Snow in Portland! It started snowing in the early morning and stopped by 8 am, then the sun came out and the wind was calm, so Ava and I decided to walk down to our friends Tonya and Jolie's house.

Jonah and Ava playing--Ava is eating snow--hopefully it's white! 

Jon's still smiling after working ALL DAY to install our new dishwasher! He had to drill under the existing cabinets to allow the hoses to get to the water line, and installed a new electrical outlet for the washer as well. No more rolling our old "Dishy" around, as we called her. In fact, we already sold her on Craiglist! This was our anniversary present to ourselves and I'm so blessed to have such a handy husband who really enjoys doing these kinds of projects for us. Now we just need to get "crackin" on the rest of the kitchen!

Merry Christmas 2006!!!!


 

I've been working with the kids on being thankful for what they have every day and for what Christ did for them. I decided a few days ago to start keeping a Thankfulness Journal with them, and record what they say (every word is theirs). Check out what they've said so far...

Kids Just Don't Get Sarcasm...
Last night we all went to a Christmas party where instead of a white elephant gift exchange there was a $10 gift certificate exchange. You can imagine his delight when Jon walked away with a Hooter's gift card (insert sarcasm here). All last night we were joking that he could take our CPA or Jonah there sometime (or our Pastor! haha).
So today my sister April calls and wants to take Ava and Jonah out for lunch. While Ava's screaming and jumping up and down with elation, I asked Jonah where he wants to go, and he said . . . you guessed it: "Hooters!"

OK, so I just noticed Ava was pulling on her ear.
Momma: "Ava, does your ear hurt?" and I kissed her ear.
Ava: "No, I hurt my tongue."
Momma: "Oh, well, I'm not kissing your tongue, it would be all wet and slimy."
Ava: "I'm pulling on my ear because I hurt my tongue."
Momma (laughing): "Oh, like when you bite your tongue?" This is a little thing we made up to help the kids cope when they bite their tongues, which is nearly every night at dinner.
Ava: "STOP LAUGHING ABOUT MY LIFE, PLEASE!"

Our kids come from a long line of sleep talkers. For example, a young Auntie JoAnna murmured in her sleep one night and when Auntie April (Bepo) asked her what she said JoAnna declared, "I'm meeting my future husband!"
Our kids don't talk in their sleep every night, but last night Ava did. As I walked in to kiss her before heading to bed (it was almost midnight) she rolled over and mumbled something. I said, "What, Avie?" She then said loudly, "Mim dim I not dream in my room!"
I kind of like these little night-time surprise sayings; they are one of those fun secrets that (usually) only family knows about (unless you post them on your blog for the world to see) and bond us together...

OH CHRISTMAS TREE

Jon and the kiddos in front of the newly decorated tree.













Elisabeth with said kiddos and said tree.













Advent wreath (it looks like the middle candle is lit, but it's not)











Our Tree! 

Alternate titles for this post:
--"Jon raking the leaves...Wait! Are those kidlets in there?!" or
--"Jonah: I want to be buried by leaves. You can even cover my face!" or
--"Our heater broke and this is how we are trying to stay warm. Leaves are great insulators, you know." or
--"Mom, this isn't funny anymore. Let me out of these nasty leaves, please! Why do you always make us post for pictures for the blog?!"

 

This past weekend my sister Jamie and her daughter Grace came to visit. We had a great time but forgot to take pictures until the last day. We could have changed our clothes to make it look like the pics were taken over the entire weekend, but that's just too much work.
Wanna see all our pics?

April in a prego sandwich. E is 5 1/2 months along and Jamie is 7.

Gracie with Auntie Elisabeth

Uncle Jon with Grace--she chose him to snuggle with for about 30 minutes last night.

Gracie!

Last night Jonah and Ava came down after getting ready for bed, both with wet heads! "We washed our hair!" They used a water bottle and the hand soap. Nice. At least they try!

Silly Jonah

Ava with her wet head "I wanted to make it pretty and smelliful!"

Happy 6th Birthday, Jonah! We had a little family party for him while everyone was over for Thanksgiving. It was a great day! (Boy, was that turkey good!)

Momma and April, "Bepo" as the kids call her, being silly in a picture to send to the fam in Cali.

"Look what I got!" (the police car from the Cars movie)

Jonah showing off what William and Heather got him (and he loves it!)--Mack from the Cars Movie.

Jon taking a break from dishes...

Nannie and Ava doing a puzzle "Nannie, you said I could do the inside!" while Bepo takes some pictures with her phone to send to family in California.

Poppop playing Tinker Toys with Jonah.

Jonah decided (about 3 months ago) that for his birthday he wanted to have a birthday party at a video arcade called Nickel Wunderland. Yesterday our friend Ian told Jon about a way better arcade called Ground Kontrol in Northwest Portland. To give you an idea of what's there, the newest game they have is the original Mortal Kombat (which we would never let him play, of course.)
So, today, Jon took him and his friend Aidan there for almost three hours, and spent nearly $20 in quarters. I keep having to remind myself that it's still cheaper than a party--and this boy loves video games. I still can't believe he's going to be SIX YEARS OLD in just two days.
Six years ago . . .

• I called my sisters crying because I thought I was going to be pregnant forever (it really does feel that way towards the end--all you moms know it's true).
• April left work early from Seattle and drove the three hours to cheer me up and keep me busy.
• JoAnna sent me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers ever.
• Jon took me and April to a movie (we all got car-sick during the movie--it was the genre of film, I think--and so we left early).

Six years ago . . .

• We went home and to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I walked on the treadmill for a while (I will get this baby out of me!!).
• I finally went to sleep, woke up early and went to the hospital (I wouldn't say we rushed--Jon did stop for some gas on the way at his station).
• Jonah was born at 12:15 Thanksgiving morning--at 10 lbs 5 ounces he was our turkey that holiday.

Six years ago. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Ava putting on her water wings--"they're wewwoh!"

Learning to swim with Dadda (look, no water wings!)

Going under!

Blowing the water out

Cute girl squinting the sunshine

Goofing off in the pool--it was so nice to get out of the rain and enjoy some sunshine. The kids played in the pool everyday and Jonah said "Mom, we need a swimming pool at our house." umm...

We just got home, and we had a great vacation in Scottsdale, Arizona! Check out all our pictures.

Jonah's teacher has a cute website with pictures of the kids on there--you might see one of the Joe (as we call him) and you can definately see his classroom and teacher. Mrs. Morris is so creative and has turned their whole classroom into a little town (called K-B Town), and every week they have a Mayor, a Weatherman, a Reporter, and a Worship Leader. It's very cute.

"All sin is certainly to be hated and abhorred where it is, but then we must set ourselves against sin as we do against sickness and diseases, by showing ourselves tender and compassionate to the sick and diseased."
-William Law, 18th Century Angelican writer.
This statement was sent to me by my friend Christy, and I love how it makes me think about whether I am truly compassionate and tender to those whom I would deem unfortunate (sick/diseased) or even those I would deem unworthy of my love (they have hurt me), or if when I immediately label them I am only being tender and compassionate to myself. It also makes me think about my sister April, who is so great at showing compassion, and has been a huge inspiration to me. I am so blessed.

Halloween! Ava, Paige, Makaena, and Jonah (Aidan went to get his shoes? Where's Aidan?) We had pizza together and then went to "Candyland" at Central Bible Church. We came home with lots of candy and Ava said, "See, I told ya--it's not a game!" (like the board game)

Jonah was Superman and Ava was a Western Cinderella!

Ava giving Dadda a big kiss.

Aidan the Ninja and Paige the Fairy Princess.

Jonah and Aidan with their game-faces on.

Baby Joshua (Shoo--ey for short) Durias, the little football player

Ava and Paigey being silly.

Makaena Marie Durias

Ava and her little friend Jolie.