New skills...

Every day our youngest learns new things. He's not quite walking yet but today he's been showing me that he can take off his shirt.

Christmas

The above pictures of the kids are from our visit to Michigan.

It's now the day after Christmas and I'm reflecting on the season.

December 5th we celebrated St. Nicks day. My husband and the kids made a cardboard fireplace and paper stockings which were then filled with treats for the kids. After a few days they took the fireplace to a friend's fire pit and burned it up.

Over the past weekend we visited family in Michigan. It was good to see everyone. Five + hours is a long ride for the kids. But, it's not as long as the 8 hours it took when we lived in Madison. And, thankfully, now we don't have to drive through Chicago.

Christmas Eve Day we visited with my husbands family - some cousins he hasn't seen for years. And, we visited with friends from Madison. One couple lives here in the Indy area and another couple came to visit them. It was great to spend time with them. We learned so much when we were living in Madison.

Yesterday (Christmas Day) we were here at home. It's great to be homeowners this year. We had dinner and then opened gifts. We took turns giving out gifts - starting with the youngest. And, we sang a Christmas song between turns. It was fun.

Tonight our old neighbors (who are church planters in Lansing) are supposed to stop by for dinner. It will be good to see them and hear how their ministry is going. Jen taught our six year old how to tie her shoes and their first church service was September 30, 2006 at 7PM. The reason I remember is that's when our youngest was born. Little things like that are hard to forget.

It's been a great Christmas!

It Snowed Early This Morning

The kids enjoyed playing in the snow this morning.

They made snow men and snow forts and the littlest one tasted the snow.

I'm so thankful for our fenced yard!