White Christmas

We woke up Christmas morning to a winter wonderland. It was the first snow of the season and it was magical! What a Christmas gift!

Oh Christmas Tree

I love this picture. We enjoyed many nights by the tree and fireplace. Our tree was full of homemade ornaments, most of which go ruined by the flooding of our basement during the tornado outbreak. We'll have to make some more this year. There are no presents under the tree because if there were, they would all be opened. We also spread out the 15 ornaments that Molly hung on a single branch. We had a great time decorating and didn't want to take it down after Christmas.

Let it Snow

We had a bunch of snow this year! We had nearly a foot of snow on one occasion and work and school was cancelled for an entire week! We had snowball fights, built our snowman, rode around the yard on our makeshift sled, made snow angels and drank lots and lots of hot chocolate! Big fun! Nevermind that two of our three children are barefoot and without coats in this picture.

Catching Up

So, I am going to post some older pictures since it's been so long. This picture was taken just before Christmas. As you can imagine, the gingerbread house didn't last long. Amazingly, they all worked together and didn't fight. This past Christmas was really great. We made a commitment to slow down and avoid the usual craziness of the season. We missed our families but the time at home was priceless. We spent many evenings together by the fireplace. We came home from work and school and spent all of our evenings together just enjoying one another's company...playing games, reading books and hanging out in the rec room, where Matthew loves to play the Wii, Molly loves to play dollies and Emily loves to play legos (she was in the lego club last year at school). We really enjoyed the snow! I'll post a picture of that, too. We tried hard to teach the kids about Advent and to make Christmas about Christ instead of Santa. We had such a great time decorating our tree! I'll post a picture of that, too.

Molly

Sweet Mollipop! I wish I had a better picture of her in her Easter dress...she looked like such a little princess. Molly has short hair now because she cut it all off! She is three in all her glory. Whoever said that the twos were terrible did not have a three-year old! She is seeing how much she can get away with and she is sneaky. She is also more mature than her brother and sister were at her age. She is the one who scares us...she's the life of the party! She will try anything and she will do it with gusto! She loves to dance and sing and she's really good at it...like her daddy. She can pretty much keep up with the other two. She is very intelligent. Several months ago she learned to write her name. One day we found the letters "M-O-L-L" written in black sharpie marker on our walls and furniture. At the time, she didn't know how to write "Y". She's not scared of anything. If she falls and scrapes her knee, she gets up and keeps going. No tears, no bandaids...she's tough! She loves to play "dollies" and do art. She says the blessing at mealtime and gets mad if anyone else tries to do it. What a blessing she is in our family!

Matthew

Matthew is so handsome...like his daddy. He is also very smart, athletic and tender-hearted. He is our lover. Over the past year the "boy" in him has emerged. He loves to throw rocks, beat on things with sticks and leave a path of distruction in his wake. He is definitely heavier than Emily and she can't get away with as much anymore. He and Molly are pretty good buddies and he is protective of her. He loves to play Mario Bros. on the Wii and he's really good at it! He just graduated from Pre-K two weekends ago and is ready for big-kid school! (he's ready...we're not) His teeth are falling out and his smile is changing. The tooth fairy has a bad habit of forgetting to visit...woops. He has such a heart for Jesus, it's amazing what he understands about God and His love for him. He towers above all the other kids his age at school, granted, he will likely be the oldest in his class with a September birthday. He is our hurricane baby. We are so proud of the little man that he is becoming. We are so blessed to get to love on him every day.

Emily

Emily started piano lessons this evening. She came home after a 30-minute session and could play six different songs! (nevermind that they used the same three to five keys) Her teacher said that she's picking up on it really quickly and that they covered two lessons in one. She was so excited to come home and practice and show us what she'd learned. We bought a piano over the weekend and we are really enjoying having one in the house. The kids bang on it and we don't mind...the novelty will soon wear off. Emily already misses school and she hasn't even been out one week! Last summer she and I read Black Beauty. This summer we chose Anne of Green Gables. (both are books that I'd never read before) It's so great to read a chapter with her at bedtime every night. I am really impressed with her reading skills! She got all A's for the year and has been selected to be in the gifted program starting this fall. Can you tell that we are proud of her? ;) She's like her daddy...an overachiever who is good at whatever she tries. Ok, enough already. We love her so much and it is such a privilege to watch her turn into a beautiful young lady.