Supper time

The Wipf family came over for a quick but tasty supper. Thanks guys for making it happen.

We love doing life with y'all!

Ataly outnumbered 6:1

Flying into town

Uncle Adam recently got his pilot's license and wanted to get more miles recorded and it was a perfect day for flying, so he flew up with my mom, dad and Whitney (who happens to be from our church and is a flight instructor in Oshkosh, where they are from. She flew up because it was her mom's birthday)

Traeger loving the fact that Uncle Adam was in town and that we were out to lunch at, none other than, Happy Joes.

Ataly thrilled to have her Nonnie sitting by her for lunch.

Traeger waiting with Grandpa Bruce for Uncle Adam to prepare the plane for our flight.

Mom, Dad and Ataly stayed in the terminal while Adam took Luke, Traeger and me for a ride...yippee!! I love flying.

Traeger thought the headphones were pretty cool.

And we're off.

We flew over our house...can you pick it out?

Traeger taste testing the microphone.

A mid flight picture

Coming in for landing.

We're almost there.

Thanks Adam for taking the time to fly up here (and bring mom and dad), visit for a little and for taking us up for a ride. Your visit made our day!

Play time

My attempt to keep the kids off my heels while I was trying to make supper.

There was some intense concentration in the room.

I just love chubby hands hard at work.

Surprise visit!

Monday morning I got an e-mail from Nicole saying her dad had a dump truck load to drop off in Medford. He picked up Annabelle and was on his way up north. We gladly welcomed the surprise lunch date with Nicole's dad and cousin Annabelle.

After 4 hours in the truck we thought McDonalds would be a great place to run off some energy before she had to ride all that way back in the same day.

We love cousin Annabelle!

Peek-a-boo

Where's Ataly?

Boo!

Girl time

Thanks to the most awesome in-laws in the world, while Luke worked all weekend, I was able to schedule a weekend away with my longest and dear friend, Casey Marie. We go all the way back to preschool. She conveniently lives about 30 minutes south of my in-laws. So Friday morning, I packed up the kids, all of our stuff and headed south. 4 hours later, we arrived at Grandpa and Nana's house and got situated. It was a win/win situation. The kids were thrilled to be able to spend time with Grandpa and Nana and I couldn't wait to have a little girl time. And Luke...well he worked all weekend. It's a good thing he loves his job, right!

It's so good to be known...upon my arrival, I had a sweet note, skittles and a magazine waiting for my enjoyment.

After getting settled and catching up a little, we headed out with another one of Casey's friends to Bayshore Mall to shop and then grab supper at BDs Mongolian BBQ.

We took advantage of their beautiful Christmas decorations and had lots of good laughs.

The serious pose...

then it was time for the piggy back pose....

how's this one?

Going for the cheesy pose.

Christmas is in the air.

After staying up most of the night chatting, it was a special treat to sleep in Saturday morning. We took our time getting ready and then it was time to hit a few shops I don't get a chance to frequent often. You know like Target, Home Depot, Michaels. We're talking just the basics folks, but living an hour away from any store, it makes it a treat.

After we shopped 'til we dropped, we spent the night cuddled up in a cozy blanket with hot chocolate and snacks and watched a movie. (The blanket was a sweet memory of the days old watching movies in Casey's parent's basement in high school)

Grandpa and Nana are such amazing servants and love in such tangible ways. If loving on the kids all weekend wasn't enough, I arrived back to a clean van and full tank of gas.

I arrived home with my love tank full and so thankful for all the evidences of God's grace and love I experienced this weekend.

Small Group Christmas Party

We so enjoy and love our dear friends in our small group. Our times together are always a great mix of meaningful conversations, sharing about the daily grind and good old fashion fun. Our Christmas party was no exception.

Going for the serious pose.

I wanted to mix it up a little and go for the pyramid. I got gruff for it but I'll have to say, this is my favorite.

The second annual gift exchange afforded us many laughs. Somehow Luke always manges to get one of the gag gifts and plays it up well. He showed no shame in sporting and embracing the lovely pants and shirt, accompanied by the diaper genie full of dirty diapers.

It means the world to us to have a group of friends to hang with, share life with and be encouraged by. 3 of the 4 couples are in ministry and the other couple just love us the way we are (hard to do at times, I know :O)). These people understand what the life in ministry looks like...it's just is great to be understood.

We are grateful for each one of you!

Making progress

Several of you have asked to see updated pictures of our home renovation. I'm so excited about the change and feel blessed to be adding more livable square feet to our home. Thanks for sharing in our excitment.

Kitchen shot before the hole was cut.....

The new and improved--yeah! It feels so much more open. The kids have already been running in circles.

This is taken right outside of the new kitchen cut out, looking toward the street.

Walking around the corner to the front door and new opening to the living room.

New view from the living room out to the street.

Standing at the front windows looking back into the kitchen.

New windows on the driveway wall.

Busted

I was baking cookies for a friend's birthday. I had my back turned for maybe 2 minutes and in that time Ataly quietly made her way up on a chair and was helping herself to the rest of the dough.

Going for it.

"Umm, pretty tasty."

How am I supposed to say no to that cuteness :O)

Uncle Boy visits

Luke's friend from high school came and stayed with us for 4 days last week.

A lot of time was spent chatting and solving the problems of the world, as they played their favorite game together.

Cheers to awesome friends, poker games, and unlimited refills!

Special delivery

Traeger was all smiles and ran when he spied....

this HUGE box waiting to be opened from our Mar'Sue and Elena.

A cute, girly scarf and hat that Elena wore when she was little.

Thanks guys for all your gifts and love you sent our way. We feel so blessed by your generosity and thoughtfulness!

Passing time

Traeger set the two of them up with chairs and magnadoodle boards, so they could be together.

Even though the days can get long, tiring and wear me down somtimes ...it's sweet moments like these that make me love my "job". This picture is an evidence of God's grace to me. I'm grateful for my children and that I'm home with them and am allowed to experience the little joys like their little piggies barely peeking out from their magnadoddle board, small hands that draw masterpieces, watching the wheels turn as they play side by side. I know in the blink of an eye these won't be my babies anymore and I'll say, "where did the time go." So I just wanted to stop for a moment and soak it in and thank God for the joys of having little ones.

No worries

After realizing it was a little too quiet upstairs, I went up to check on Ataly and found her contently, with her legs crossed, sitting in Traeger's, now empty dresser drawer, eating a snack. It appeared that she was having no trouble passing the time by herself, soaking in the sun, streaming in the window and looked at me with her eyes that said, "No worries mom, I'm having a great time, life is good."

"Just my size."

Traeger was highly disturbed that all the contents in his bottom drawer were strewn about on the floor. He quickly tried to get her out and put the clothes back where they belong.