Our First Winter Snow

Dan has been asking, ''When will it snow??'', since summer :) He has been waiting and waiting and last week it paid off. He was SO excited the ground covered in white. The three boys (Joe included) jumped outside and made a fabulous snowman. They then sledded on the hill across from our house and came home for some warm soup! Great morning here in Kiltarlity.

Back in October....

We had some friends over and carved pumpkins! Neil and Rachel were students in Dingwall when Joe studied there at the age of 18. They are now married with two children and missionaries. They are back in Dingwall for the year and it was great to have them speak to our church as well as over for lunch! All the kids (dads)had a great time carving their pumpkins, and they turned out great :)

Oh, for Halloween this year we had a knight and a cowboy. Fun!

I also found some cute pics of the dynamic duo. Enjoy :)

Birthday Boys!

Well, we now have a 4 year old and 2 year old in our house! Caleb celebrated his birthday first on October 27th, then Dan followed on November 8th. We had fun family parties. I asked each boy what they wanted on their cakes. Caleb, to my surprise, asked for ''Thomas!'' Dan went back and forth but finally settled on a plane. We had lots of fun eating the boys' favorite foods for dinner, then it seemed Mommy and Daddy were more interested in actually eating the cakes this year (we didn't mind :) On Dan's birthday, good friends took the boys to a place called PlayZone where they climbed all around and had a ball. My greatest memory from that day was seeing Dan help Caleb climb all the up to slide down a long slide. There were platforms all the way up that Caleb couldn't quite reach, so Dan would climb up first then turn around to hoist Caleb up too....made my heart melt. We love you boys! You bring so much joy to our lives!

Around the House...

We also had lots of fun with Joe (Grandpa) and Marsha around here!!! Grandpa and Marsha were great partners for all kinds of fun for the boys. Lots of reading, running around and exploring to be had. Thanks to Grandpa and Marsha for excellent knight armor that (not exaggeration) has been worn every single day since their visit! We also had a golf set appear and Caleb surprised us all by becoming quite the little golfer...Grandpa was proud!

We love you! Come see us again soon.

Joe and Marsha

A huge apology for being so behind with my posts.

A couple of months ago now we were delighted to welcome Joe (Joe's dad) and Marsha to wee Kiltarlity, Scotland. It was amazing to have them here and we had a great visit. Here are some pictures of our time out and about. Most of our days were spent visiting various places around the area. Below you will see (in order) Inverness, Dornoch, Glenlivet, and Elgin.

It was fun to see some new places ourselves as well. We traveled in a great van that carried all of us (thank you Joe for driving!). We made it up to Dornoch. It was fun to see the famous golf course. Man, the wind was crazy!! We also ventured out onto the beach there as well....for a brief windy moment. Haha.

I must say, I think the highlight of the trip for the men was Glenlivet (''Livet Land!''). Not only was it some of the most stunning scenery we saw, but of course the Glenlivet Distillery could not be missed. Joe, Marsha, and Joe took a tour while I had a relaxing lunch with the boys, and we all went home happy.

On the way home we stopped in Elgin. We found an amazing old cathedral and spent some time exploring the grounds.

Now, I must confess that I missed out on a day or two of travels due to frist trimester fun :) BUT, the crew made it out around Kiltarlity to explore the area. Joe and Marsha also took a day to drive out towards Skye....amazing views!

I'll post more pictures of our time around the house. We miss you Joe and Marsha!

Thankful!

Hello there! It's been far too long since I have blogged. I have many pictures that I need to post, but I thought I would write a short Thanksgiving post.

This Thanksgiving our family of four is in St. Andrews. We are here staying at a friend's home while they are in the States visiting family for the holidays. It's a great opportunity for Joe to have some quality research time at the library here and for us to have bit of a holiday! We won't be having a huge Thanksgiving meal this year, but I must confess that I'm really excited about cooking for the four of us. We'll have the basics...stuffing, sweet potato casserole, veggies, etc. However, this year's dessert will not be pie, but fudge donuts from the local bakery that we love :)

Also, this announcement is a bit overdue but one of the main things our family is thankful for this year is a new baby on the way! Yes, for those who don't know we are expecting baby #3 around May 21st. I am about 15 weeks along and oh so glad to be out of the sickness that comes along with the first trimester. It was rough this time around and I doubted whether or not it would go away, but here we are feeling much better! The boys are very excited and often talk about helping mommy take care of ''her'' (they are convinced it is a girl...Mommy's not so sure).

SO, this year we will be thanking the Lord for the many blessings he provides. As a family of FIVE, we will come before him with Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving this year.

Grandmommy cont'd...

Well, it seems as though my mom took more pictures of the boys and myself than me taking them of her, but I promise she was here! :) Here are some more pictures of our outings during her stay. Mom also captured me cooking through my kitchen window. We had a day of looking at donkeys and hiking through the forest. These are both coming outings for the boys. They love the huge tree in the woods. It usually becomes a pirate ship or a dragon to slay. Gotta love the imagination.