Christmas morning

Miriam woke up on Christmas morning and discovered she had a few presents from us under the tree... we had to keep them hidden for the past few weeks because our cats kept tearing the ribbons off. She was pretty excited to tear open the gifts! We got her a few Discovery Toys from a party I went to a few weeks back (I highly recommend their products! They are such great quality and educational toys). She also got a Toddler Bible and the game Cootie. Here are a few pictures from the morning.

Merry Christmas Eve! And Happy Snowstorm!

What an interesting week this has been leading up to Christmas Eve. Last weekend, we were all warned that there could be a potentially very large snowstorm on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. As much as I know snowstorms can cause many hassles for traveling, I still absolutely love them! We've been keeping our eye on the weather all week just to see what is supposed to happen -even though I'm still not sure the forecasters know how it's all going to turn out. Last night, I believe we got about 4" of snow and are now just eagerly awaiting for the rest of it. It sounds like we may end up getting more rain than snow after all, but we'll just wait and see. Thankfully for our family, Christmas plans have been changed to new days. It actually worked out better for us because we normally can't go to any family gatherings on Christmas Eve since Matt is at church! We also already celebrated my immediate family Christmas last Sunday and were able to get to Matt's parents' house this morning with the lull of the storm. I'm actually looking forward to a quiet Christmas with just Matt and Miriam. Hopefully we will spend the day making a few more Christmas cookies (since we have the time), opening up some presents, singing Christmas carols and enjoying a dinner at home. So even though this Christmas is turning out to be quite different than what we usually do, I'm sure looking forward to it!

On another note, I'm going to make it one of my goals to update the blog more next year... so hopefully more entries will be coming in the New Year!

A Different Perspective...

This morning, Miriam said to me, "Mama's married." To which I asked, "who is Mama married to?" She answered, "Papa!" I was glad she somehow knew what that meant and then she proclaimed, "Papa's married." And I asked, again, "to who?" Then she answered, "Jesus!" I had to laugh a little, but then I realized she is right -since we are the bride of Christ. So, whether or not she really "gets it," she still proclaims Truth!

Christmastime is here!

With the snow falling right outside the window, I finally feel like it's officially Christmastime. What a wonderful time of year! It's been so much fun watching Miriam get so excited about the lights, ornaments, decorations, Christmas movies, baking, presents and everything that comes along with Christmas. We've been doing our best to remind her that even though we do all those things at Christmas, it is ultimately to celebrate the birth of our Savior. She usually seems to understand that -even though there are some times that she says the baby in the manger is Moses. She has a Moses book and movie that I think confused the issue a bit... but anyway, we are all excited about this time of year!

Here are a few pictures of Christmas happenings...

Decorating Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Miriam had a great time!

Before we had our tree decorated, our cats enjoyed climbing up into it. After we put the lights and ornaments on, they have managed to stay out most of the time. We still need the spray bottle occasionally to keep them out.

Enjoy the Christmas season!

Three years!

It's hard to believe that three years ago today... we were getting all dressed up, taking tons of pictures, saying our vows in front of friends and family, eating dinner and heading to Lake Tahoe -as husband and wife! We have already been through so much in three years and I'm thankful for every part of it. Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

Travels on the North Shore, part 2...

Our second day on the north shore including a lot of time in the car, but we had many stops along the way. To start, here is the view right outside of our room. I'm sure if the weather was warmer, we'd take a few more strolls down to the lake... but for now, at least we get to enjoy the beautiful lake-view.

Our first stop was about 10 miles north to see Cascade Falls. I've been here a few times before, but it was still nice to stop at. It's also fun to see each of these places in a different season than I'm used to seeing them in (summer).

Our next stop was after about an hour drive south to Gooseberry Falls. Matt didn't think he had been here before, so we stopped and walked around. It was, again, nice to come here in the late fall. It was so quiet... usually there are SO many people around!

Finally, we drove to Duluth. We will be driving back through there again tomorrow, but we thought it would be best to spend time there today since we will not get a chance to stop on our way home. We enjoyed walking around to a few shops, seeing the biggest ship we've ever seen come into the harbor and eating a late lunch at Grandma's...

It was another fun day today! Tomorrow we will be heading back home... and most importantly, to go see Miriam!

Anniversary getaway!

Matt and I are blessed to be celebrating our 3rd anniversary this week. We decided that to celebrate this year, we'd take a short trip up to the north shore. We are staying in Lutsen and went north up to Grand Marais, Grand Portage and the Canadian border today. Here are a few pictures from our day:

A view from just outside of Grand Portage...

Down by the lake next to the main lodge of where we are staying

Inside the lodge where we ate a delicious and massive breakfast

It has been a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable trip so far. We love not having an agenda and just taking time to drive wherever we want and even just spend time watching movies and reading back at our room. We are planning to drive down to Duluth tomorrow to visit a few places before heading back again on Wednesday. We'll put up more pictures tomorrow (hopefully!).

Trick or Treat!

If that hat isn't the most adorable thing you've ever seen... I'm not sure what is. You can purchase it and others like it from my lovely sister-in-law here. We had a great time walking around my parents' neighborhood and Miriam did so well saying, "trick or treat!" and "thank-you!" We also had her "roar" every once and awhile. What a perfect late fall evening for trick-or-treats!

20 weeks! and... it's a GIRL!

I decided I needed to update our latest news with Baby #2. We were able to get an ultrasound appointment at the local tech college yesterday as students practiced measurements on the ultrasound. And, we were able to find out we're having a baby girl! We were both pretty surprised because we were thinking she was a boy. This pregnancy has just been so different that I assumed it meant boy! We are SO excited to have another girl, though... and especially to re-use the MANY MANY clothes Miriam had. Hopefully we can put some pictures up soon. We will be having another ultrasound appointment in three weeks, so we should get some pictures then, too. Miriam is very excited for her baby sister!

Apple Orchard time

We have enjoyed taking a few trips to the orchards around here the past couple of weeks. We went first toward the beginning of October when the weather was still warm and great to be outside. The next time, we had planned to meet some other couples from our church... but it was the day we ended up getting snow! Needless to say, it was quite frigid. We still did manage to make it out to pick a peck of Honeycrisp (which we're still eating -and they are delicious). We ended up leaving shortly after we all got done picking and spent the next hour at the Playland at McDonald's. The kids enjoyed playing together and the parents enjoyed chatting and staying warm. Here are some pictures from our recent orchard outings (it's probably not too hard to figure out what the weather was like on the different trips):

"All By Yourself."

This has become Miriam's favorite phrase as of late. And, of course, yourself means myself. We're still working on those pronouns. The things Miriam insists on doing by herself include: climbing into her car seat, walking anywhere from point a to b (no more of us holding her for any reason), putting the potty seat onto the potty, getting toys out, going to her seat at the table, and the list goes on... There are times when we have both become frustrated at this new-found independence (seeing as we could accomplish the task in at least half the time), but it is so neat to see her discover that she is her own person that can do things "all by yourself."

Matt's TV debut

5PM INTERVIEW: Dallas Holm Concert

153 bpm!

Today I had a much long-awaited doctor's appointment... the beginning of pregnancy seems to drag slowly along as it's about 4 weeks in between each appointment. So, I was definitely anticipating going in again today and just hearing and knowing for sure that everything was going well. Sure enough, it was a quick appointment (accompanied by a flu shot), but I got to hear our little one's strong heartbeat of 153 beats per minute! Yeah! I could listen to that sound forever. It'll be about another month before I go in again, and unfortunately probably another month after that until the BIG ultrasound (we're too impatient to wait until the end to find out what we're having). But, all in all... it was a wonderful appointment and I am so thrilled everything is going well!