Advent... fun in the waiting

Here are a few more pics of the snow, which is entirely gone save for a few piles in local parking lots.

Levi caught air going off a jump in the sled.


Luke and Wade took a walk on a frozen pond near the farm.


Even Lij liked it, except for wearing his mittens.

Advent is one of my favorite times of year, thus we have an Advent wreath in our home and light one or more candles on it every morning. This morning was Isaac's turn (he's got quite the case of bed head in this picture!). We're up to two candles now since it's the second week of Advent. While it is lit, we read Luke 2, adding another verse or phrase every day so that on Christmas morning we'll read the whole thing. I am amazed at how well Isaac is memorizing it, especially since it's full of words like "Caesar Augustus," "census," "governor" and "Nazareth" that he's not familiar with. Celebrating Advent daily seems to bring back a bit of that "I can't wait for Christmas!" feeling that kids have. It's the waiting and preparing and decorating and counting down the days that are half the fun of Christmas (and playing with fire -- I mean, lighting candles -- is always fun too!).
We wish you all a blessed and joyous Advent, too!

The More Family the Better

So my sister's wonderful, fabulous, handsome boyfriend is no longer her boyfriend -- but that's okay because he's now her fiance! Congratulations to Kris and Jonathan who got engaged the day after Thanksgiving and are planning a wedding for July 7, 2007 (7-7-07, as a matter of fact) at my parents' home. He proposed on an Atlantic Ocean beach a couple hours from his parents' Baltimore home -- how romantic. They will both be spending Christmas break in Washington -- YEA!!!!

Birthday, Thanksgiving and Snow -- Oh My!

Isaac celebrated his fifth birthday on Nov. 17. At his request, we enjoyed cupcakes -- his topped with candles and candle-holders (Lifesavers). The big thing for him these days is Thomas the Tank Engine, and he got a moving Thomas with track and a Thomas game, as well as some cool new trucks, which are always a big hit at our house.
We got together for Thanksgiving lunch and a full afternoon and evening of games with the extended DeWaard clan. Much to Wade and my delight Lijah napped through most of the afternoon and the boys entertained themselves with legos for several hours, so we were actually able to enoy playing games without getting up every five minutes. On Friday and Saturday we put up the Christmas decorations and cut ourselves a Christmas tree. We let the boys pick out the tree (so we couldn't blame each other for picking out a lopsided one!), and they did a stellar job. We finished hanging the outside lights just as snow started to fall on Saturday.
Now to all you North Dakotans and Minnesotans reading this, a foot of snow might not be a big deal, but this is HUGE for us! We don't get snow, much less a full foot falling in less than 20 hours. We all bundled up, threw some snowballs and did a little sledding. Since we're all stuck inside (everything closes for snow here) we enjoyed an afternoon movie and snow ice cream -- num num.

Fall Fun

Once again a month has passed without an update, and I don't have a good excuse this time!
Our family headed down to Portland last weekend to visit Derric and Amanda. We spent an afternoon at a pumpkin farm where we got to ride on a boat and a train, roam a pumpkin patch and run through a hay maze. Luke also rode a pony (he was the only one brave enough). The rest of the time we spent hanging out and Derric and Amanda's house, where the boys spent hours engrossed in a Costco-sized bucket of Tinkertoys (okay, so the adults also spent a lot of time playing with the Tinkertoys).
My mom and I took the boys to Stoney Ridge Farm mid-October where they got to feed turkeys, go on a hay ride, enjoy a corn maze and see the world's only pumpkin tree. Levi had a hard time keeping his hands off the tree -- he really wanted to pick one!

Last year we planted a Northern Red Oak in our backyard and started a tradition -- family oak tree picture day. We snapped the second annual photo a couple weeks ago. The tree was quite eye-catching with its brilliant red leaves, but several windy days this week left it completely bare. Fall is here with a bit of a fury this week.

This is what happens when everyone at the same time says "Hold me Daddy!"

Time for an Update

I realize it's been over a month since the last update and stuff has been happening in our lives... but our hard drive crashed a few weeks ago and we lost a month's worth of recent pics and I'm not very motivated to update this when I don't have photos to add! But here are a few new ones so...
We took our last camping trip of the summer on Labor Day weekend (lost all those pics). We went with several friends of ours to a river-side camp that distant relatives of ours created at the back of their farm, so it was very nice and private - just our group. The river was very low and very slow so the boys got lots of splash time and even donned life jackets and went tubing.
Dad and Mom Howard visited about two weeks ago -- yes, they drove out just for the weekend!
So of course the boys had a wonderful weekend of attention and candy and Lucky Charms (Papa comes prepared). We all headed out to a corn maze in Lynden and spent a bit of time getting lost there. That's where the pic of Dad, Mom and the boys was taken.
Luke found a nice cozy "house" under this leaning sunflower and hid out there for awhile one day this week.