Christmas 2008

This Christmas didn't look much different than years past. Shopping started immediately following the Thansgiving meal and didn't end until Christmas eve. Then there's wrapping, card making, cookie making and making plans. Throw in my birthday, Peter's birthday and a few other's and this sums up for an extremely stressful time of year. This year was the year for gifts with creativity and practicality which was so much more fun and thoughtful! This is the kind of giving that I love the most. It takes you back to the reason that we give.
Though the gifts were plentiful and thoughtful and so many loved ones to celebrate with, there were still a few missing and too many hearts burdened with hurts. This Christmas showed me that we need to pray more, to love more, to give more, to care more and to let go of the past.
I love my family and friends and am blessed to have them in my life...I cherish everyone.
So in this new year, as my friend Hal suggested, I'm starting a revolution! God will be 1st! And why shoudn't He be...He sent His son! He gave us the only gift that we will truly ever need.

Christmas Concert

Okay, I was finally able to get this video on here! This was an extremely special night...to see Mario and Tweetsy, my little sweethearts, singing in their first concert! They did a wonderful job as you will see. Tweetsy is always trying to do her best and just touches my heart with how precious she is. And Mario...well, as my friend Leslie said "He's a ham". Unfortunately, because of the limitations I am not able to put the entire concert on here so I've picked out what I believe to be the best part. Tweetsy and Mario really had fun standing up in front of everyone and singing. Mario even waved and yelled out "hi mommy" :) So cute.

On Friday after Thanksgiving Grandma and Grandpa M. came to visit and we had another Turkey dinner that night. On saturday Grandpa Terry and I took Tweetsy and Mario to the Mall of America to use all of the free tickets that we got from the Christian Community Fair. We were there for 6 hours and went on soo many rides that we won't need to be back for a looong time :)
Then Sunday we went to Kiefer and Kyra's birthday party at the
indoor park in Edina. We had lots of fun with our cousins and the indoor park was such a fun place to play!

Thanksgiving 2008!

This was Luigi's 1st Thanksgiving and he is 8 1/2 months old. He's already crawling, climbing stairs, pulling himself up on things and saying dadadada! Tweetsy and Mario are really starting understand why we celebrate Thanksgiving and it was fun to hear what they are thankful for and the things that they are learning about Jesus.

This year the kids and I decided that we were going to make Pumpkin Cheesecake for Thanksgiving. So, on Tuesday night we made the first two pies and then made another 2 pies on Wednesday night. One was given to my friend Leslie who left for Ohio on Wednesday morning to have Thanksgiving with her Grandma, her mom June, her sister Heidi & my brother Mike & nephew Caleb.

On Thanksgiving day we went to Grandma and Grandpa N.'s first and had a wonderful turkey dinner. Everyone was there including Great Grandma and Grandpa P, Uncle Blake and Sara, Uncle Scott, Lyndsay, Jefferey, Uncle Tom and Uncle Adam. Tweetsy and Mario were so excited that day. It's amazing the energy that they have but they keep everyone entertained! Grandma and Grandpa made a wonderful turkey dinner! This was Luigi's 1st real meal and it was so funny to watch him eat soo much food. He ate more than Tweetsy and Mario combined :)

Next we went to Ja Ja and Babcia's house for round 2! We were still pretty full so we couldn't eat as much. Tweetsy and Mario played hide-and-seek with Babcia and Ganina and played with the toys in the basement. Peter and Ja Ja spent the entire time arguing about politics :( This year our cousins weren't there to play :( It was such a long day that Mario and Tweetsy quickly fell asleep on the way home!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and continue to Thank God for the blessings that we have today for tomorrow they may not be there to be thankful for! And for those that we couldn't be with this year...We miss you very much! (More pictures to come)

Luigi's Big Day!

Today, Sunday November 16th, was Luigi's dedication at Rockpoint Church! What a special day for all of us when we could publicly give back to God the gift that He has given to us in Luigi. We promised today that we would teach Luigi about God's love for us and the salvation that we receive through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Tweetsy and Mario joined with us as we dedicated Luigi...of course they don't understand what it was all about but they saw us acting out our relationship with Jesus as a family. Grandpa and Grandma N., and Uncle M and Aunt K joined us at church and also promised to support our decision for Luigi and Grandma and Grandpa M. were praying for us from home and also promise to support us.
We gave Luigi his first bible and he was given a certificate of dedication from Pastor Roy Fruits. We thank God for all of our children and for the grace that He shows every day!
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."
3 John 4

Christian Community Fair

Today Grandma and Grandpa N. took us to the Christian Community Fair at the St. Paul River Center. There were a lot of things for kids to do...Tweetsy and Mario each made a star ornament using stamps, they also pet animals, played on the inflatables ("jumpy things") and took pictures with Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales! They had a lot of information there too but we took part mostly in the kids activities. I just thought I would share some photos that we took while we were there. Of course, Luigi was there too but unfortunately we didn't get photos of him. : (

What we are thankful for

Today we are thankful for grandparents from out of town. Grandpa and Grandma, Bud and Sila have been staying with us for a few days now and it has been fun. We were able to get out on a date!!! Plus it's always nice for mom to get a break. Holiday pictures were taken successfully but not without a little bit of hassel along the way...Mario had this terrible bloody nose which ruined what he was wearing plus we got lost on the way to the studio : ( Cousin B came for a visit this weekend too which is always fun so we had a full house and lots of animals running around. Tweetsy and Mario also got locked in the car on Friday morning for about an hour while we searched and searched for the spare key. Most of the time life is crazy around here but the journey is always worth it!