Laura Claire

Here she is!! Beautiful, content, bright eyed looking all around, even some little smiley expressions. Anna loves her so much. Here's a shot with the happy parents. Click to enlarge the family picture and see Laura's expression. See? Smiley.

A little blurry - me trying not to use a flash in little Laura's eyes.

Pretty hair too.

Praise God for this new life. What a wonderful family she was born into - and I told her so. God bless you Steve, Carolyn, Anna and baby Laura!

Boxing Day

Boxing Day morning Andy, Cara and Sarah came over to our place. Sarah and Andy had kindly brought a present for Gracie. They gave it to her and when Steven said it was OK she began opening it up. Very cute. I imagine it smelled great to her. Gracie was thrilled. In fact, her bone was so new and delicious that she got possessive of it. NOT good. See her snarl and Steven's hand? She got hauled out to the kitchen where he could pin her and have a stare down (Dog Whisperer style). When she came back, she sat on Steve's lap for a bit and then showed us all her very polite self as she did the down and waited to have her bone again. Sarah got a bit of a demo about the difference between raising children and training a dog. Children don't get pinned.

After seeing the movie "Marley and Me" I would say that Gracie is definitely better trained. But the movie is pretty good. We went with Steve, Courtney, Elmer and Ricka. Three of us cried, and not all three were girls - but I was one of them.

My mom was super happy to be over for Christmas in our home. Last year she was in the hospital with pneumonia so this was a fabulous contrast. We ate a turkey dinner - one of the turkey's that Andy raised. My favorite side dish was smashed sweet potatoes (with egg and brown sugar in them) with a marshmallow, sugared walnut topping. The crunch of the walnuts was fabulous. I hardly put any sugar in the sweet potatoes, contrary to the recipe, because they are already sweet.

Sarah was my special helper. She put the olives in the serving dish. She placed the tiny manger scene on Jesus' birthday cake and she put the cutlery on the table for dinner. She giggled with delight when she saw that her place had a snow man plate and knife (a little cheese knife). While I had a nap, Cara and Sarah had a walk and a play at the playground in the snow and came home super smiley.

I got the crokinole game out and Sarah and I practiced before the guests game. After dinner, songs and presents, There was a tournament between Grandpa LK and her and Steve and Courtney. That was pretty much a hit. Did anyone else grow up playing crocinole? I never heard of it 'til I met LK. Check out Steve's grimace as he declares that shooting the pieces hurt the fingernails.

While we ate and played, Carolyn began her labor in the hospital and this morning we got a call about our new relative. They had another little girl - Laura Claire. 8lbs 11 oz. Born at 5:30 in the morning. We're letting them try to sleep today and we will be eager to meet her very soon. Little Laura, welcome to the family!!

Going Home

Merry Christmas everybody!

Tonight I just want to post some pictures of Aimee and Lance, plus kids, trying to make it home to Alberta for Christmas. Leaving the balmy Fraser Valley behind and heading into the prairie winter. :)

Aimee giving a hopeful wave to the Odegards - hope to see you soon she shouts.

Lance working his way out of the driveway. Middle bottom, our road. Check out the YXX airport! Kids watch to see where the bags go. Elijah spots a bird on the taxi sign. Family action in line. Merry Christmas Odegards. We like sharing with you.

Afternoon shots. So beautiful. I haven't seen this much snow in years and it's not raining yet!

Blessings and peace.

Hands

Elijah (Aimee's photo)

Eva

Grandpa and Grandson

Carolyn and Anna

Hands aren't they beautiful and don't they have stories to tell - whatever the age.

When the Pizza is Gone....

Tonight I was at the bookstore after closing. It's fun to walk around and take in all the changes. the new kitchen is so beautiful and well equipped. The staff are well on their way to having in clean and using it. For awhile we will be eating in the old carpeted Bible department while the new dining area is being done. Hopefully that won't take long. There was a crew working tonight moving the music department upstairs. It's smaller but the atmosphere is warmer. The old music department - all empty looks so strange for now. It will be getting a paint job and carpet and then most of the books will move in.

I did some Christmas shopping and had a juice and a rice crispy square with chocolate and sprinkles on it. Pretty sure that was not too low fat - ha. It was kind of messy and I kept saying "I am a pig - for a limited time only!" Such a happy pig too - all that gooey chocolate. I feel better when I eat chocolate.

The following is a little story from the time we moved the first two departments into their new digs. That's where the pizza line comes from....

So, the night that the children's department and Bible department were being moved at the bookshop, Aimee and I decided to go check things out. We timed our visit perfectly with the expected pizza delivery. Even early. We came to see and to eat.

There was lots to see. A beehive of activity as lines of helpers hauled piles of books from old places to new. Yes, lots of stuff to see - but no pizza. It had arrived and been devoured early. Funny that we should hope for free pizza when we had not helped with the work :)

After a good look around, we headed to Wendy's. It was foggy. I thought it was kind of cool the way the camera interpreted the fog - little balls of cloud.

At Wendy's you can do straw tricks. Maybe pretend you are a walrus.

You can poke french fries in your eyes - although I wouldn't recommend this.

Or maybe have some pop. Baby Anders' first taste. Ya - you believe me?

It's all good.

I'm finished my sewing. Now I hope my clients come out for a final fitting. I want to play.

Our Family Advent Party

With joy I look back at these photos taken Nov. 15th at our family Advent party. My daughter, Cara, had the foresight to realize that this date the whole family would be in town and maybe we should have a Christmas kind of gathering. It was almost Advent and so I planned this party. It was an activity/craft party, with pizza for supper.

Sarah, who was staying with me during part of her parents' anniversary get away, was my chief assistant. Here she is prying the seals off the new paint jars. She was such an enthusiastic and cheerful helper. Thanks Sarah.

First activity was raking! This was not planned but when everyone arrived it was plain that we had been too busy to get to it. What a lovely sight to see my whole family hanging out in the yard. From empty nest to full yard - I love it. I think it was Eva who remembered there was a dragon in the garage - Steven's dragon. So then we had raking and dragon rides going on.

Go Elijah!!

Our first craft followed naturally from the raking - pine cone bird feeders. Cara and Sarah brought the pine cones from Princeton. After placing a wire on each cone, and winding it up so it was poke proof, we spread the cones with peanut butter and rolled them in mixed bird seed. Wonderfully messy. Lance hung one in the tree and Steve S. (Uncle Schulz) tried to eat it - silly guy. The next day I had chickadees and squirrels snacking on it. Anna gave me a phone call a couple days later to say that she had about 15 birds at hers.

Carolyn, Anna and Sarah doing the peanut butter.

When we came inside, Lance told everyone an Advent story. The kids got front row seats. Each child was invited to take a couple figures out of the nativity scene and hold them. Lance asked the kids if they knew what it was like to be in the dark. "YES." Well, before Jesus came - people waited for Jesus - they waited in the darkness.

Each child placed a couple figures in the dark manger scene. In the end, after baby Jesus was placed - a light lit up the manger scene. Then Aimee had a game. She would hide baby Jesus in the house and a flashlight also. Then the kids would hunt though the house and when they found him they would shout out "We have found the light". The kids were all into it. Baby Jesus was found behind our bed. There was general chaos when he was discovered - the flashlight was claimed by Elijah and Jesus was left behind - but retrieved quickly. It was perfect.

Yes, that's my MOM in my house. She agreed to let the young guys carry her up in her wheelchair. She'll be back for Christmas!! She hadn't been upstairs for two years and we were all very excited about that.

At the coffee table we moved on to making star ornaments. Two triangles overlapped to form a star of David. A picture and or decorations we glued on top. Lots of fun, everyone coloring at once. When they were finished I laminated them and cut them out. The next morning I made one for myself, along with using up left over pine cone and bird food supplies :) - Hey I like to craft too!

Lance concentrating and Eva is feeling hot. Must have been all that raking, running around and dragon riding. Anna works her artistry.

Anders didn't participate in the crafts - but he really liked hanging out. Here LK and Anders have some male bonding time.

Now I missed some shots of the next activity but you can see it involved paint and that the little girl who was feeling hot really liked the pink paint. I call this shot "pink belly and me".
Sarah will show us what this is all about. I think it's a supremely wonderful idea. Each cousin brought a 4 x 6 photo of themselves - three actually as there are three families with cousins. We painted this night, and later would decorate them. Each child decorating the frames that would house their picture.

Here is Sarah decorating one of her frames the next morning.

Three frames drying by the warm fireplace.

Sarah's three frames finished. The end result will be six frames linked with hooks and eyes. One set of cousin frames to hang in each of the three homes where the cousins live. The cousins will have created and given their cousins the frame and picture of themselves as a Christmas gift. I have the frames at my house in various states of completeness. Must have Anna over to decorate soon.

Cara's 30th birthday was also celebrated that night. Lemon poppy seed cake. Yumm. Cara had asked me if I was going to have Jesus' birthday cake this night and I thought not because, one it was Advent not Christmas. Two, it was her birthday. Now, though, I think it would have been great to have Jesus' cake also - while all the children were together. Instead, we will have it boxing day at our family gathering. Some cousins will be missing. One may be arriving - little Anna is expecting a new sibling right at Christmas time.

Cara has helpers blowing out the candles.

The blessing of family.

Honorable Mentions and a Tag Game

It's snowing and I love it. Embarrassingly, I just got the van in today for snow tires. I'm sure I'm the kind of customer they expect...but I meant to come in weeks earlier. Last week I ended up driving a few stretches of sheet ice on the way home from Vancouver and was NOT impressed.

We put our tree up last night. It's very simple this year with very few glass ornaments in honor of the children - so they may touch.

I've been sewing. For Eva a darling white, very full skirted, empire waist flower girl dress, with an over skirt of sheer white with flocked polka dots. For Elijah - a ring bearer pillow to carry. For Aimee - an artistic remake of a black dress to wear as Matron of Honor. We are lengthening it with some very cool net with black polka dots and an underskirt of tulle. Very cool results. It will be much more fun to wait to have the girls in their outfits to photograph them, so no pictures at this time. OH - this all for Lance's sister, Jane's wedding. She's marrying a wonderful man named Daniel. Or Dan-yo as the twins call him.

The addition on the bookstore is going well. We have moved into the children's department and the Bible/reference department. The upstairs, for music, used books and study materials, is ready to be moved into. The new kitchen for the coffee shop is almost done and it's BEAUTIFUL. My job has been decor and I have really been enjoying my big art project. Now we live with the old and shabby meeting the new and fresh for a bit until we can get to new paint and flooring for the old part. It's OK. Our builders and tradespeople have been fantastic.

Heidi, of nothingbutbluesky.blogspot.com, passed an award on to me! Heidi, thank you and I was so surprised!

About the award:Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:
~ inspire you
~ make you smile and laugh
~ give amazing information
~ are a great read
~ have an amazing design
~ and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!


The rules of this award are:
* Put the logo on your blog or post.
* Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
* Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
* Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.


Blogs I really enjoy reading include Heidi - who gave me the award.

~CF Husband at http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ Nate writes this blog. He's a worship pastor and his wife Tricia has had a lung transplant due to cystic fibrosis. They also have a premature daughter who is doing very well at 10 months. Nate is a good writer and a great photographer.

~Study in Brown at http://intent.squarespace.com/brush-strokes/ Very insightful writing.
~Platinum Blonde at http://www.platinumblonde.blogspot.com/. She doesn't write as often as she used to, but still I rate this blog high on great writing and fresh ways of seeing

~What Matter's Most at http://lovella-at-home.blogspot.com/ - for faithfulness, creativity, variety and inspiration - fostering community should be in there too.

~Lastly, Jill's World of Research, Reaction and Millinery at http://jillthinksdifferent.blogspot.com/ - for being such a fun blog, tour guide and again for eyes that really see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then this fun tag style game from Anneliese at http://foreverythingaseason.blogspot.com/ -
a picture game.

1. Open the 4th picture folder on your computer
2. Open the 4th picture and post it on your blog.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

Well, look who popped up. It's Eva at her new home out Vancouver way, in July. I don't even think the boxes are unpacked. She's in front of her living room window. Earlier she had told us "Welcome to my home" and when we came in, Lando and I, we received a tour including the always important kids bedrooms. In this picture, Eva is talking about something. Which somehow reminds me of something I read about children's talking. And I will leave you with this -

If you want your children to talk to you about the big things when they are older. Listen to what they are saying today. It's all big.

Isn't that just the greatest!? So true.

Baby Anders

And for your viewing pleasure - Baby Anders. Four of my favorite new pics. Lean real close, you might be able to smell him. He's so sweet and has the softest hair ever.

Lost Jesus

As you know, we are in the pre-Advent season at our home. This means the manger scenes are out and little children are acting the story of Jesus' birth out over and over. Beautiful. When our whole family was out, Sarah's angel from her new magnetic manger scene went missing. So many little hands around, where could it be. She had to go home and called me the next day to see if I had found the angel. Where is the first place to look - the trash - because that goes out never to be seen again. Well, you never know what with little girls always wrapping up tiny dolls in "blankets". Not there. I found her a couple of days later stuck fast to a vintage metal dolly highchair behind Jane the cabbage patch girl. Hurray Sarah, it will be arriving by mail.

Fast forward to a recent Odegard visit. I have new figures in my manger scene. The old ones were still in a box and all were being played with. Parents did a quick pick up of toys (thank you) and everyone headed back home. Later I went arrange the new people as I like them and, whoa, disconcerting, the whole cast is there but no baby Jesus. Honestly it was a little creepy. I know my Catholic friends would have an empty manger waiting for the baby that would arrive on Christmas day, but there was not even a bed.

The search began. Under couches, in toy bins, in - you know where - the trash, every cupboard and drawer.



Finally I realized I was missing TWO Jesuses (how do you spell that?), their mother Mary and an angel. It made me feel better. They were lost as a group. Quite some time later I realized there was one end table door I had not opened. Ah ha!

Two Jesuses, Mary and an angel. Not to be alarmed - accompanying them was one wise man and they had some french fries along for sustenance. Smile. What do you think - they were camping?

Have a great day.

Courtney Amazes LK

Early Friday evening I heard our "neighbors", Steve and Courtney with Gracie in the downstairs hallway. Gracie has her sleeping crate in the shared laundry room. I whistled and Gracie came running upstairs. We invited the kids to come up and say hi for a couple minutes. First Courtney brought her cup of ice cream she had just served herself. Then she ran down and came back up with a Christmas Rice Krispie bar for LK and I. The were colored, you know, some regular along with some red and green. LK questioned Courtney, "How did you get them colored?!" He had NO IDEA. Had she painstakingly colored some green and red and later mixed them in?

Courtney revels her secret. Near Christmas time special boxes of Rice Krispies come already colored. No Way?! She brought the box up to show him. Yes indeed!

Imagine being treated, impressed, amazed and informed all within a matter of minutes. That and laughter too.

So now everyone knows, in case you didn't before. Courtney's snicker doodle cookies are really yummy too. Thanks for the pre-supper treats and entertainment Courtney.

Hope you are all well. I've caught a cold from Eva, Elijah and Anders. They're just too cute and too affectionate to keep a proper distance from. It was worth it.

Advent is coming up and we already had an Advent party at our house which I well tell you about in the days to come. It was our first every and I just loved it.

Even Grandmas

Tomorrow is both Cara's birthday and Andy and Cara's anniversary. Today marks the expected due date of their baby girl. Little Karina Joy, though, has been already in heaven for five months. I've held this poem in my heart these months and today I post it in her memory. I love you and I miss you. Even grandma's arms can feel empty.

Poem for Karina Joy

Little fingers, little toes
Slender limbs, button nose
Tiny mouth that never cried
Sang, or hollered, or asked “why?”

Wish you could have stayed awhile
To grow, and love, and share your smile
Knit by Him, and heaven sent
Straight to Jesus’ arms you went

Hello, goodbye our little dear
Joy and sadness live so near
One brief day in May you came
Sent off with whispers in Jesus’ name

You brought us joy and happy hearts
And you were loved right from the start
We miss you now, of course we do
But heaven, see, is our home too

With love and kisses, see you soon.
Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Lando

More Baking

Mama mentioned trying to get a little more protein into Elijah's diet. So, we got into baking energy bars. Oat, walnut, peanut butter dough with all fruit jam between the layers. Mama and Anders went out while we baked with Grandma Kathy. See me, Eva, with my small container? Cherry pie - that's what I'm making too.

It's a big job. All Grandma Kathy did is chop nuts. We did all the dumping, mixing and tasting. But not raw eggs - we're learning about that. Don't eat the raw eggs - cook 'em first. Just in case you know?

Elijah has new sunglasses. He kind of likes them upside down sometimes. We tried really hard to keep the ingredients in the bowls, or at least on the table, where Grandma Kathy could scrape them back into a bowl. Even she spilled once. Grownups don't get it all right.

Grandma Kathy needed a strong boy to mix the peanut butter and brown sugar. I was not happy to have to give that yummy business up for the sake of the recipe.

The energy cookie bars were great. We had them after our nap - well, we didn't really nap - we had them after we got out of our rooms. More on that later.

Oh ummm...Grandma Kathy did clean the kitchen up while we watched Thomas the Tank Engine and the cookie bars baked in the oven.

Can you see me (Elijah) in the chair watching Thomas? I like Thomas.