enjoying the snow

What's a person to do when that's all there is... snow.  I want to have these snow play pictures in our blog books for the record.  Soon enough we will be living FAR away from anything snowy.  (I'll post our "where, when, why, how philippines" soon!)  And these snowy memories will be all we are left with.  In my opinion that is fine, but my kids are truly Minnesotan and they LOVE the stuff.  

winter fun in our back yard

a day of rejoicing

Three years ago today Jason was discharged from North Memorial Hospital.  After 22 days and 5 surgeries he was finally cleared from his wound care nurses, urologist, colon rectal specialist, hospitalist, infectious disease specialist, internal medicine, nutrition monitoring, and physical therapy. Only by the grace of God was he able to leave that hospital!  Coming in with a white blood count in the 30's and leaving with it at 13 was miraculous.  Time and again I was told by surgeons that Jason's chances for survival were slim.  He had massive surgical wounds that required 5 more months of dressing and packing (by me, the new nurse!) several times a day as well as 2 more surgeries and many many doctor visits. Those months were so special.  There was a peace and stillness and emotional bonding and a joyful praising and a re-living of God's goodness and a fresh perspective and most of all an acute eternal focus.  We haven't shared a lot of details about the recovery process (and it was a long and painful process) and that's because the big picture is far more important! Each day we are thankful for God's gift of life. There have been and continue to be complications, challenges, discomfort, and inconveniences, but these are minor in light of Christ's work on our behalf and we are thankful for the testing of our faith. February 2, 2010 was a day of rejoicing in our home and we will always remember it as one of the gracious works of God in our family.  

Stationery card

Blessed Family Religious Christmas Card

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Disney World

Our family was given an amazing gift in the month of April this year.  Jason's parents took ALL us Stampers to Disney World!  This is a trip they had planned for years.  Along with our planning and talking and anticipating, excitement was growing and we were in no way disappointed.  Our kids are perfect ages for a Disney experience we won't forget!   

 My kids love to mark off the days till an event. 

 FINALLY!

 Here is the cold and white Minneapolis Stamper enterage arriving in sunny FL!

 Aunt Elizabeth had these shirts made for us.  We wore them on day one and one other time as well.  It WAS really nice to be able to identify the people in our 13-person group.

 The days were LONG and FULL!  We enjoyed an amazing 8 days at the parks and stayed at the All-Star Resort at Disney.

 Everyone needs a lollypop the size of your head!  Why not live the dream?  The kids carefully saved money for a year and then chose how to spend it at Disney World.  Some choices were very frivilous, but some were planned and careful, taking a lot of thought to what would last long after vactation was over. 

 Epcot:

 grandpa Stamper and 3 little Stampers:

 Cinderella's castle was magical for the girls!

 Having daddy to ourselves 24/7 for 9 days was the BEST!

 dreaming of being princesses:

Disney was sweet treats, sugary drinks, and delicasies of all kinds!

 silly duo:

more magic: catching sunlight

 strong boys pulling the sword from the stone

My beautiful SIL, Elizabeth:

 More fun eats:

 Sweet dreams at night were fulfilled during the day and days filled with delight were fuel for sweet dreams at night.

 You couldn't find a happier crew!

 Kate and Aunt Elizabeth at Animal Kingdom:

 Isaac loving the rides.  His perfect world would be constant motion!

 Jonas and Aunt Amy.  The adult to child ratio on this trip was perfect!

 Memories of pure bliss and dreams of returning some day are all we have left, but those are powerful!  Thank you so much, grandma and grandpa.  Pictures and words can't express the vacation or the gratitude we have, but while they are inadequate we can still use them.