A New Twist To An Old Tradition

by Steph // Thursday, December 13, 2018 // Comments off

Every year during the holiday season, we visit the Rotary of Lights display in downtown La Crosse.

It’s one of our traditions!

This year Blake and I decided to surprise the kiddos with a Christmas celebration evening – and would not tell them what we were going to do.

We planned to eat dinner out before we drove through the lights display!

It was a great idea that the kiddos LOVED!

I headed to town with a van full of children who were guessing and guessing as they wondered where we were going!

We met Grant and Blake at the HuHot Chinese restaurant, and the kids were SO excited!

We NEVER eat out – so this was a great surprise for them!

This restaurant is a great gluten-free place to eat as they serve whole foods and healthy choices!

They were very accommodating to our needs.

It was so sweet to see everyone enjoy their meal so much!

Especially this one!

Who used the chop sticks so skillfully it was like he has been using them everyday!

I even enjoyed some meat and veggies cooked in garlic broth!

I wonder if they will catch on to the cauliflower rice trend sometime soon?

After dinner we headed to the Rotary of Lights!

First we ditched two of our vehicles in a parking lot and all squished in the van!

I think the children are going to hold us to this new twist to an old tradition!

It was SO yummy!

And it was an experience had, a memory made, with hearts connected!!

A perfect Christmas celebration!

Snow Much Fun!

by Steph // Thursday, December 6, 2018 // Comments off

We woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow here at Twin Oaks on Sunday morning!

We ALL were SO happy!!

Blake and the younger kiddos headed out after breakfast to clear off the drive-way and porch.

Grant was out clearing the hospital parking lots, and had been most of the night!

While they were out in the cold and snow, I was mixing up a double batch of hot cocoa mix!

They are loving hot cocoa after playing and sledding outside.

Note to self – buy more milk this week than usual!

Why don’t they sell dairy-free milk in a gallon size?

I think we have had a bit more snow since that first big storm…but all the days are running together in my head!

The kids just cannot get enough though!

They play outside ENDLESSLY.

Even when we visit our favorite people!

Even at sunset!

No complaining from this Mama – I love the exercise, fresh air, and fun all this snow is allowing!

My dryer may be the only thing complaining, as it seems to run non-stop these days, ha, ha!

It’s been a great start to winter here at Twin Oaks.

Here’s hoping this beautiful snow will stick around!

Our Cup Overflows

by Steph // Thursday, November 29, 2018 // Comments off

Life since the arrival of our precious grand baby, Briar Promise, has been FULL and blessed!

Why yes!

I will start with photos of our precious new grand baby!

Has it really only been a week and one day?

Last night as we eight Moschels sat around the table for dinner, we reflected on this last week and every single blessing during it all.

Blake and I are SO thankful for our children’s hearts and for how they all stepped up to be a huge part of the team that we needed to help take care of our favorite people!

Addie and I helped over Briar’s place – which meant our guys cooked Thanksgiving dinner for everyone!

IT WAS SO GOOD.

We fed Briar’s people all that yummy food for lunch, got everyone down to nap and rest, and then we headed back to Twin Oaks to eat ourselves!

Chad made the pies that day.

Addie might be out of a job!

I was helping finish up our meal and leaned over the counter to grab something that was falling, and this happened.

Good grief.

Thankfully it still needed to finish baking – so we quick smoothed it out and got it back in the oven!

On Friday morning we brought Clyde, Ellie and River back to Twin Oaks to stay with us for awhile!

SUCH COMPLETE JOY!!!!

And I had help from the guys since everyone was home for the holiday weekend!

On Sunday afternoon while all little people were napping at Twin Oaks, the boys went to help David put up some wood and I snuck over there too to see Kay and hold Briar!!

Tuesday morning Chad helped their Daddy load those sweet grand babies up to take them back home.

It became eerily quiet here!!

We miss them SO much!!

After the babies left Tuesday, I decided to bust the other kids out of the house because they had not left home in ten days except for going to Briar’s place!

Our first stop was for some grocery at the Co-op, which meant we had to get a snack and hot cocoa too, right?

We tried these grain free puffs which we have never seen before.

They were good.

Really good!

Next we headed to the library – one of our favorite places to be!

The librarian is super sweet, and very fun!

She grabbed Tate and Eliza right away to try out her new photo booth.

Oh, Tate.

You keep your Mama smiling!!

We are back to school here now.

A favorite kind of day!

We are reading Caddie Woodlawn right now!

Lane also took a Spelling test!

We have a mandatory quiet and reading time after dinner is ready and we are waiting on all the rest of our people to get home.

Such a sweet time of the day!

Quite a while back our schedule shifted a bit as Blake has been leaving an hour earlier for work these days.

It took a bit for me to figure out the new rhythm that was needed – but I am liking the extra quiet it allows to do a few extra things after my Bible time before it is time to get the kiddos up – even though I am getting up 30 minutes earlier!

I enjoy the lights on the tree so much at that early hour of the day!

We have been enjoying the pace the evenings bring now that winter is here!

The ones that work during the day have seasonal jobs – which means things have slowed down for winter and they are home so much earlier!

We even had a movie night this past week!

It’s Thursday again already, isn’t it?

That means tomorrow is frantic Friday.

The kids named it that!

Don’t you think that name means that something about Friday should be changed??

It’s grocery, you all.

It just takes SO much time!

Two weeks ago on Friday I did the shopping by myself.

What I mean is me and 3 billion other people who were shopping that morning.

If it were up to me there would be no more shopping until after the holidays are over and everyone else starts staying home again!

Too bad my people like to eat!

I do too!

Blake picked me up for date night early that Friday evening, which made up for all that crazy shopping!!

We had no errands to run nor a third round of birthday gifts to buy, ha, ha!

We enjoyed some coffee, a comfy chair and some books at Barnes and Noble.

It was a sweet, sweet date night!

I took a photo of our little nest as we drove away.

Even in the crazy, crazy, busy of this last week God’s handiwork is never lost on me!

There is always time to stop in awe of the beauty of a sunrise or sunset and give praise to the One who allowed it!

There are a few things I would like you to see in this next photo.

First, let’s talk about the length of this girl’s legs!

She is getting SO tall!

Most importantly, look at our sweet girl’s face.

That sums up her week.

It is still hard, you all, when we change things up, can’t give expectations for what is coming next, and fill the house with noise and little people who take her Mama’s full attention.

We knew what to do to help Eliza though!

The Lord has blessed our efforts so much!!!

Grateful, grateful!

Eliza is doing MUCH better today!