Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Yes, we did!

We took an extra day off school and played in the house yesterday.  It was a good opportunity to pull out all of the Christmas stuff.  And yes, the Christmas music came on too!  It's hard to resist after so many stores and Hallmark have it going already.  And now we will be ready!  








Friends

Friday we saw some family and stopped at the Mall of America for a couple of hours before heading to Madison, WI to see some friends for the weekend.  We also ran over to Oconomowoc for church Sunday night where we have more friends.  We hadn't seen either of these families for a few years, and it was so good to catch up and also fun to see our kids together.  They didn't remember them but had a great time playing together.  Brian and Beth Nicholson are in Madison and have adopted two children, Gracie and Caleb.  Jon and Sharon Anderson are in Oconomowoc and have four boys, Seth, Joseph, Andrew, and Luke.  Our kids played hard, ate a lot, and slept really well. And we did too!
Caleb, Ava, Gracie, and Jack
Me and Beth 
The Andersons
Ava, Seth, Joseph, Jack, and Andrew is under the table. 
Sharon and me
A long day

A Break

This past weekend we went away, and it was such a nice break.  We left Thursday to head to the cities for Metro Women's Center's Annual Meeting and Silent Auction.  Our church donated two baskets which brought in $70 for the center and Amazing Grace home.  We had a great time catching up with some friends and hearing testimonies about what God is doing to save babies in Minnesota.  I also met a lady who runs the adoption agency in our area so we hope to see more of her.  






Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Progressive Supper

We had a great time Saturday at our progressive supper which included 3 courses and tons of food!  We crowded 17 people in our tiny front room for appetizers, and I love that we could do that.  Then we headed to the Cushman's for the main course and to the Okerman's for dessert.  Each place had several options, so there was a lot of food!  Also lots of laughter and even some singing.  We loved just being together with our friends, and it was nice to have some visitors.  I really didn't think about pictures since we were busy but I got one of us around the table at the Cushman's.  

Full of grapes


Enjoying the "snow" day

Even though the snow hadn't hit yet, the weather outside became frightful yesterday!  So we enjoyed being inside.  We ended up just getting a dusting, but it's started!  





Tuesday, November 4, 2014

A quick note...

We had a great Harvest Home Sunday at church with special speaker, Dr. Sam Horn.  I was excited to hear him, and it was such a blessing.  My sisters and I sang along with our junior church choir who did a great job.  The meal was unbelievable, and I have been craving more turkey dinner since Sunday!  What a blessing to be a part of a church like ours.  Worship and fellowship there are such a blessing!  What a joy it is to serve God and to be in the place He has you!

Random pictures

We got to hear our friend Julia play in her high school band a few weeks ago and she stopped and chatted with us and even let Ava try on her cool hat!  So fun to see her do that!  She's pretty cool!
This is how Jack would sit in school always if I let him.  He loves that old fabric that really can't be called a blanket anymore.  
Ava said, "I yike yicking a yot!"  
This is my Kids 4 Truth class and how fun they are!  We've been practicing our 10 commandments, and they are getting it (I think)!  Matt asked Jack if he understood his verse last week, and he said, "No because it's in holy words."  Ha.  The kids (ours and the church kids) are a delight to us!

Projects

Well anytime my family comes, I get motivated to do a project.  And when I say project, I mean that I come up with the idea, and Matt does it for me.  An ideal husband who hasn't complained...yet!  It started with our Christmas list.  He asked what was on mine, and mine is usually kind of like a honey do list.  Since I feel badly askng him to do some of the things, I frame it in the way of my Christmas present.  So one thing that was on it was sanding our table.  He did that, and we put liming wax on it, and it became this bleached wood look that we are liking!  Then I decided I wanted a mantel over the TV which led to wanting a fireplace in the living room.  I thought about moving our wall fireplace in our bedroom to the living room, but that didn't fit along with our TV, so then I saw these tv stand fireplaces and decided that would be the best solution.  Last week, I sold anything that wasn't nailed down and on Monday, I got my fireplace!  In the meantime, Matt built me a mantel.  It is hanging up but we aren't done with it yet.  It needs a little distressing and staining.  And he also built me a shelf table for behind our couch.  I love love love it!  A place for my lamps that keep getting knocked off the front table.  So now that all of that is done, I get to play around with decorating the new spaces.  I'm a little giddy!  And it's not even Christmas yet!  Yes there's more on my list.  Hopefully you'll see all of our trim painted white at some point!  



Aaron

I have a new job and his name is Aaron, a cute happy little guy who is 8 months old.  I get to spend time with him 3 days a week!  Jack and Ava think they have a new brother.  I met his mom through our homeschool co-op, and it seemed God was leading me in this direction.  So we are enjoying him!


Fall Fun

As Matt would say, "No we don't celebrate the devil", but our kids enjoy dressing up almost every day anyway.   If they can do that and get candy for it, why not?  We enjoy fall, and this has been a great one!  Beautiful weather and colors, dressing up, making caramel apples.  It's all part of fall fun to us.