Merry Christmas 2011!

Merry Christmas, friends and family! Another year has gone by and another season of celebration has arrived. As a family, we are determined to focus our celebration on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, above all else. The Christmas decorations, packages around our tree, and time we spend with loved ones are a grand celebration of His love and sacrifice for us. Jesus’ birth brought our salvation into human form to save us once and for all – what an incredible God we serve!

This time of year also seems to usher in the desire to review how the year has gone and how the Lord has blessed us.

In January, Madelyn started piano lessons, lost her first tooth and we enjoyed our first homemade snow fort (with the hip deep snowfall we got).

In February, we made birthday bags for the local food shelf for Valentines Day and saw Greyson’s preschool program where he sang and danced with a big voice and smile.

In March, Greyson got his second round of stitches in his forehead after a fall while Melissa turned 35 and accompanied Liz with her bridal entourage to New Orleans (what a Blast!).

In April, we started our seeds for the summer garden, watched tulips peek up at us through the snow, Madelyn lost her second tooth while Greyson got his third set of stitches in his chin, Ben went from shoulder length hair to a crew cut (and donated it to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths), and we roadtripped to Oklahoma for Easter where we met our newest niece/cousin, Kate Elizabeth Pruitt.

In May, it was finally warming up outside, Madelyn finished 1st grade, and we went to Milwaukee to help prepare for my sister’s wedding.

In June, we started out right away with the beautiful wedding of my sister, Liz, and her new husband, Nick Schanz, followed by our annual trip south to Petit Jean where Greyson hiked to Cedar Falls for the first time. It was also a great month of gardens, tea parties, snorkeling in sprinklers, popsicles. We ended the month in Tampa with the Cobb Clan at a second reception for Liz and Nick where Madelyn fell in love with horses.

In July, we camped in the backyard, declared “God is Good!”, and Greyson shed his training wheels and started soccer lessons.

In August, we spent lots of time with Jean and Mickey while they spent the month at a nearby RV park, went to the Minnesota State Fair, Ben turned 35, and Madelyn turned 7.

In September, Madelyn started 2nd grade while Greyson started his last year of preschool, we planted an apple tree in our yard in honor of Greyson, Madelyn had her first horseback lesson, and we went to our first Minnesota Twins game.

In October, Greyson had a LEGO birthday party and for Halloween, Madelyn dressed as Lilo (from Lilo and Stitch) and Greyson dressed as Batman (again!).

In November, it was unusually warm this year and the leaves were beautiful. Liz and Nick came over for a weekend where the kids went bowling for the first time, and Ben and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary eating Japanese hibachi (yum!).

In December, Madelyn attended our annual outing to the Festival of Christmas with us (a annual choir and orchestra progam at a nearby college) and was mesmerized, we got some sledding in after the first snow and before it melted for a our BROWN Christmas, and are looking forward to the time with Melissa’s family for Christmas.

And just some notes about the kids that I don’t want to forget:  Greyson is still Calvin to his Hobbes, Blue Bear. He loves playing with Madelyn until inevitably she starts bossing him, but hates to be alone. He LOVES rock and roll.  Madelyn astounds us with her reading and writing. She definitely has a unique style that keeps us smiling and sighing. She LOVES classical and jazz music.

Now, if you have gotten through all of this, then you must love us! Thank you! And may God touch your heart and life in the coming year!

Halloween 2011's Best Pics

The birthday balloons didn't make it before sunrise this birthday, so they greeted the birthday boy as he came out of preschool.  It was a excited moment that was very sweet.

Another sweet moment when Greyson and I attended Madelyn's 2nd grade Halloween party and one of the boys was dressed as Robin.  He and Greyson got a kick out of being a matched pair.

Madelyn dressed as Lilo in coarse, long, black hair and two classmates.

Now with more classmates... all really nice girls - we are very blessed.

Nick, the clown.  I love him and his clownish ways.

Greyson chose a breakfast dinner for his birthday with "Dad's eggs". He only eats eggs cooked by Dad. I guess Dad is good for something in the kitchen. :P

Greyson showing me how old he is now.  This morning at breakfast he wanted to make sure that he was actually 5 *today*, unlike Saturday when we just pretended he was 5.  (And a post about the birthday "celebration" should be forthcoming too.)

This pillow pet T-Rex has been something Greyson has wanted for a LONG time.  Ben and I think it is really ugly but he was adamant that he wanted none other!  So, Aunt Steph and family got this for Grey's birthday.  It is loved greatly and has already bonded with Blue Bear too (although unpictured).  We do wonder slightly if this is Greyson's subconscious, yet chosen, replacement for his sweet lovey.  We'll see.

Here is the pillow function of said pillow pet.  You can also see the Hot Wheel tracks that are already spread out and will be at every opportunity from here on out.

POW! BANG! KA-BLAM!

Our light skinned, dark haired Hawaiian... who needs hula dancing lessons. She tried, but those hips don't know how to swivel yet. :)

As we start our trick-or-treat adventure.  The kids had buckets so full and heavy by the end that they asked to go home!

Wow, what a day!  Thank you, God, for little growing boys and the silly fun and community that comes with Halloween.  Blessings abound.

Bring on the tricks, we've got the treats

Halloween, we're ready! Our jack-o-lanterns line the walk, the candy in the bowl, and a boy who's ready to turn 5! Bring it on!

Traumatic with a great ending

I know what you are thinking.  How can I call a picture of such a beautiful girl traumatic?  Well, traumatic is the story of how we got here.  Today, Madelyn is off from school (along with the rest of Minnesota) and I decided to trim and layer her hair a little this morning.  Madelyn has been growing her hair out for a LONG time and it seems to never get any longer and lately it has been looking really fizzy and unhealthy, so I wanted to try and get the ends trimmed off.  Well, I have trimmed her hair before and I've done something like layering to Grey's hair before BUT.... it didn't go well this morning.  I got carried away and made a big mess of it and it was AWFUL!!!!  I was crying and apologizing profusely while Madelyn was at first shell-shocked and then bawling too.  I, then, called a friend that styles hair and when when I explained what was wrong and asked if she could fix it, she rescued us!  I took Madelyn and Greyson to her house, got a reassuring hug, and then stayed with her kids while she took Madelyn to her salon and fixed the mess that I made, painted her nails, made her smile, and loved on her too.  Thank you, God, for friends that will drop everything to help!  When they got back to the house, I loved the new look and was loving the twinkle I saw in her eyes too.  She is such a beautiful girl, but she showed me just how much when later when she commented, "Mom, I know that you didn't do it intentionally. It will be okay. I even like it."  She is my beauty inside and out....  I love you, Madelyn. 

a beauty, for sure

Madelyn's School Pics for 2nd grade

starting 2nd grade

family shots too good not to share

We love the MN State Fair!

It is officially the Cobb family loves the Get Minnesota Get-Together.  And man, we take it seriously!  We get-together!  This is the third year (or fourth?) that we have been together for the fair.  And there are no plans to quit either!  Yea!

Are you wondering where they are and what they are looking at?

Our first stop (at 10am) was at the diary bar to pick up goodies and to see the butter busts.  Do you know that each of these ladies take their butter bust home with them?  What would you do with your butter bust?  By the way, after telling the kids they could have anything they wanted, Madelyn got a strawberry milk and Greyson got a yogurt while I got a blackberry sundae. Hmmmm......

I really thought these guys were cool with their well-behaved rabbits.  It was fun to watch them keep them from hopping off.

Hee-haw.

Love these ladies!

Climbing up the fire tower which was built special for the fair as a demonstration of what fire towers were like before air patrol.

For once, I'm the tan one. (Love you, sis)

Greyson getting his cruising on.



A family shot - I love everything about this pic but I especially love Greyson's hand on his hip since that is definitely his thing right now.  It cracks us up!  And look how big and grown up my girl is.... when did that happen?

The wacky wheeler.


A great day at the fair!

Yoder's visit

The Yoder Family came to the Twin Cities for a family get-away and came to have dinner with us at our house. It was such a blessing to have them here and for our children to play together. They get along so well. I just went back to another post and was reminded of how well our families played together in Bemidji too! Yoder's, we need to find more reasons to get together!  This time the boys chased the girls with sticks (sorry, Lorri, if Kyle is using sticks as shooters and swords now) and then the boys followed that with crazy dancing.  The girls were a little more sedate over cameras and mini pianos.  Thank you, Yoder's, for spending some of your family get-away with us!

Bunker Bash

Last week, we had the wonderful blessing of going camping as a family. I've been camping (albeit over 15 years ago) and Ben's been camping, but before last week the most camping the kids had done was popping a tent in the backyard with the convenience our house within 50 feet. Well, this time we decided to give a shot and pull out the tent and borrow a second tent to make it happen.  To be fair, we camped within 15 miles of our house with an escape plan and a waterpark onsite for entertainment.  But it still counts, right?  We also had a family of the pop-up camper types come along and show us the "camping ropes".  It was nice to have the Loper family there with us.  They were nice company (and a convenient source of those things that were forgotten).  As mentioned in the previous post, our first day was Madelyn's birthday.  She was very excited about camping on her birthday.  I had wished that I had the camera prepped when she was riding her bike around the sites with her balloons trailing behind her.  It was a very cute sight.

The first afternoon we set up camp and went out to enjoy the waterpark for a couple of hours before coming back for sitting around the campfire.  Here is Madelyn opening her presents from the Loper's on the first night over roasting hotdogs, which were followed quickly by marshmallows.  We fell asleep with the sun that night.  Unfortunately for Ben and Mad, it was a chilly night.  Grey and I slept like logs.





The second day we woke up, made breakfast, let the kids ride their bikes for awhile, ate lunch, and then took full advantage of before-mentioned waterpark!  After five hours and lots of slathering with the sun block, we had done about 6 dozen water slides, 2 hours in the wave pool, 5 rounds of the lazy river...  that is except Greyson who spent the WHOLE 5 hours in the sand box area.  Man, for a kid that doesn't like to get dirty, he was head-to-feet filthy by the time we left!

Greyson is still figuring out how to pick up his feet when he walks.... he kept scraping his toe on the concrete and no bandaid would stay on. 


Making rivers and sandcastles.


basking in the sun with the oldest Loper.


playing in the sand with the youngest Loper.


Mama Loper and the youngest in the wave pool


Mad and middle Loper playing in the wave pool.


Mad taking a rest from the wave pool.



Exhausted and hungry, we biked ourselves back to our campsites and were fed an amazing camp meal (grilled chicken thighs, alfredo noodles, grilled broccoli, fresh fuit salad - yum!) by Mama Loper!  It was so good and I felt like was completely (not) roughing it.  Then while I stayed to help clean up, Ben went to get our fire ready for our campfire circle.  So fun to circle a fire and tell stories and talk.  Thank you, Lord, for good friends and your nature that shows us your presence.








Waking up in the morning, to the musical animal sounds is so much fun, especially when there is a particular sound that you can't figure out.  On the second morning, there was an animal that was SO loud and sounded vaguely like a duck quacking but decidedly was not.  I was joking with Greyson about it and then heard Madelyn bust out laughing about it in the next tent (with Ben).  It was definitely a moment that I will remember for a long time.  I loved the ease of the mornings though.  So peaceful and no-rush.  Such a blessing.


and yes, of course, Blue Bear had a great time too.


Nature all around beckoning us to join in....