New Found Love

The girls have never been sledding before, except for a cookie sheet down our driveway in Oregon years ago, if that counts.  Anyways, the girls have been wanting to go and finally it was warm enough (for me) to go sledding on Friday.  When we first got to the park, we went away from everyone on the "big hill" and started on a small one...

Emma was not too sure, but after contemplation, she did it and loved it!  You should have seen how long she contemplated the big hill.

Madi, on the other hand, went right down several times and was ready for the big hill.  I have to note Madi's open mouth.  Too cute.  I tired to get that child to go strait down the hill.  It was nerve racking at times as there were others on the big hill.

Now for the big hill...

The girls would occasionally wipe out, especially Madi, since she is more daring and doesn't take caution like her sister,  until I got smart and thought maybe they shouldn't hold onto the rope, but instead, the sides of the sled.  After they tried that, no more wipe outs; maybe one or two?

Madi's wipe out....

Notice the snow flying in all three pictures.  And the sled sliding away from Madi.  Good wipe out Madi.

Emma's wipe out...

I was afraid this would end Emma's sledding career, but she got right up and continued on.  Proud of you Emma.

Time Flew.  The girls had a blast.  Madi won a race with boys.  No one got hurt.  I joined in the last few times.  Ready to go again.

Shelving

Chris is working in the basement almost everyday.  A few weeks ago he finished putting up the shelving....

Playroom Closet

Hall Closet 

I know he took more pictures, but I can't find them.  I will add them if they are found.

Ms. Grace

Yesterday I got a phone call from a church family friend I have known since I was Emma's age.  She was coming to the area for a conference and wanted to see us.  She was able to spend the night last night as her conference didn't start until this afternoon.  I'm sure the girls would have had a hard time remembering her from the many people at the church we used to go to in Oregon since it's been almost 5 years since we have regularly attended there, but we saw her at the Scandinavian Festival last August when we were visiting Oregon.  She gave us samples of Italian shaved ice.  Yesterday, when I picked the girls up from school I told them we were off to pick-up Ms. Grace, the lady from the Scandinavian Festival, from the airport.  They knew right away who she was.  We had a fun evening.  She even helped the girls study for their spelling tests.  This afternoon when I picked up the girls, right away Madi asked where Ms. Grace was, even though she knew she was already at the conference.  I am thinking she was hopeful she was still with us.  
And yes Heidi, she gave the girls big hugs from you (smile).

20 Day Journey

I was listening to K-Love this morning and it talked about being on day three... so I went to Eric and Lisa's (DJ's in the morning) blog and checked it out.  The posts are titled: "What do you crave?"  I really liked what the author from the book Made to Crave had to say, so I thought I would share:
http://www.klove.com/blog/

Let me know what you think.

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve we were blessed with a candle light service at church, reflecting on Jesus Christ coming to earth.  I took a picture of my beautiful girls before we went to church.





Christmas morning we started off with reading from Luke about Christ coming to earth and then read our family devotions for the day.  Then we opened present, ate breakfast and opening more presents with family over the web cam....

Remember the cute Santa card from Madi to Chris?  This was in the package attached to the card.

In the evening we headed over to our friend's house and had dinner and fellowship with three other families.  

Cuteness

Today, I thought to share two cute things.  Although they are both cute, they are cute in different ways....

Emma's teacher put antlers on this pudding to make it into....

Rodolphe the red nose reindeer.  Cute isn't it?

Madi worked hard [at school] on a present for her Daddy.  I didn't even see her put it under the tree.  When I saw it, I had to read it.  What she said and how she spelled Merry Christmas was cute....

Click on the picture to see it better, or read below:

"Dear Dady,
Mary Chrismas!
I hope you have a good Chrismas.
I love you.
I worked hard on your gift.
Thank you for finshing the basment.
Love,
Madi"

The Nativity

The girls got to participate in the play our church put on this year. They both had speaking parts and sang in the choir. Chris sat off stage and played two songs. It was called "The Nativity" telling the story of Christ's birth. Last year we invited the girls teachers and our neighbors to the musical they were in and we were blessed by one of our nieghbors coming. This year we invited a few more then last year. Our neighbors that came last year asked if they could come before I was able to ask them. The first night Madi's teacher and husband came. The second night I had a row and a half of 11 people that came. Both our neighbors and Emma's teacher came. What a huge blessing. I pray that they, along with every person that came both nights, were touched through the story of our Savior.

"For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this."

Isaiah 9:6-7