Hello!

Nothing bubbles this mama's heart like a day home with my kids and husband.
Like today! Happy snow day!
My husband, who has already shoveled both our driveway and our neighbor's, is now in the kitchen whipping up the most delicious smelling breakfast. :)

So before the fun begins I thought I'd update you on our last, gulp, two and a half months. :)
Life continues to be blessed in the Dahl house.
December brought our Doodle's 10th birthday! His first gift was a snow day! This is not the first time this has happened. The boy is blessed. His only request was to go bowling and have pizza with his family. Thankfully the bowling alley is just a block away so we slipped and slided over on foot and made all his dreams come true. :) What a sweet, funny boy he is.
Christmas brought lots of snow and a rearranging of Christmas plans. My sweetest memory is Landon bringing each gift to my grandma's lap and opening it with her. She is 91 and getting frail, but her smile was beautiful and his sweet innocence in it all was priceless. The time with family was great. Nintendo made big bucks this year thanks to the Dahl kids...DS's and a wii brought big smiles and friendly competition to our home.

Over Christmas break we got the chance to get together with dear friends from Chetek to play games and swim for the day at a hotel. It's always sweet fellowship. The kids had a blast, the adults had a blast. The only negative part is that we miss them even more after a fun day together. :)

Over New Year's Eve we got to have some dear friends stay with us. Our expanded space made this year's visit even more enjoyable than last. Next year we are either attempting a 24 piece puzzle or taking it off the agenda. I thought I enjoyed puzzles, but the one we attempted just got my dander up. Grr.

January brought Noah's 12th birthday.
I know.
The older he gets the more convinced I am that I'm way too young to have a kiddo this old. He is truly a blessing. So far our tweenager has been (mostly) respectful and (usually) a delight. :) We pray for him a lot.

The week after Noah's big day we attempted (REALLY, for the last time THIS time...) Potty Training 101. Landon has been a pretty compliant little guy, but my expectations we're very high. He surprised us. The first week was a tough "training" week, but on day 7 it clicked. He still doesn't tell us he has to go real often, but stays dry for the most part. We're just hoping summer brings a completely trained little guy.

Jake's birthday wrapped up January. We had a great day of basketball, lunch out with his parents and a long movie/dinner date at the end of the day. What a fun day.

We've tried to open our home to friends more often and have really enjoyed some game nights and dinners with friends.

We are so excited about the opportunity to join a small group through our church! We have started the "Life's Healing Choices" series and are excited both about the curriculum and the group God has brought us into.

Photos to come. They're on the other hard drive.

Well, I'm off to play.
All day.
With my fam. :)
Gotta love that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello!
The house is quiet, the van is packed and I am sitting in eager anticipation of the trip to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. :)
Thanksgiving and Easter are special holidays for my extended family. There are just six cousins on my mom's side and for forever we have gotten together at Thanksgiving and Easter. There are some years we have missed. We trade off holidays now that many of us are married, but the times when we are all able to be together are really special. Now our kids are "cousins!" We get the privilege of meeting a new "cousin" this weekend.. who is seven months old already!
I am excited.
I am ready. :)

I love road trips with my husband. OK, I like the kids there, too, but I can't tell you how many times we have commented that a used police car with the plastic "noise- barrier shield" would be a great road tripping vehicle with kids. We're kind of selfish like that. :)

Upon our return some of Jake's sisters will still be here. :) More cousins! More fun! More visiting! Oh, it's good for the soul.

We have so very much to be thankful for! For health! For plenty! For faithful friends and family! For a God who sees and knows our hearts and needs!
Happy Thanksgiving from the Dahls!

Two months in a nutshell

Hi. I am Molly and I formally took an interest in keeping you up-to-date on our family. :)

The apologies for not being a regular blogger are getting old. I have decided to release feeling guilty over not updating weekly, and instead aim for monthly. :) It's just the stage in life we are in.

I have a gem of a photo to share with you...



If you're ever here visiting, or live near us, visit Amber for photos! She's wonderfully talented and a pleasure to work with!
The other kids all took great school pics, but I was not willing to pay $20 a crack for the CD and legal right to post them for you. :) Come and visit- they're on the wall. :)

Noah and Dawson's highlight this fall has been the Morrie Miller youth tackle football league. They learned a lot about the game and had a blast while doing it. Dawson is right up front, #74 and Noah's to the right in the back row, #30.



Ellie has had a great fall... She loves second grade and her teacher. In the past two months she has gotten the opportunity to fulfill her latest dream...



That's right. Horseback riding lessons. She adores Sunny, the horse. She had a dream one night of buying Sunny and has schemes of how she can finagle her Grandpa into getting a horse. Hopefully she will continue riding Sunny when spring comes around.

Ellie's other fun week this fall came when she was cast as a chorus girl in the show "Sleeping Beauty." She loved her time on stage and we all had the chance to see her perform. I hope there are more shows in our future!

Landon's big day came on October 11th when he turned two! :) We are enjoying our days together with walks, storytime and even "school" on Friday mornings (a non-separation ECFE class). Life is good. :)

Jake's been busy running the community flag football program, getting ready to coach youth basketball and literally putting a (new) roof over our heads! He got the chance to roof with some wonderful friends who are home on furlough and gave us a full day of their time. Praise the Lord for safety... even when the two-yr-old decided to climb the ladder (with 5 adults in the near vicinity!!).

I'm staying busy with little projects in and around our home. We got to host some really good friends over a couple of different weekends this fall- that is always a treat! I got to talk an impromptu "girls weekend" away last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the company of some good friends. We've been enjoying our little "Indian summer" the past couple of days. We're looking forward to a fun long weekend ahead (the kids have Friday off!) and a couple of mini-suprises we have up our sleeves. God Bless!

Getting back into the swing of things

For the first time in a LONG time I've had a blog post swirling in my head today. When I first started blogging four and a half years ago that happened all the time. I'd think in "blog." Post multiple times a day. In all fairness the past two years have been a roller coaster of relocating, baby, adjusting moving and settling. Not much time to "think blog" or even just "think" some days! I'm working on my inability to sit down and relax until all the work is done- cause the work is just never done. Don't worry- Mom knows it's her fault. :) (Kidding, Mom.)

The kids started school yesterday (photos to come soon!). They were as excited as can be- all three of them. They were up here BY 6:20 dressed and ready to go. Now we live three blocks from school and the younger two don't need to leave here until 8:15 for the 8:30 start. I'm sure it won't be long before we're wrestling them out of bed at seven. :)
Ironically? After waking between 6:00 and 6:15 for most of the summer, Landon has slept until 7:15 and 7:20 the past two days. With all of our commotion right outside his door! Isn't that bizarre?!

The little man was pretty sure the world had ended when he couldn't go with his siblings down the driveway. He wandered around a little pathetically for awhile. We watched Sesame Street (yes, more for me than him), played cars, took two walks and read a stack of books. At one point he curled up on the rug by the front door with his bubby as if to tell me where the real fun would reenter. :)We baked cookies together. Then he napped for THREE hours!

I am bound and determined to work my way through the house room by room and give each room a good deep clean. Wipe out and reorganize each cupboard and closet. Yesterday I got the laundry room and half of the kitchen done. Yeah! Today I got 8 more cupboards in the kitchen done. Slowly but surely. My goal is to be done with the main floor by Friday (remember we just moved into the basement in May. It hasn't had time to get TOO bad! The kids' rooms we did last week with them.)

We have fallen into that crazy season between summer and fall called "Canning Season." My mom and grandma both canned and I married into a canning family. I think Jake and I started the second year we were married with the help of our neighbors at the time. As with most things there are parts of it I love and others I don't.
I love the feeling of satisfaction when the jars are all wiped down, marked and lined up on their shelves. I love feeding my family healthy, homegrown foods! I love knowing exactly what went into each jar. What don't I like? Produce isn't very time-forgiving! When it's ready- it's ready and it doesn't matter what I had planned for the day. It takes lots of time- inside- and often I'd rather be outside on these beautiful days! (I'm striving for a long walk each day- Tomatoes can wait an hour!)

I'll keep you updated on what we've "put up:" (I feel like my grandma just saying that!)
21 Quarts of peaches (With 1/2 bushel on my counter for tomorrow...)
14 Quarts of green beans
4 peach pies (plus three from my Mother in Law-- Ready to be popped in the oven at a moment's notice!)
24 Quarts of corn in the freezer (GREAT sweet corn this year!!!)
5 quarts of pickles (trying these again after a long hiatus)
Strawberry freezer jam
Four bags of shredded zucchini
4 big bags of diced sweet onions
Sauerkraut from my Mother in Law (:)YUM!)
And the saga will continue as the tomatoes are just beginning to ripen up.

I'm off to read.
Despite everything that could still use doing.
Tomorrow will be another full day. :)

Max Lucado: Fearless

A couple of weeks ago I was offer the chance to review Max Lucado's most recent release.

I jumped at the chance.

To say the release of this book is timely given the state our country is in would be an understatement. I thank the Lord for the relative peace our family has experienced through it all- yet Mr. Lucado touches on many facets of fear people face despite the "economic times."

The fear of not protecting my kids. The fear of violence. The fear of overwhelming challenges. This is just a sampling of the chapters he covers with engaging relevance. Many times while reading the book I was struck by how accurately Mr. Lucado depicted fears that I thought were my own. Fear is real. We all feel it. Faith is real, too. Mr. Lucado invites us to allow "faith, and not fear, be our default reaction to threats." Over and over he points to the promises of Christ that dispel fear.

If you haven't yet read a book by Max Lucado, you are in for a treat. His writing style is completely engaging. He interweaves laugh-out-loud humor, fascinating stories and Biblical truth in a way that makes you yearn for more.

This book will stay on our coffee table for months to come.

Come on over. :)

Letter from a nearly-two-year-old:

Dear Mimi (and any other dear souls who are still checking this blog after a summer off),

It's me, Landon.

My mom has been terrible at blogging this summer. She's had a lot of fun with us in the meantime. We go places a lot. I like my car seat, so it's all good. One of the best places we went was to the zoo with you and Papa. I liked that a lot.

Mom says it was the zoo you used to take her to when she was a little girl.
She says you wouldn't buy her those awesome plastic molded animals either.
Huh.
Here are my siblings and the picnic you packed for us. I was in the back of the van with Papa. Thanks, Mimi for a fun weekend!

Another fun time was when you and Papa came to visit and it rained, so we couldn't do the bike trip we planned, but you and Ellie and my mama went on a day trip. Ellie reads from her "Betsy Tacy" books to me, but I'd rather play with cars. She told me you had lots of fun together.

Mimi, I really liked camping with you. I liked the choo choos. We got to hear them every hour! My favorite part was running down the hill between our campsites. My brothers loved the Trivial Pursuit part the best and Ellie loved the swimming. Wasn't that a fun beach, Mimi? Mom and Dad sure made us leave in a hurry. I'm not sure what all the fuss was about- I loved running around getting soaked. They set all those tents up for a couple of days when we got home again anyway- something about them being drenched?
Here's a picture from our hike I loved it so much I passed right out! Thanks for waiting at the bottom of the bluff with me. :)

Well, Mimi, I'm off to bed. Seems like something's gonna happen here tomorrow. All the big kids are excited and have these bags lined up by the door. Mom says my little world's gonna be rocked- doesn't that sound like fun?!
I wuv you, Mimi. Thanks for checking in on us. My mom thinks she'll have time to write on here more now.
Love,
Landon

Thomas Nelson Book Review : #2

Awhile back I told you I was going to post some reviews from time to time- Well, here (FiNAlLy) is #2!

I stepped it up a bit from my first review of a Children's DVD to a murder suspense novel by Lis Wiehl with April Henry entitled Face of Betrayal. The book centered around the disappearance of a seventeen-year-old girl, Katie Converse, who is home on break from her position as a Senate page. Three friends, who call themselves the "Triple Threat" unravel the case through three perspectives. Nicole, as an FBI special agent brings us to the scenes of the crime and frontlines of the investigation. Cassidy Shaw is a television reporter who is trying to make it big. Allison Pierce plays the role of a Fedral Prosecutor.

I enjoyed the book. I would definately say it had more appeal for a female audience and would recommend it as a good summer read. The descriptions of the characters were good, and left me with questions. I hope that each of the main characters will be further developed in future books. The plot was good- it kept me guessing as to the ending and when I thought I had it figured out there was one last twist.

A look back from the middle

(First off, I'm ditching the code names for the kids.)

Here we are smack dab in the middle of summer and I haven't blogged since the last day of school. Take that as a sign that we are enjoying life, busy as can be and not spending a whole lot of time in front of the computer. All good things. :)

That said, I will take five minutes to quick update you on the action at the Dahl house (Photos will have to wait as all photos since June 2nd are still on my camera.)...

June was a crazy month with a "hosting" theme! We had friends and family- all whom we love dearly- come and stay. What a treat to comfortably be able to do this with the added space the basement provided! We loved each visit, though it made the month fly by! We started with three dear friends of the kids who relocated to Colorado. They came for 3ish days as their parents hauled an enormous load to their new mountain home. :) We loved getting to spend a little time with them before the move.
Next came a dear friend and her kiddos. :) What sweet times. I put her to work, though, and we cracked out a garage sale by Friday. It was a success, and nice to have it done early in the summer.
Jake, Noah and Dawson got to take in a Twins game after Noah dedicated a year to safety patrol. Jake was happy to be the chaperon and when a ticket opened up even Daws got in on the fun. A Twins victory made it an even better day!

The third week of June brought Jake's brother, his wife and two kiddos from Wydaho. :) It was a great visit. We had a party to celebrate Jake's sisters 40th birthday and all six siblings were together. :) What a treat!

Swimming lessons, a three day Christian dance camp and Little League filled in the gaps of our June. Lots of outside pool-time at the aquatic center, a family bike trip on the trail with friends, campfires with friends... Ahh. This is the life.

On July 3rd we headed north for Liberty Fest in our old stompin' grounds of Chetek. We took in the weekend festivities, enjoyed time with friends and brought Noah and Dawson to Camp Chetek on Monday morning for their long-anticipated week of Bible camp. Jake and I took Ellie and Landon north further to our dear college friends home for a couple days of fun on the water. It's always fun to catch up with them and watch our girls- who are a year apart, but could be twins- play like best friends. Tuesday night brought us back to Chetek. We had the exciting opportunity to stay with yet another family of wonderful friends. What a treat. Six kids under the age of seven didn't exactly make it a "feet up and relaxing" time, but it was real, and it was good. :) We enjoyed time at the farmer's market- a rare gem in NW Wisconsin- a nice long walk and four-yes four- movies. We had a campfire, went to the beach and enjoyed a Friday night fish fry- completely done by our husbands. :)
Ahhh, the memories.

We picked up two dirty, but happy boys Saturday morning and came home to laundry and a garden in need of some love. It's been a wonderful week of settling back in to being home- but we're leaving again tonight on another fun adventure. :) This time we are headed east to see my family. :) Tomorrow holds a day at the Milwaukee Zoo. Saturday is a special trip to the movies for my boys and their aunt and uncle. :) A wedding reception for friends we haven't seen in years. Together time. :) I can hardly wait! :)
I'll be back. No promises as to when. :) Happy summer everyone.