for Nana!

Away in a Manger! (most of it, until Pete started acting up!)

Christmas blessings...

love.

joy.

 peace.

and whatever that is.

Bye!

Pre travel exercise

Bffs!

So good to see kathryn! Lorraine is in heaven and I love having double the babysitters!

From christmas eve

Daddy time!

The first round of pictures!

Round 1 of Christmas pictures!  We are having a great time in Grand Rapids! 

The mess, the noise, the chaos, the keilbasa, and the KARAOKE!

Christmas in the car 2

Five out of six are sleeping.
The sun is shining.
I have finished proofing my book.
I have piles of christmas treats sitting next to me.
I have Blogger on my phone.
And norah jones on the radio!

What a great day so far!

Christmas in the car!

Today's mugshots.

Anticipation!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Relaxing?

Relaxing in the hot tub with daddy! Or something like that!

angry bird!

The angry bird is watching him play angry birds.

Cute.

"go tell it" remix!

They broke into this spontaneously the other night at dinner.  I made the mistake of showing Seth this video though, and I think he has decided he will never engage in such tomfoolery ever again. This is your once chance to see it!

December harvest!

For the fruits of His creation, thanks be to God!

For the plowing, sowing, reaping,

silent growth while we are sleeping...

Future needs in Earth's safe-keeping!

Thanks be to God!

Carrot harvest!

Of various sizes..

Copper helped..

Thank you God,

for delicious Christmas carrots!

Aggie-claus

I am pretty sure Aggie is related to Santa Claus.  She just can't stop gift giving! And picture making!

This is her gift for the gift exchange at school:

To "a girl" Love Aggie

Love the braids!

love this.

weird stuff, good stuff!

I am slowly winning the kids over to the weird stuff in my kitchen...

Yesterday- cinnamon rolls!

Seth thought it was SO cool to help me at each step- 

beginning with grinding the wheat seed!

He got to watch our super-awesome machine do the kneading for us, too.

(That was my favorite part!)

Eldon ate the frosting!

She declared them worth the wait! :)

grandpa snuggles

Love this pic.
See you soon dad!

weird stuff in my kitchen!

Meet some of my new kitchen friends!

Raw can sugar, shallots, wheat seed, extra virgin olive oil, natural peanut better, a pepper grinder, apple cider vinegar...

This is the fruit of my vague feeling, "We really should start eating healthier..."

combined with Josh's "go big or go home!" energy!

We are aiming for a more Mediterranean kind of a diet (plus peanut butter and a few other things!)

We are not so much trying to lose weight (though that would be fine!) We are trying to eat better and maybe break a few addictions (AH, junk carbs! Sugar!)

I'll let you know how it goes! :)

more snow pics

More fun from the birthday snow!

It wasn't just Peter who loved it! :)

Come ON Indiana!

It's December!

Bring on the snow!