moon cake

our girl is 2!!

let the celebrations continue...we celebrated elise's 2nd birthday the day after christmas (her actual birthday)...and amidst the craziness, fun, food, laughter, presents, family, and moon cake (yes, she wanted her cake to look like the moon...she loves the moon)...our little girl has grown a little bit older, right before our eyes. i just said to justin this morning, "she looks older to me today..." and he agreed.

i am thankful for so much in our girl...

*her belly laugh

*her smile

*having nonstop conversations with her

*her kindness

*her love for her Bible

*how she reminds us to pray sometimes at dinner

*watching her play make believe

*going to the grocery store with her in strawberry sunglasses and a pair of wings

*cooking with her

*watching her wrestle and laugh with her daddy

*reading books with her in my lap

*how observant she is

*her endless questions

*her love to write, draw and paint

*seeing her light up when she sees her cousins

*getting kisses and "lisey squeezes" from her

*and so much more...

happy birthday sweetheart!

christmas joy

what a day we had! early morning with oma, papa, uncle robert, aunt laura and nora...brunch with mimi, grampy, aunt mare, and uncle mike...then dinner with oma, papa, all the aunts, uncles, cousins and more! whew! what fun we had...what sleep we lost...and in the midst of it all, trying to keep sight of the reason we were celebrating. Jesus. He was born as a baby, lived as a perfect man, and died in my place to pay my debt. we sang this in church yesterday, and it remains my favorite chorus as well as a reminder of Who we celebrate...

oh praise the One, who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead

isaac just barely fit into these special pj's. they were his daddy's when he was a baby...but his daddy wasn't busting out of them quite like izie was...either way, he had no problem figuring out how to open presents...


lisey and her bike...it was free...and it was a hit!

not to mention that he had no problem trying to steal a ride on his sister's big gift...

the eve of christmas

we spent christmas eve with my family, making what i hope may become a fun christmas tradition. we went for lisey's first train ride into the city. we saw the light show, a dickens village, a christmas village of vendors, and then had lunch. it was fun doing it all together and seeing elise's wide-eyed interest at the city and all its sights. isaac was not quite so interested...

back at mimi and grampy's for traditional russian shrimp...

i am grateful that we had the opportunity to spend this special day with my family. those traditions mean so much to me...as well as creating new ones...spending such fun and special time with family is irreplaceable. i'm so grateful for it.

the nor'easter of '09

i love the drama of that title...here's what we were up to while being snowed in for the weekend (our 5 year anniversary)...

december thus far...

well, i finally have some time to write (amidst, baking cookies)...here are justin and isaac warming up by the wood burning stove...aka: our heat source. oh, how we love that thing! we average in the 70's during the winter!




if you haven't heard, elise had pneumonia last week. here she is doing a 15 minute nebulizer treatment. she did 2-4 of these a day for a few days...and was amazing! (with a little help from winnie the pooh, of course!) what a trooper she was during the entire process! i am so proud of her and so grateful to the Lord for healing her.


and here she is "cooking" up a storm in her kitchen. i just couldn't get enough of her ponytail, apron, and seriousness with which she cooked!

thanksgiving highlights

thanksgiving lasted more than three days for us. here are some pictures from the great family time we had. i'll let them speak for themselves.