First off, Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was the first year in our 6 (almost 7!) years of marriage that we actually had family with us on Christmas. We've always had the kids and plenty of friends who included us in their traditions, but there is just something about having family around that is so priceless. We all voted that this was the best Christmas we've had in a very long time! We ate lots of yummy food, went sledding twice, and spent time together just hanging out and watching movies. It was so relaxing and refreshing. Ella and Noah got ridiculously spoiled which was nice for them and Randy and I did, too. I'm still trying to find homes for all the new toys which is always fun...or not..lol! It's really fun watching the kids anticipation now that they are getting older. It's so special.
Ella is enjoying her Christmas break and not having to be up and out the door so early for school each morning. She also had the chance to participate in a Christmas Eve play that all the kids did up at church. She had a very small role since she's not quite old enough for lines, but she felt special being included!
Noah is still just our happy go lucky, Noah. He is loving the time he has with his sissy off school. He did a great job in his little preschool Christmas program and got to be Joseph which was really special. Randy and I always love watching the kids sing each year at preschool. It's the cutest thing!
Randy is keeping busy and really finding his way in his new job! The worship team is doing great and he is really enjoying the time he gets to spend and invest in all of the musicians he leads. It's been such a blessing to our family to have Randy working full time at church. He gets to do what he loves all day and then he is able to come home and spend time with his family. It doesn't get much better than that in life! At the start of the school year, he launched the youth group for middle and high school students and it has been going great with about 50 students who regularly attend each week. I think Randy is finally getting back into the groove of student ministry after being out of it for awhile. He's enjoying his time with the students each week so much! They just had an "Elf" themed Christmas party where they watched the movie while eating pizza and the "four main elf food groups...candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup". Even with the blizzard starting that night, we still had 48 students come out!
Not much has changed for our little Owen as of now. My last OB appointment went really well. He's a busy little guy and is definitely the most active baby we've had so far. He kicks and squirms pretty much all day long! I'll be heading out to Madison today for an echocardiogram which got rescheduled from the blizzard last week and then tomorrow I will see my high risk Doctor there for another ultrasound to measure his kidneys. Really hoping for a good report tomorrow. Praying that they aren't any worse. But other than that, he seems to be doing great and progressing right along at 26 weeks now! We all can't wait to meet him.
And as for me...I am just going with the flow and doing the usual! The kids are keeping me busy driving car pool back and forth to school and dance and all that fun stuff. I feel like I have started into the stage I hear so many moms talk about where I'm in the car more than home, but that's really an exaggeration I suppose. I haven't taken time to sew much lately, but I'm trying to get that all organized so I can begin some projects for little Owen. I did start a new hobby of crocheting and I'm having a ton of fun with that! I had a great Summer and Fall doing photography and now I'm pretty much done now until the Spring. Outdoor pictures aren't exactly fun when it's 18 degrees out, but I still take stuff of the kids around the yard. I'm enjoying my time serving at church teaching a Kindergarten/1st Grade class once a month and singing with Randy once or twice a month. I'm also enjoying getting to know all of the students and spending time with the youth group, Collision. I joined a ladies Bible study that meets on Friday mornings and we're coming to the end of our study on Ephesians. Things at church are really great and we are really enjoying all of the new friendships we have made over the last 8 months.
And now back to where we started....SNOW!!! We are adjusting little by little to this foreign thing called "Winter" that they have here! It has definitely been an adjustment!! We're really just getting started, but I can actually say that so far we are actually enjoying it (gasp!). Mother Nature was nice to break us in easily. The weather has gradually dropped for us month to month from highs in the 40s, 30s, 20s, and now we are getting into the teens and occasionally the single digits. It's cold. Really cold. But it's not unbearable yet. I think the biggest thing is that it is a total life change! It takes a lot more time to make our way out of the door each morning because we wear hats, scarfs, coats, gloves, and boots on a daily basis. Some days if we are just going to church or something, we can get away with dressing in normal clothes with our coats and just making our way inside quickly, but if we are going to be spending time outside or even running errands in and out of places, we have to dress pretty heavy. I have found that taking the time to layer up and dress warm means everything. It really makes a difference. It's a lot of work, but it's really nice, too. The seasons are beautiful and it really feels like Winter and Christmas around here. The kids are in love with the snow and pretty much bundle up every day to play outside in it for hours! Ella takes her snow pants and boots every day to school and gets to play in the snow two times a day during recess so that's a fun change for her! We also checked out a popular sledding spot over the holiday and had a blast! We will definitely be back to sled again soon.
These pictures I have for you today are from our very first snow here. They actually seem sort of lame compared to what it looks like outside right now! I think we probably got about 4 inches this day. Last week we had a blizzard come through that dumped at least 18 inches (more in some places) on us. So our yard has places in it now where the snow is almost waist deep. It was really windy so it's amazing how the snow gets blown around. You can have areas where grass is showing and then spots right next to it where it's knee deep! I'll try and get out to take more recent pictures of the snow soon. I also have some video of the kids sledding that I will try to post as well. But for now....our first Wisconsin snow pictures....
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