The faces of Christmas-2010

My bedhead twin made an appearance. She isn't a morning person!
Frank had fun with the marshmallow shooters, mainly eating ammo!

The hats were a hit!
Frank wears them for a minute takes it off-REPEATS, alot throughout the day!

DS reaction....sorry for the blurrrr

Teamwork.

Hat=check
Sillybands=check
Candy necklace=check.

Bookworm gets a Kindle

Policeman Dad

What a face! Pretty sure he was saying AWESOME!!
We had a great day, relaxed and filled with laughter and
a Christmas day NAP! The best gift of all!
The only thing missing was some fresh snow!

Lucia-i Salt Lake City!

Lucia Program
Swedish Heritage Society
Dec. 11th 2010



Midsommar at Ikea we ran into this group and were thrilled to get in touch with other Swedes living in the valley. We attended Lucia with them last year and it was so nice! So the kids participated this year and totally got into it! I got the chance to be in the small choir, which was a blast to sing again I miss that so much!



I think our camera is on the fritz! Focus is not the greatest on these but you can see the kids! Peter was on Frank duty in the audience then went out to find our kids after they were done so that is all the pictures we got of the night. I will post a video clip on facebook soon!





I must confess that I did miss having the normal "family" cheering section in the crowd. Typical Christmas Program stuff. I guess I am slow to realize stuff like that, geez we have only lived away from family for 6 years! I guess since Ann-Britt has lived with us alot it has felt like family has taken part in things.





All the kids did great, knew the parts. Sang very good in Swedish (even when mixin up tre och three and se och see) Music to our ears to hear the kids singing and thinking in Swedish again.






Glad Luciadagen!

The Feast

Every year the preschool the kid's have gone to do a Thanksgiving Feast. I am always amazed at Erik the way he gets into it! Counted down the sleeps till the big day! His buddy This picture is so cute- I totally busted Eli and Erik peeking during the opening prayer. This is my favorite picture from yesterday. Good job guys!

The Masterpiece a memory ...

I remember living in Uppsala, Sweden when Jewels was like 3. We lived on the 5th floor of an apartment building and I thought the view was great. (now I really have a nice view!) Jewels looked out one night at sunset and said in Swedish "Jesus, painted the sky for me". I marveled at the orange and pink sky and how she formulated that thought into words. Sometimes as I look out the kitchen window I think the same thought. Below is the view now and God's paintings.

Pumpkin eaters

Just in case you wondered, 2 medium pumpkins makes a LOT of pie filling. 21 cups is what we gained from out pumpkin patch visit. I managed to capture a couple pics between hauling the wheel barrow and managing to herd Frank along with us!

The last fall day we snagged!

All together.....all together wonderful.
Heber City, Utah

Ouch

I was reading my friend Kara's blog. Wow, she is so brave to open up for everyone on her fears, potential flaws and sheer hopes and dreams. I read and am impressed and feel like a wuss all in the same second. Good writing Kara.

I think I am brave spitting out my feeling here. But what no one sees is that I write. Delete. Rewrite.Change, delete. Then Publish. Mainly do to the fear of what people will think of me, if I will be really honest.

Well here goes. Yesterday I had a conversation with a person I had never met. They brought up an tragic accident that happened to us at our church awhile back. Without knowing that I was pretty closely connected to it- they shared openly about their fears and complexes that have been created and actions that have resulted from it. Pretty raw- Gulp. I thought I had moved forward a bit in my healing emotionally from that tragic day. But I guess not. The person was super sweet and meant no harm at all. This past week a few things brought those feeling up in a few different ways and I am left saying "God I thought I was good?". Funny how when pressure is applied sometimes we see we sooo are not good with something.

My dialogue with God is kinda like this-"ok God I get it, I am so not past this yet" " (frustrated growl..)let's do this". Praying I don't flee the pain of dealing with guilt and responsibility of what happened. But instead embrace the face that I get the chance to grow from this now and no more pushing it down again. (seriously feels wrong to write that since it is so hard to do and so easy to write it) God has a funny way of keep bringing us full circle with stuff till we deal with it and kinda past the "test".

Has anyone ever had God be working on something that it kinda feels like you are in a dream where you forgot to get dressed and are standing in front of your class giving a speech. I feel like it is healthy before God to be so exposed. I just fight my instinct to grab a fig leaf and cover up the stuff hat is hard to deal with!

Cheers-here is to fig leaf free living.