Christmas Program

Last night was Ronan and Sadie's Christmas program at Norkenzie Christian School. They both were so cute and did such a great job! Ronan's class were dressed like carolers and Sadie's class were dressed like sheep. We were really proud of Ronan for going up on stage and singing the whole time. He even kept his hat and scarf on and didn't wiggle around too much (: We weren't sure what to expect...but it turned out really well!

Above: There's Ronan up front wearing blue and yellow.
Below: Becca with Sadie in her cute sheep costume

Santa arrived at the end of the program to surprise all the kids. There was a huge line, so we waited until the end and got a few pictures of Ronan sitting on Santa's lap. When Santa asked Ronan what he wanted for Christmas he said, "a Bobcat and a John Deere tractor". He's our little construction worker (:

Griffin joined Ronan on Santa's lap. He was happy for a few minutes because he got to hold the bells. He didn't really know what to think of Santa!

My 1st attempt...

...at digital scrapbooking!


I used Ali Edwards' Digital Quickpages

The walls are going up now...and Ronan got to help! Nick and James worked so fast yesterday as the weather went from sunny and warm to raining off and on. When we got home from Moms of Grace, Ronan got his boots on and ran out to the construction site to check on the progress. Nick told Ronan that he made it just in time to help them lift one of the walls! I got the camera out just in time (:

Later on, Josh got to help raise a wall when he got home from work. (I didn't know he was home yet, so that's why I didn't get a picture) They made a lot of progress in just one day!

Today was the annual Moms of Grace Christmas Brunch. I always look forward to this event because everyone brings such delicious food and we all get a chance to hang out and really get to know each other better. This year Kesch planned it all and did such a great job! The room and the tables were very festive and the food was so yummy! Rather than doing just a random gift exchange we did a Secret Santa exchange where we all drew names and bought a gift for a specific person. It felt so much more personal! Katie Haynes drew my name and she gave me a really pretty ornament. Almost everyone at my table won a door prize too...it was so crazy! That never happens! Kesch also made CDs of fun Christmas music for all of us to take home!

Way to be Spontaneous!

It was a rainy, windy, icky day today in the valley, so Josh thought it would be fun to get out of town and find some snow! We aren't usually that spontaneous, but today we were. I gathered up all of our snow gear and some snacks and we drove to the Willamette Pass Nordic area. There was so much snow on the ground and it snowed the whole time we were there!
We had fun trying out our new snow shoes that Josh got at the REI garage sale a few months ago. It was so much easier to walk around in the deep snow with them on. Ronan hiked for a long time and was able to maneuver really well...except for walking backwards.
Griffin started out in the backpack, but he soon wanted to get down. He had a hard time walking in the snow, but he was pretty cute all bundled up. I think Ronan wore that snowsuit last winter...so it was really big on Griffin (:
It started getting dark and we knew we needed to head back to the car soon, so Ronan and Josh quickly made a snowman. The snow was perfect...so much fun!

It's beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas at our house! We got our tree Friday night and started decorating it on Saturday morning. Griffin seemed a little confused at first as to why we had a tree in our house, but after we got the lights on he started getting excited. He had a hard time keeping his hands off the tree...it's soooo tempting (:
Ronan got really into putting his ornaments on the tree all by himself. He would pick each one out of the box carefully and ask "Who gave me this one?". He was also really interested in the manger scene and ended up playing with the figurines for almost an hour! His preschool class will be singing Away in the Manger at their little Christmas program. I heard him practicing at home one day and I asked him if he liked that song, and he said, "Yes, but Mom, I don't even know what a manger is". I told him what a manger was and we found some Christmas books with pictures of mangers, so it was really cute watching him play with the manger scene for so long.

Decking and Curb