Good Morning!

If you come to the Marshall house at about 7:30 am this is what you might see.  Since it has been colder, the kids have discovered the air vents.  The first thing Luke does every morning is sit on one.  Notice he has no pj's on and is wrapped in his beloved soft green blankie.  He always takes of his pajamas so he can feel the softness of the blanket.  Before he goes to bed he rolls up his pants and sleeves so he can feel the blanket next to his skin as much as possible.  And his little Maxie dog tags along with him.  He puts this little dog inside his shirt when he sleeps.  When I asked Luke why he always puts Maxie in his shirt when he sleeps he replied, "So he can drink my milk all night long."

Sometimes Luke will sit on a vent and Addison will sit on another vent and they will holler back and forth, "Do you feel warm air coming out of yours?"  "Yeah."  "It feels good." "Yeeeaaaahhh."  Then the furnace shuts off. "Is it still coming out?" "Nope."  "Hmmmm, mine either."

Cubbies Theme Song

Tonight Scott discovered the Cubbies theme song in the back of the Cubbies book.

More top picks

Brooke, Luke, and Addison a couple days old. Can you tell they're related?

 On one of our exploring trips. We like to explore.

 Silly kids.

Brooke always tags along when we explore. She loves nature too!

Jesus Loves Me

I found this video from the beginning of 2011.  I love the sound of singing babies.  I think this must be precious to the Lord. 

Top pics cont.

 A daddy kissing his newborn baby definitely makes one of my top picks from the year.

 And the rest of the family loved to adore all those cute mini person parts.

I still laugh every time I see this picture.  It is one of those where you laugh later but at the time I wasn't laughing.  Daddy plays a little rougher than me...But that's a good thing!

Dentist Dan

I got a call the other day from Dan saying he had an opening to clean some teeth.  He is in training to be a dentist so he needed some kids to practice on.  Addison was very excited get her teeth cleaned.  She has had it done before and was looking forward to the goodie bag with the toothbrush and toothpaste.  This was a first cleaning for Luke, and he wasn't so sure he was ready.  Addison tried to convince him all the way in, but I could tell from the look on his face that he was scared.  Luke loves Dan (he has babysat, he comes out to my mom and dad's when we're out there, and we go to church with Dan) so I thought Luke wouldn't be scared.  Luke wasn't scared of Dan, but he was terrified of the chair.  We tried to convince him that the chair was really fun and it went up and down and back like a bed. But the chair was just too big and scary.  So I held him on my lap and then all went well.  He held very still and did everything Dan told him to do. He loved the straw thing that sucks the water out of your mouth.  I thought that he ended up enjoying getting his teeth cleaned, but when I asked him what his favorite part was he said, "I didn't like any of it." 

Addison on the other hand LOVED it.  As we were walking to the car she said, "I love getting my teeth cleaned can we go back tomorrow and every day?"  Dan did a great job.  If you want to get your teeth cleaned you should go see Dentist Dan.

Top Picks of 2011

 I took this picture the night Bren and Rachelle got engaged.  Definitely one of my favorites from the year. Luke reminds me so much of his uncle John.

 Luke was almost to fall off in this picture.  Luckily Scott brought them down before he fell.  They loved helping Daddy with his workout.

 Bedtime bible time. 

Don't forget to stretch after you work out!

Try not to laugh

I was going through some videos and pictures of this past year because I am starting to put together the annual Marshall Family slideshow.  This is one of my favorite.  I will try to post a few more of my favorite videos and pictures from 2011 in the next few days.

First Snow

We hurried outside today so we could get a chance to play in the first snow of the season.  For awhile there were some pretty big snowflakes.  The kids had fun trying to catch snowflakes in their mouths.

Where did the pond and trees go?

 The other day we went to Jones park to visit one of our favorite places by the pond and trees.  It is very close to our house and we walk there at least once a week, even on cold snowy days.  When we got there, we were in shock.  The water in the pond was gone and a lot of trees were gone. All that was left of a big cedar tree that Addison and Luke played "house" in was a stump.  (see above picture)  They were very sad.

Here they are standing by what used to be a dock, which they pretended was a boat. All of the land behind them was the pond.

  Here are the men that were cutting down the trees.  Luke yelled to them, "You stop cutting down our trees that God created!"  Their chain saws were too loud for them to hear him though.

So they scavaged for treasures that were left behind in the pond.  Addy said, "I'm really sad that the trees and water are gone, but the good thing is now we get to see these neat shells that God created."

 And there's lots of other cool stuff to do in Jones Park.  We found a neat little bridge!

Addy was trying to climb up a little creek bank.  Good thing Luke was there to save her!! It looks like a pretty steep bank in this picture, but her feet could touch. :) Brooke was on my back the entire time riding along so she didn't get in any pictures this time.  

Operation Christmas Child

 Today we put together our Operation Christmas Child boxes.  The kids were thrilled!  They loved going to Walmart and picking out all the goodies. 

 When Luke realized that he would be giving everything to a little boy in another country the smiles turned to frowns.  His selfishness REALLY came out. 

 But Addison was glad to give this gift. She even went looking through the house looking for more things she could put in the box. She came up with a book and a few more pieces of candy.  She didn't want to stop filling the box until it was full to the max.

I have to laugh at this picture because this really does seem to be the difference in their hearts right now.   As you can see Luke is still holding on to one last thing that needs to go in the box.  Prayerfully in the years to come his hard little heart will become soft so that he can experience the great joy that comes with giving.  You can join me in praying for him!

Take 4

We took another family picture today.  We need one for a special project we are working on, and so far we have not been able to get one that will work for this project. 

This picture will not work either though.  So I guess we'll do take 5. The first time we got a good picture of all of us, but the resolution was too low.  Second and third times the kids were cranky.  This time the picture is zoomed in too much for the project we're doing and it cuts parts of us off.  I think this is the first and last time for this photo project.  But we've got a good choice for Christmas cards!

Home Improvement!

I had been wanting a new kitchen faucet for awhile, but was waiting until the old one bit the dust and we had the time and money for the project.  Our old faucet was barely working as the water just dribbled out and the water pressure kept getting less and less.  The past few days I had been using the water sprayer to fill up the sink because the water pressure was so low that by the time there was enough water in the sink to wash dishes the suds were all gone.  So I started saving some money, but I did not realize how much a kitchen faucet costs!  I almost settled for a cheap one, but then I thought, "I use this probably more than anything else in the house, I want something functional that will last."  I knew I wanted something that had one handle for hot and cold water, was tall enough for big pans and had a pull out sprayer.  After narrowing down the faucets that fit this discription, I had a choice between two.  I chose the one that wouldn't show the fingerprints and water spots over the one that had the little built in soap dispenser.  So I took it home to my handy man husband and my eager -to- help kiddos and they got to work.  It was an exciting process and before I knew it.....

I had a beautiful new faucet that had AWESOME water pressure!  My wonderful husband also had to remove part of the window sill because it stuck out too far for the higher faucet.  That was the hardest part for him, but it looks great as well!  I am so excited I almost WANT to do dishes.  I think I'll go start dinner... 

Math nerds

 Today I realized that my kids really like math.  Luke is a hands on kind of guy and he had a blast sorting cubes into groups and counting them.

Addison can't get enough writing right now.  She thinks it is so fun to do math problems.  She prefers "mental math" instead of cubes.  She just pushed the cubes off to the side.  She did enjoy stacking them and counting how many she could get until it toppled over.

And Brooke is getting more teeth!  She has 3 and counting!  The top tooth is just starting to poke through.  She is happy in this picture, but she's actually been pretty fussy.  

Give Me Jesus

Tonight Addy wanted to sing Give Me Jesus.  Luke had some heartfelt expressions.  They even added some dynamics! Precious worship.