i love winter.

my dad says it's the scandinavian in me (I really hate to be hot) but I really do love it. the cold, the snow, really everything but the excessive darkness. i told ben if he ever moves me overseas it better be some place like norway, and not mozambique. and maybe it's days like today...sunny and snowy--like a good iowa winter (not the usual gray michigan). but I mean...how can you not like waking up to this?

1973

That's the year this bad boy first made it's appearance.

That's right--38 years and still going strong. 

The proud owner? My dad. 

He can still tell you exactly how much he paid for this down number, too.

Not sure if the main reason he wears it is because he paid a lot for it as a poor college student, he's proud it's held up so well, he just likes it that much, or to drive us all nuts (there were several of my teenage years that I know the main reason was #4)--in the end, probably just a combo of all the above. But the fact is, this IS what you will see him in when shoveling his sidewalk or hunting for a Christmas tree.

Cheers to many more years of wear? Eh, why not...

TJC

finally, some pictures of the newest little man...

hodgepodge

a grandma's visit. a birthday (two cakes and a date night!). first fireplace fire. a bad hair day. and some other stuff...

a side by side of the brothers. think they're related?

and my little candle blower is back. remember when he wouldn't blow them out for his own birthday?

two weeks in.

well. we're all alive--is there a prize for that?
we're actually all doing well--and enjoying our newest family member. I mean, we're stumbling around in a sleepless haze, some due to feeding and diapering through the night and just plain requiring a lot of sleep (rachel) some because we got up at 3am and couldn't sleep so wrote a critical curriculum evaluation, or something...(ben), and, well, some of us continue to thrive with boundless energy (jonah) and the rest of us better keep up, or else...

tomorrow the hubs and I get a two hour date (or maybe two and a half...but not a minute longer--or grandma may have her hands full with a hungry little munchkin). ben's mom is coming to watch our kids (yes, plural, I know. I'm still adjusting, too.) and we get to go out and celebrate the birth of yours truly--at Troppo. my favorite.

I've taken pictures, and they're coming, but things like showers have taken precedence. soooo. here's one to tide you over.

first days

our newest blessing

Thatcher James

9lbs 11oz

22in

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly

 lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17