O Christmas Tree!

Last weekend we trekked up to Northfield to get a Christmas tree and visit some friends from our college days!  We have been to this same tree farm a couple of times before, so it was fun to go back again.  The night before it snowed an inch or two which made it seem much more Christmas-y.  Charlotte had a great time running through the rows of trees and eating as much snow as she wanted.  :)  We settled on a nice one; not too big and not too small.  Then, Charlotte helped cut it down!

 Our little LumberJill!

 After all that hard work cutting down trees and visiting friends, we went to our favorite sandwich shop from our college days.  Actually, probably our favorite sandwich shop ever!  We finished off our day with a nice big sandwich, a bowl of black bean soup, and an ice cream cone as big as Mercy's head!

 Mercy is working on her "holding" skills.

 It was too late that night to put up the tree, so we didn't put it up and decorate it until the next day.  Charlotte had a great time.

 Even little Mercy "helped!"

We put Mercy in charge of getting rid of the loose needles on the tree.  :)

Life

Just need to get some pictures up!  Here are a few glimpses into life at our house recently!

East Coast Visit

After our time in North Carolina, we flew up to Maryland to spend some time with my (Kristi) family.  I haven't seen them in 3 or 4 years!  Charlotte was just a little baby the last time my grandma got to see her, so it was a visit long past due.  We also had a chance to introduce Mercy to everyone!  My grandma and two sets of aunts and uncles plus several cousins live within about 20 minutes of each other.  It was a short visit, but it was so great to spend time with everyone!

Grandma with Mercy

Mercy loved Grandma!

Little Mercy slept in a laundry basket, but she was almost too long for it--she only had a couple of inches of room to grow!

My aunt and uncle have an "endless pool," which is like a treadmill but a pool!  There is a current that comes out of the part Charlotte is holding on to, so then you can swim in the middle but not actually get anywhere.  It was fun to turn the current up and down and see how much we could swim.  Charlotte LOVED going underwater with a pair of goggles!

Aunt Sharon and Mercy

Three generations.

Grandma and the girls.  We had such a good time!

Family photo shoot

While in Charlotte, North Carolina for the last two weeks we had a new friend take a bunch of pictures of our family.  We haven't been good about getting pictures with all four of us, so we remedied that on this trip.  Charlotte and Mercy were both very good for all of these pictures with no tears from anyone!

Our time in North Carolina was for SIM orientation, and we had a great time.  The weather was beautiful--in the 50s and 60s and sunny most days.  It felt like September in MN; the leaves were still on the trees and the grass was still green!

There were 20 people in the orientation with us, all going to different countries, and we made some good friends who are in very similar life situations as us.  We stayed up way too late most nights just talking to people.  Every day we had classes about a variety of things, everything from computer security to effective storytelling to learning a program for tracking fundraising to personality types and working in a team to how to be safe and many many other topics.  It was really useful stuff and we are still processing all of the information.  Charlotte went to a kids program every day with another 5 year old and three 3 year olds.  They had bible stories, crafts, play time, reading, field trips, walks, and even focused their reading and craft projects on Ethiopia and Kenya, the countries these particular families are moving to.  Charlotte had so much fun!

Belated

I forgot to post these pictures back in early September--oops!  Grandpa Randy came to visit and we took the girls to an apple orchard.

 Who is peeking out of the hay bales?!

 Oh!  It's baby Mercy!

 We rode on a wagon pulled by a tractor out to the apple trees.

 Then we picked our own apples!

 Charlotte and Grandpa had lots of fun picking apples.  It didn't take long to fill up our bags!

 Mercy wanted to help, but she was too sleepy...

Grandpa and his girls.