family

I was looking though old pictures tonight and just had to post this video.   I'm so thankful for this bunch of people God has allowed me to share this life with.  They sharpen me and make me laugh.  I know more about Christ because I know them.  I love you Jason, Jonas, Ella, Kate, Isaac, Mom, Dad, Mark, Anne, Titus, Ezra, Simeon, Levi, Mark, Amy, Ian, Emmaline, Justin, Stephanie, and Max!

Christmas activities

grandpa entertaining the little two with his movies and music:

 decorating the gingerbread house with grandma:

grandma ended up "decorating" their mouths!

 enjoying our beautiful creation:

 Isaac's first look at our gingerbread house when he woke up from his nap:

 This is our annual draft:

We have an overload of stuffed animals.  Does anyone else out there tend to accumulate these like we do?  The kids LOVE their animals and play with them and sleep with them and take them everywhere. Some of them are very special and others aren't so much.  Before Christmas it's necessary to purge and make room for more so this is our way of going through the animal friends.  We place all of the animals on the couch and Jason leads the draft.  The kids choose one at a time in an organized fashion which animals are their favorites and we let them keep a certain amount and then the left-overs disappear. ;)

 We played lots of games: 

(Amy's thrilled that I have my camera out )

holiday baking:

(Isaac "helping" me with his choo-choo)

 Some for giving, some for eating:

announcing...

      Emmaline Rose was born on 11-14-11 at 11:20 AM.  She weighs 7 lbs 7 oz and is 21" long.

And here are the pictures of her first day.  She was all of 7 hours old when little brother, Ian, and aunt Beth got to visit her.  First of all here is the cutest little, big brother bringing flowers to mommy.  

This hat was knit by a few older ladies who volunteer time and talent at the hospital.  This one was their gift of love to Emmaline.  She's wrapped in a fleece swaddler provided by the hospital.  She'll be sent home with a pink one.

 Amy's food tray's are delivered with fresh flowers.  They are beautiful and we had fun with a little photo shoot last night.  

Emmaline's first day was of course full of sleep, but when she was awake she seemed perfectly content even with our playing dress up with her!

And here is the new little family of FOUR!

Amy {and baby E}

Today is Amy's 27th Birthday.  Happy Birthday, dear Amy.  Everyone who knows you knows theres a beauty inside and out that makes you special.  We love you!

blurry Mark being a dork and making us laugh, as usual

Amy is 33 weeks pregnant with a sweet baby girl.  Amy was helping Mark outside today.  He's been installing fence sections to completely fence in our back yard.  This is going to be amazing!  Frequently we have random dogs and random strangers walking right through our back yard.  There are a lot of immigrants in our neighborhood and a lot of rental properties.  Anyway, these next few pics were fun.  I grabbed my camera and took advantage of Amy's cuteness since she's preggo and it's her birthday.  And, yes, I watched as she lifted and held fence sections in place.  Hello!  I had pictures to take!

I cannot believe the goodness of God in allowing us to live with our brother and sister.  It's amazing.  It's working out so well.  We are a good team put together by the grace of God and are looking forward to our future ministry in the Philippines.  Have I mentioned that before on here?  Details will be for another post.

outtakes

There's a progression here.  I'm sure you moms know it well.  If you don't get a good shot right away, it's hard to capture everyone looking "perfect".  However, some of the "perfect" looking pics don't communicate personality!  So, I say perfect shmerfect.  Let's have fun!

This is the only one we could get with Ian

and then he was done.

I think we're getting tired of this (it's only been about 60 seconds).  Isaac decides he can leave.

Jonas doesn't care for the everyone-pile-on-Jonas pose

It's time for aunt Amy to get involved

Isaac likes it.  Poor Jonas, we're almost done!

The big kids were glad to move to a new spot, but it took some convincing to get Isaac there.

silliness

hopeless, at least they are having fun!

Isaac is saying "all done"

Jonas, don't strangle your sister.  Give Isaac a toy to make him stay.

We are SO done here!

a favorite of the day to end with:

11.11.11

My sister, Amy, is pregnant and has the coolest due date: 11.11.11  Her doctor says that the hospitals are already filling up with C-sections scheduling on that day.  We are excited to meet the new little one in God's perfect timing though.  This Stamper house is filling up!   The more the merrier.

20 weeks

the rest of the story

Tuesday Jonas and I went to the consultation with a surgeon about his abscessed tooth.  I really didn't know what to expect and so I didn't tell Jonas that anything in particular would or wouldn't happen.  A little friend from church had told Jonas that he was going to have to have his tooth pulled and the dentist would yank really hard and it would hurt really bad.  Well, I told Jonas we would just wait and see what the doctor recommended and not worry about it.  It turns out that Jonas' little friend was right.  We had our meeting and the doctor said, "we need to do this now".  I've seen someone I love in a lot of pain this year and as hard as that has been, I just can't imagine watching your child go through pain.  Jonas was so brave and sat perfectly still with his eyes shut tight as tears were streaming down his little face as the doctor numbed the area with several shots.  The actual pulling was no big deal and it didn't really take very long.  Only a few hours later Jonas was completely pain free and back to himself.  I'm glad that's done!  However, the same thing is happening in the same spot on the other side.  It's not abscessed yet, but it could become infected.  I now have to set up an appt with a pediatric ortho for a space saver to be put in the side that was pulled and for something to be done to the opposite side (pulled or filled or something).  yuck... more money... more tears... NO FUN!

Wednesday during youth group we celebrated Jason and Mark's 30th birthday.  (I'm such a slacker and didn't even post about my amazing husband's 30th birthday- don't worry.  we celebrated.  He knows he's loved.  I don't have to post to show it- I don't even know if people read this! )  Amy put together a great slide show celebrating this year with Jason.  It was sweet.

Thursday we had a family birthday party and then Jason took the two older kids to our school's open house.  I can't believe I have a son in 2nd grade and Ella is starting K-5! It's not possible.  How can everyone else change and grow around me?  I'm not changing one bit :).  During their few hours away I took the 2 little ones (Kate and Isaac) and did some shopping.  We needed to get some last minute school supplies we couldn't find the other day.  It was very fun to spend some time with those two!  I know I'll enjoy my many hours with them while Ella is in school 3 days a week.  Kate is ready to start reading and it will be fun to work with her.

Jason is politely telling me to stop taking pics! :)

Ella waiting to go see her classroom and talk to her teacher at the open house.

Friday we went to the State Fair.  The Minnesota State Fair is amazing.  It's HUGE.  I can't describe it.  You'd just have to experience it!  It will definitely be something we'll always miss when we leave here someday.  We had a fun and exhausting day together as a family.

Saturday Jason was gone from about 8 to 1 with some church responsibilities.  Around 5 we got ready and went to a preseason Vikings game!  These people here are crazy passionate about their football team.  Everywhere we turned downtown there seemed to be a sea of purple and gold!  We had a great time with our double date- Mark and Amy.

Sunday afternoon I'm planning on a nap.  I'm hoping all the stars aline and all the children sleep or are quiet as church mice for a few hours.  Everything hinges on the baby.  Will he catch a little cat nap in the nursery?  Will he make it home without falling asleep in his car seat?  Will he eat a good lunch and then sleep for a few hours?  We shall see...