AWANA

We wanted to get S & L in AWANA last year, but because our small group met on Wednesdays,  we weren’t able to get them to AWANA at the same time.  BUT this year they are going on Sunday nights to AWANA at a church close by and are loving it!  They are in the same class which is fun for them. We love it and think it is such a great program.  Here they are in the blistery cold weather we had yesterday…

They  just got their first 2 badges that I now need to sew on for them. It’s a nice 2 hour “break” for Rodd (Carson) & I to run errands, get coffee…whatever we want.  Sundays have fast become  a family favorite!

Relaxing Sunday

(whoops, meant to send this yesterday.)

Rodd took S & L to church and then Sea World for a bit today, so I’m going to write a quick blog update and then continue on with my “peaceful” Sunday.   Carson is on the tail end of pneumonia and was up several times last night, so he’s upstairs… hopefully sleeping away his sickness.  Poor baby!  We really had no clue he was so sick. He had been coughing and had a runny nose  & fever so I finally took him in to the doctor last week. 

2 weeks ago we had our friends Brian, Jeanie, & Parker staying with us.  Every time they come we have a blast! This time was no exception except for the last 3 days when everyone was sick and poor Jeanie was in the hospital all day! It was  horrible…and definitely not how we planned spending our weekend.  

This weekend we painted Sydney’s room and it is a huge transformation.  My kids have a lot of energy so I look for any way to calm them down and the previous color of bright orange just was not helping towards that end.  “Green Tease” is much more soothing & she loves it. 

My kids are still asking where Parker is. He’s such a sweet boy!

  How were we to know he was sick?  He’s always so smiley…

 

January so far

A few pictures of 2010:

The first of many pictures of us at Seaworld. We love this place.

Logan and I with Shamu, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby 

We brought in the new year with our friends who were visiting their family for a few weeks.  So so fun to catch up with them…just made us wish they lived closer!

Syd and Summer got to see eachother several times too, which was fun for them.

 

Sydney is back at school 3 mornings a week.  It has been the perfect amount of time/days for her to be at school before she starts kindergarten next year! She’s lovin it! 

On her first day of school, I thought it was so sweet of her to write Logan this “I ♥ You” note.  She told him he could look at it when he missed her:

We are all about the “30 day shred” in this house.  It will more likely be the 30 week shred in our case I am sure!

I think that’s enough pictures for one post.  Haven’t said much about Rodd lately, but he is doing great & still the favorite around here. We’ve all had random colds here and there but he has managed to stay healthy which is great! He’s kinda re-structured his current project at work and is excited about getting the ball rollin on it.   

And lastly, happy 57th birthday to my amazing mom who we love & miss!! They are hoping to be in PNG by the end of this month! 

Logan

Logan taking his role of a cowboy seriously

Grandma got him a big boy bike, which he loves.   The only thing is… the training wheels can’t be tightened so he falls off all the time. So he goes as fast  as he can and eventually always ends up pinned down…laughing.

 At the end of the day he asks for ice on his “wounded leg.”

What blog?

 Someone asked me about our blog the other day to which I replied, “WHAT blog?” so I’ll take a few minutes and give a quick recap on our Christmas season. (I’m wondering how I found time to update it so “frequently” before.)   We made a gingerbread house, slept under the Christmas tree, Syd and I had our late night shopping excursion, I had way too many other late nights out shopping, played at Chick Fil A with our friends, went to an ornament exchange & ended up with a sparkly reindeer, & waited up for Rodd at nights because he was working on a major end- of- the- year project at NTM. 

It’s tradition to celebrate with Rodd’s family on the 23rd and we always have such a great time.  I like it that it’s a day early because it spreads the celebrating and family time out and we’re not trying to fit so much in to 2 days.  His mom always puts on a beautiful brunch (among other things) for us and it’s just a very relaxing day.  We love it!  

 

 This is what happens to Carson when Rodd and Rusty are around.  At one point he had 4 or 5 of these darts on his forehead and he kept the same look on his face the whole time.   

On Christmas Eve we went to Sea World (which was SO fun) for a few hours!  That was our family gift this year and the kids loved it.  We can’t wait to go throughout the year. Christmas morning we opened our stockings and then went out to Gi Gi’s (Great Grandma’s) house where we spent the day with her. Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Can hardly believe it is almost 2010.  Hope you are looking forward to the new year as much as we are .  

Funnest surprise ever

Okay…so for starters…we are HOME! We are in the middle of unpacking, which is taking forever but it really doesn’t matter because we’re just happy to be in our own house.  We ran some errands yesterday and could not stop talking about how much we LOVE Florida–and especially the beautiful weather!!  

Several of you have asked about my time with my sister so I will tell you about how I surprised her in Pennsylvania–as they arrived home on furlough from PNG.  It had been almost 4 years since we had seen each other and she had never even met Logan or Carson…so we were so overdue and so excited!!  I won’t go into too many details–but it was the FUNNEST surprise ever! (I never want to do something like that again because it was so stressful pulling it off but it was so worth it!!)  

 She knew we were leaving WI right around the time they got back to the USA but I told her we had to get back to FL because Rodd HAD to finish off something at work before the end of the year.  (True–but he was still willing to do this!)  So after convincing her (I wasn’t totally sure she was buying it–but I was pretty sure she had no clue) there was no way we could take the extra week to drive to PA we came up with a plan with Lane and the rest of his family and drove across to PA. We got there a day before them, so spent time making a sign. 

 Lane’s family picked them up at the airport in Harrisburg (2 hrs away) and Rodd, the kids and I were waiting at their home–hiding in the dark in the laundry room in the basement. 

 

 Wendy was texting me along the way with their ETA.   We were all dying that somehow it would get ruined, she would expect something, or that Lane’s little 3-year-old niece might say something on their way home. So…around 8:30 at night, after getting a tour of the house they will be staying in for the year–they end up downstairs. As her back was turned I walked up behind her and when she saw me she just started screaming and crying! 

 

So fun and emotional and such a surprise! 

 

 

 

The kids played in the snow, Rodd and I sat on their bed at 4:00 in the morning talking because they were on major jet lag, played games with the kids, Rodd and Lane watched the kids while Kar & I went shopping, & we all enjoyed lots of their favorite foods that they don’t have in PNG. 

 

Syd was a little shy at first, but it didn’t take long to warm up.

 

We thought it would only snow a bit, so we went out when it first started snowing. By the end of the day everything was covered!! The kids were SO excited! 

 

  

Family in Thailand

I keep meaning to put pictures on here of my family in Thailand. My sister and her family are on their way home from PNG for furlough.  They stopped through Thailand so they could get some medical work done and of course to see my parents!  It has been so fun getting to skype them…and I cannot wait to have them back in the USA for a while.  Lane and Rodd know how important it is that Karrie and I see each other while they are here so I know they will do their best to make it happen for us!

 

Final days and FL here we come!

Our last few days in WI were a whirlwind.  It’s hard to believe we’re gone. We celebrated Thanksgiving with Faith and her sister and their families. It was only the second day that we were all officially feeling good after being down for 3 weeks so it was so nice to be out of the house…enjoying a day with friends. 

I love how hard Faith and Kate were laughing here during our game of Taboo.

 Packing up was crazy!  It seems like no matter how much you plan ahead, there is always so much to do at the last minute.  Our sweet friend Jill took the kids for us all day so Rodd, life saver friend Renee, and I were able to go to town on cleaning and it was great!! 

We just finished up 2 days in Chicago with Heidi and now we are officially on our way home and getting so excited. 

I absolutely can’t wait to get home and put up our christmas tree & a few decorations.  I am trying to prepare myself mentally for what all I need to do when we get home.   Rodd has a lot to do get done at work before the end of the year, so I am not expecting him to be home much! Either way it will be sweeet to be home!

5 year old Rockstar

Sydney turned 5 this week! Wow! It felt like so many candles when I was putting them on her cake.

I am so thankful to be Sydney’s mom and have learned so much from her.  Before I had kids I thought I had an idea of  how this parenting thing worked. (It looks so much easier when you don’t have your own kids.) I thought everything was so black & white…and oh my word was I wrong!  I am seeing how different each child is  and that I have to meet Sydney where SHE is at, taking into consideration her unique personality, learning style, temperament(s)..and all the things that make her who GOD has created her to be and not what any parenting book says she should be doing or behaving like!! 

This past week I read a great book about the importance of loving your children unconditionally and how to practically apply that.  It totally reinforced our need and desire to parent our kids graciously and loving them unconditionally!!!!

For budget purposes, (& marriage saving purposes) we’ve decided that each year one kid will get a bigger birthday PARTY.  Since Logan had a bigger party this year, it worked out good that we were out of town for Syd’s and we were able to keep it simple.

Sydney’s present this year was going to Build a Bear as a family. She got an adorable pink sparkly unicorn and Logan got a horse. For months though she has talked about having a rock star party.  So after dinner that same day, Faith and kids came over for a small “rock star” party with cake and ice cream. Faith surprised us with cute sparkley clothes, jewelry, makeup & some fun music for the kids to dance to… after she dolled Sydney up like a rock star. 

  

 

 ”Cyndi Lauper” and her friends doing air guitar relay races

 

 

My little spies

I don’t like surprises (kept from me,) so it made my day when Logan walked in the house with Rodd and Sydney the other day and before his shoes were off he said, “Mom,  Dad did not buy you earrings and he didn’t buy you a bracelet with flowers on it.”   Sydney added…”Logan, Mom’s not supposed to know we went to Forever 21 with Daddy & got the bracelet she was looking at the other day.”   And now I can’t wait til Christmas!