Monday, March 7, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Day 46: Two Roses
** One of these posts is not like the others. One of these posts just doesn't belong... Uh, it's this one. It belongs over here at this blog, which is Kelly's personal blog. **
On Valentine's Day, in the middle of my work shift, two of the sweetest little valentines entered the store with flowers in hand.
"Momma! Momma!" my little boy cried, waving a rose in his hand, running towards me. His sister was close behind with a big smile on her face.
Their dad followed. He's my greatest valentine of all.
I'm so glad that I have such special people in my family. Every day they bless my heart. Every day I love them more and more. Every day I learn more about love and about myself and how I fall short of loving them perfectly. Every day they love me anyway, despite those shortfalls.
Thank You Lord that we can love because You first loved us. Thank You that you have given me three of the greatest loves in my life. Thank You for giving us all the many kinds of love that we can feel for each other from friendship to family and romance. My life is so rich because of the treasure that love is and that true, perfect love comes from You. I praise You because You are Love. I praise You because You pour out Your love lavishly on me and on all that You call Your own.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
AWANA Grand Prix
Norah entered her "Rainbow Trout" this year in the AWANA Grand Prix, and if I do say so myself, she did pretty well! Out of 4 heats, she took second twice and first twice! She was pretty excited to take part in it, and the highlight for her was winning a special award, "Most Colorful Car". So she felt pretty special!
Merry Christmas!
Well, since I finally took down the Christmas lights this week (of course, they'd been turned off a while ago), it's probably time to make our last 2010 Christmas blog post. Here are a few pictures (and one video).
Our tree on Christmas morning:
The kids opening their stockings:
Us with our stockings (it was early in the morning still):
Norah and her Fuzzoodles. The kids had been singing the commercial theme song for them:
They were both excited for their Zhu Zhu pets:
This video captures it well. Dig the unified excitement around the 0:25 mark:
Haddon loved his turtle pillow pet most of all. Right after opening it, he went into his room, took the pillow off his bed, and chucked it into the laundry room. He told us we could get rid of it; he wouldn't be needing it anymore.
After morning festivities at our house, we went over to my parents' place. Here's Kelly and Haddon excited for what's to come:
My parents got Norah a Leapster (her first video game system).
She took to it pretty well:
Playing with baby cousins:
Here's Haddon at the end of the day sleeping on his new pillow pet:
Merry Christmas to all.
Our tree on Christmas morning:
The kids opening their stockings:
Us with our stockings (it was early in the morning still):
Norah and her Fuzzoodles. The kids had been singing the commercial theme song for them:
They were both excited for their Zhu Zhu pets:
This video captures it well. Dig the unified excitement around the 0:25 mark:
Haddon loved his turtle pillow pet most of all. Right after opening it, he went into his room, took the pillow off his bed, and chucked it into the laundry room. He told us we could get rid of it; he wouldn't be needing it anymore.
After morning festivities at our house, we went over to my parents' place. Here's Kelly and Haddon excited for what's to come:
My parents got Norah a Leapster (her first video game system).
She took to it pretty well:
Playing with baby cousins:
Here's Haddon at the end of the day sleeping on his new pillow pet:
Merry Christmas to all.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Various Christmasy Things
(So I had this post cued up on December 27th, but had trouble uploading the videos, and then kept forgetting to get back to it until now. Enjoy...)
We had some fun times leading up to Christmas this year.
We cut our own tree...
...decorated it...
...decorated some more...
...but didn't really get a good picture of the finished product. No matter, though, as the kids moved the ornaments around on a daily basis, sometimes with less than ideal results from an aesthetic standpoint.
The kids decorated cookies as well...
...and had a lot of fun with it...
...leading to this:
The kids' Sunday School classes both performed at church a couple Sundays ago, as part of a Christmas-themed program. Norah, however, was in a mood and didn't want to join her class. Here's her "performance" from that day:
Haddon did pretty well, but for some reason the video of him didn't want to cooperate in the uploading process. Just imagine him kind of bobbing back and forth and attempting to sing on occasion.
Later that night we went out to Mission Mill Museum for their "Magic at the Mill" night. We had never been before (or even heard of it, for that matter). It was worth attending though, especially since we had half off admission coupons.
The kids got to see Santa Claus...
...although Norah was making every effort to prolong her bad mood.
The entire grounds were lit up, which looked really nice.
Everyone had fun. There were concerts, exhibits, model trains, lights, treats, and craft projects.
Norah tried to keep her pouty mood, but eventually admitted to having a good time.
She made a paper "quilt"...
...so did Haddon...
...and everyone enjoyed the yarn-making demonstration by the lady at the spinning wheel.
On our way out, Haddon joined this quartet for a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells."
I'm not sure if we'll go back to Mission Mill next Christmas. If there's another coupon, though, I think it would be highly possible. If you've never been before, we'd recommend it.
Finally, here's a Charlie Brown tree I made out of old Christmas tree branches and some spare plywood I had laying around.
I'll try to get to the actual Christmas celebrations soon.
We had some fun times leading up to Christmas this year.
We cut our own tree...
...decorated it...
...decorated some more...
...but didn't really get a good picture of the finished product. No matter, though, as the kids moved the ornaments around on a daily basis, sometimes with less than ideal results from an aesthetic standpoint.The kids decorated cookies as well...
...and had a lot of fun with it...
...leading to this:
The kids' Sunday School classes both performed at church a couple Sundays ago, as part of a Christmas-themed program. Norah, however, was in a mood and didn't want to join her class. Here's her "performance" from that day:
Haddon did pretty well, but for some reason the video of him didn't want to cooperate in the uploading process. Just imagine him kind of bobbing back and forth and attempting to sing on occasion.
Later that night we went out to Mission Mill Museum for their "Magic at the Mill" night. We had never been before (or even heard of it, for that matter). It was worth attending though, especially since we had half off admission coupons.
The kids got to see Santa Claus...
...although Norah was making every effort to prolong her bad mood.
The entire grounds were lit up, which looked really nice.
Everyone had fun. There were concerts, exhibits, model trains, lights, treats, and craft projects.
Norah tried to keep her pouty mood, but eventually admitted to having a good time.
She made a paper "quilt"...
...so did Haddon...
...and everyone enjoyed the yarn-making demonstration by the lady at the spinning wheel.
On our way out, Haddon joined this quartet for a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells."
I'm not sure if we'll go back to Mission Mill next Christmas. If there's another coupon, though, I think it would be highly possible. If you've never been before, we'd recommend it.
Finally, here's a Charlie Brown tree I made out of old Christmas tree branches and some spare plywood I had laying around.
I'll try to get to the actual Christmas celebrations soon.
Hanukkah Night
Okay, it's time to get caught up on the 2010 Christmas season. Kelly's working this week, so I'll be your tour guide. A few weeks ago, we decided to have a Hanukkah celebration (one night only though for this goyim family). We invited my brothers and their families over for the fun. Here's a rundown.
This was our centerpiece, prior to the lighting of the Menorah:
Here Norah is punching the holes out of the dough for the donuts.
And these are the finished products, after Kelly fried them up in oil. Most traditional Hanukkah foods are fried in oil, to commemorate the legend of the miracle of the lamp oil in the temple. The donuts were good, but the donut holes were even better.
Here are some more of the foods. There is homemade apple sauce in the bottom left, which tasted much better than it looks in this picture (the picture almost looks like marinara to me). There are also some matzo crackers with cheese. We also had a beef brisket (not pictured) and some latkes.
We forgot to take a picture of the latkes (fried potato pancakes), so we had to settle for this shot when there was only one left.
This is me telling the Hanukkah story to the kids. I think Norah got it pretty well, but the littler kids weren't too interested (probably due to my storytelling).
Each of the kids got to light some of the menorah candles. I'm helping my nephew Miles with one:
Miles and Isla (my niece) admiring the menorah after all the candles were lit:
It was a good night. The story of Hanukkah is part of the time between the Old and New Testaments, and understanding it is helpful to understanding the New Testament (the only reference to it in Scripture is in the New Testament, in John 10:22). It can be celebrated in a Christian way as well, remembering Jesus as the true light of the world. Also, all of the foods which we ate (some of which were new to us) were delicious. Hanukkah songs, however, while mostly fun, are even more repetitive than Christmas songs (at least judging by the selection on the Pandora Hanukkah station). And the dreidel game was basically a flop. All in all, though, it was a fun night. We'll probably do it again.
Here are some bonus videos.
This is Haddon, Norah, and Isla playing "Ring Around the Rosie" later that night. Notice Haddon taking a shot to a particularly painful location when they all fall down.
(It wasn't fake.)
And finally, here's Haddon's take on the dreidel song:
This was our centerpiece, prior to the lighting of the Menorah:
Here Norah is punching the holes out of the dough for the donuts.
And these are the finished products, after Kelly fried them up in oil. Most traditional Hanukkah foods are fried in oil, to commemorate the legend of the miracle of the lamp oil in the temple. The donuts were good, but the donut holes were even better.
Here are some more of the foods. There is homemade apple sauce in the bottom left, which tasted much better than it looks in this picture (the picture almost looks like marinara to me). There are also some matzo crackers with cheese. We also had a beef brisket (not pictured) and some latkes.
We forgot to take a picture of the latkes (fried potato pancakes), so we had to settle for this shot when there was only one left.
This is me telling the Hanukkah story to the kids. I think Norah got it pretty well, but the littler kids weren't too interested (probably due to my storytelling).
Each of the kids got to light some of the menorah candles. I'm helping my nephew Miles with one:
Miles and Isla (my niece) admiring the menorah after all the candles were lit:
It was a good night. The story of Hanukkah is part of the time between the Old and New Testaments, and understanding it is helpful to understanding the New Testament (the only reference to it in Scripture is in the New Testament, in John 10:22). It can be celebrated in a Christian way as well, remembering Jesus as the true light of the world. Also, all of the foods which we ate (some of which were new to us) were delicious. Hanukkah songs, however, while mostly fun, are even more repetitive than Christmas songs (at least judging by the selection on the Pandora Hanukkah station). And the dreidel game was basically a flop. All in all, though, it was a fun night. We'll probably do it again.Here are some bonus videos.
This is Haddon, Norah, and Isla playing "Ring Around the Rosie" later that night. Notice Haddon taking a shot to a particularly painful location when they all fall down.
(It wasn't fake.)
And finally, here's Haddon's take on the dreidel song:
Saturday, December 4, 2010
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