wrapping up 2007

now i know why there are less pictures of the second child compared to the first. it's because with two kids, each parent is wrangling one so there is no one to take the pictures. i think that in 2008 you will see more self-portraits of us. :)

we headed out to first night again to ring in the new year with the kids. lucas has been sick these last few days, so he was not up to his usual run-amok self tonight. i think he had the most fun when ginny brought him a balloon sword and he and carter ran around wielding their new weapons in the air. emma was her sweet little self tonight. she even let me get her face painted with a pink heart to mark the festivities of the evening. i didn't get a picture of her and her painted face, but here are some of her doing a cake walk with allan. the other picture is of lucas and carter enjoying their prize at the end of the walk. they displayed some cool fireworks as an end to the evening (at 7 o'clock for the kids!). 2007 was an altogether great year for us. we'll wait to see what God has in store for us in 2008! happy new year!

our incredible little blessings

the most wonderful day of the year!

it's Jesus' birthday!!!

cable bridge run

we took the kids to the annual cable bridge run and they were so cute in their little bike trailer. i didn't get a photo, but emma had her head leaning on lucas' shoulder as soon as we placed them into the bike trailer together. so cute! allan pushed them while he ran the 5k with brady. i walked the 5k with my friend's mom; she pushed carter in his stroller. we had a great time. (i skipped the hot dr. pepper this year.)

getting closer!

we are excited for christmas to arrive. we had an early celebration with the wangs because they won't be here for christmas this year. we enjoyed some scrumptious chinese food prepared by my aunt and had fun exchanging gifts with one another. lucas had so much fun with his cousins that he didn't want to leave and invited himself to spend the night! the three kids slept on the floor together and had a blast (so i heard). the countdown to christmas is less than a week! here are some pictures of lucas and emma so far from this past month...

expectancy and preparation

we started a new tradition of celebrating the season of advent (the season of expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of Christ) with lucas and emma this year. so, as part of our celebration, we light our advent wreath and read Scripture, tell the story of Jesus' birth through an advent nativity calendar, and we also give small treats to the kids on each day of advent. lucas is loving all of it and emma is, well, unaware of all of it.

all aboard!

  we drove over to hood river last night to take a ride on the polar express train. we had a great time. lucas, emma, and carter all wore their jammies and robes onto the train and enjoyed some cookies and hot chocolate while riding to the north pole. once we got there, santa claus came onto the train to greet us and give each of the kids their own sleigh bell (like in the story). when santa sat lucas on his lap and asked him what he wanted for christmas, lucas replied, "a dog." i don't know where he got that, but he's definitely NOT getting one of those for christmas.

snow much fun

we woke up this morning to find that it had snowed again last night! we couldn't resist ourselves so i bundled up lucas and emma and we headed out into our yard for some fun in the cold.
. . .

it's snowing!

it's snowing here!!! it started around 8 o'clock tonight and we got a pretty nice layer of soft snow. this is exciting. maybe we'll have a white christmas this year! by the way, do you notice our christmas lights? allan put them up the day after thanksgiving!

(emma was sleeping so she missed out on the self-family portrait)

collage-o-pictures