Merry Christmas!

We pray that you will feel the love of Christ in a real way on this Christmas Day as we celebrate the best gift of all!

Keven, Alicia, Asher (4 1/2) & Tatum (3)

Fun in the snow!

Snow has come to Puyallup, WA...and lots of it! As you know, this is a big deal around here as we hardly ever have this much snow on the ground for this long. It's been snowing off and on for a week now and we probably accumulated 6-8 inches. Enough for some snowmen and sledding!

These pics are from our first round of snow...not tons on the ground yet

Then the real snow came!

There is a big hill next to my parent's house that Lindsey and I grew up sledding down. It was a blast reliving our memories with the kids!

We even got mom to go down the hill!

Some of the neighbor kids had constructed a little jump and this was Papa and Asher after going over it! My dad's "ugh" could be heard from far away!

Getting ready for Christmas!

We have been busy getting ready for our favorite time of the year! I love coming home to a house decorated with the signs of Christmas, having a Christmas tree shining in the background, and hearing old and new favorite Christmas CD's played!

Here we are at our annual trek to the Christmas tree farm. Asher was VERY happy to have a chance to hold the saw and help cut down the tree!

Tatum had fun playing in the dirt.

Papa had lots of helping cutting down his tree!

Keven and Asher cutting down our tree!

Tatum would NOT get off of Papa after cutting down his tree...it was really funny.

We had a great time decorating our first ever gingerbread creation.... a train!

This is Asher's special tree...his own creation. Our neighbors were decorating outside and as branches were falling off of their tree, Asher would grab them. Sabina eventually bundled a bunch together for him and we did this with it. It's my favorite decoration of the year.

Our "Bug" is 3!

Tatum (or Bug as we like to call her) is three today!

Here is a look at what she has looked like on this day for the past three years.


11/25/05



11/25/06


11/25/07


11/25/08


Happy Birthday sweet girl! You are an amazing spirit...God has blessed us greatly.

A reward

Asher's transition to preschool this year has been tough. He is a thinker (an understatement) and separation has never been easy for him, which is exactly why he is in preschool this year! So, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday since the first of September, I have left my sobbing son exactly where he needed to be.

Sticker/reward charts have always worked really well for him so we decided to try it in this situation as well. Anytime we left him at preschool with no tears, he earned a sticker. He had to earn 12 stickers before he got a reward which took about 5 weeks. I knew exactly what he would love for his reward so on Monday after he put his last, well earned, sticker on the chart, we got to have this moment!

I am so proud of his accomplishment. He is now excited to go to preschool and we all got to memorize and embrace some wonderful scripture about fear!




"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:9

Halloween

Although we are not big fans of Halloween, the kids enjoyed dressing up and going to the big event at Calvary Community Church.

Asher put on the armor of God for the occasion! He does not really like to dress up and so the "costume" only lasted a few minutes!

Our Princess Kitty

They got to sit in a firetruck at the church.

Defending the flamingo....(his cousin Reagan)

God, God, He Loves Me

Last night, after we got home from church, we heard something wonderful. I have to believe that our Father's heart swells when He hears things like this...I know mine does.

So, today, a reminder from our children:

Oh, God loves you and wants you to know him...

hmmm...

http://kevensnyder.blogspot.com/

This girl...

Rocks my world!

So You Think You Can Dance

So, anyone who knows my sister and I at all, knows of our little love-affair with the show
"So You Think You Can Dance".
Could possibly be more than a love affair.....

Needless to say, we look forward to the start of the show every year and this was our third year going to see the dancers on tour. The first year we went by ourselves and had a great time. Last year we had the wonderful company of our husbands and while we had a great time, our seats were terrible. NEVER get floor seats to a show like this....FYI.
This year we made it a girls night and brought our mom and Grandma along. The show was great, probably the best one so far, and we had a wonderful evening with the girls!







Until next year....

1st day of school!

Asher started preschool on Monday! He was really excited to go with a little apprehension along the way!


It's hard to eat breakfast when you are ready to go!



Tatum REALLY (and I mean REALLY) wanted to go to school too...many tears were shed.


a little pre-school bike ride


pep-talk from daddy


Asher is really happy to have cousin Reagan at school with him


outside of school

When he got in the car after we picked him up, Asher said, "Mom, I LOVE preschool"! His teacher said it was one of her best first day's ever....all the kids were kind and attentive! That has been my prayer for Asher and knowing some of the families that are attending this preschool, I'm sure it's been their prayer as well! What a blessing.

Let's Cook

Tatum got a new apron at the fair today and after her bath, put it on and declared, "let's cook!"

.

So we did....

Some more Tatum.......

She has really enjoyed being naked these past few days:)

Princess dinosaur

I said to her, "Tatum, you're beautiful" She replied back, "I'm not beautiful, I'm a dinosaur"

Pretty in pink.....even a pink golf ball!

hiking in daddy's boots

She is a very funny and imaginative 2 year old!

What we've been up to

For the 5 (maybe 10) of you who check my blog on a regular basis, I apologize for having to look at the same post for a month. Blogging is just really not at the top of my priority list:) Here is a pictorial look at what we have been up to this summer.

Playing in Grandma & Papa's pool

face in the water...a big deal!

We've played LOTS of baseball

Asher working hard on a "project"

Asher's first soccer class! He loved it and will be doing it again in the fall.

Tatum and cousin Meagan dressing up!

going on safari (with Meagan)

catching bugs in the snack trap

painted toes for the summer!

helping Daddy wash the cars

the kids had a lemonade stand at our annual garage sale this year! They were interested in doing it for about an hour and then our 9 year old neighbor friend took over:)

Asher got to have a special day with Papa at the air show...they had a wonderful time.

The big event of our summer was the accident Keven and Tatum were in. Praise the Lord that they were both OK but my Altima was not....we now have a new car.

We are also off to our beloved Bella Beach on Wednesday so I'll certainly have some pictures of that when we get home!