Cofee and Parents

This is just a short, brief blog.

Tonight we are impatiently waiting for my parents to arrive. They are on a train somewhere in Montana, fighting through the snowy weather and already 11 hours behind schedule. They are joining us for Christmas this year and we are all SO EXCITED we can hardly stand it!!

We are also cupping... or "professionally" taste-testing coffee blends, as we get ready to sell them online. It's a very unique process and experience! And tons of fun:o). Our house smells amazingly good right now, and I'm enjoying the chance to experience the very prominent differences between coffee beans. So far my favorite is the Sumatran. Rich, dark and bold, but not burnt. (although brewed, I prefer the Porto Rican with it's smooth nutty taste:o)

Happy Birthday Elie!

My daughter turned 6 yesterday!
Here is a glimpse of her day...

The traditional Paulson birthday dough nut wake-up song & present...
Thanks Aunt Ali! She loved her winter set for Kaya!!Birthday hug from her brother.
(and yes, at 8am it is still that dark out!)

Bryce also had to leave for a business trip yesterday, but not until the afternoon. So, we had a birthday breakfast instead of the traditional dinner:o)... Elie chose Bob Evans and ordered the fruit plate - I guess six years old means she is now health conscious??

We then went home to enjoy hot chocolates & decorate gingerbread houses that Aunt Sheila made, especially for the occasion. Bryce was able to hang out for this too, and it was quite the party:o)!

The very last present Elie opened yesterday was a birthday dress from American Girl Doll collection, from Nonnie! Complete with a matching purse and tiara. She is so in love with the dress that when she came out this morning she was wearing it! I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to sleep in it:o) - Mom, amazing pick!!

We will have the official Birthday dinner when Nonnie and Grampa arrive on the 20th - to which Elie will of course be wearing the whole ensemble.

My little girl is growing up!

Our Friend Brian

Once again my pictures loaded in revers. I have no idea why! But here is a glimpse of the time we shared with our latest house guest - our friend Brian from Newberg, Oregon.

Bryce and Bryce met in a men's group at our home church and have been good friends ever since. His wife, Becky, and I are friends as well, and they have four girls.

Brian helping hang lights on our 30 ft tree.
Brian taking the kids for a sled ride through the neighborhood!

Jadon's new best buddy... look out Daddy!
(Elie munching on some of the homemade jerky Brian brought)Bryce hanging the rest of the lights between snow storms, so they would all be ready for Brian's arrival:o) ... what a stud!

Brian, we had so much fun with you!! Thanks for coming and sharing life with us. The house is a bit emptier with you gone home. Becky - thanks for sharing him:o)!

Wintry Moments

Here are some random wintry pictures.

Mom, the snow boots finally came in handy:o)!
(only as we were getting him ready, he REALLY wanted to wear his crocks! go figure:o)

The kids got to spend close to two hours playing outside in the snow today... They came in and warmed up with hotcoco & a snack. Our Advent wreath... I'm so proud - and excited to be able to actually follow this through. We're using Jotham's Journey as our story base. The kids love it so far!

Our beautifully happy house that is halfway decorated:o)! Bryce got as far as he could before the snow storm really got bad. We also have yard ornaments:o)... such fun!
And you really can't see them in this picture, but we have at bell ornamental light hanging in our front window.

Otherwise we are busy with daily life. Elie has three more weeks of Kindergarten, and Jadon is begging me to do school with him more each day. Elie has a ballet recital this week too - which we are all looking forward to!

One more cute/funny thing I'll leave you with. This conversation took place in the back of the car today as we were driving...

Elie: God spoke "Let their be an Elie" and then I was in mommy's tummy and He breathed life into me so that I would come out and cry.
Jadon: Oh. Well how did I get made?
Elie: God spoke "Let their be a Jadon" but mommy didn't hear Him. Well, she did, but He whispered so it was harder.
Jadon: Oh. Then what?
Elie: Then you were in mommy's tummy too.
Jadon: Then the angles came and got me out?
Elie: No, God yelled at mom that it was time. You came out a little while after that.
Jadon: No, I think He would send angles, not yell at me.
Elie: Okay, but you cried a lot.
Jadon: Well... God doesn't have teeth, so how does He eat?
Elie: He spoke "Let everything have teeth, and let me have them too" and then he had teeth.
Jadon: Well, but He doesn't have a table, so where does He eat?
Elie: Jadon! God spoke, "Let there be my table." That's how. Please stop asking so many questions. My head is spinning.
Jadon: Okay, sissy. You're beautiful.

Happy Thanks Giving!

For some reason my pictures loaded backwards... so here is our Thanks Giving day in revers:o)!

The evening ended with a game called Frame... the person in the frame had to keep a straight face while we all tried to make them laugh.
Here is Jadon's turnElie couldn't get a straight face on to begin with:o)!

Bryce did really well...

There were several people to hang out with, here are the kids enjoying Braden's entertainment with two of the Pruitt "kids"

The boys playing

The girls, waiting patiently for supper to begin

Turkey cookies!

Jadon adding to the gingerbread train

Bryce helping Elie with the frosting...

The view from our bedroom window a few days ago... it was breathtaking so I captured it on film...

We had a wonderful, relaxing & fun filled Thanks Giving. We started the morning with our traditional breakfast of caramel rolls, snuggled in bed as a family & watched a movie, read books & of course made Turkey cookies & our gingerbread train. We spent the afternoon preparing our part of the Thanks Giving meal before heading next door to the Eaton's to enjoy dinner with several friends. It was so fun to be with these people who have grown so important in our lives. The evening was full of laughter, games and, of course, good food!!

Happy Thanks Giving!!!

My Sweet Little Man

Tonight Bryce took Elie out for a date, so Jadon and I had a quiet evening together. I tell you what, I'll take these quiet evenings anytime! Sorry, Bryce!

Pretty much the whole evening I have been kissed on, hugged, snuggled and told that I am beautiful, a queen, that I am still going to grow up (what woman my age doesn't want to hear that?!) and when I do my son will be my king and have a blue race car for me... that I am the most beautifulest girl in the whole world... that I'm beautiful... have I mentioned that I'm beautiful? At least to my son:o) - who, by the way, has invited me on his first date with a girl... "cubie" I'm a girl too! So watch out cute little girls, whoever you are, I may just be lurking in the back of the movie theater:o>...

Nearly There!

We recently decided to rent out the two extra rooms we have on our lower level... one of which has been the toy room.
So, of course, in order to do that we have to figure out what to do with all the toys.... and this is what we came up with! We have sorted and organized all the toys into their own bins... little by little we will get all matching bins, but for now this keeps the toys neat and the mess under control.
Who knew we could fit a whole room full of toys onto four shelves?
I'm so proud of us!

Jadon and Jesus

My son asked Jesus to come into his life, forgive his sins and help him to eat goodness.Yup! My baby is growing up!
We had to have a talk about attitude and yelling at his sister. I asked him to pray with me, which he willingly started, then I asked if he knew Jesus could help him. He paused and then said he thought so... but didn't seem sure. So I asked if he would like to be sure. "YES!"
We prayed together and Jadon took the lead, every now and then asking me what he sould say next, but then pretty much coming up with it on his own... hense Jesus will now help him to "eat goodness."
We are thrilled!

Newest Additions

Here is the latest pattern and colors I've been working on...
To see the rest of our inventory visit
SLBeadery.googlepages.com/home

Tude Tracker

I know no one else faces these challenges... but in our house attitude is a huge issue. Bryce and I have come up with a creative way to (hopefully) inspire the kids towards great attitudes and perhaps curb the whining! We thought it deserved a blog spot:o)

Here it is!They each have a side of the board to fill. Hearts are for acts of kindness, Smilie faces are for encouraging, positive words, stars are for completed chores and helpfulness around the house. For every 5 of these they get a dollar (the round coin looking things).
For unkind deeds, mean words or nasty attitudes and uncompleted chores or bad attitudes with helping out around the house they first get a yield sign. If the behavior changes to a positive one nothing happens, but if it persists they end up with a stop sign - each stop sign cost them a dollar.

This is week one... so far so good. Every Saturday morning Dad pays them the money they earned... and in return they have to pay for each stop sign. We're still in the tweaking phase, but I they have LOVED it so far - as you can see:o)

Random Happiness

We had a few moments of sweetness that I just happened to capture on camera
We do typically have quite a few moments of sweetness around here... I just rarely capture them with film:o)And of course... the silliness:o)!

Science Friday & A Date

Fridays are Science class days for Elie, where she gets to go to Corner Stone University for a science class for homschoolers with her friends. It's something she looks forward to all week.

Well, today, being a Science Friday, Jadon and I decided it was time for the date he's been asking me to go on. He took me to Starbucks (is there any other place to go on a hot date with your son??:o)... here are a few pictures we took...

Jadon got a "brownie" muffinJadon showed me how strong he is by lifting the pile of games, the quickly becoming interested in what they were. (Dates with my son are vastly different from those with my daughter!)

Our silly picture moment

Jadon's turn with the camera... about the 4th time I finally got to have my head in the picture too:o). It's actually not half bad!

Jadon also entertained me and a few other patrons with his dancing. When one lady told him he was a good dancer he promptly hid his face in my lap. When I asked him to say "thank you" he said, "I can't talk to her, she's not my mom! I can't talk to girls who aren't my mom."

Oh, Jadon...!

Shipshewana Christmas Lighting

We recently went down to Shipshewana, Indiana for their Christmas Lighting festival.
It was a funfilled night starting with supper at the Blue Gate.
The kids favorite meal here is the fried chicken drum sticks with fries. And we all love the fresh made bread, apple butter and Amish peanut butter they serve!Waiting for the parade of lights to start... birr! It was cold!!! But it didn't rain or snow - thank you Lord!

My attempts at taking pictures in the dark...

After the parade of lights everyone gathered on main street for carols, prayer and the lighting of the town.

It was so amazing... the whole town coming together to sing hymns, traditional and spiritual Christmas carols & to pray together. There was a live nativity, and a huge tree that lit up, as well as all the buildings in town. The kids were so excited. There was tons of candy, free hot coco & coffee... just a really amazing atmosphere. We are so blessed!

Chicago

Here are some of the pictures from our trip to Chicago to pick up Kaya .

After looking through the store and mulling over every option, dolls are selected... now we wait for them to arrive.Here they are!
Gracie chose a "Just like me" doll and promptly named her Banana (it has now changed to Julia).
After looking over Molly & Josephina pretty good Elie chose Kaya, the Nez Perce girl.

In front of the American Girl doll store, Chicago, Ill.

We came equipped...

Elie having a little chat with Kaya while Gracie took a turn with the stroller.

It was a totally fun weekend! The girls had so much fun & their dolls rarely left their sides. We had an adventurous pic-nic lunch in Chicago city, where yogurt, an apple, two drinks & a bag of chips came to over $10... hmm. But the girls thought is was great. We also visited the Lego store, located just down the street.

At home Elie's doll rarely leaves her side still. Bryce had a little set of clothes waiting for her when we returned and she is frequently changing her clothes back and forth. She goes everywhere with us... everywhere. Elie tells people that Kaya is her late birthday present, even though she hasn't had her birthday yet:o)...

Finally some Halloween Pictures!

This year we were out of town for Halloween. So instead we did our trick-or-treating at a local assisted living facility (nursing home in my book - but my husband is more technical these days:o), that was putting on a Halloween celebration for their residents & invited the public... We didn't get many pictures because we were to busy having fun. The elderly people were so delighted, and the kids absolutely loved all the attention, and of course , the candy:o)! Elie was a fairy princess and Jadon was an "army solder guy."
So typical of our kids!:o)

Afterwards we went home to feast on their spoils & watch a movie... nothing like a relaxed Halloween!!