2009: a Christmas letter...

Well, I've decided to try something new and high tech with my Christmas letter this year. I'm posting it right to my blog. I know it probably isn't the same as getting a typed and copied letter in the mail but so many friends and family keep up with what our family is doing right here - it seems appropriate.

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I have to say that this has been an ordinary year and that is just extraordinary! I am so thankful for simple moments and calm happenings (well, as calm as three kids under the age of six, ever is. :) ).

We did try to sell our house this year. But the listing has expired now and while many people were viewing the listing online, we didn't really have any showings and that's okay. We don't plan to live here forever but here IS really great and we feel sure that God knows best. We trust He was watching over the listing and if it had been supposed to sell, it would have. So for now, Jace continues to make plans for the things he still wants to do to this house. He loves to have a project. He also continues to work at the Home Depot and plumbs when jobs come along. We are so thankful for his job!

Ella is a first grader in school this year. She is doing well and reading, reading. Her brothers are enjoying having another person in the house to read stories to them - especially Lincoln. She received a Peace Maker award from her school this past spring. Read more about it here. Last evening she was in her first real Christmas program at church. The first through sixth grades do a program with drama and dance and songs each year. Ella sang in the choir and danced and said one line. She was really great and she had a lot of fun doing it. We are really proud of her and are loving watching her grow.

Jack continues to make us smile. He is always saying funny things. Read one of my favorites here. He is a details person, and he is always working at making his daily costumes more authentic. He is a sweet boy who will tell you if he loves what you are wearing or if your earrings are kind of weird. :) We just love him.

Lincoln is getting so big! I just cannot believe how the time flies. I know I marvel at that each year but really time seems to be in fast forward. He learned to walk this year and he is talking up a storm now. He works hard at keeping up with all that Jack and Ella are doing. He, too, keeps us smiling. What a joy he is!

I continue to be very involved at church and am so thankful for the opportunities I have to serve there. I had a unique opportunity to be a part of cardboard testimonies this spring and was even able to share a bit more of our story on a following Sunday. God has indeed blessed us. I am thankful for the journey that we have walked and for opportunities each day to continue to learn more about leaning on Him and knowing Him more even in the midst of the ordinary. I look forward to a new year and a new decade filled with all the things He has for us.

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"I pray that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite Him in... that you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its lengths! Plumb the depths! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know -- far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!"

Ephesians 3:17 to 20 from the Message paraphrase

May you and your family experience Christ's love in the new year and find yourselves living full lives, lives you could have never imagined!!!!

Merry Christmas and love to you all,
Kate and family

Welcome Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas. Especially when I don't have a new baby and I have a little more energy. :)

The kids ran circles around the house the day we got the tree out.

Of course it had to first be put together and then the lights put on. Then we didn't have enough lights... Etc., etc. So they had to wait even longer. And run around a little crazier.

We did decorate the small tree in the basement family room that night; to help take the edge off their excitement and help them to wait for the big tree. Now both are decorated and things are looking festive!





This is decorating the family room tree - it is my snowflake ornament tree. It's the first year I've had enough ornaments to do it. I've been collecting them for the past couple of years, inspired to do a tree all in them by a wonderful friend who has a rocking horse tree.





Our dining room table after all the boxes of decorations were put away.



The finished product!

A Thanksgiving Recipe...

"A simple recipe for practicing the habit of THANKSGIVING...

-A little lifting up of the heart suffices
-A little remembrance of God
-One act of inward worship, repeated often in the day."

-Brother Lawrence

So, a little different recipe. Of course, there were large amounts of FOOD recipes consumed today by our family. All lovely. But after a several day run of practicing the habit of thanksgiving on my facebook statuses, I was reminded of this recipe that is posted on my refrigerator.

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving where you were today. And that you were able to take a moment to count your many blessings. I have been in awe of mine this month. I have so much to be thankful for.

Jack says...

"Too late. He's already dead."

Jack says while playing with finger "guns" with his dad.

I have just said, "Stop playing like that you two." While Jace pretends to die and falls off our bed.

Yes, too late, Dad does seem to have died.

Silly boys. :)

2009 Pumpkin Heads

Here are our traditional pumpkin head pictures from this Halloween.

Can't believe Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner!

Lincoln did...

Stomp on worms today. Both with his shoes on, after coming home from town and without his shoes on, while waiting for Ella's bus.

Lincoln did throw almost an entire box of tissues in the half bath toilet. Thankfully, he didn't flush it...

Lincoln did put both the salt and the pepper shakers in his mouth.

Lincoln did climb up to the tv and take out many dvd's and rubbed them on the carpet and the edges of their dvd cases.

Oh, Lincoln. What am I going to do with you?????

Jack says...

"Mom, beat that truck!!!!!"

As I am slowing the van down to turn and head north on the other side of a boulevard in town.

I say,

"Jack, it is not a race - that truck isn't going where we are going."

"Yes, it is a race. I can tell."

How can you tell that????? :)