Christmas Weddings

This is the 3rd Christmas wedding in 6 years on my mom's side of the family. This time it was my cousin Kevin who got married on the the 20th. It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful day and luckily I got some really nice pictures. And we're all a lot prettier than on the real Christmas since we were snowed in at the farm under a couple feet of snow.
What a fine looking family:)


Here is the official crew who was snowed in at the farm just a lot prettier than on Christmas when we didn't have any reason to even get out of our Pj's.

Lydie's new BFF my cousin's wife Jasmine. She was her little shadow the whole night of the wedding. She wasn't snowed in with us but I did hear she was snowed in at her own house.


Taneah's budding Alexis was snowed in in the western part of the state. They sure are cute!

Next time I will show you some pictures of our real Christmas:)

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who prayed for baby Noah. I talked to our friends in GA and he got out of the hospital and was adopted the weekend before Christmas. God is good! Thanks for praying!

Christmas Princesses

I had the opportunity to have "girls weekend" this weekend. It just dawned on my last week that I have girls. I know you are all thinking I am crazy. Afterall, they are 5 and 2. As much as I celebrate my children's individualism, I guess I kind of think of all 3 of them as my kids. And I had a light bulb moment last week that yes, I have girls. Anyway, Aaron and Jonah went to the Vikings game with Aaron's parents and that left Sat and Sun to just the girls. Lydia made many plans, and my plan was to try my best to NOT have an agenda, and NOT try to get my things done and just BE with my girls.

Well, as I sit here and write to you I am happy to say it was a success. We played babies, and painted nails, made a trip to Claire's to buy some very fashionable fake glasses (that's my Lydia) , we had carpet picnics and slept under the Christmas tree, oh what a blessing it is to have girls. That's what I learned this weekend. I am a very blessed mommy and it makes me smile to think about how much I love them and how much they love each other.

Lydia and I had a deep conversation last night as we're lying under the Christmas tree that went something like this:

Mom:"Lydia what do you want to learn about when you get big?"
Lydia:"Well, the thing is. . .(her new favorite saying) I would like to learn about water, you know when we're in the water and Jonah can give me a piggyback ride in the water and I'm not heavy for him, how does that work?" "I'd like to learn about that."

Ok Lydia not at all what I was expecting, but cute nonetheless.

A little over a year ago I was posting about adjusting with TWO princesses in the house, today I am happy to write that TWO princesses belong in this house and I wouldn't have it any other way. Today was our little church program at church and I was so proud as the girls got up and sang, Taneah even did the actions. They were so cute and here is the proof.

"Come on ring those bells. . ."

I just couldn't resist, it's the classic, 2 year old who has to lift her dress up

My two Christmas princess

As I tucked Lydia in tonight, I thanked her for the fun weekend and asked her if she had fun. She smiled and said "Yeah, it was delicious!"

Update

I got a picture of Baby Noah this week. He's adorable. They are hoping that he will be out of the hospital by Christmas. Please continue to pray for healing for his little body and for a forever family for him.

And on to the weekend at my friends. We stayed up to late catching up on our lives, we ate too many Christmas cookies broke up a few kid fights and got to meet Baby Seth! What a sweetie. Here are some of the highlights.

Jonah wanted to be a "real" baker so my friend brought out these great aprons and we were set. He did such a great job reading the recipe cards and even figured out how to double to recipe. I love this baker boy.

Say Cheese!

Sweet baby Seth.

Prayer warriors wanted and a little randomness

*I recenty learned about a little baby who our friends in Georgia are taking care of. He has some medical needs and he needs a family. I know there are babies and kids orphaned every day all over the world, but for some reason, I can't get this one out of my mind. So if you think of it, pray for little Noah.

* Life is good here and I thank God everyday that I have been blessed with this family, this set of circumstances in this place in time.

* We are getting ready to visit some friends for the weekend, my oldest friend actually. Not that she is old but we've been friends since we were 5 and I"m thankful for her too.

* And just for some random cutness, here's a picture I took 2 nights ago.
I'm thankful for them too!

so simple so wonderful

I'm changing it up a little today. I'm going to talk a little bit about my job. I have many jobs you've heard about, wife, mother, friend, sister etc, but I have another job too. I have the privaledge of working with some of the most special little people on the planet. Four days a week, I work as an occupational therapist in a school system. I work with students in grades k-5 who have special needs. Well today something wonderful happened.

A little boy colored for the 1st time. A few great co-workers and I have been brainstorming for weeks on how we can get this little guy to color. We've tried adapted utensils, adapted writing surfaces, velcro, even a wiffle ball, nothing worked.

Now, you may be thinking how is that wonderful, kids color all of the time, well this is a very special little boy and the reason coloring is hard for him is because he doesn't have thumbs. Try doing just about anything without thumbs, it's very challenging. I had Jonah try brushing his teeth without using his thumbs, he gave up after about 10 seconds.

We made a crazy marker holder out of the top of milk jug and he did it. He colored- red, orange and blue-- in case your interested. The louder I cheered the more he colored. You can imagine I did everything short of standing on my head to keep him coloring. So there you have it --coloring--something so simple yet so wonderful.

It was my miracle for the day. It helped remind me why I do what I do and why God has me where he has me. It reminded me to look for the small miracles and the big ones (like coloring) in every day. I hope you saw a miracle in your day, and if you didn't just look around, you probably just missed it.

Here are my 3 trick or treaters. We had 2 parties, a couple of hours of trick or treating with our friends and enough candy to last us the year! It was very fun night!

2 very cute neighbor boys in some star wars get up.

Taneah as Abby Cadabby using her magic want to put Daddy's shoes into her treat pumpkin:)

I can't wait to see what God does. . .

Our attempt to raise awareness about adoption and give families who are interested more information went well. My friend presented with her family beautifully and we had 3 families take our names and wanted more information about adding to their family through adoption.  God was faithful answered our prayers. We had several people who took brochures on how they can support adoption financially and overall I think people were encouraged. I know seeds were planted and I can't wait to see what God does next. I am very hopeful and excited to see God move through our church and our country to bring children who don't have a home into their forever families.

Thanks again for praying!