Christmas

What a blessed Christmas we have had!

We spent Christmas Eve at church at our candlelight service, and then we headed to David and Kayla’s for dessert and coffee.

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We had drawn names for a gift exchange, so after a big breakfast on Christmas morning we exchanged those gifts!

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Christmas Day was filled with fellowship and food!

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Yes, my littles are really eating salsa with a spoon. They LOVE spicy things!

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What a blessing this week has been! Such a joy to teach Tate and Eliza about Jesus! Their childlike faith is an inspiration!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas as well!

Happy New Year!!!

A First With Us

Tate tells us often how much he loves snow!

This week we had the first snow that has stayed.

The littles were clear excited to get out and play in it!

And play in it they did.

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It was super sweet to be a part of Tate playing in the snow – although we have photos of him playing in the snow in China, this was a first with us!!

Hoping for more snow to play in this winter!

Our Trip to Illinois

Last weekend we spent in Illinois, staying with my Mom, visiting the kiddos grandparents, and attending the wedding of Kayla’s sweetest childhood friend!

It was only a two day trip, but such a great blessing!

Right before we were planning to leave the farm, a short but heavy snowstorm blew through our area. It took my hubby one hour and forty minutes to get from his office to the farm. It normally is a thirty minute drive.

We decided to leave anyway, and about two hours into our drive the roads were finally dry!

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My Mom’s house was so beautifully decorated for Christmas! She kept telling us that we could take home anything that we desired, so Kayla and I were trying to figure out how to get this tree into our van or their car!

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We opened gifts! Thanks, Mom!

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All of the grandparents got to meet Tate and Clyde for the first time!

My Mom’s first great grand baby! Such precious times!

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Eliza was constantly on my Mom’s lap. It is hard to put into words what amazing feelings I had watching that. Eliza has come SO far. Sweet baby!

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I snuck in some NaiNai time too, and held Clyde while he slept!

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We enjoyed our time so much!

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We also visited Blake’s Mom. And opened more presents! (sorry for the poor quality of all the cell phone photos! I want to include them anyway!)

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The wedding we attended on Sunday afternoon was such a beautiful God honoring celebration!!! We enjoyed it SO much!

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We stopped at the kids Grandpa Ross and Grandma Lilli’s house on the way back to Wisconsin! Lilli took this photo of ALL of us! The first one we have of us all since Tate came home and Clyde was born!!

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We are so thankful that we were able to make this trip to Illinois! Looking forward to going back and staying longer next time!

Boys Day Out

David and Kayla’s gift to Chad for his birthday was a gift of time.

Time with them, making memories that will last forever!

We all were heading to Illinois for the weekend, and needed at least one of us to be a passenger in David and Kayla’s car because we all do not fit in our van now that Tate is home!

We also were traveling on Chad’s birthday.

This gave David and Kayla the idea to have Chad and Lane both ride with them, and to stop at the John Deere museum on their way to Illinois as a birthday present to Chad!!

Did I ever have happy boys!!

Kayla had a happy guy too!!

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After the museum, they got to eat at Chipotle!!

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Thanks for the great day for the boys, David and Kayla, and thanks for the photos Kay!