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.  

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!

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: