Home Again

So, we are home again after a month long vacation in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. We had a great time, but of course, it went by way too fast! The weather here has been nice. Not too hot like I remember last August being. The kids have reconnected with their toys and some of their friends here so that is nice. They're happy! This next week I need to start thinking about getting all those much needed school supplies. Avery is going to start gymnastics while the boys are in school this Fall. She is very excited about this. I debated whether or not to enrole her in gymnastics or dance, but for now she just loves to jump, so gymnastics it is!

This week we should have our friend, Carlos, here from WA. He was in Darin's youth group a few years back. He will be staying with us for awhile so that he can get a fresh start in a new place. Yesterday Darin and I were out and about with the kids so we had our eyes out for some places who are hiring. Hopefully Carlos will find a job quickly. You can be in prayer with us about that. We are really excited about him coming. We've (I've) cleanned out our guest room for him. I moved the queen bed into the craft room for guests and put a single bed in the old guest room along with a dresser for Carlos to use. At least he will have his own space when he needs to get away from the chaos of our family.

Yesterday Darin took the boys on a long bike ride. Darin called about 45min. into the bike ride for me to come pick them up. Logan was tired and couldn't make it back. I was proud of him for lasting that long. I think that's longer than I could have lasted. Avery is just learning to ride her trycicle so she and I took a walk to the park and played instead.

Will write more and post pictures soon! I know what some of you are thinking right now. :)

An update.....finally!

Here's what we've been up to for the past few months. For Easter the kids each got a dwarf hampster. They were very surprised! They've really enjoyed playing with them and helping to take care of them. I think they're rather cute myself.

I found a great deal on bunkbeds for the boys on craigslist. Darin drove to the Cities (Minneapolis) to pick them up on Mother's Day. Of course we had to put them together that night, so needless to say, the boys didn't get to bed until around 9:30pm. Avery has her new big girl bed which she loves. It makes her room look so mature now.

Logan graduated from preschool last week. He didn't want to be on stage in front of everyone, so he looked rather sad as his class was singing, "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart". Poor guy.

Last night we had a hail storm. Luckily it didn't last very long. We let the kids play in the rain before the hail came. They loved it.

We are getting ready for summer. Tyson will be done with first grade this week. They have finished AWANA, and now we are looking forward to VBS, Avery's birthday, and flying out to the Northwest!! Exciting things!

I painted....and yes, it is red!

Well, last week Friday I woke up and told Darin that I wanted to paint. I was originally going to wait until Spring when it warms up (yeah, right) so that I could open windows when I paint. I quickly learned that many people here paint in the middle of winter. Fumes....who cares! It's not that bad they tell me. You can hardly smell it. So, last Friday I decided that day that I was going to paint. I wrote down the paint colors and Darin took off to Home Depot to purchase the paint. I went with a Khaki green color (same color we used in our living room in Yakima) for the living room/kitchen because there is not ending point between the two rooms. I did paint the walls around the bay windows in the kitchen a brick red color along with one wall in the living room. I wasn't sure about it at first, but now I love it. Darin really likes it too. Anyway, here's a couple pictures of the red. I would post pictures of the living room wall color, but you can't really tell what color it is in the picture. I do have to say though that they were right. You hardly smell the paint. It at least gave me something to do to fill these long winter days.

Surviving Winter

We have been having very cold temperatures here lately. It has been below zero with a wind chill factor of -25 to -30. I've been told that Spring does come. I don't think it comes until May, but nevertheless it comes. Today has been the first day in two weeks that it is 30 degrees and we are loving it. It is nice and sunny outside.

Darin has been gone this weekend with the highschool students to a place called Timber Bay. They will return later today. While he was gone it snowed and I had to shovel the driveway in
-10 degree weather. I thought I did a pretty good job until this morning when we were on our way to church I commented on how nicely shoveled the driveway looked and Tyson said, "It doesn't look as nice as when dad does it." Oh well.

Logan has turned five already. He had his first friend birthday party. We had it at the RAC (Rochester Athletic Club). He invited nine of his friends and they were entertained by the staff there. Darin and I didn't have to do anything except show up. It was great!! They even wrote down which child gave what present for me. No set up, no figuring out games to play, no 4-5yr. olds running around in my house, and no clean-up. It was the best party ever......and I think Logan had a good time too. :) He is also loving preschool this year and making tons of friends.

Tyson is doing very well in school. He plays with his classmates (although he doesn't have a set group of kids he plays with all of the time, we are just happy that he plays with other kids). He still loves to learn and is doing well academically. He told me that science is his favorite subject.

Avery loves jumping and dancing all over the house. Her favorite song is, "Go Tell It On The Mountain" which she sings everyday, and she has learned to count to 10 in spanish (thanks to our Ecuador friends). We are working on potty training, and I hope she is a lot quicker at catching on then her brothers were.

Darin has had the opportunity to learn a little bit about hockey which is huge here. He has gone to some of the highschool games to watch some of his students play. He also has done some scoring for the high school volleyball teams this past Fall. His most recent adventure has been to play soccer at the RAC (Rochester Athletic Club) at lunch time with some other professionals in the community as a chance to get to know people outside the church.

I have been trying to keep busy with these cold winter days. Sometimes I get gloomy, but then the sun comes out and I feel much better (as long as I stay inside of course). My friend, Vickie, who is a christian writer and motivational speaker has asked me along with five other women to be in a focus group for her new book coming out called Holy Enthusiasm. I am very excited to be a part of this process. She sent me the first three chapters of her book to read and it has been very encouraging and uplifting. I am reminded often of all the great opportunities that God has provided our family here, and when it gets hard to be so far away from so many of our loved ones it's as if God pulls me around again and tells me to press on. He is always good!

December 2007

Well, we have had a busy couple of months. Our Ecuador family left on Dec. 10. It was hard to say good-bye. When they arrived home, Santiago (Ariana's dad) recevied Christ as his Savior! He said, "My heart is at peace." Ariana and her dad both received new hearts!! We praise the Lord for
that! What an awesome experience we had with them.
We introduced Ariana to paint! The kids each painted their own Christmas ornament.





Avery and Ariana were like sisters together. They loved to each take their own bean bags and jump into them from the stairs, and Ariana tried to do Avery's hair while Avery watched t.v. I introduced Alexandra and Eunice into the world of scrapbooking! They loved it!! I think they had one whole suitcase full of scrapbooking stuff by the time they left.



The night before they left they played hockey in the kitchen with race car tracks and the top of an ice cream cone (one of Avery's kitchen toys) for a ball. They had a blast!! The kids also gave us one last concert with Logan on the banjo, the girls on the drums, and Tyson reading the Christmas story.










All three of our kids were in the Christmas program at church. They each sang two songs with their Sunday School classes in front of the church. They all did a great job!










My high school girls small group had a christmas party. We had them meet at my house with a small gift to exchange and $10. We didn't tell them where we were going. We took them to Savers (it's like a Goodwill) and told them they had to purchase the most hideous christmas sweater or outfit they could find and then we put them on and went to Shari's for dessert and to exchange gifts. It was so much fun! They loved it!

We spent Christmas in Iowa with Darin's family this year. It was great. The kids loved being with their older cousins. Before we left Darin made our annual swedish pancakes we eat every year. Yum!

We are looking forward to a new year and all that God has in store for our family. We have much to be thankful for!

Thanks for your prayers!

Our family is hosting a two year old little girl named Ariana along with her mother (Maria) and interperter(Eunice) from Ecuador. Ariana is here through Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project for heart surgery. They arrived on Nov. 4 to our home and Ariana had a successful surgery on Nov. 8. She will be released from the hospital on Nov. 13 to come back to our home to recover until Dec. 10 before flying back home.

Maria met Mel Graham (cousin of Franklin Graham) while Mel and Franklin were in Ecuador. Maria works at a hotel and was cleaning Mel Graham's room when she started telling him (through lots of sign language because neither of them speak the same language) about her daughter needing heart surgery. Well, Mel got an interpreter and told Maria that he would do what he could to help Ariana. Ariana was not expected to live longer than three days after she was born. Maria and her husband, Santiago, were expecting to take her home with them from the hospital after she was born to die. They prayed for her constantly and put her in God's hands. God placed Mel and Maria in the same room at the right time. A month after Maria and Mel met they were on a plane to Rochester, MN for a surgery that would save little Ariana's life. Praise the Lord!!

We are having a great time getting to know them. We are practicing our spanish and learning some new words too. It is such a blessing to be able to be a part of helping Samaritan's Purse and all they do. Thank you for your continued prayers for Ariana and her family.

New School Year

Well, we are off to a good start with the school year. Darin is going strong with youth group. He is starting up small groups for the high school students in Oct. I will be leading a group for the girls. I had a get together last night at our house for the girls and had 14 show up. We ate ice cream sundaes and played the game Apples to Apples. It was a lot of fun. I decided to post a picture of all who showed up.

Tyson is in first grade now and loves his teacher. He has a great class and is slowly learning the names of his classmates. I think this will be a good year for him. He also has a new hairdoo that he is proud of and has learned how to fix his own hair. This week he has learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. He does a great job steering and stopping without falling off. It seems like he has grown up so much just in this past month.

Logan has started preschool at a church nearby. He loves school and has a friend from our church in his class. He is still the same goof ball he has always been. One of his favorite things to do lately is to draw pictures on the magnetic board and have us take pictures of it for him.

Avery is into dress-up lately. She has found her snowboots and loves to wear them around the house or outside along with her t-shirt and shorts. Last week Darin put her to bed then later when I went in to check on her I found her asleep with her snow boots on. She is also becoming a little mommy with her dolls. She is fun to watch.

We are doing well and getting ready for Fall- which I hear is beautiful here. We'll see. :)