Happy 6th Birthday Rahab our spirited girl.  She is full of energy.  You don’t have to watch too closely to see her feet are always moving to a beat, voice always has a tune, and her laughter is contiguous.  She can’t wait to start dance up again after Christmas.  She can’t stopped dancing or singing.  

Rahab is in kindergarten this year and is excited to learn how to read, do science, and have her ‘own’ lessons.  She’s off to a great start, working towards an American Girl doll.  

She is up for adventures.  Loved exploring Alaska this summer and was often in the lead when her brother would let her.  She loves making people laugh especially her cousins and siblings.  If you are looking for her she is usually in the kitchen cooking along side me.  When my kitchen is closed, she is in her kitchen cooking up a meal for her dolls or anyone in the house that will go to her restaurant.  Dress up is another past time that brings her much joy.  

On her birthday we had a caramel rolls in the morning with Grandma and Grandpa Ireland.  Chicken Tagine with Couscous for dinner, mainly because she wanted the couscous. We opened presents in the evening.  

She is becoming quite the young lady, enjoying a little more freedom and responsibilities.  Watching her grow in the Lord this year is quite amazing.  

Continue working in her heart Lord and revealing yourself to her.  Amen.

Happy Birthday Rahab!

Love Mom

Merry Christmas from the Ireland household!  Our Christmas was pretty different this year as Greg had to work and I’m recovery from the car accident.  We enjoyed celebrating for several days.  It snowed on Christmas Eve, which the kids took full advantage of playing in the snow!  Grandpa & Grandma Ireland joined us for some Chinese checkers and took us to Christmas Eve service.  I was very thankful for the ride, as I was restricted from not driving per doctors orders.  Plus seeing all the cars in the ditch from the slippery roads, was not helping my emotional state as well as the kids.  Thankful we made it to church and back safely!  On Christmas day the kids strung popcorn to put outside for the birds.  Fun to see them get into that activity.

Rahab tells Grandpa as we are playing “Grandpa, You’re awesome!”  Best line of the night!

Greg came home on the 26th, so we enjoyed our Christmas dinner.  Which was ribeye, mashed potatoes, veggies,  asparagus, and rolls.  Quite a dinner!  We enjoyed finishing up our advent jesse tree with Greg.  Then enjoyed opening gifts with each other!  It was a great Christmas evening.  We enjoyed our gifts from santa the next morning!  Santa knew not to come until the morning of the 27th.  We got spoiled!  We are all excited to try out the aqua mat this summer!

I have friends that pray about a word for each of their family members as they enter into a new year.  I feel like these words chose Greg and I this year.

Greg’s is strength.  He is juggling a lot this next year.  Finishing up seminary, working full time, per diem business, and taking care of his family/household as I heal from the accident.  My prayer for him is strength.  That he will know how strong he is and how much of his strength comes from the Lord!

Mine is blessed.  I will need to be constantly reminded of how blessed I am this year as I heal.  It will be easy to see all the things I can’t do for my family that I normally would be able to do.  The physical healing, will take time, the doctors are saying 6 months to a year.  Recognizing the good days and remembering the bad days will come and go, but I am blessed.  Being reminded of how blessed I am will keep my focus on the Lord and not my healing process.  My prayer is to remember my blessings everyday!

-Chris

Happy Birthday Jadon, our adventure kid.  He learned the love of hiking this year.  All the hikes over he took over Alaska and his trip with Greg this past summer has brought out a new love for him.  He loves to explore new ways to use his pocket knife with all the treasures he finds on those hikes.  I love watching him take charge on a hike and lead the way.

He can still be found playing legos, trains, cars, baseball cards, telling jokes, reading, and finding his own adventures.

His love for baseball is contagious.  He loves playing the game, watching the Mariners, and playing with his baseball cards.  Usually Mariners versus the Twins, which he is always cheering for the Mariners to win!   

Jadon’s new adventure this year is basketball.  He is off to a great start.  Loves learning a new game.  We are excited to watch him play this year.    

One of the most important things that happened this past year was Jadon’s decision to do communion.  He love and knowledge for the Lord has grown so much this past year.  I love watching the Lord work through his life.  Praying he will continue to trust the Lord throughout his life.  

Jadon’s birthday we celebrated with family Don, Ferol, Parker, Nikki, Mack and our family.  We had sweet and sour meatballs.  Then went to the Christmas Choir program at church.  All three of the kids were in it!  They did an amazing job!  Afterwards we went back to the house to enjoy apple crisp with vanilla ice cream and open presents.  Can’t believe he is 8!

Here’s to eight year old adventures to come!

Love,

Mom

Yesterday I flew to MSP to see the Rau family.  Thanks to my wonderful husband and my inlaws that watched my kiddos to make this trip possible!  My sister is a rockstar!  She had an incredible hard and long labor.  I’m so proud of how Matt and Tricia persevered through the 37 hours of labor.  I got to love on her last night.  It was wonderful to be by her side and encourage her.  Kaiden is precious!  He is a big boy weighing in at 10lb 3oz.  Excited he came into our family!

-Chris

 

Our 5th annual gingerbread contest happened last night.  Our house was full of bustle, laughter, and joy.  Makes my heart happy.  We had six families join us this year.  With fellowship followed by lots of fun competition and themed prizes.  Thankful to be with great families to enjoy the holidays!

-Chris

 

 

Proud of Jadon and Esther for working so hard in learning their piano songs this year.  It is so fun to hear how much they have learned since last year.  Jadon played Classic Dance.   Esther played Joy to the World/Silent Night Melody.  I was thankful that Greg, Don and Ferol were all able to attend the recital.

 

-Chris

 

Heading up to the mountains this year to find our tree is always an adventure.  This year however seemed to be more of an adventurous struggle than most years, but we persevered and found success.  It was actually becoming quite comical of all the adventurous struggles:

• The kids packed their winter gear:  which resulted in them not have a change of clothes when they got cold and wet.  In all fairness we didn’t expect 3 feet of snow.  Rahab got stuck in a 3 feet of snow.  Her boot got stuck and full of snow.  I came to help and found her boot at the car and her bare foot sitting in the snow.  She was screaming my foot is FREEZING!  I had to carry her to the car through snow, which I kept falling in waist high.  We made it and we didn’t even lose the foot!

• Packed only snacks:  We thought we would have time to stop for lunch, but didn’t anticipate how long it would take to get the tree on the car!  The kids were really hungry, but they survived!

• Greg missed his buddies:  Let’s face it I can’t drag, pull, or lift a 400 pound tree!  But we did eventually get it on the car.  It may have involved rope, pulling the tree down the hill.  A shovel to prop up the tree so Greg could leverage it on the car while I ‘slowly’ back up the car.  Seriously so many things could have gone wrong,  Most importantly I didn’t kill Greg in the process!

• Rahab lost her other front tooth on the mountain!:  Shhh she didn’t want me to send out any pictures.  She wanted to show it off in person.  So if you read this and haven’t seen her maybe you should FaceTime and be surprised!  All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth!

We love being able to bring amazement to people faces as they walk into see the tree.  It is a spectacular sight!  

This year I added our Christmas cards display from previous years!  It has been fun to look back and wonder how those families that we have lost touch with are doing.  Also, see how the families we are still in contact have changed over the years!  Yes I have kept all of them over the years!

-Chris

 

 

I love this time of year.  One of our magical traditions is our Blessing Angel, B.A.  She arrives every December.  She brings blessings to our family.  The kids love finding her every morning and reminding us of our many blessings.  Today she was in the Krumkake box.  Which means today we will make Krumkake!  I’m excited to make this Swedish cookie.  It was one of the cookies my Mom always made.  I have the cast iron my mom used over the years of growing up.  I haven’t had the opportunity to use it too many times over the years, due to the wrong stovetop.  This year I solved the problem and bought an electric coil burner.  It was successful.  I was excited to introduce my children to Krumkake!  They loved it!