Thanks to Keith for finding and posting this great video. Carol of the Bells is one of my favorites, and the light display is gorgeous.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot-B4V8oqPQ&rel=1&border=1]

We’ve had a hard time finding socks for Stephen because his legs are so chubby. Either socks will not stay up, or they’ll squeeze way too tight, or both. So the other night, I decided to go extreme, and I tried on some socks that are labelled “Fits 4-6 1/2, Shoe Sizes 5 1/2 – 8 1/2.”

Crazy, but true… they work! They’re long in the foot, but they work.

This also demonstrates that I’m not always on the ball enough to keep the boy in cloth diapers. And that’s okay! 🙂

The Blessings and I had fun today sledding. We don’t have any super hills on our property, but we made the best of what we have. 🙂

The older kids were sweet about taking the little girls with them…

Unfortunately, B. was already inside when I got the camera out for pictures, but he had a blast as well.

Thank you, Lord, for the beautiful snow!

On December 10 (last Monday), everything was covered with ice. It was beautiful, though I realize it can also be deadly. It was surreal to have so much ice and not have any snow.

Then on Friday, Dec 15, after all the ice had melted, the snow started to fall.

I LOVE snow!!

Here’s the bottom step of our front steps… I thought it was cool that the snow came right up to the step.

This shot gives a bit more perspective… and a reminder to rake those leaves before the snow falls!

I’ve been praying for Kate all day, as she had her second brain surgery today. But I haven’t gotten it blogged about so that you can pray too! If you haven’t started reading her blog yet, you really should! You will be both blessed and used.

Surgery apparently went well today, though Dave’s last post was this:

Urgent Prayer Needed
Kate is in the post-op recovery room. We just met with Dr. Forget and he said that she is awake and responsive and can follow simple commands (counting on fingers,etc). However, she is very weak on the left side of her body. This is either do to swelling at the surgical site in her brain which is affecting the adjacent area that controls motor function, or it is due to the aggressiveness of the surgery.
Please pray that it is the former and will improve as the swelling subsides.
Dave

Please join us in our prayers for this dear lady of God! See this post for more specific prayer requests.

Stephen was sitting on the floor in front of the couch tonight, enjoying the freedom that sitting up (mostly steadily) is affording him. It was fun to watch him, and very sweet that every little bit he would look back at me on the couch to see if I was watching him and to give me that sweet grin. See?

Mama found this sweet outfit for Grace and sent it home with us last month. I was thinking I would save it for next year, then I realized I should really see if it would work now. It does, and she loves it. 🙂 J got a picture of her this evening.

Stephen discovered the wonder of making noise by banging today. You can tell the girls thoroughly enjoyed his fun!

Here’s the outside wall of the dining room stripped to the studs at the end of September. When Papa and Jonathan put up the staircase to the attic a couple of years ago, the only option was for it to cross the dining room window. Like so:

The plan has been to put in a window over the the landing, but window’s aren’t cheap. Usually. 🙂 Jonathan found a 32″x66″ window at Lowe’s – it was a special order window that hadn’t worked for the customer for some reason or another. The regular price of the window was $176. It was marked down to $55! Yay for Jonathan the bargain shopper!

So last weekend, he cut open the wall and installed the window. I absolutely LOVE having all that light in the dining room now. When he brought the window in the house, I jumped up and down like a little girl and exclaimed, “Light! Look at all that light!” And it definitely lives up to my expectations.

Notice the clever way I’ve camouflaged all that light I’m so excited about by taking a picture of the window at night. What a great sense of timing.

Next up… drywall, mud, and paint on that wall!