She's ours forever!

 This morning Miss E became our little girl forever!

The judge signed the adoption decree, and now she's ours.

So, I thought you might like seeing her pretty smile finally!

These are some favorite pictures from the last four months~

 

 

 

We are so thankful to God for her!

Almost Final

 

We had a very Merry Christmas today!

Much better than how our day went yesterday, thankfully!

The kids seemed to like their presents pretty well,

and the food was good, so I'd call it a success.

 

You notice how I have to cut Miss E out of every picture?

Well, I won't have to do that anymore after next Monday

because we found out today that her adoption will be

finalized then!  We are so glad, it was a great Christmas

present!  God has blessed us.

 

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

Luke 2:14

Christmas Robins

 

This year we got our Christmas snow last week~

the kids were sure happy, especially SJ, he loves the snow.

It was pretty, but today it was a warm 54 degrees-

the robins even showed up to enjoy the weather!

 

 

They were having a grand time out at the birdbath.

Much better than I was having in the house.

 

Our family Christmas is tomorrow, so there was a lot

of food to prepare for our brunch and for snacks later.

I had to do all the laundry today so we would have

clothes to wear this week.  Plus, this morning, three

of the kids had some sort of sickness issue going on.

And to top it all off, I was worried about my Grandpa

all day- he passed out this morning for 20 minutes

but they haven't figured out why.  He's now in the

hospital again.  He's had a rough year, this is his

third time in the hospital.  They think he will come

home tomorrow though.  All that to say, I'm not

feeling just real Christmasy right now.  Sometimes

the holidays are just a bunch of work. 

 

So, I was glad God sent the robins to cheer me up

for a little while this afternoon.  It's good to take

some time to observe the little things now and then!

 

Well, I need to go fold more laundry...

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

A Cup of Rest

 

I just had to show you my new Christmas present-

Our kitchen has very cheap cabinets in it, and they

are falling apart.  So I have a plan to replace them

slowly, and hopefully eventually to have a kitchen

I really love!  Below are the cabinets that were

there before.  Sorry, I didn't clean them off before

I took the picture.  But, you get the idea.

 

 

After several months of watching Craigslist,

I was able to find this pretty solid oak china hutch,

that is just the right size, for only $130!  I was

so excited!  My husband and son were less excited,

since they had to go pick it up and haul it in,

but they love me so they did it.

 

It makes the perfect place to set out our tea service

for this afternoon!  I am looking forward to having

a little tea and fun with Miss E when she wakes up

from her nap.  We are using these "Romantic England"

tea cups by J and G Meakin.

 

 

After several Christmas programs last week,

we have a quieter week this week thankfully.

I do enjoy all the Christmas activities, but it's

also nice to stop for a little while and rest with

a cup of tea, don't you think?

 

 

I hope you can find time to rest

with a cup of tea this week too!

And remember these words of Jesus-

the one whose birth we are celebrating.

 

"Come to me, all you who are weary

and burdened, and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11:28

 

I am joining Tea Time Tuesday today.

An Old Fashioned Christmas

A couple years ago I took you on a Christmas tour of my

parent's house, (you can check it out here) and I thought

you might enjoy seeing what she has done again.

This year she used the theme, An Old Fashioned Christmas,

so come on in and enjoy!

This is the old farmhouse I grew up in.

In the living room she has her grandparents

German feather tree up this year, with many

of the same ornaments that were on it 50 years ago

when she was a child.

Old cardboard nativities from the family~

A beautiful table~

So many pretty vignettes all over the house!

Edelweiss and Roses~

The family room tree~

This is the manger scene we used as I was growing up,

and we kids spent lots of time playing with it.

The tree in their bedroom is covered

with pretty pink vintage ornaments.

And the angels, singing~

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

Luke 2:14

I hope you enjoyed the tour!  And I pray that you will each

find the peace of God this Christmas. 

I am joining A Return to Loveliness.

Snowmen ornaments and Christmas poems

We had fun this morning during home school!

We made these cute snow man Christmas ornaments,

with the kids handprints!  Above is Miss E's,

she did great with the paint.

AJ's is above and SJ's is below.

They decorated their snowmen themselves.

It was an easy and fun craft and we got the idea here.

 

And now for a little Christmas poetry- courtesy of our 2nd graders.

I like presents with me,

under the Christmas tree.

I sleep under the Christmas tree,

I am free.

~by SJ~

Christmas is here,

the best time of year.

I get a gingerbread man

because it is finally Christmas again.

~by AJ~

Who is baby Jesus anyway?

Every year we see him, the little baby in the manger.

These are a few of the representations we have of him

here at our house.  But he's so much more than a cute baby!

I came up with a list of some of the names of this sweet

baby, found in the Bible, and as I thought about each one,

I was reminded again of how amazing he really is.

Jesus- meaning "the LORD saves"

Immanuel- meaning "God with us"

Wonderful Counselor

Mighty God

Everlasting Father

Prince of Peace

Faithful

True

KING OF KINGS

LORD OF LORDS

Son of Man

Son of God

Savior

Christ- meaning "the Anointed One"

Lord

Master

Teacher

the Word

"Jesus, name above all names,

beautiful Savior, glorious Lord.

Emmanuel, God is with us,

blessed Redeemer, Living Word.

~Naida Hearn~

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Would you like to see what Christmas looks like

here at our house?  Well, let's take a little tour.

This little nativity sits on my secretary.

See the little angels singing up above?

This larger nativity is on our piano this year. 

My Mother-in-law made the figurines about

15 years ago and I love it!

This year I decorated the mantle with birds,

birdhouses, trees and pinecones.

The tree in the kitchen sits on my

Great-Grandma's sewing machine.

It is decorated with homemade items-

crocheted snowflakes, paper snowflakes,

and these cones my Mom and I made

one year.  The gold chain garland

is from my Great-Grandparents.

My snowman collection is also in the kitchen-

over the years I've received quite a few!

This is Miss E's first ornament-

a gift from her Great-Grandma.

~Our tree~

I love watching the kids at Christmas!

Especially Miss E this year- she is still

young enough that everything is amazing

and full of wonder. She loves to look

at all the ornaments on the tree,

and study out the nativity.

Wishing you many blessings this

Christmas season! I keep telling myself,

it doesn't have to be perfect for it to

be wonderful. (:

I'm joining Home and Garden Thursday

Hurray for the Broncos!

On Sunday some of us went to the Chiefs and Broncos NFL game

in Kansas City.  It was really interesting and really cold!

As DJ said though, at least the Broncos won so we didn't

sit there in the cold for nothing!  He's a diehard Broncos

fan.  The picture below was before the Superbowl

last February.

As I sat there with all the other crazy people who came

out to watch a game in freezing weather, I was wondering

just how many millions of dollars were spent on this one

game.  You add up all the ticket prices, the travel costs,

the players' salaries, the cost of the stadium, it's a lot!

But, it was fun and some good memories were made,

and that's worth something, right?

We are so blessed!

We had a great Thanksgiving today, beginning with a wonderful

praise service at church, with many people giving testimony

to God's faithfulness and goodness even in trials.  Then this

afternoon I prepared the food and the table for our family's

Thanksgiving this evening.  It was a lot of fun, complete

with goofy boys and a sweet baby girl who we discovered

likes to drink coffee creamer plain...  We used our Liberty

Blue dishes this year, which the kids love because of the

American history on the plates and tea cups.  I also used

the cow creamer I got at a yard sale this summer for $1-

it was fun, although the boys thought it looked like it

was throwing up when the cream came out it's mouth...

"We are so blessed by the gifts from Your hand,

I just can't understand why You've loved us so much.

We are so blessed, we just can't find a way

Or the words that can say, Thank you Lord, for your touch.

When we're empty You fill us 'till we overflow,

When we're hungry You feed us and cause us to know;

We are so blessed, take what we have to bring;

Take it all, everything, Lord, we love You so much."

~William Gaither, Gloria Gaither, Greg Nelson~