Welcome

Whether you come in to visit or just rest, when you enter our home may you be blessed! -- unknown

We are blessed to have such loving and supportive family, friends, and neighbors. My wish is that you always feel welcomed to our home. I desire to have an open heart in which I spend time cultivating deep, meaningful relationships with those around me. I believe that as we live in community with each other, we grow individually into a more purposeful and fulfilling life.

Don't worry about calling ahead or planning in advance; stop by whenever you have the chance. I can't promise you that my house will be spotless or that my children are behaving like perfect angels or that I'm beauty-pageant ready, but you're welcomed just the same.

If you're someone who's just stumbled upon my blog, thank you for visiting and sharing life with us. I'd love for you to leave a comment so that I have the privilege of knowing you.

So come on in and make yourself at home!

Flashback Friday

Christmas '06, Santa brought Nolan a piano. I happened to have a tuxedo that my nephew, Cyle, wore to our wedding, so I decided to dress Nolan up in the tux to take some pictures of him playing his piano.

Nolan at nine months:

Christmas Baking Extravaganza '08

Better late than never; right?

Every year, my mom and her daughters get together for a Christmas cookie baking day. This tradition stems back to when my grandmother and her daughters and daughter-in-laws would bake together. Sometimes, their baking day turned into a baking weekend in which they would make cookies and candy several days in a row!

We kicked off our baking day with a toast to kick off our fun day together. (It was early in the morning, so forgive us! Left to right: Julie, Mom, Rebecca, Brittain)


This year, Nolan and Keith enjoyed helping quite a bit. They had their own aprons, baking dishes, and utensils. They were big helpers! (And, of course, we kept their cookies to the side, designated as "the kids' cookies."


My mom has learned how to make Swedish coffee bread, which is a tradition on my dad's side. His mom always made this special bread for every holiday. It's a fond memory of mine, and I'm proud that my mom has chosen to carry on that tradition. (It's very time consuming and tedious to make!) In fact, since the recent passing of my grandmother, I'm even more grateful that we will still have Swedish coffee bread to enjoy and fondly remember Grandma Kling.


John, Britt, and Ella. Even Miss Ella got to help this year. Although, most of her "helping" was just watching. I know she'll be right in the middle of it next year!


Rebecca, Bryan, and Keith. As you could see in the previous picture and this one, the guys participated, too. Although they weren't baking all day, they joined in on occasion.


Nolan had such a great time! He loved the gingerbread cookies this year!


After all was said and done, we spent about 10 hours baking that day. We had a ton of cookies to share, and each family had more than Santa could possibly eat during his brief stop at their house.




What a great time together. I'm grateful for traditions that create wonderful memories. As I have memories of participating in baking days with my mom, grandmother, aunts and cousins, I hope Ella will look forward to this tradition and choose to continue it with her future family.

Ear Tubes

Miss Ella has battled ear infections since she was about four months old. This last infection lasted about eight weeks! Finally, on Friday, January 9, 2009, she had tubes put in to help the fluid in her ears drain.

As of Friday afternoon, you would have never known she was under any kind of anesthesia that morning, much less undergoing surgery. It seems as though her hearing is a bit more accute. She's never been a big fan of the vacuum cleaner, but yesterday, she scooted away in double time! It must have sounded a good deal louder to her now that the fluid that was making her hearing muffled was gone.

Dr. J. Mark Palmer of Cook Children's did a fantastic job. We had complete peace with placing our sweet angel in his care.

This is a fun picture of Ella just before they wheeled her away for surgery. She already had the "goofy juice" they give the babies to relieve the separation anxiety before they're taken away for surgery. Now, if only I could have convinced the nurse to give some of that to me!


Once the "goofy juice" really set in, she became very relaxed, humming to herself, and was a bit funny to watch. I took a video so that I could show Craig how she was acting, and I thought I'd share it with you. (Only one parent could go back to the pre-surgery area, so Craig let me go, and he waited in the waiting room.)


A big thank you to Aunt Amy and Brooke who were such troopers Friday morning. They were at our house before 6:30 so we could take off with Ella. Nolan had a great time playing with Brooke and Aunt Amy. Thank you for helping us out!