Tuesday, December 30, 2008

a broken heart... and a beautiful snow globe




Hello there family and friends and people i don't know,
today (now that i have finally escaped the bedridden-head-in-a-vice feeling of the last two days) i decided to make broken heart cookies for a friend that has... well.. a broken heart. Julia was a great help, especially when it came to the photoshoot, since she loves taking pictures. what kid doesn't? :) okay.. i must interject at this moment because my husband is standing on the rooftop sawing off branches of our tree with a pole saw. eeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And i can overhear his friend saying.... "that one was a little close to the house dave"..... oh dear oh dear.
back to my story: below are the result of my baking spree. cookies that we broke in half and then mended with icing. :)
hope they help mend a broken heart ! :)



Here is my little man, all ready for a photo shoot with Oma and the girls. :)
and Julia's snow globe. a gift from Oma for Christmas. She LOVES it, and took like... 10 pictures of it while she was playing with my camera. ha! :)

well, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!! i will not be blogging until 2009 !!! :)

Friday, December 26, 2008

A TON OF PICTURES : our christmas eve night and christmas day


(these pictures are out of order. again i am too lazy to rearrange them all. so my story will have to suffice.) The Holidays are a pleasant family time of fun and fellowship for us Nauslings. It is funny how Christmas really only feels like a special day when you share it with others. During Christmas Eve and Christmas day we spent about 17 hours together at the Naus Home in wyoming. 17 hours near mama Naus' famous Christmas goodies, PROBABLY equals somewhere between 1-17 extra pounds and possibly cavities to boot.... but it is a GREAT exercise in self discipline/control!! hahaha. Okay, here come the photo-explainations-- Playing games Christmas day : above and below. I love that Julia is old enough to join in adult games, sure she needs guidance as far as strategy goes, but she is willing to accept the advice.

mama naus has beautiful costumes for her class at school, and here we are using them to act out the story of Christmas while it is read from the bible!! :) THIS WAS SO FUN. THANK YOU family for your willingness to do this, i think the kids will really remember and enjoy this tradition!! Julia acted as the 'stage manager' and was very willing to tell us all what roles to play and deliver our costumes to us. (she IS afirst born, and she strongly shows the signs of one... she is a great organizer-incharge-boss-person!!)
Below: Sam (the sheperd) tries to round up his restless flock......
below: the lovely angels pose for a picture and autograph session (kidding) Julia announced that she REALLY wanted to be the angel that proclaims that Jesus has been born, as well as the angel that reveals the news to mary. So she recited her verses from Luke 2 for these roles!! :)
below: heeheehee... he looks like a little king!!! this was just for fun. he was the shepherd for the play and this is one of the wise man costumes!!
Below: mary and joseph!!
Below: the stage manager delivering the props to the actors.... this is one of the gifts of the magi.
Below: joseph and the shepherd singing.
below: WISE MAN. (i'm not allowed to put this on face book says he...)
Mmmmmmm below: breakfast!! fruit salad and juice... and AMAZING omelets by Dave!!! (thanks to the kitchen crew for cutting up all the ingredients too!!) there were 5 DIFFERENT cheeses in the omelets!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa so good!!
below: my little darling with opa
below: opening gifts... sammy enthralled with his little wooden airplanes.
the clan on Christmas morning!
Above: the clan. this is where we spent the whole day pretty much... sitting in here reading, eating, opening, eating, gifting, playing, etc.
Below: Aunti K and Uncle M made beautiful wooden letters for each of the kiddo's.
Below: cute pic.
Below: Christmas eve!! sorry for the out of order-ness!! :)
Below: checking out gifts on CHristmas eve... what are they?? who are they for??
Below: dresses up all pretty for Christmas eve...

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

HAPPY BDAY JESUS!!


yippppppppeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sooooo cuteeeeeee





okay. so this is a vain post. i really can't get enough of those cute cheeks... isn't she a doll? :) hahaha. sorry, i am such an indulgent mama. anyway. my friend Amanda gave me this adorable hair band for Miss Mercy and i just LOVE IT!! so so so sweet. (especially in that head of hair!!)

So... these are indulgent mama-loves-baby photos... mercy mercy mercy.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Christmas open house for julia's dance school





Friday, December 19, 2008

AMAZING SNOW DAY!

This is what we woke up to... and hours later it is STILL CRAZY BLIZZARDY OUT!! :)
Thankfully we have family with a plow!! dad came over to take care of our snow... and it is already replenished! insane snow day!

we let sam sit in the cab for a bit in our driveway.... he was thrilled to be in the truck that has the 'digger' on the front! (that is what he calls it...) :)
help we froze together! hahehehe

Yesterday after we picked Julia up from school we all met up with uncle mark and cooper at the Perch Creek Habitat and walked for a couple hours. it was GORGEOUS! I encourage everyone to get out and experience the beauty of winter and while you do remember that God created it!!! amazing. we just finished john piper's study on how to fight for Joy, similar to many C.S.Lewis writings on the subject - since Piper learned much about joy and suffering from C.S. Lewis' teachings. it was amazing. i encourage any of you that may be suffering from a lack of joy in your situation to read this book and get a strong desire to seek God in his Word and all that He has given us to point to HIM. :) (nature, food, music etc etc) That is what inspired yet another walk in the winter wonderland.... knowing that God has given us these great gifts... trees, snow, birds, ice, creeks, blue sky, clouds, silence, crackling twigs and snapping branching under our feet...... and praising Him by enjoying it!


i think this will become one of my favorite family 'devotion' activities!! :) we read the creation story a couple nights ago... and daily get to experience it!! :)

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Play

Dear Nana,

you may recognize these horses and barns and such - they are from the stamp set you bought for miss J for Christmas! Today we created this play mat and she loves it!! There are riders and trees and lakes and streams and jumps and a barn.... i loved playing with little paper-made things as a kid, and it was super fun to put this little imaginary world together for Julia .

we all like to cuddle. especially during story time. :)

Monday, December 15, 2008

so... i haven't taken many pictures lately.....



...And i just don't make as many blogs when i don't have a beautiful picture to go with it!! but i will try! here are the last two pics i took... one of Sam hiding behind his new toys from Nana and Grandpa and one of Opa cuddling with dear sweet mercy! :)

Life has been very FULL --in a pleasant and busy kind of way-- since the birth of Mercy Johanna. She is a darling little baby. Smiling seems to be mercy's favorite hobby, and talking is a close second. i just adore how the older two love her, it is a precious thing to see.

Sam is a walking machine now, i spent a couple hours at a play place in the mall with some friends, and all he did was walk in circles around the place for the entire time!! he continues to be the family clown, so julia now attempts to copy him for laughs. poor girl, she usually gets told "hunny, it's funny when a baby does that, but you are too old to do it okay? you do different 4 year old funnies." yeah, i sometimes (read: always) get frustrated by her imitating her younger brother....it is supposed to work the other way around - younger imitates older!!!!

Julia is enjoying her Junior Kindergarden class. A LOT. her 'report card' said she was a great helper; willing to help the other kids with jackets etc. when asked. So it is nice to hear that she is sometimes being a blessing to her class as i often pray she will be.

At home she (and the rest of us) LOVE having Dave around. Reality is sure going to hit when he goes back to work. :( if any of you don't know, i am totally a quality time person, and sooooon i will have very little time with my very favorite person (dave). soooo sad. but oh we have had a grand time. :)

i am currently in an information overload: reading "the hurried child" by elkind, "lies women believe" by nancy l. demoss, studying "when i don't desire God" by Piper, "in their own way" by so and so, and "sticky church" by l. osborne...........ahhhhhhhhhhh. I LOVE IT!! My favorites ( meaning the ones that make me think and change and grow) would have to be the Piper and Elkind books, so far they are awesome!

well time to go read.
su