March 27, 2016

HAPPY EASTER!!

One year ago we were celebrating Eli's decision to ask Jesus into his heart, and today we did the same for Owen!! He had been talking about it for a few weeks, but as Easter came closer he decided that he wanted to light his candle on Easter Sunday. We couldn't be more thankful and more proud of his decision!

After church we headed home for Easter baskets and family time, then the Golz's came over for our last 'family' holiday together. We've been celebrating Thanksgiving and Easter together for almost five years and we are so sad that this was our last one! These kids have gone from babies (or non-existent!) when we started to full-blown big kids!!

December 31, 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Last year our theme of the evening was Up and we had all sorts of food to go along with the theme. Well, this year it took the boys awhile to choose their movie, but they finally settled on Brave, which none of us had ever seen so I had no idea what to do for the food. But we thought, Brave? What takes more bravery than sushi! Owen and Eli really liked it, but Garrett and Dylan wouldn't try it. We played games, talked about goals for the year, watched the movie, ate ice cream sundaes and talked about the new year starting (though none of us made it to midnight!)

December 26, 2015

We're back in beautiful weather! Out for a hike on this beautiful day : )

December 25, 2015

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

This was a GREAT Christmas! The theme seemed to be Art and Science mostly, and the favorites were tiny Thomas trains for Dylan, a foosball table for Garrett, a spy kit for Eli and a magic set (or tornado lab) for Owen. They loved choosing gifts for Dwight, Janet and each other at Faith and were so excited to hand out their presents. It was still a gorgeous afternoon, so we took the kids bike riding with their new bikes and then came home for a traditional dinner of Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus with cupcakes. It was a full day of playing with new toys and art supplies, games, learning magic tricks and spying on everyone. We played a great game of soccer in the backyard and then the storm rolled in. It dropped almost 40 degrees, crazy rain and loads of wind. Sadly, there were several tornadoes the next day that destroyed neighborhoods : ( It was a joy filled day for us though!

December 24, 2015

Christmas Eve service at IBC was beautiful as always. This year it was even better because we got to celebrate with Dwight, Janet AND Jenny! We spent the morning handing out clothes, toiletries and food to the homeless downtown, Jenny and I went for a run and then we headed to church. It was hard to feel especially in the season because it was mid-70s outside, but we made the most of it (and winter weather was right around the corner!)