Life Group Hike

News Years Eve - misting, evening snowing a tad - perfect day for a hike! Our life group headed out to Tryon Creek State Park, a great place to let kids run and adults visit. Here are our five very active boys - can you believe the are all generally looking at the camera??

Afterwards, we had a picnic lunch. Granted, because it was so cold, it was a pretty quick lunch. :)

It was a fun morning!

Ellery's First Bath

I know, I know - 3 months old and she's getting her first bath? :) She has been rinsed off in the shower, or occasionally when the milk crusties in her neck get unbearable, we'll wiper her down with a warm washcloth, but so far that's been it. No baths. Well, today we thought she'd enjoy a bath - and she did - lots of kicking and smiles - intermixed with a few looks of concern.

Christmas

We tried very hard to keep Christmas quiet. But it still ended up being pretty overwhelming for Isaiah. He was pretty much on overload right out of the gate. We still had a great time celebrating with PopPop (Grandmom was back east with Gaugie & Great PopPop, and the rest of the family was elsewhere). We look forward to having family back in the NW next year!!

Before breakfast Isaiah opened a couple stocking gifts - some safety glasses for working in the garage with daddy, and some dinosaurs from when I was a little girl. Both were a big hit :)

 

Breakfast was yummy casserole and cinnamon rolls (thanks to a friend from church who made a bunch!)

Then a couple more gifts, playtime, and naps. During naps, the adults played a game of scrabble :)

Ellery's first doll! It is so soft and very cute - she loved it - she stared at her face, touched her hair (and tried to eat her hair!)

Isaiah got a very cool felt board activity kit - letters for his own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, as well as his own Christmas tree to decorate!

Then a couple more gifts and dinner (salmon, cranberry-walnut rice, salad - delicious!). Isaiah and Ellery got a 42" sock monkey from Uncle Dan. While Ellery doesn't quite realize the joy of this yet, Isaiah immediately tackled the poor thing. Then we tied him on Isaiah's back and he ran, jumped, wrestled, and fell on this ginormous monkey!

 

 

We had some chocolate coconut pie, then it was off to bed for the kiddos. The adults were able to visit some more before also calling it a day.

Truly, we are so grateful to our family and friends who blessed us with amazing gifts. But, as a reflection for us (since this blog is really my online scrapbook), we really struggled with Christmas this year. We love Jesus. We love Him dearly. And for us, this is when we celebrate His coming, His giving of relationship. Yet, often I think we get more caught up in our own wants, and stuff, and traditions, rather than worshiping the Giver of life. Then rather reflecting the peace of Christ, we go on overload - a bit like poor Isaiah. How do we keep Christmas about Jesus?!? (Not just in word, but in deed). We have no answers right now - just a lot of questions, but at the heart we never want to stop being refined, being made into the image of Christ, and I think this same refinement process applies to how we celebrate Christmas. At the end of the day, I want to be able to say that much was made of Jesus, the light of the world that stepped down into our darkness setting us free. We hope you all had wonderful Christmas and were able to see Jesus in your celebrations!

Christmas Eve

We had a very laid back Christmas Eve. In the morning, we bundled up for a walk.

Then in the evening we went to a friend's house. Ellery got dressed up (again). . . this adorable little outfit came from Gaugie & Great PopPop. Also, of note, while getting dressed Ellery rolled from her tummy to back - not once, but three times! (I guess she was all done with tummy time!)

 

Isaiah opened a gift from Pokni & Grandpa - they recorded themselves reading The Night Before Christmas.

Then it was off to bed for the kiddos. Elliott and I put a couple small gifts out for Isaiah, then it was off to bed for us as well :)

Winter Outfit

We had some errands to run. Isaiah got all bundled up in a "winter" outfit. He was quite excited to be wearing a puffy vest like daddy.

First Fancy Dress

My dear friend Heidi picked out Ellery's first fancy dress - and Ellery has grown so much, she was actually able to wear it to our church Christmas party.We think she looked so cute!

 

Life Group Movie Night

It was raining - not a good NW drizzle, but actual rain. It didn't ruin our evening though - we still bundled up the kids in our life group and walked the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. I am sure people thought we were a tad crazy. Then we came back and watched Charlie Brown's Christmas while the kids had popcorn. It was a fun evening!

Water Colors

I wouldn't normally describe Isaiah as my artist - he would much rather be running, or throwing balls, or wrestling. . . or name anything that has movement and noise involved. Coloring is a five minute activity (maybe 10 if we are lucky). But today, we got out water colors and he shocked me - he was very serious about his painting. We probably worked on pictures for over an hour. It was really fun.

Diaper Changes

Ellery loves having her diaper changes. She kicks and laughs and squirms. It's very cute. In particular, daddy can really get her giggling in the evenings. This was one such evening but alas, by the time I grabbed the camera, hoping to get a video, the moment was long gone. Instead all I got were serious looks :)

Sibling Love

Isaiah has his big brother shirt (the shirt that told most people we were starting this crazy journey of having 2!) and then a friend gave us this adorable little sister onsie for Ellery. It made for (what I think) are some very cute sibling pictures.

I love Ellery's stink face in this first one. . .she makes this face a lot. 

On to the happier ones. These two really look like siblings don't they?

 

 

More Puzzle-age

Another puzzle - this one chosen with Isaiah in mind. He really enjoys the ones with animals. This was another 500 piece (although much easier than the castle) and Isaiah shocked us. We'd be working on it, he would come over, pick up a piece and put it in the correct spot - no help from us. In fact, if we tried to help - usually we'd confuse him. It was fascinating, it's almost as if his brain subconsciously recognized the matching location without understanding the whys. . . He can't do the "organizational" aspect yet (i.e. if you give him a box with pieces, he doesn't know to do the edge first, sort by colors, that sort of thing) but once it's started he does a great job "filling in".

I'm a boy!

Tonight's conversation at bedtime (with a tired and somewhat frustrated mama since Isaiah was squirming around on the ground while I'm trying to get his pj's on for the second time of the night after he decided 30 minutes into bedtime he needed to go potty again)

Me: Isaiah, you are being a pill. 
Isaiah: I'm not a pill. I don't want to be anything but a boy!

God loves to give us humor in the tough moments.

Dino Puzzle & Snuggles

Relaxing Saturday. Grateful daddy is home. Isaiah wanted to do a puzzle (like mom and dad) and some family friends passed on a dinosaur one. . . (Isaiah is quite enthralled with dinos right now). It made for a fun Saturday morning.

The kids also squeezed some snuggles in. Ellery wasn't so sure at first, but then warmed up to her exuberant brother.

Castle Puzzle

We have been on a puzzle kick lately. It's such a fun, and mostly relaxing thing to do in the evenings. Even Isaiah enjoys helping. This one however - well, it was a headache! It's 500 pieces which isn't terribly huge, but everything is shaded and all the flowers and trees blur together so it took us a while to get together. Just to document we actually finished it. . .here's it is:

Ellery - 2 months

She's growing way too fast! Here are her 2 month stats - thankfully she is a strong, healthy, alert little girl!
   Weight - 12 lbs 7 oz
   Height - 24 3/4"
   Head circumference - 39 cm

Zoo Lights

It was cold. . . very, very cold. But dry. So Elliott came home from work and said "Let's go." We grabbed our warm clothes and headed out for zoo lights with a stop at Burgerville for dinner. Despite the dry evening, there were not many people that braved the cold weather so it was perfect. Isaiah got to enjoy the lights and run around without worry of losing him in a crowd. It was so much fun this year seeing his excitement over all the details - the lights, the different animal shapes, and the few animals we could see. It was a very fun evening!

 

 

 

 

Christmas Tree!

Today was the day . . . we were off on the great Christmas tree hunt! Isaiah was excited and seemed to (kind of) remember getting a tree last year. We went to the same place, Washougal River Christmas Tree farm (definitely our favorite in the area). We were blessed with a sunny cold day - a definite treat!

Isaiah was pretty funny - he basically hugged the majority of the trees we walked past and wanted all of them, irrespective of size. We obviously have some teaching to do as to what makes the "perfect" tree :) Here he is by our final selection.

And of course he helped daddy with the sawing.

Instead of being afraid of the shaker and baler, he was fascinate (lots and lots of "why's").

And he again enjoyed the animals - he even got up on the back of the little donkey (oh so briefly - sadly not long enough for mama to get a picture).

It was a very fun family outing!

Hanging Lights

Isaiah was so excited to "help" hang Christmas lights. We keep it pretty simple but it's fun to at least have something.

Speaking of funny faces. . .

And look at this gorgeous sunset the Lord treated us to as we were headed out to church. Breath-taking!