for during our meal. My aunt, Peggy, was able to join us on Thursday as well. We ate and ate and ate!
The photo above is of Weston and Grace with their new scooters. My parents gave them their Christmas presents early so they could enjoy them in Bend. Elsie enjoyed riding the scooters so much (with help) that they went out and bought her one also for Christmas! I think Noah will have to wait awhile for his ;)
One of the best parts of the whole weekend was that my brother took professional photos of our family! As you can imagine, with four small children going to a photo studio is a nightmare. Kyle got great shots of the kids casually playing and some wonderful "posed" shots of the six of us together. Even a couple with all of us looking in the same direction! If you cannot appreciate how hard this is you may refer back to my blog for Dec '07 when Mike and I tried to get a few Christmas photos with only 3 children. What a nightmare! Anyway, once I get access to my brother's photos I'll post a bunch and order our Christmas cards!

Noah received a bath in my mom's kitchen sink. We have to be careful to wash between all the rolls!

Mommy and Noah. We have a photo of Weston about this age wrapped in the same towel.

Grace and Noah. I'm not sure why he was crying, but it obviously wasn't bothering Grace.

Bye-Bye Kitty!

We had to find a new home for our kitten. :( My allergies were very bad. I listed the kitty on Craigslist Saturday morning and had a call within an hour. A nice couple came and picked him up that afternoon to be a companion to their other kitten. They decided to name him "Spot" for the little spot on his chin. The kids were pretty upset on Saturday but have been fine since then. Mike steam-cleaned the carpets last night to get rid of the cat dander. I feel better already!

Are We Crazy or What?

So...we are officially crazy. We now (at least for the time being) are proud cat owners! We picked up our little kitty last night and brought him home, only to discover that I am very allergic to him! I knew I had some allergies to cats but I didn't know they would be so extreme. I am itchy, snotty, sneezy...the whole 9 yards. We are so disappointed as we really like him. He's fun and cute and even uses his litter box really well. The kids have been having a blast playing with him all morning. I keep telling them they have to give the kitty a rest once in awhile so they don't make him crazy :)

I'm not sure we'll be keeping the kitten due to the allergies, but we'll enjoy him while he's here.

Thankfulness Wreath

Here are a few photos of our Thanksgiving wreath. I ordered these cut-out leaves from the Oriental Trading Company catalog last year, but they didn't come in time so I put them aside to use this year. My friend, Crystal, cuts out a paper tree to put on her wall which they add leaves to (very cute). My tree last year wouldn't stay up and the leaves didn't arrive so it was quite a flop :) I opted to just tape our leaves to the mirror this year. I think it turned out pretty well! Even Elsie got involved and did some scribble leaves. If I had to guess, I think she is thankful for crayons, candy and her family...probably in that order ;) Grace and Weston even drew some pictures of Jesus on their leaves!

How true and beautiful this verse is!
I told Mike to do his best pose for this mirror shot. This is his "thinking man" pose.

Fireproof the Movie

Mike and I were able to go on an awesome date last night! My mom was in town for one of my soon-to-be sister-in-law's bridal showers and was gracious enough to babysit all 4 kids so we could go on a special date (thanks Mom!). As part of our date we went to see the movie "Fireproof" (click on red button that says "enter website" when you go to this webpage). We were a little hesistant about how "cheesy" it would be. We loved it! It was such a wonderful movie and not very cheesy at all (still slightly, but only a tiny bit :) We thought it was very encouraging, especially for anyone who is going through hard times in their marriage or will go through hard times in their marriage (so...pretty much anyone who is married!). I would recommend it to everyone to go see!
The only downside to the movie was the couple behind us who was loudly crunching, scraping, and rattling their popcorn constantly as well as talking to each other fairly loudly. When they finally finished their popcorn we thought, "whew, peace at last!". A few minutes later the man went and got ANOTHER huge bucket (they must have just won the lottery for how expensive concessions are :) We'd had it by that time and moved forward a couple of rows. You know it had to be bad for my husband to agree to move (he's very polite)!
I hope you all get a chance to go see it in the theater or rent it when it's out!

Piper Blog on Feeling Crummy

Here's a great post from the Desiring God blog about what to do when we feel crummy. If you click on highlighted words in my blog it will take you directly to the webpage I'm writing about.

Being Silly

This is a classic Elsie "pretending to be shy" look. She tries very hard not to smile :)

I let Weston and Grace lick the beaters after I made a chocolate cake. Weston reminds me of a Frenchman with a mustache.

Advent Conspiracy Promo Video