Winter Wonder

I'll be perfectly honest: I didn't miss the snow while we lived in Eugene. I was quite happy with the fact that I could wear a sweater and no coat in January and be warm enough. But we're back in the frozen North, and so I'm attempting to revive my love of the white stuff. 

Lucy, on the other hand, bolts out of her room in the morning and runs to the window to check the status of the snow outside, and gauge whether there's enough to build a snowman. So I've been doing my motherly duty of spending a good half an hour getting her and her sister bundled up to play outside for 5 minutes. Just kidding. But it really does seem like it takes an incredible amount of time and energy to wrangle children into snow clothing. But look at this face, it makes it all worth it:

And this face:

Okay those are actually tears of rage on Clara's cheeks. I dressed her in a snowsuit which, while quite warm, is not designed for mobility. She was none too pleased to be plopped on the ground and told to have fun. I got this face for about a minute:

And then a few minutes longer when she realized I was quite serious about her exploring this new world:

And then the shrieking began, and I had to hustle her back inside and spend 20 minutes removing the offending clothing. But once she could crawl again, she was quite happy inside.

We watched her sister make snow patties and sing to herself:

There is something about white snow and overcast skies that makes for lovely photographs, particularly of these cute girls' bright blue eyes:

It may be cold out there, but the three year old doesn't mind. Pretty soon that snow-excitement starts to wear off on you, too.

Dinnertime Conversations

It is becoming increasingly apparent to us that we have two very talkative children. It used to be just Lucy who chatted our ears off during dinner, but now Clara is stepping up to the plate and making her voice heard. She only has one volume level, though, and I'll give you a hint, it's not quiet:

Last night at dinner Lucy surprised us by singing The Lord's Army perfectly, complete with hand motions. 

It just doesn't get any cuter than these two!

And a Happy New Year!

I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards this year, so this is my internet version, and as a bonus you get even more pictures than you would in a Christmas card. Everybody wins!

First off, here is the picture I WOULD have used had I sent cards out. Trust me, this was the best we were going to get with the children. It's a good thing they're cute even when they're not smiling (or fake smiling).

We have been so blessed this past year. Our second daughter, Clara, was born in March, Joel accepted a job and we moved back to Moscow in July/August, and our house in Eugene sold quickly after we moved. It has been wonderful to be back in Moscow near my parents and so many of our friends.

We have yet to get tired of these sunsets over the Palouse:

Lucy celebrated her third birthday in October, and sometimes Joel and I look at each other in amazement and wonder where the time went. We still remember clearly the days of carrying Lucy into church in her bucket car-seat, and now she is this beautiful, spunky, intelligent, dress-up-dress wearing three year old.

I wish I had written down more of the hilarious things she's told us. One of my favorites is every time we drive past a cemetery, Lucy launches into the same speech, which goes roughly like this: "This is where we put our bodies when they die. We just take them off and put them in the ground. Not everything lasts forever. But they won't stay there! Someday Jesus will come again and fight Satan one last time and defeat him, and then our bodies and our spirits will join back up together, but this time they'll be perfect! And there'll be no more tears, and no more sin in our hearts, just Jesus! That'll be nice." I love getting to hang out with her all day!

It's also so amazing to us that Clara went from this: 

To this, in the space of 10 months:

She has the most hilarious personality, her favorite voice level is screaming (in happiness or sadness, it doesn't matter). She loves to get in on the fun things that Lucy and Joel do, like basket rides (the only picture I had of Lucy in the basket turned out blurry, but she begs Joel to do this with her almost every day).  

And Lucy and Clara are starting to play together more too, which is so much fun for me to watch. Lucy is a great older sister, she tries hard to protect Clara (sometimes to Clara's hurt, but we won't go into that), and she loves telling Clara about all the fun things they will do together when Clara gets a little bigger.

Of course, not all of our days are sunshine and roses:

But even the hard ones are filled with grace and growth, and we're entering 2014 feeling overwhelmed with God's blessings and excited for what the new year brings! Happy New Year friends!