I love winter. The sparkling soft snowflakes gently wafting down to the earth. Ahhh.. peace and joy. I miss winter and snow. Here in the northwest we have rain in the winter. Lots of cold blustery days of rain. I do enjoy that rain, but i miss the snow. I'm so excited to move back to the midwest and have real winters. Minnesota, I can't wait to come home!

Elijah's first Birthday Party

Even though it's Elijah's birthday today, we celebrated it yesterday! Here are a couple of pictures and some video of him eating his cake! I actually had gotten some better video then this but Matt's parents only sent me this one.
(Matt's mom is talking in the background)

Ape Caves

Today we went to the Ape Caves (an old lava tube) near Mt. ST.Helens. It was my first time. Honestly, I don't like caves... wet, dark, rocks. I would much rather hike out in the woods. The boys did well and they enjoyed the little bit of exploring that we did. I think next time the caves will just be a daddy and the boys outing. After we went down into the caves we went on a hike to enjoy the snow! I love snow and we don't get it down here often since we live near sea level and so close to the ocean. Here are a couple of pictures from today. The first is of Joshua looking down into the caves before we went down there. I didn't get any more of the caves because i was to busy making sure children weren't falling into holes and smashing their heads into rocks!

a mostly successful family picture! It's hard when you have it on a timer to get a 4 year old, 3 year old and an almost 1 year old to look at the camera... but i think we did well. yay for a Christmas card photo!

This curious little boy will be one in a week! Time flies!



And this little boy is getting SO big!


on a different note...

How would you tell family that lives in the same town as you that you are planning on moving 3000 miles away?

My oh my...

So as some of you may know I've been having heart issues. For the past three weeks solid I've been very tired and my chest has been sore. I've been having issues with numb limbs and also shortness of breath. Yesterday the doctors hooked me up with an event monitor to see what my heart was doing. So an average heart rate is 70. when they hooked me up my heart rate was 90 and has been jumping anyway between the low 80's to around 235 (that's the highest I've seen it on the monitor). After the episodes of the 200's my chest is sore and my arms are numb. I know this sounds terrible but I'm SO excited to FINALLY know what's going on. My heart is going crazy (and mind you it does this random jumping around while I'm sitting and doing nothing). The doctor believes that it is SVT. Here is a link to the explanation to what SVT is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supraventricular_tachycardia
I know some of you read this website.
www.mycharmingkids.net
(sorry i haven't figured out how to do that whole link thing yet!
It is the same thing stellan has. I can't imagine being a baby and having to deal with this. I'm not worries or concerned. I know that my life and heart are in the Lord's hands and i trust that my doctor will choose the best course of treatment for me... if SVT is what i am struggling with. (Which all the symptoms fit and my doctor believes that's what i have.)
So besides crazy heart issues. what's new here? Not to much... still thinking dreaming and working on a move out to Minnesota. I'm super excited to be closer to friends and family, but nervous about the process.
Anyway it's late and i need some sleep! I'll try to get on and post some pictures tomorrow! Night!