Hi Bean Sprout!

Hudson James arrived on Saturday January 15th

at 1:40 pm

He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and is 20.3 inches long

All is going well, we are home now and the kids just love their new baby brother.

Enjoy the pictures!

Bean Sprout's Comin'

Thursday late am- It looked like Bean Sprout was coming. We ended up in the local hospital here. We drove down to Duluth to the hospital there. Labor seemed to have stopped so we stayed at a hotel Thurs night and saw a doctor today (Friday). She set up an induction date for Saturday at 6am.

So right now Joel and I are getting shopping done and walking a lot to try to get things going. But nothing has happened so far. :)

We will do our best to keep you posted but hopefully Bean Sprout will come sometime Saturday!

Thanks for all your prayers and feel free to tell others who may not know.

Some Big Things

Joel and I are excited to let you know some upcoming events and dates. Ultimately God knows what will happen for sure and when/if they happen.

Bean Sprout is due to arrive on Wednesday January 19th. We'll be dropping the kids off at a friend's house the night before and we will keep you posted here on this blog the arrival of our fifth child!

We are buying a house across town! The house is a 2 bedroom with a smaller room that could be a nursery or office. There is a walk-out basement that could potentially have two more bedrooms and a bathroom. It has a large yard: large enough for a small garage in the future, a garden and lots of playspace for the kids. We will be closing on the house Tuesday January 25. But we won't be moving until mid-February. There is some work we want to do on the house before we move in. (And Mommy needs to recover a little from having a baby!!)

In the midst of this excitement we will be celebrating Rachel's fourth birthday! She has been waiting for this event since September and talks about it nearly everyday.

So that is all(!) for now. Thanks for all your prayers.

Christmas Pictorial

Joshua, Madelynn and Rachel setting up their nativities on Christmas Eve.

It may be Micheal W. Smith. And it may be from 1989. But its still the best Christmas album ever.

Singing carols with Dave and Geneva...

...and Papa and Neena, who came to visit for a week.

We were wonderfully blessed with a Christmas Day sleigh ride at Okontoe.

Renee. Bean Sprout. Joel. Mike. Bob.

Good friends Andrea and Jake (our sleigh driver). Joshua our son. Mike the Norwegian.

And for something a little different, Joel's parents, Nana and Grandpa, were in Kenya for Christmas with good friends who run a charity, HUGS for Africa.

Nana teaching some of the sponsored orphans a craft. She also worked on developing marketable baking items with some of the widows.

Grandpa preaching. He also taught seminars on worship, sermon preparation, and integrity.

As of New Years Day, Bean Sprout will be 37 weeks and all grown up enough to be born! He occasionally seems anxious to meet us, but we'll let you all know when that happens. Here's Madelynn and her nightly ritual of kissing Baby good night.

A new family tradition for the day we take the Christmas tree down: homemade ice cream + crushed candy canes off the tree = pink peppermint ice cream.

Dave's sign across the street at 6:30am.

Merry Christmas in the Name of LOVE CAME DOWN.

Happy New Year in the Name of ALL THINGS NEW.

He is IMMANUEL.

More Fun in the Snow

Rachel's highlight of the Christmas season was to get a Christmas tree. So one perfect snowy Saturday off we went! The sky was a beautiful winter blue, snow came down sporadically, and the kids were happy. Joshua and Rachel planted themselves firmly in the deep (adult knee deep in some places) snow and proceeded to have a jolly good time in the snow. Madelynn, however, did not smile once. She sat in the sled, observing the whole situation quite seriously, unable to form an opinion. We found our tree and then it was playtime!

We (well, everyone except Mommy) went sledding. Here is a video of Rachel:

Madelynn was at the top of this small hill and decided she wanted to go down by herself, with out a sled. She scooted all the way down, inch by little inch:

We went home with snow all over, cold toes, and a Christmas tree to some warm chocolate (with kids it can't be hot), lunch, and a nice long nap.