funny video

our daughter is just a little bit of a goofy girl...and likes to be in the spotlight!

Christmas

With so many pictures to choose from over the past week of celebrating Christmas twice, I decided to make a slideshow to show off some of our favorites. If you want, you can click on it to see the slideshow larger as well. Enjoy!

what happened?

We still can't figure out how this happened. One minute she was playing with a dish towel, the next her arm is out of her pajamas. It was the funniest thing. We laughed for quite a while!

15 months old

Sophie had her 15 month check up the other day. She had her final immunizations until kindergarten! For those who are interested, here are her stats... 23.5 pounds (60th percentile) and 32 inches (91st percentile). Tall & skinny just like her dad!

decorating the tree

Sophie was very much into helping us put the ornaments on the tree. It was so cute and fun to watch. And, she's pretty much ignored the tree since, which is great for us! We realized how different it is decorating a tree with having a little one around. All of our breakable/glass ornaments are all on the top half of the tree, but we think it turned out ok still!

O Christmas tree...

We finally went out and got ourselves a Christmas tree. We had the grand idea of continuing our tradition of going to cut one down, but time (and the very cold weather) just didn't allow it. We found one we liked though and now our starting to really feel in the Christmas spirit! Here are a couple of pictures of our adventure.

fun times

just a glimpse of our life with a very goofy one year old!

saying goodbye

Death is hard. Over the past couple of days, we have grieved with Matt and his family. Many, many tears have been shed through the visitation, burial, and memorial service. If only we could help ease their pain... This time has been hard but it has also brought us closer as friends to one another as we lean on each other to grieve our loss of Carleton personally, but also I think we feel closer to Matt. He allowed us to be a part of this extremely difficult time with him. And for me personally, I had the honor of speaking at his father's funeral. Knowing that Matt (and his family) trusted and believed that I could say the right things to honor this incredible man that they lost meant more to me than they will probably ever know. And now as life continues to move on, we will all miss Carleton and we will continue to do whatever we can to be the friends we need to be.

it is a sad day. today we all lost carleton peterson, after a three year fight against cancer. he was an incredible man of God that has influenced and helped so many people, us included. he has an amazing family that is so open and loving, which we have witnessed and hope to grow in our own family. we have had the privilege of knowing him for many years, and have had his incredible guidance during our annual friends retreat. it's just not possible to explain all the ways he and his family have impacted our lives here, so we'll just leave it as he will be incredibly missed and remembered by a lot of people. peace.
mike

friends retreat

this past weekend almost 30 of us headed up to Covenant Pines for our annual friends retreat. It's a great time to get away from our busy lives and reconnect with those who are closest to us. Each year brings a slightly different group of people which makes each retreat unique. It was also a different experience having an active 1 year old to take care of but there were plenty of people willing to play with Sophie, read her books, and just make her laugh. It was fun to see that our little girl is loved by so many. Sophie was great this weekend. Even being surrounded by people constantly and being in new surroundings, she hardly stopped smiling the entire weekend. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

she was really scared of the drum at first but she quickly learned it was pretty fun to play!


guitar lessons from uncle matt


we got about 10 inches of snow while we were up there...Sophie's a little scared of it but she did great walking in it!


had to have a picture to show how deep it was!


yep, that's our cute little marshmallow!


bedtime story with uncle matt & sarah


helping clean up before we left...she of course was incredibly helpful (:

While this was a fun weekend, it also had a sadness surrounding it. For the past 3 years our friend's dad has joined us to help facilitate our weekend. He asked us hard questions, he cared for us, and genuinely wanted to know how we were doing. Unfortunately he was unable to make it this weekend as his health is failing. And while we were all saddened by the knowledge that he will probably not be with us much longer, it was also amazing to hear how much he has influenced us all. We also missed our friends Matt, Chad & Heather and their daughter as they stayed home to be with their family during this time. Please keep this incredible family in your prayers.