Family picture

Family picture

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas everyone!


Merry Christmas from our home to yours!


This is the first Christmas since 2005 that we haven't been waiting for someone else to join our family!  Our children are home! 

Thank you God!


Friday, December 23, 2011

The gingerbread cookies have returned!

Working very hard to design just the right trap to
catch their cookies!


As it happened, our friend Luke stopped by yesterday morning and offered his
expertise on setting gingerbread traps.  Each year at his school, the first graders
make gingerbread men who always run away for a bit, and Luke was able
to offer valuable insight into how to best catch them!  Wonderful timing!



Carefully testing the traps


Yay!  They have returned, and the traps worked!


We are happy to report that our cookies have come home but not before they were spotted far and wide!

The grandmas kept an eye out for them yesterday but did not see them; however, many other people did!  Kevin's sister said they were by her school, our friend Cheryl called to say they were crossing a street where she was shopping, and four other people left cute comments letting us know they had also spotted them. 

Laura (our China travel buddy from Utah) said, "BTW, I think I see your missing gingerbread men in my backyard making snowmen!"

Three sweet bloggy friends also left comments saying:

Debbie:  I saw them running through the snow in our backyard in Colorado, but they were so fast I didn't have time to get my camera!

Sharon:  I saw them riding the Space Needle to view the beautiful mountains!  They looked like they were having a ball!  They said they were going to grab a Starbucks coffee before they caught their next plane ride!

and

Anne:  They decided to run up into British Columbia and visit us Canadians before heading back.  My little dog chased them, and as I was trying to catch her, they yelled "Merry Christmas" and ran off to their next stop!

Wow!  It seems our little cookies headed north then west in our city and then skipped west across our country and north up into Canada before heading home!  We found one lone little one at our local park yesterday afternoon, and the other three tired but happy cookies were found in our traps this morning.

Thank you to everyone who helped spot our cookies.  What a fun time we had hearing your comments. 

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!


Thursday, December 22, 2011

A Christmas Mystery! Oh My!!


Oh my!


We read The Gingerbread Man story yesterday.


We baked the gingerbread cookies, too.


Then today we discovered that 4 of the cookies
have run away!  Oh my!


Discovering the note telling us that the cookies
have run away to discover the world.  They
said they will be back before Christmas!



Where could they have gone?


Calling the grandmas to see if they have seen the cookies.


Telling Grammy all about it.



Does Grandma know where they went?  Sophia keeps saying,
"The book is right.  The book is right!"  She was listening
as the grandmas read the story yesterday!!


Three little children busy designing ways to get our cookies back!


Can you help us?  If anyone reading this post today happens to see our cookies, could you leave us a message telling us about the sighting?

I will post as soon as we have found them.

Thanks for your help.


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Gingerbread Houses, etc.


It has become a sweet tradition at our home during the Chrismas season to decorate a gingerbread village with both grandmas.

Today was the day!




First, both grandmas took turns reading the Gingerbread Man Story . . .




Then the decorating of the houses and cookies commenced!



We decorated,


and decorated,


and decorated some more until . . .


the village was complete


and the cookies were all iced.

!


Now we can sit back and relax.

I sure hope those gingerbread cookies don't decide to run away!


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Scenes of the season

Decorating our family tree -Yes, that really is a bed in
our family room.  It's where our oldest sleeps since we
needed his old room for Sophia!!  :)



All three of our little ones sang in the children's musical at church.
Eli is supposed to be a sheep (in the front row), but they couldn't
find his ears!  I guess he is making his own!!


Sophia, Philip, and Elijah wild with excitement over all the
holiday festivities!  So heart warming to see such joy on their faces.

To tell you the truth, having all of our children home now makes Kevin and
I want to run with reckless abandon and exquisite joy, too!


Even our big boy was in a Christmas musical which he also directed at our church.
Always a treat to hear him sing!


Elijah tenderly holding a baby Jesus doll his
Sunday School teacher had given him.  So sweet!



Participating in a Christmas party craft time with fellow homeschoolers.



Stopping by our favorite park to check out an indoor bee hive after
studying about bees in school.  The weather was perfect for enjoying
an afternoon outdoors later - one of the perks of homeschooling!


Adorable Eli in his preschool program.



Enjoying a night at the zoo with all of the Christmas lights and holiday cheer!


We are wishing you all a
Merry Christmas and happiest of New Years
from our home to yours.

It is with great joy that we celebrate this season
of Christ's birth!





Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Quick update

I am happy to report that Elijah and Philip did very well yesterday with their ear surgery, and Philip did not have to have those horrible nose stints put in.  He just had the steroid shots and some stitches up in his nose to help it's shape.

Thank you for all of your prayers, and thank you to God for a great outcome.  Now on to the Christmas season!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Prayers for a great outcome

Posting tonight about Eli and Philip's surgeries tomorrow.  They both are needing to have their ear tubes replaced (third set), and Philip is going to receive steroid shots in his nose and lip incisions to help break down the excessive scarring taking place.  He will also have a little stitch inserted inside his nostril to help his nose shape and those stints put back in for a time.  The doctor actually wants him to keep the nostril stints in for up to 6 weeks!  Yikes!  That may be difficult to do because he is SO active all the time.


Could you please pray for wonderful outcomes for both boys as they enter back into surgery?  I realize that it is minor surgery compared to what they have undergone and what they will need in later years, but even minor surgeries turn mommy and daddy's tummy upside down.  Philip and Eli are also a little bit anxious remembering previous yucky recoveries.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

A little of this and a little of that

Kevin had eye surgery last Thursday and was still home on Friday to recover.  He got to spend some lovely time with our littles helping me homeschool.  We all enjoyed this time with him.

He is doing well, by the way, and his eye is continuing to heal.

Our precious little ones at the zoo.

Complete joy!

There is a fellow Shepherd's Field mom traveling to the village soon, and she has asked fellow Philip Hayden families to send pictures of their children who once lived there to her.  She is going to design a bulletin board in the village of children now home with their forever families. 

The above three photos are some of the pictures we took of Philip to send to her.  His smile melts our hearts.  His eyes pierce our souls.  And the amazing way his coming as changed our lives leaves us speechless at times!