Caitie's new found talent

 

Three weeks ago Caitie started taking painting class from a lady here in Spring. She spends much of her day drawing but had not had much exposure to painting. I, not being an artist, was unsure how to help her develop this talent here at home so we sought help. This is a picture of her first painting. She even mixed her own colors!

Little Red Hen

 

For Christmas John and I got a wheat grinder. I am excited about it because it fits right onto my Kitchen aid to run electrically AND it has a hand crank. So, for the first time ever John and I ground our own wheat flour and made homemade wheat bread. I felt quite industrious, like the little red hen. Okay, so I didn't have to go pick my own wheat, and I had a lot of help from John and the kids. The grinder worked great and it was even pretty quite. I was a bit nervous about how the bread would turn out but it turned out great as well. The kids even asked to have some for a treat! :)

Anne-Loren's milestone

Yesterday, just shy of 1 year old, Anne-Loren began crawling. She has been doing the "army" crawl for several months now. I was starting to seriously doubt that she would ever really crawl. Yesterday afternoon I put her on the floor so I could get some stuff done and she got up on her knees and started crawling like she had always been doing it. I was amazed!

Christmas 2008

This year for Christmas John and I decided to make and effort to simplify things. We both had the desire to ensure that the focus of Christmas was on Christ and not on Santa Claus or the getting of gifts. As we brain stormed about how to do this, John came up with the idea of going camping. At first I didn't like this idea too much. All of the traditions we would have to leave behind ran through my head. However, after thinking about it for a few days I agreed with John, that would be one sure way to simplify things. We made reservations for a cabin in Garner State Park. My parents and my older brother, Nathan, and his family decided to come along too. We drove out to Garner State Park on the 23rd of December. The weather was beautiful the entire 3 days we were there. On Christmas ever we spent the day hiking to see some caves, riding bikes, reading and playing games. Instead of our usual Christmas eve dinner we had Chili and cornbread. That evening we kept up the Ellis family tradition of the living nativity (Thanks, Joy for the costumes and the narration!). Christmas day the kids woke up to see what Santa had left in their stockings. I was a bit worried that they would be disappointed that there were no big presents to open this year. I was so happy to hear the kids say "Wow! Santa sure put a lot of presents in our stockings!" The rest of the day was again spent hiking, reading, riding bikes, and playing miniature golf. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and being outside. The rest of us had a wonderful time truly being away from the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparation. It was wonderful to spend time in nature, observing the beauty that surrounds us and pondering the birth and life of Our Savior.

Gratitude

Last week I took the kids out on a walk. Because there are no sidewalks in our neighborhood Brian and Caitie were walking in the grass while I pushed Anne-Loren in the stroller. The kids were having a great time running and doing summer saults in the grass. We were almost home when Caitie decided to run across the street. To my horror, just at that moment a car came speeding down the road. I was too far away to get to her in time so I screamed for Caitie to come back but she didn't hear me. Thankfully the driver of the car stopped about 10 feet shy of Caitie. I have never been so scared or so thankful in all my life. I was especially thankful that day for a loving Father in Heaven who is constantly mindful of us. I am grateful that He is willing to help and protect us inspite of our mistakes.