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!

Saying goodbye to our epic summer in Alaska happened this weekend.  We met Greg in Alaska.  We had three purposes; visit the North Pole, Thanksgiving, and clean the house we rented.

Landing in Anchorage bought a flood of memories of our summer up here.  It truly was an amazing summer!  Unforgettable for sure!  We spent most of the day in the airport on Sunday waiting for Greg to return from ORD.  He had to divert.  I can’t remember the last time he had to do that!  Very thankful he is a highly trained pilot who does what is safe even if it isn’t popular!  The kids and I got a lot of school work done and watched the Vikings win!  We tried to use our 5 hour wait for him wisely.  Monday we spent cleaning the town house.  Our lease is up at the end of the month.  I really enjoy the fact that we can clean the house in about 2 hours, from top to bottom!  Awesome! Greg will come up one more time and then the house if officially done.  Bitter sweet if you ask me.

On Tuesday, we attempted our next purpose.  To go to the North Pole and see Santa.  This was one of the very few adventures in AK that totally flopped!  It was Santa’s day off!  Ugh.  We did get to drop off our letters in his letter box, but it just wasn’t quite the same.  We did see the reindeer though.  We also look forward to the ice sculptures.  But again, we struck out on that too.  We were too early for those.  It hasn’t been cold enough, image that!  It was -10*F.  I think we might need to make a trip with our nephews!  Watch out nephews, North Pole may be in your future!  We did however find the Thai place in Fairbanks!  Now this place is rated the best Thai food in the country!  It is pretty amazing!

Last but not least was Thanksgiving.  Being on reserve for the holidays is very unpredictable.  He could be home or could be flying without much warning.  We chose to spend it up in Alaska in hopes that Greg would be there.  Not this year.  He was off flying.  The blessing in all this is the Ness family.  They were in the same boat as we were.  Both husbands went to work, leaving us moms to take on Thanksgiving with 6 kids!  I’m so thankful we were able to join them for thanksgiving.  Not only did they provide all the food.  We also made a mess making lefsa with them!  We had a great laid back couple of days.  Hanging out playing games, sledding, walking, and just enjoying each others company.  Although we miss our husbands and extended families on these days, it was sure comforting to be with great friends.  Hopefully next year we will not be on reserve!  Oh wait we have Christmas reserve to look forward too!  

M is for Moon!  Rahab is in kindergarten this year!  I love this curriculum.  It provides such fun activities all while learning!  Rahab is my helper in the kitchen.  I can remember when she was really little she would be contently playing in the house somewhere.  The moment she would hear me cooking in the kitchen she would come join in on the action!  It was quite a joy for her and I to make Moon Cake!  She did an amazing job measuring out the ingredients and following directions!

Arches!  Esther, Jadon and I have been studying Roman history.  We were learning about the arches they made and that are still standing today.  Pretty incredible if you ask me!  Of course we, and by we, I mean Esther and Jadon, had to try their hands out by making an arch out of pudding boxes!  What a great project!  They even learned some vocabulary, like the keystones and their purposes.

Service!  This is one of the perks of homeschooling.  We were able to take the afternoon and learn how to make Cardomon Bread.  Which was being sold as a fundraiser for Truly Motivated.  It was an awesome way to serve.  I’m hoping we can do it again next year.  If you haven’t tried this bread, you need too!  We have a couple of loaves, and we might be willing to share.  Maybe…

I was able to surprise my sister and mom!  I flew in last friday night to surprise my sister at her baby shower last Saturday.  The surprise was unexpected and super fun for me!  With the help of my husband, navigating me through different routes so I could get there and my Dad who helped keep it a secret from Mom and Tricia!  It was a successful surprise!  And well worth the whirlwind of travel!  This was the first time I have seen my sister since April.  I am so excited to be an aunt again and for her to join motherhood.  She is going to be a great mother! And to see her belly brought me great joy!  I’m so thankful that God provided a way for me to make trips like this happen!

She is having showers back to back.  I turned around and brought the kids four days later.  We had a lot of fun planning this shower for Tricia.  Esther and Rahab were so excited to help with all the fun details of planning the shower.  From decorating to taking pictures to playing the games and activities.  I really do hope my sister felt blessed by this baby shower.  She is dearly loved by family and friends!  I’m blessed to have her as my sister.

This is my prayer for her as a mother:

As you enter into motherhood there is no greater job then raising the children God gives you.  As you receive amazing advice and wonderful gifts over the years. There will be plenty of both.  There is still one greater than all other gifts, that can not be purchased.  The value of this gift is insurmountable.  As you learn to parent this precious little boy there will be many tears of joy, frustrations, and sorrow.  As you try to learn all the ‘correct ways’ to parent, trust me you will never feel like you are enough for him.  You will seek advice from strangers, books, family and friends all with great intentions.  Some advice will come with a thankful heart and some with a resentful heart.  Remember there is only one source that you can trust fully in this world and that is God’s word.  He will guide you and provide for you all the tools you need to raise this child of God’s.  When you trust the Lord you will know you are enough, your heart will be able see the wise advice and let go of the foolish advice.  Trust Him.  God’s word says to teach your children the ways of the Lord.  This is the most precious gift you can give.

Deut. 6:1 ¶ These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

Deut. 6:2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.

Deut. 6:3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.

Deut. 6:4 ¶ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Deut. 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Deut. 6:6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

Deut. 6:7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deut. 6:8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

This the gift you can give your child.  Teach him his need and love for Christ.  No this is something you can’t make him receive, but we are commanded to teach.  

We finished our first week of official school!  To celebrate we had to check out the new park, Deschutes Falls,  just down the road from our house!  What a great way to end our week, exploring the great outdoors with the great fall weather.  The added bonus was we shared the adventure with great friends!  Although I was hoping for a little bit longer of a hike, it was a great place to explore Deschutes River.

-Chris