Christmas in Minnesota

It was so good to be back in Minnesota for Christmas! We were blessed with safe travel and good weather, not to mention healthy kids and reliable transportation! Some of the highlights were seeing all the extended family on Christmas Eve, attending Jeff's church for the first time, and having lots of fun being together. I was able to have a loooong breakfast with my good friend Kelly. (When you notice people having lunch instead of breakfast, you know it's time to leave - our breakfast lasted 3 1/2 hours!). It was so wonderful to celebrate the birth of our Savior with a loving family and good friends.

Merry Christmas!

We have been enjoying the last few days of preparation as we get ready for Christmas. On Sunday, each child in Olivia's class was dressed up as Mary or Joseph and they acted out the story in class. Being the little mommy that she is, she loves carrying her little baby Jesus around the house.

Noah presented us with a gift he made in Pre-K. How sweet!

Then the real fun began tonight when we decorated gingerbread houses (thank goodness they came in a kit!). Notice Noah's overloaded roof. He enjoyed licking each piece of candy before putting it in place.

Olivia's house featured a skating rink out front.

Sneaking a peek in their stockings - oh, man! Still nothing!

We wish you all a very merry Christmas! May we all feel a renewed sense of hope and wonder that "The Savior is Born!"

Our Whirlwind Weekend

Now I can breathe again! The concert is over! It's a bittersweet feeling of being done with something that I planned for and worked on for months. Well, no... it's alot more sweet than bitter. :)

Grandpa and Grammy Peterson came to visit on Friday and were a HUGE help with the kids while we were finalizing plans and rehearsing for the concert. Thank you! We had a great time visiting with them.

What a huge blessing God granted to us the night of the concert. The evening went very well, and I think was a blessing to the people. It was such a privilege to me to be able to present in musical form the story of the birth of Christ and His sacrifice for us on the cross. I feel very humbled that I was entrusted to proclaim that message last night through the piano. Then I think...that's my job every day! Through the life that I lead, I need to be a mirror reflecting the glory of Christ.

It was so wonderful to have my parents, Paul's parents, and Paul's grandparents come for the concert. A huge highlight to the evening was when I saw Jeannie walking in the door! It was so great to see you again friend!

Hope you enjoy these pics. The flowers were given to me by the pastor of our church at the end of the concert.

Trip to the Fire Station

I was lucky enough to go with Noah's Pre-K class to the fire station yesterday. We learned all about fire safety - including some new things for me! Did you know they've added a step to the stop-drop-and roll regimen? It's now stop-drop -cover your face - and roll. We had fun practicing that, as you can imagine!

Here is Noah in the bus - a very cool way to ride, in his opinion - with the little fire truck he brought along.

Up in the fire truck, looking cool.

And, finally, wearing the hat.

Piano Concert

This is the brochure for my Christmas concert.

You can email me directly for special backstage passes. :)

How can you argue with this?

Now if only she would do it.... Warning: There is a telephone ringing in this movie clip - don't jump up to answer yours!
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When the thumb just won't do...

...try your toe!

Christmas Cookies

Last night we all were on a sugar high after our annual baking and decorating of Christmas cookies. The kids had a blast cutting out all shapes of cookies - angels, snowmen, Christmas trees, etc. and some bats and pumpkins thrown in for good measure. Then the decorating fun began! At first they didn't quite realize that you didn't have to use ALL the sugar and icing on just one cookie. After that, each cookie was decorated a little faster as they discovered new ways to pile on the good stuff. Even Chloe got to try some icing!

I Need HELP!

I am trying to post some pictures, but my "create post" screen does not have any of the little icons up right now to help me! I don't have any of the upper icons - just the box to write in. Does anyone know how to fix this?

We Are So Blessed

We had a great Thanksgiving with Paul's family - there were thirty of us this year, including both sets of grandparents. We hadn't seen Paul's grandparents in a long time, so that was especially nice for us. It was the first time they had met Chloe! We ate a delicious meal (I brought butternut squash casserole, which you've got to try - so easy and delicious! Ugh - I just noticed while creating the link that each serving has 13.5 g of fat!) and took some group photos outside. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins. We were also able to praise God as a group for how He has blessed us. It was wonderful to see the ways He has taught us and led us this past year. His lovingkindness is everlasting!

BTW, the pic of Noah is an Indian outfit that his preschool teacher made for him out of a pillowcase. The pic of the three babies is of Chloe (in the middle) and her two cousins Isabelle and Emilee.

Hubby Promo

All right...I've been tagged by Danielle to write 13 things that I love about my hubby. This must be a busy time of year for everyone, because others have said that they haven't spent much time with their husbands lately, and neither have I! So this list will probably make me miss him even more!

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, this is why I'm thankful for my hubby:

1. He loves the Lord.
2. He is a real family man - he would rather spend time with us than anyone else.
3. He is musical! I love hearing him sing and play the trumpet.
4. He supports me in my endeavors to have a profession teaching and playing piano.
5. He picks up fast food on the way home from work when I call him last minute to say I didn't cook!
6. He is so very handsome.
7. He can fix anything! (And we make sure there's lots of stuff around here to fix!)
8. He is a good provider for our family.
9. He is very generous with his time and possessions.
10. He loves to have fun. He will go anywhere and try anything no matter time, weather, traffic.
11. He understands that I need time to myself every so often.
12. He is a people-person. He loves to meet new people and renew old acquaintances.
13. He will watch a good chick-flick with me, even though I know he's really wanting to watch SportCenter. :)

Phil. 1:3 "I thank God upon every remembrance of you!" Love you honey!

I am tagging Amy, a friend from college and my sister-in-law Dayna.

I'm Officially Old

On Tuesday night we had a great concert at church with the Maranatha Symphonic Band. They played a great concert, with lots of interesting music, including one of my favorites "In the Bleak Midwinter", in which the players actually said shhhh to imitate the sound of falling snow (does it actually make sound? anyway...) We had a few girls stay at our house (including Joelle Isaacs - for all you Woodcrusties), and as we were visiting with them, I actually heard myself say "When I was at Maranatha..." and proceeded to tell of the two pay phones we had to use in the dorms (no phone in rooms), the old "dating lounge" in Old Main, the old gym where the student center now is, etc. As their eyes started to glaze over, I realized that I have joined the ranks of those people who used to come back to Maranatha and look with awe at all the new things that were going on. I'm old! I have three kids! That makes me very old! The girls were very nice and nodded their heads and oohed and aahed while Paul and I reminisced about the good old days.

So, in honor of Maranatha tours, I looked up some old pictures from choir tour '96 (it's cold and rainy today - we had nothing else to do!). We went east that year and toured through D.C. as well. This is a picture of the choir singing on the steps of the Capitol. Jason Hatfield (Billy J!) is leading the group.










And here we are playing Rook, a favorite tour game. Do you recognize these people? Notice the nice wavy permed hair.

Popcorn Lovers

We're all popcorn lovers. That can be good or bad. The good part is that we can share a snack that we all love; the bad part is that we have to share! Last night after church was a good time for munching on popcorn, but, of course, anytime is a good time! The kids decided that it would be fun to all sit on mommy's lap - they love making trains out of everything!

Music and Football

Today was a busy day for us. Noah and Olivia had a concert at Barnes and Noble Bookstore with their music classes. Noah just started violin in September, but he already knows some little songs (or at least pretends to know them!). Olivia's music class sings all of the introductory songs that Noah is learning to play. The students were told they could dress in costumes, so Noah was a football player and Olivia was a butterfly once again. In the first video, you will see Olivia on the left side of the shot. The "bee" is our little neighbor Anna, with whom Olivia loves to play.

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After the concert, Paul and I went to the Notre Dame football game versus North Carolina. It was about 50 degrees and windy! But we kept warm sitting in our eighteen inches that are allotted to each seat on tiny wooden benches. It's amazing how many people can squeeze together, even while being bundled up in winter clothes!
















Of course, my favorite part of the game was the marching band at halftime.

You can see my viewing of the game was seriously impeded by the "large hat man" sitting right in front of me. This picture wasn't so bad because Paul was standing on the aforementioned tiny wooden bench when he took it. Imagine if you were sitting on the tiny wooden bench and were about 8 inches shorter than the "large hat man"! Well, it was probably good that it happened to me, because I don't watch much of the game anyways! The people watching is so much more interesting than football! And the best part was spending time with my hubby!

Family Fun Night

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The kids dressed up for a night of fun and games at church last Wednesday night. They were supposed to dress up as Bible characters, so Noah was a fisher of men (you'll notice Charlie Brown on the end of his fishing pole), Olivia was a butterfly, and Chloe was a peapod (from the Garden of Eden, of course!). They enjoyed all the games, but most of all loved the CANDY!

First Snow

I was so inspired by everyone's beautiful fall pictures on their blogs, that I couldn't wait to take some of my own! Then I woke up this morning when it was still dark and noticed a beautiful glow coming through the windows...something I hadn't seen for awhile...it was the moon reflecting off the snow! Well, the kids were alot more excited about it than I was. Or, shall I say, they were excited, and I wasn't. The kiddos went outside to play right away, and good thing too, because it had all disappeared by noon.

Go Tigers!

Chloe and Paul were cheering on the Tigers last night, but, sadly, it didn't seem to make a difference. The TV was in the hallway because Daddy was actually giving the other stinky gremlins their Saturday night bath. Paul said that it reminded him of watching the Tigers in the '84 World Series on the floor of the living room.

Charlotte's Web Revisited

We've had some interesting configurations of spider webs in our backyard lately. (You can tell we spend a lot of time back there!) They are so amazing and intricate, that we can almost forgot they're made by (icky) spiders. Noah seems to be a friend of the spiders these days. He is currently in mourning for the "little black bug" that gets eaten by the "little red snake" in the song "Little White Duck". No amount of assuring that it's just pretend will bring a smile to his face when he's contemplating the fate of the little black bug. I will never be in mourning for little black bugs, I can assure you! But I do still appreciate their handiwork - especially if it's only kept to the backyard.

The Underdog Spitdown

So, have you ever heard of the underdog spitdown? Probably not, since it was invented right here in our own backyard. The rules are simple: you must give someone an underdog on their swing, then spit (preferably while you are directly under the swing). This demonstration by Paul and Olivia is one of the practice runs, since you can see that the spit was performed after the underdog, not during. But you get the idea.


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Five things, Mommy

If you were a fly on the wall in Noah's room at bedtime tonight, this is what you would have heard:

Noah: Mommy, I have five things to tell you tonight.

Mommy (yawning): Yes, Noah?

Noah: One - I love you.
Two - I love you very much.
Three - I love you more than my clock.
Four - I love you more than Tibby. (High praise indeed - this is his favorite teddy bear).
Five - I love Daddy more than you.

Ah, the honesty of a four-year old! :)

Our Little Chlo-Chlo

Our Family Picture

Since we haven't had a family picture taken with all five of us since the hospital, Olivia drew one of us. I think it's a pretty good representation of us. It also includes some extended family and some of her little friends as well. Maybe you can guess who is who.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Paul celebrated his 31st birthday in high style today. The kids gave him a Notre Dame t-shirt (which is almost mandatory around here on game day), and they drew pictures of balloons that we hung on the chandelier (since we forgot to buy some!). Paul even got to have lunch from his favorite restaurant, Chipotle, which just opened here on Friday. Then we topped it all off with German Chocolate cake and the Colts football game on TV. How much more excitement can we handle?!

The Rainbow Connection

On the way to school this morning, Noah saw his first real rainbow. It was quite exciting for both us. And it was a real beauty - it was a complete rainbow, stretching from ground to ground. I said "Do you know what God says about rainbows?" And Noah said "I promise that I will never flood the earth again." My heart just melted! We have a Bible story book on CD that he loves to listen to. Naturally, he loves the story about his namesake, Noah ("the other Noah, Mom, not me" he informs me). How blessed we are to have the promises of God and to enjoy those promises through the beauty of nature. What a wonderful start to our day!

School Pictures

Noah had pictures at school today, and it reminded me of this cute picture that permanently resides on my fridge. In light of your post on Paul always looking cool as a kid, Sarah, I thought I would back that up with this evidence. I mean, what's cooler than buttoning ALL the buttons on your polo shirt? And...just so you know...Paul did say I could use this picture. I think his exact words were "Well, you have to have something to entertain you."

Call It Peer Pressure

Okay...I guess we've finally succumbed to technology as we know it. We were trying to hold out from getting too tekkie (techy, techie, techno?)...but it just looks like so much fun. I'm just thinking that we can have a sort of journal for our family, and then I can quit that crazy scrapbook.