Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Playing in the Snow

We finally have had a couple opportunities recently to play outside in the snow. The neighbor boys even joined us for some sledding in the backyard. Hannah was much more excited, though, that the neighbors brought their new puppy along. . . now one of Hannah's best friends! Hannah even took the puppy with her as she rode the sled down the hill.

Sibling Play Time

Megan has this HUGE imagination which keeps her pretty busy these days (and which usually translates into a large organized "mess"!). It's been so fun to watch Zachary start to join in with Megan's imaginative play the older he gets. I found the two of them having a tea party together in our family room recently.

Grateful for Technology

The longer Zachary has diabetes, the more grateful I am for the wisdom God has given to those men and women who have done and are doing research to improve the quality of life for diabetics. We are also so appreciative for such great doctors who are so knowledgeable and yet so personal in their care for Zachary. For almost a week now, Zachary has been "trialing" a continuous glucose monitor. It's been a fun new toy for us all. :) Zachary wears a transmitter in his upper arm (inserted with a needle and kept in place with a plastic cannula).

The transmitter then wirelessly communicates to this receiver Zach's approximate sugar level (somewhat variable since it's not a true "blood" sugar level). The receiver can also indicate to us whether his sugar level is increasing or decreasing.

Zachary wears the receiver in this little pouch. He's done great with it. We will have to return it at the end of the week. We are going to pursue the option of Zachary getting one for himself, although not sure if it's going to be feasible or not. But overall we are just grateful for technology and for the wisdom God has given to those people studying diabetes. Zachary already is benefiting from their work. We thank God for them!

Happy Birthday to Us!

With the help of Grandma and Grandpa Petersen, the girls made a birthday supper for Daddy and Mommy a couple weekends ago. The grand finale was a delicious brownie smothered in frosting and decorated by the three girls. It was a very memorable birthday dinner!

Awana Grand Prix 2012

I'm several weeks behind in posting these pictures - Time has gotten away from me again! This time of year the girls always get excited for the Awana Grand Prix. They work with Daddy to shape and decorate their cars exactly as they want them.

Here are the final products (kinda hard to see - Sorry!).

This year Hannah received 3rd place in the Girls' Sparks division for speed - What a big smile, huh! She was one very happy girl that night!

Sweet boy. . .and so tired

Blessings

One of the biggest blessings of my college years was my roommate, Susanna. We met as freshmen and developed a special friendship over the next two years at BBC. We stayed in close touch over the next few years though geographically apart, and then God brought us together again in Grand Rapids when our husbands were both in seminary. Over the past 10 years we have only seen each other a couple times, and most of our children had never met. So we had a very fun "reunion" a couple weekends ago at their new location in Ohio. I've always appreciated Susanna for being used of God to sharpen me, so it was just great to have about 24 hours to talk and share together. Here is a picture of our kids together, all except for the littlest one who was napping.

A Big Boy Bed!

Last week we took the rail off of Zach's crib, so now he is in his "big boy bed." We have been so surprised at how well he has done with this transition. He has only fallen out of bed 3 times over the past 7 days (which actually isn't too bad!). And he has required NO discipline for getting out of bed without asking. . . . . much better than his three older sisters. :)

Christmas Surprise

Have I ever mentioned that we have a wonderful church family?? We feel so blessed and are so grateful for FHBC. Christmas morning Craig and I, along with our senior pastor and his wife, were surprised by our church family with a food shower and a gift card shower. Here is a picture of our baptismal filled with food (the other side had food for our senior pastor's family - by the time we took the picture they had already taken their portion home).

Kairsa and Hannah had fun helping Daddy bring all the gifts home. The girls were especially thrilled with the box of Lucky Charms, and Daddy was especially thrilled with El Matador chips. :) We praise God for His creative provision of our needs and wants!

Merry Christmas

We continued another Christmas tradition this year by letting the girls sleep by the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!!

Play-Doh Restaurant

Karisa, Hannah, & Megan made me a play-doh restaurant over Christmas break. I had some delicious food to choose from!

Joys of Ministry

One of the greatest joys of youth ministry is watching God work in the lives of teens and then watching those teens grow up and continue following after Him. Dan & Sarah have been two of those teens for us. A couple weeks ago Craig had the privilege of performing their wedding ceremony. It was a great day of celebration with them. Now we have the privilege of working with them as youth leaders, too. We love you, Dan & Sarah!

More Christmas Traditions

Making (or should I say eating!) buckeyes is one of my personal favorite Christmastime traditions.

Zachary even joined in the effort this year to dip the peanut butter balls into the chocolate.

Another fun tradition we've done the past few years is visit the Meijer Gardens where they have about 35 Christmas trees each decorated representative of another country. Here we are in front of the Brazilian tree - a family favorite!

And for the second year in a row we all put on our pajamas a few nights before Christmas, made ourselves hot chocolate, loaded up in the car, and drove around looking at Christmas lights. What a special time of year to make some special memories!

Maggie's Carnival

Last week Megan designed a carnival for me to go to. It was really cute and super creative. Most of the carnival got taken down before I could get pictures of it, but I did manage to capture the animals in their cages. What a fun imagination Maggie has!

Christmas Traditions

One of our favorite holiday traditions is making "shape cookies" together. So yesterday was the day to make the big mess. . . .which is always very well worth it! Zachary joined in this year for the first time. . . which would have been OK except for the small detail that he doesn't like to get his hands dirty. . . .Oh, well. . . maybe next year!

A little clumsy

The combination of boots, snow pants, short legs, uneven turf, lots of tree stumps and branches, etc. made for a very unhappy Christmas tree expedition for Zachary. I lost track of the amount of times he fell down. . . What we thought would be a really fun night for Zachary, ended up in lots and lots of tears!!

Searching for the perfect tree

Last night we headed out to find the perfect Christmas tree. While Craig and I get all excited about looking for a tree and cutting it down, the kids really just enjoy the wagon ride. :)

The sheep and goats were also a big hit.

Finally. . . here it is!

The influence of older sisters

Someday maybe Zach won't think this is so cute. . . but for now we appreciate the influence that Karisa, Hannah & Megan have on their little brother. . . .

Daddy's Helpers