Happy Birthday Jesus!

We are so glad you came!

For unto us a child is born, a son is given:...and His name shall be called WONDERFUL, COUNSELLOR, the MIGHTY GOD, the EVERLASTING FATHER, the PRINCE OF PEACE. Isaiah 9:6

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins. Mt.1:21


Praising God for the greatest gift of all ~ JESUS! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

kids caring for kids/ Prairie Christian School

Check out this Lifesong for Orphans blog post. Our kids have been attending Prairie Christian School for 4 years now. The school, families and, especially, the teachers have been such a blessing to us. It was really fun to see the kids "get" Christmas this year.

Praise God for working in the PCS students' hearts for the children in Zambia and for reminding me that He is pleased with childlike faith!

Merry Christmas!

http://lifesong.squarespace.com/home/2009/12/18/kids-caring-for-kids-prairie-christian-school.html

Happy 2nd Birthday Hope!

Time goes so fast. Our baby is turning 2! If I could freeze our family right now, I would. I love the mix of elementary age kids and the cute cuddly pre-k/toddlers.

Hope getting a smooch from daddy while in Ethiopia.

Home from Ethiopia.

We often comment on what a different girl she is now. She was so quiet and non-expressive for a long time but now she is SO expressive and loves to "talk." She said 3 new words today.

Is this picture a prophecy of future phone bills to come?!?! :-}

Happy Birthday Hope Tizita. You are a special gift from God! We love you.

Hope gets her groove on...

When we were at Horn Creek this past summer, Hope got way into the singing. She seriously danced like this for about a half an hour.

Sorry I can't get the video to turn but if you turn YOUR head a lot to the left, it works! (hee, hee !)

Ouch!!

Travor was playing with Hope and I guess they thought she needed some bandaging!

Thankfully, she did not do anything to require three band aids to her forehead, but I thought the pics were cute!


I see how babies of the families get their fun personalities!

California

Andy and I were blessed to go to beautiful CA for a Lifesong event. Beautiful Monteray. I could not get a picture to do it justice. To get the idea, green grass then a steep cliff dropping to the ocean. Amazing Creator God!

After the Lifesong event, Andy and I went to San Francisco for the remainder of our trip. I am fascinated with the steep streets. Good exercise too!

Love these homes! I am a sucker for window boxes.

Enjoying sushi!

Boat ride to Alcatraz. Such interesting history.

I was tempted to buy this tray for the kids when they complain about the food at home.

A windy ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Taking a pic after walking down the most crocked street in the world.

Funny Thanksgiving Video!

Family Fun Games

We occasionally enjoy playing games as a family. Two of our current favorites are

Uno Attack

Hullabaloo

We like fast paced and fun/goofy games - not a lot of methodical thinking for this crew :-)

With the holidays and winter coming up, I would like to get a few more games to have around. Do you have any favorites? Board games or made up ones? I would love to hear about them.

Hope's First Haircut!!

Thanks to Ari for doing a fabulous job! With her ring pop in hand, Hope did a good job too...Success!

Decorating Help, please...

I have had a bathroom re-do idea brewing in my head for a few months. Here is the current bathroom for Haley and Hope. Not bad, but not grand.

I don't feel like this bathroom looks fresh and fun, especially the cabinets. It looks dated and drab.

This picture, from a blog, is what got me to start thinking about making some up-dates in the bath. We are not handy people so this board and batten idea appealed to me. This blogger used just boards on the wall (not actual bead board) and painted it all white. I think it looks really nice. You can check out the process and more pictures for yourself here...

http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-board-and-batten.html
But here is my question: I am thinking of doing the board and batten 2/3 or 3/4 up the wall in the bathroom and paint the trim white to match. I would also like to frame out the mirror to make it look more custom. I like the idea of how it will lighten it all up. But what color should I go with for the cabinets and walls. Tell me your vote ~ I really want to know.

Idea #1 ~ white cabinetry with tan, neutral walls.

Idea #2 ~ white cabinetry with bright walls such as this green.


Idea #3 ~ distressed cabinetry with blue and white. It looks like the cabinets have little color to them in this photo. This might be more practical for our own "distressing" in a house with 4 kids? I don't know.


What do you think? I would love to know your thoughts BUT one warning ~ I have no idea when I will actually get around to doing this. I love the idea stage but the work and $ tend to slow me down ~ ahhh, reality! Eventually, I will summon the courage (and about half way through painting wonder WHY I AM DOING THIS?!)

If you have other ideas, I am open. If you live close and LOVE to paint, definitely give me a call!
Thanks for the help!

Sweet Story

Visit Lifesong's blog and check out this really sweet story...

http://lifesong.squarespace.com/

Happy 10th Birthday Travor!!

YOU, our first born son, are so very special to us! We love you so much! We pray often that you will be soundly saved and passionate in your service for Christ!

Love, mom and dad

Birthday and a vacation

We have been having lots of fun lately!

Caleb turned 5 so we celebrated his b-day.

His John Deere cake compliments of Grandma Bauer. She did a great job, he loved it!

Getting ready to open gifts.

The big reveal -what is in that trunk....???

A NEW BIKE!!!

Caleb had some special visitors to his b-day party. My Aunt's foreign exchange students came back to visit for a few weeks this summer. MiSo is from Korea and Evelyn is from Germany. It was so good to see them again.


MiSo and Evelyn brought gifts for the kids - t-shirts and chopsticks from Korea and German chocolate - yum!

On to our vacation to Colorado...after driving straight through the night to Colorado Springs, this is how we looked for awhile :-)

We met up with Andy's parents in the Springs which was so fun! This is the crew at Garden of the Gods.

Brothers and buds (most of the time anyway!).

The girls posing in an old fashioned sleigh. Dad and mom and our family went to a ranch for a cowboy supper and western singing.

Dad and mom enjoying the show at the Flying W Ranch.

Eating at Focus on the Family.

Drinking the famous "wodfamchocsa" any Odessey fan knows what that drink is.

After we were in Colorado Springs for a few days, we took off for the mountains. I love the drive- such beauty! We spent the rest of the week at a christian camp called Horn Creek.

Horn Creek had fun water slides that the kids (and Andy & I - sorry no pics of us in suits!!) enjoyed.

At Horn Creek you are free to do what you like during the day then their are special activities in the evening for everyone to participate in. This is a famous Horn Creek activity - the hanging log - where you try to knock off your opponent with pillows while balancing on a hanging log.

We were at Horn Creek with the Monroe family. Here is Caleb and Carter on the log.

Fierce competition on the log but buds afterwards!

A random picture of Hope. She has been posing lately by folding her hands together and giving a cheesy smile ~ love it!

A true highlight of our trip was a family rafting adventure down the Arkansas River. Thankfully Caleb had just turned 5 since that is the minimum age. The kids loved it.

Getting suited up. Here is our kids with the Monroe's kids, they all played so well during the week. We miss them!

Hiking the 'Rainbow Trail'

Hope's strenuous hike :-)

Here is Michael and Amy Monroe the parents of those gorgeous children. We had so much fun staying up and talking or playing Mexican Train Dominos after the kids went to bed.

The kids all went horse back riding too.

That is all the pictures! It was such a blessing to go to Horn Creek and Colorado Springs. The rest of our trip was driving, driving and driving home!