Letters To Santa

Christmas Eve the girls left letters out for Santa and I had them read the letters to me when they had gotten done writing them.
Bria was mostly concerned about Santa over-eating, and isn't Emmy's letter the sweetest? :)

To Iowa and Back Again

We are back from our Christmas trip to Iowa! And what a trip it was! We had a great time seeing our families and hanging out. Wednesday we were in Harlan with Granpa and Gramasaurus Hansen and Aunt Megan while lots of food was prepared and the girls were busy playing. Bria took a definite interest in the piano while we were there this time and worked on playing songs from a beginners book and really enjoyed it. Wednesday night we went to church for the Christmas Eve service and it was nice.
Christmas day we started out by opening up stockings and the girls were treated well by Santa! Before lunch, Trever, Tabbi, Tre, Tru and Great Grandma Wiuff came over to spend the rest of the day in Harlan. . . . we all ate WAY TOO much food, opened presents and had a great time playing together. The cousins were beyond excited to see each other again. It had been too long since they were together in August and they just had so much fun.
Friday we headed to Omaha to meet Grandpa and Grandma Holthe and Aunt Sarah at CoCoKey Water Resort and hotel. The girls had a great time playing at the water park and when they got tired of that we headed over to the actual swimming pool so they could swim - what a change to go from a warm overly crowded wild and crazy water place to a cold and very quiet swimming pool. Once everyone had their fill of swimming we went out to dinner at Red Lobster for Jon's parents' anniversary then headed back to the arcade room at the hotel to let the girls play for awhile. Then it was back to the rooms to open presents. It was a late night, but everyone had a good time and the girls slept really hard that night! Saturday morning we packed up the vehicles, ate breakfast at the hotel and then went back to the water park for more fun. When everyone was done we drove up to Alcester to see Great Grandmas Holthe and Mead. Sunday we packed up again and drove back home. Everyone had a really great time and other than myself not feeling well Saturday and Sunday, the rest of our crew weathered the weekend quite well.
It's always good to get to go down and spend some time with our families over Christmas and we were very thankful for good roads and travel conditions because you just never know this time of year what you might have to drive in!
And as much fun as we had, the girls were overjoyed to pull in to home last night and sleep in their own beds again. Thank you all for a very wonderful Christmas break!

Playing Piano

I have a ton of pictures and updating to do from our travels to Iowa for Christmas, but I'm still recovering from being sick the past two days, so I thought I would just quickly post this video of Bria playing the piano in Harlan. She had a great time going through one of Gramasaurus's beginner books.

Merry CHRISTmas!

We wanted to wish you all a Merry CHRISTmas! I have a feeling we'll be a bit busy over the next few days for me to be updating the blog. We hope you all have safe travels and are able to enjoy your families. And most importantly, try to make a little bit of time to really thank God for sending his son, Jesus, to earth to live a perfect life and experience humanity.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Bailey's favorite napping spot is under the tree with all the Christmas animals.

She wishes you a Merry Christmas as well!

Bria's part in the Church Program

Bria had a scripture reading part in the program that she was very excited to recite!

Emmy: Away in a Manger

Emmy is busy singing "Away in a Manger". She also got to sing "Christmas Bells".

Christmas Program at Church

This afternoon the girls had their church Christmas program. They had so much fun singing on stage. Bria had a reading to do as well. They were definitely "in their element" up on the stage. Being the parent at the church Christmas program makes me think about all the church Christmas programs I was in growing up . . . . crazy how fast time has gone by!

Chrsitmas at Home 2008

Hey everyone. . . I know some of you will enjoy seeing us celebrate our Christmas at home. Jon and the girls got the fire going and everyone enjoyed opening presents. Then it was time to head out in the snow to play for a little bit and try out the snowblower.
The girls' favorite present seems to be their Secret Agent briefcases full of all kinds of secret agent stuff - a big hit! Tonight we'll be watching the new Prince Caspian movie and cuddling underneath Jon's giant new blanket (no more stealing the girls' purple Hannah Montana blankets for this man!) We had a great time and now we're excited to head to Iowa to celebrate Christmas with our families.

More Snow on the Way

It sounds like we get to have another quiet day at home on Saturday. It looks like we'll get 6 more inches of snow plus 30 mph winds and 40 below wind chills. I'm thinking that sounds like a good day for us to do our Christmas, get a fire going in the fireplace, watch some movies, play some games and eat some yummy food. As long as the weather hits this weekend instead of Tuesday night when we are driving to Iowa - then it's all good! We get to head to Iowa for several days of fun with our families, good food and hanging out.

So what are your Christmas plans?

Bria's Elf Yourself Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Julbock (YULE-BOHK) The Christmas Goat

Today I tried to make a Julbock based on a picture in the book "A Scandinavian Advent of Chrstmas" sent to the girls by their Grandma Holthe. The girls have very strong Scandinavian roots on both sides and according to the book, the "Julbock is said to be the oldest Christmas symbol of Sweden. It is made from rye straw and wrapped with a bright red ribbon." Grandma Holthe had a note in the book that Great Grandma Stene used to make these from red yard and white ribbon for her tree.

So, here is our attempt at a Jolbock.. . just in time for Christmas.

Emmy's New Haircut

Ok, it was bound to happen. . . I have two girls after all. But, all the same, it's been 8 years without a scissors incident. The scissors found their way to Emmy's hair. . . via Emmy. I was out in the kitchen, finishing up some Christmas presents and Emmy was busy in the living room drawing with stencils, cutting out her pictures, not interrupting my project, very quiet all of a sudden. . . . being angelic even. So I went in to check on her as I was finishing up and I find long golden clumps of hair scattered on the floor. Emmy had decided to add some layers to her hairstyle all on her own. Earlier this week she had wanted me to give her a haircut and I kept putting it off because I just really like it long. . . . guess I learned my lesson, huh?!!!

She had cut enough layers in it that we just needed to shorten everything up and try to make it closer to even all the way around. She seems to be happy with her new cut and we'll see how good it looks after it dries completely. Playing hairstylist hadn't really been in my plans for today, but I'm just trying to go with the flow!

So, without further ado . . . . here is Emmy with her new haircut.

"Though the Weather Outside is Frightful"

Never fear - we stayed warm and cozy during our first North Dakota blizzard! It helped that we didn't get as much snow as other spots. Saturday night the wind started blowing and the snow started falling. The wind huffed and it puffed but it couldn't blow down our house - thank goodness! It was kind of fun to be warm and cozy (and have power) inside and watch the wind whip around the 5-6 inches of snow we got outside. Late afternoon yesterday Jon and I bundled up to face the wind and the 35 - 45 below wind chills and scooped out the sidewalks and driveway. It wasn't too bad - just lots of drift piles to clear away. It seemed better to us to go out and do the major scooping while it was still light outside rather than to save it all for Monday morning and have to get up at 5 or 5:30 to get the big piles scooped away.

We spent the day watching some movies, playing on the Wii, reading books, and baking lots of cookies. All the girls worked on a batch (a SINGLE batch) of gingerbread cookies and later Jon even helped out making a triple batch of peanut blossoms. It was fun to tromp back out in the snow again later to deliver fresh baked cookies to a few of our neighbors last night too.

All in all, I would say it was a very good first blizzard experience for us up here! Although the snow piles are as big and deep now as they usually are at the end of January or early February.. . . which leads me to wondering. . . . where will we keep piling the snow by the time we reach the end of February?! :)

Stuff Christiians Like

I may have mentioned this blog site before: Stuff Christians Like. It is a really awesome site to check out - fun as well as truly thought invoking. I have to share his blog from yesterday - I pasted in his words from Thursday and if you are in the mood for a good laugh and you've ever attended a Christmas candle service, you'll appreciate this one!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Ninja Stars and Candles - Remix #176. Giving open flames to kids on Christmas Eve.
Imagine if one night a year, your church held a special service and when you walked in, they gave you a Ninja Throwing Star. That would be a nightmare right? Just throwing stars stuck in hymnals and Bibles and legs as far as the eye could see. It would be a bloody mess.

But it's not that different from what a lot of churches do on Christmas Eve when they give everyone hand flames.Singing a few songs by candlelight is honestly a really beautiful experience, but it's also funny. The other 364 days of the year, parents work diligently to keep their children away from torches. We put covers on our electrical outlets, hide matches and lighters in hard to reach places and yell if they get anywhere near a hot oven. But on Christmas Eve, it's fire time.

Here are a few ways to multiply the fun of having a lit Christmas candle in a church setting:

1. Pretend it’s the Olympic Torch.I’ve always admired the guy that demands to be the last person clapping in church. While the rest of the congregation has gone quiet, he throws in one more clap, as if to say, “There, I put the punctuation on that clapping session. Done and done.” But that guy has nothing on “last man standing” during Christmas Eve service. See how long you can keep that candle lit. Pretend it’s the Olympic Torch. Be the last one standing in the aisle with a proud flame of “refuse to blow this candle out” while everyone else is gathering their coats. If someone asks you to blow it out, say, “We’re out of fire at home, I need to save this.”

2. Get the “Christmas Eve Service Candle” App for your iPhone and hold that up instead.I don’t know if they have this yet for the iPhone but if they don’t, you’re welcome, I just made someone a billion dollars. Think about it, they already have DVDs that make it look like there’s a beautiful fire blazing in a fireplace on your television. Why not an application that flickers and shimmers like a church Christmas Eve service candle? Then, instead of a fire hazard, you could hold up your iPhone and sing by the light of your app. That’s even better than Festivus.

3. Blow out other people's candles.I don't think I have to explain this one, but I promise, it is delightful. My brothers and I turned this into an art, because you can't just come on out and blow it. You have to do this weird, breathe out of the side of your face, move in which you send a gust of wind with the accuracy of a sniper at someone else's candle.

4. Play with the wax.In addition to melting your candle on the shoes of family members, it's also fun to see how long you can get the wax without it breaking off. You have to hold it at the right angle though. It has to be tilted enough to make it all pool like one of those stilagtitesdifficulttospellcorrectly things in caves but not so tilted that the weight of the wax breaks it off.

5. Try to keep the candle.As soon as that last song is finished, it's like the spell that convinced your parents it was OK for you to have fire in church is broken. And it's nearly impossible to keep the candle. Trick #1 was about keeping the fire, which sounds like a song Patrick Swayze sang in the 80s. I’m talking about keeping the actual candle. I never actually executed this move, it's like the holy grail of candle tricks. There are three people you need to watch out for: Your parents, the ushers and that guy with the box that collects them all at the end. I don't like that guy. I think all that power went to his head. He didn't just consider himself the "guy with a candle box," instead he was always kind of smug and seemed to think he was the "gatekeeper of flame."

Those were my tricks, but I am certain that when it comes to giving kids torches, I have missed quite a few.

They Just Keep Growing!

How does it happen that one day your kids are little - needing help with everything - and you turn around and all of a sudden they are all grown up? Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing - they're supposed to grow up! I'm happy to not still be changing their diapers :) Sometimes it just seems to happen a little too fast, you know?

I'm just very thankful for my girls today. I can't imagine my life without them and I am so happy to watch them grow up and to get to love them along this journey!

Bria and her friend, Jenna

Emmy with the ornament she made in pre-school

Playing in the Snow

The kids were delighted this morning to be able to get outside while it was snowing and play for a little while. The wind is light and it's not as cold as it has been (it's 18 instead of 10), so we took advantage of the opportunity and went out to enjoy the snow. Now we are all inside warming up and ready for some lunch and nice long naps!

That reminds me of something I've been meaning to mention to everyone. As your youngest kids outgrow snowpants and waterproof gloves, if you have no one else that can use them, I'd gladly take them off your hands. Having a few extra pair of snow pants and those gloves that are a little more water-repellant is always helpful. If you have someone else you know that can use them -by all means - share the wealth! But if you don't have a place for those too-small items - I'll be glad to provide them a home!

One More Elf Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My Nephews, The Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Miss you, Grandpa

My Grandpa Wiuff passed away 4 years ago today, and I've just been thinking about him. He was a great man - and Jon didn't even really get a chance to know him well before he was affected by Alzheimer's. Bria barely knew him and Emmy didn't know him at all - she was barely a year old when he died. But, my prayer is that one day we will all be together in heaven and that my girls will get a chance to know my Grandpa once we are there. It will be good to see my Grandma at Christmas and I'm glad that the girls do have the opportunity to know her.

This picture was taken at our house in Nevada when my parents brought my grandparents over to see Bria when she was 2 days old. My grandparents are watching a video we took at the hospital and this is how I will always remember Grandpa -with a twinkle in his eye. I miss you, Grandpa.

For Serena

Hey Serena - you asked for the link to the Scrabble Tile Pendants. . . here it is! (Also, be watching your mail. . . you may find one in with your Christmas package when we get it mailed!)
Scrabble Tile Pendants

YAY! Snow!

Ok... . we have snow! YAY! We got about an inch yesterday, but it's enough to make everything white and I got to go out and shovel in the quiet, newly fallen snow last night (before the wind kicked in). . . . ah, it's all good. I love the chance to get out and shovel off a light snow. Thankfully we have a snowblower for any big snows this winter (Thanks again Dad!), but I do enjoy scooping away a fresh light snow when it's dark outside and everything is quiet.
As I finished up the wind started blowing and now today we are sitting at a whole whopping 6 degrees above zero, but the sun is shining and the world is white - it's beautiful!
And this morning the girls and I had to make a Wal-Mart run early so it was really cold - about 15 or 20 below zero windchill, but it was a crystal clear morning and we saw the brightest sun dog I've ever seen in my life. It was truly like there were 3 suns shining on the horizon - it was amazing! And of course, I didn't have my camera and I had even forgotten my cell phone so I couldn't get a picture of it, but it was so bright! (For anyone who is not familiar with sun dogs, click here . It sounds like we may get more snow tomorrow so it's definitely feeling like winter and Christmas up here now. Thanks God! :)

Handprint Wreaths

The past couple of days the kiddos have been working on their handprint wreaths - an activity for everyone! Yesterday I traced around their little hands and cut out and glued together the wreaths. Today they each decorated their own wreath with glitter glue and sequins. Everyone enjoyed getting glitter glue all over and putting on the sequins. Quite a crew of artists we have around here!

Young Artists

Ok, I'm the mom, so I can show off my girls' artwork. :)

Emmy made rudolph at preschool this week and Bria made the weaving, bead mosaic.

Aren't they talented! :)

Waiting for Snow. . .

Most people who know us, know that we really love snow! Ok, the girls and I love it more than Jon, but he enjoys it too (especially now that we have a snowblower! Thanks Dad!). So where is the SNOW? I know that come April I'll be saying - PLEASE, NO MORE SNOW!!! But, for now, it's really cold out anyway and the really really cold is supposed to hit next week, so I say, bring on the snow! We've had a few light flurries a couple of times - teaser snows I think I'll call them - but now we are ready for the real thing. For everyone out there who thinks we're crazy - that's ok - we live in North Dakota now - if we hated snow, then this was a really dumb move!

So for you people with snow already - ummm... Noni - how about sending some our way!

In the meantime I suppose I'll continue to enjoy getting 5 kids in and out of the van several times a week and NOT having to mess with wet boots and dripping soggy gloves and layers of clothes and snowpants and hats and scarves and gloves and coats . . . . . .

And while we wait for snow, anyone with any good activity ideas, let me know. I have a houseful of almost 2, 2, almost 3, 4 and a 5 year old during the day - and outside playtime doesn't work well because it's too cold to have any fun without snow on the ground. So send good ideas my way!!

One project I have worked on (with a little help from Bria) is to make Scrabble tile necklaces. My friend, Roberta, posted a link on her blog to show how to make this fun craft. Emmy and Bria love their necklaces and I hope to have some more put together before Christmas.

Wonderfully Long Weekend

I don't know about you, but around here we really enjoyed the long weekend. It was a great chance to rest, set up the Christmas tree, play games, read books, and really just enjoy some down time. We all needed it and I think now we'll be able to march ahead into December as things get busier and everyone gets ready for Chistmas.

Bria busy reading "Inkspell"

The girls had a great time helping get the Christmas decorations out and set up the tree. Every year they get to pick out a new ornament to add: this year Bria picked out a penquin skating on an ice cube and Emmy picked out Spongebob.

Hope you all had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving!