Traditions

With the Holidays coming, I have been thinking a lot about family traditions. There are many that we have that I will pass onto Emma, and mnay that PJ remembers too! It has been fun to think about them all, and I got to thinking--I wonder what other people's family traditions are, as I'd love to add to our many wonderful memories in the making.

I would love to hear your traditions--if you read this and want to share a comment, or email me, I'd love it!

Here are some family traditions of ours:

*Open 1 Christmas gift Christmas eve. Then Christmas day, my grandpa had a bell, and the first grandchild to wake up got to ring the bell on top of his shoulders and wake everyone up!

*Your typical ones:big Thanksgiving meals and family walks after supper, Easter egg hunts and decorating the eggs, making Christmas cookies, Apple and Pumpkin picking--and making the pies, etc., Trick-or-treating

*They came out with an Advent Calendar for dogs with bones inside--this is great, and I have an Advent Wreath with bible verses, prayers or activities for each day

*Eating dinner together as a family each night

*Operation Christmas Child-shoe box gifts and now we also do the Advent Conspiracy through church!

Some that I want to start:

*Work a soup kitchen before the christmas season

*Special birthday dinner--your choice

*Each child gets a day alone with mom/dad

Well, hope this finds you well!

Fall is in the Air

Sorry it has been so long--we had a cold go through our house and, fingers crossed, are all finally over it. Emma was dedicated on October 10th, and it was a lovely service at church. She and 28 others kids were dedicated, all in a one hour service! We had a lunch afterward..and truely lovely day with family and friends! This weekend was Homecoming in Madison and a big game against Iowa--the game wasn't much fun to watch, but Emma and I got to hang out with Jazz, what a blast!

Today was a perfect fall day-crisp air, clear blue skies and a high of 60 so I decided it was the perfect day to go to the Apple Orchard, get some apples, my favorite apple butter--yum-o, and some pics of Emma! We got our apples the easy way (pre-picked and pre-washed) and I spent most of the time in the orchard trying to find perfect lighting to take pics. I plopped Emma on a blanket and got on the ground myself and shot away. It was so fun! Then there were a bunch of pumpkins leaning against the barn with a bushel of hay, so I sat Emma amidst them and started taking some pictures of her. 2 little girls came out of the barn and saw that I was taking pic

tures and got behind me and started dancing and waving to get Emma to look at them. It was so darling--then they said "we love babies, we love to take care of them!" What sweet girls, what a great day!

Dream Come True

What a week! Emma turned 7 months old on Sunday--such a big girl. Monday-after many attempts, we found our dream home! God works in amazing ways! It is everything that we wanted and more--we are so blessed. We sigend the papers on Wednesday evening--so now it's officially in escrow. Now as for Emma....

Emma has swimming lessons on Wednesday mornings, and she absolutely loves it-she's like a fish. Goes under the water, kicks a bit, so cute. Thursday, I go to a group at church with women, and they have daycare for the 2 hours-and I had my eyes on the nanny light the whole 2 hrs...but she made it, I was so proud of her! That afternoon she played with a Halloween Jack in the Box type toy, and the first 2 times it just kind of surprised her, but the third time, it freaked her out and she was crying-oh so sad. Today she discovered that her voice echos in our room, so she kept playing this screaking game over and over. Along with the echos--she has discovered she has a tongue and makes may lala, mama, dada, baba, noises! A new food was introduced yesterday:pear. I have heard that pear flushes babies out, and let me tell ya--it's true. 5 poopies today when she normally takes 1 a day...hmm, maybe I should pair pear (hehe) with something binding next time! We are looking forward to the "Border Battle" this weekend! Madison vs. Minnesota, and then Packers vs. Vikings--GO Badkers!!