Our Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations began with the Lindgren Christmas on the 22nd. We celebrated at Grandpa & Grandma Barb's with the whole clan, including Great-Grandma Rose which was a special treat! It was a good time for all of us. Here are all of the Lindgren cousins (for the moment): Micah, Anna, Alayna, Grace, Ella & Bryce. Note to self for next year - take pictures that include children at the beginning of the day instead of at the end and 2 hours past their bedtime! ;) Christmas morning at our home - bubbling over with excitement!

"Look! Santa came! Look at our stockings!"
They couldn't wait to see what Santa had put in their stockings.
We had all of Christmas morning to celebrate our own family Christmas. After the kids opened their stockings and ate breakfast, we read the Christmas story and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus - and that was so much fun that we did it again! :) It's fun to see the kids get more involved and excited about everything as they get older. Then we opened our family gifts and enjoyed our time together. Here's Grace trying out a new book for her Leap Pad...

Later on in the day our Christmas company arrived. Grandpa, Grandma, Josh, Caleb, Kate, Jessica, Joe & David all came to our home to celebrate Christmas here with us. What a time we all had! The kids could hardly stand all the excitement that happened that day. We enjoyed Christmas dinner, read the Christmas story and opened our last box in the What God Wants for Christmas series before we started in on the gift opening. It was so much fun it was sad to see the day come to an end - can't wait for next year! We are so blessed and have so much to celebrate. I don't think that we ever fully realize what an amazing miracle Christmas is. The God of the universe came to Earth as a humble helpless baby to live among us and ultimately to die for us - all so that we would have to opportunity to know Him and have eternal life - there's no greater gift...

Micah looking at the Nativity created with the What God Wants for Christmas set.

Anna and Aunt Kate reading one of our new books together.

Grandpa, Grandma, Kate, Jessica, Joe & David stayed with us through Friday so we had lots of time to play and have fun. The kids loved playing in the snow with Grandma, Joe and David!

"Look Mom - it's snowing!"

Snow bunny!

2007 Christmas Program

Last night we had this year's Sunday School Christmas Program at church. It is always a fun and touching evening. The kids all did an awesome job and it's fun to see them grow and get better each year. Here's Grace's class... she's the one in the wine colored dress in the middle of the front row. Grace's class sang Jesus Loves Me (in English and in Spanish) and Ho-Ho-Hosana. Micah's class did Jesus Loves Me and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, although Micah was more interested in exploring the stage area than he was in singing! (He's the one in the red sweater at the bottom of the steps!)
Anna enjoyed her last year as a spectator from the comfort of Grandma Barb's lap

... and then later sampled the cookie table with Grandpa Steve!

Micah's self-photo ;)

Tea Party

For Grace's 6th Birthday we had a Tea Party with her little girlfriends from school. It was a lot of fancy and pink fun and the girls really had a good time dressing up and having a fancy tea party! Mommy made a teapot cake for the occassion and we dressed the table up with pretty tablecloths, mommy's luncheon set, rose petals, sparkly sequins, candles and everything girly! What a fun day! The party princesses!
Micah didn't want to be left out ... oh well, he's only 3!

The 1st Snow is the Most fun!

We got several inches of snow a few weeks ago and the kids had so much fun playing in the brand-new white fluff! Daddy-powered sled rides, snow tunnels, snow angels, and making "paw prints" are things you can only do in the snow - and so much the better if it's the first snow of the season! The only bad part comes when you have to go back inside! ;)

Santa Baby!

Can't really see her, but that's Anna under the big red hat!

Making Cookies at Aunt Kathy's

Thanksgiving weekend Grace and I made cookies at my Aunt Kathy's house with my two sisters, Kate & Jessica, aunts Kathy and Susan, and a friend of Kate's (Sam). It was a fun and messy afternoon of baking and uncles Jim and Don did a good job of "supervising" the excess of estrogen and sugar that was going on in the kitchen! ;) Grace had an especially fun time! Serving quality control samples to the uncles :)
Mmmm!

It was a fun and goofy time!

A look back to yesterday...

I took these pictures of Anna in the dress that I wore at my parents wedding when I was the same age. I had done the same with Grace a few years ago too but, Anna resembles me much more. Hard to imagine that I was once that small. Looking at Anna sometimes is like looking into a mirror and seeing the years just fade away.

Indian Summer fun

We had some fun while enjoying one of the last few nice and warm days of the year. "A rainbow of colors and cotton candy skies

seeing the world through a child's eyes..."
Our girls

Our handsome blue-eyed boy, a future heartbreaker!

watching the clouds roll by...

Micah's 3rd Birthday

Micah turned three on September 24th. Wow! It's gone so fast! My baby boy is getting to be such a little man (sniff!). He's grown a lot this past year, in every way. He loves to be outside, he enjoys spending time at home, he loves his sisters, and he has really been into "Larry Boy" (from VeggieTales fame) and anything from the "Cars" movie. In fact, he had a "Cars" themed party this year. He loves to help Mom & Dad around the house and he's such a sweet, cheerful, and fun-loving bundle of energy. He's definately all boy - and we love him!With one of his new gifts - a "Larry Boy"!

Our trip to Colorado...

Late September Grace and I went to Colorado for a few days for my cousin Jerry's wedding. I was a fast and rather exhausting trip, but totally worth it! It was especially exciting for Grace as she was the flower girl in the wedding and it was her first time on an airplane! She had been looking forward to the wedding for months and, had great fun dressing up like a "princess." She was too cute! Unfortunately, Daddy, Micah, and Anna weren't able to make the trip, but we had a great time "just us girls!" It was so nice to be able to visit with family and friends that we don't get to see very often and, the wedding was beautiful too! How fun to be able to share our travel with Grandma and Jessica.

Ariana, our hairdresser for the big day. She did a great job!
Grace, making her appearance to her awaiting subjects! ;)

Jerry, Holly, Grace & baby Scott

a crown of flowers...

Mommy & Grace

Grace's first day of School!

September 6, 2007 was Grace's first day of school! She is attending Community Christian School in Willmar and loving it. She has been looking forward to Kindergarten with much anticipation for at least a year now. Mom on the other hand, has had mixed feelings about this milestone. Excited on the one hand, but hard to let go with the other. Ryan and I are both so happy that she is able to attend CCS, but still, it is hard to watch her go off to a world that doesn't include me, even if it's only for a few hours a day. Just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital and tomorrow she will graduate from high school. Don't blink - you might miss it. For now, we will just savor the moments, macaroni art and all! :)
Home again!

Fun at the park

We found a great new park that they just put in on Green Lake in Spicer. The kids had a great time and can't wait to back there again, neither can we!

The Princess in her castle

Micah loved the tire swing

Sittin' pretty in the petunias...

What a beautiful day!