Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

• The ability to make goodies for Tom's office and neighbors
• Finally getting an appointment to get our car fixed
• Getting cards, photos and letters from old friends to catch up on their lives
• Wonderful neighbors who will bless our family by babysitting all of the kids tomorrow night so that Tom & I can go to his office Christmas party tomorrow night as a Christmas present - they won't take money - thank you, Flanegins!

Catherine's Birthday

Catherine turned 2 on 12 December 2008! It was a Friday and Daddy was on a trip on Doc Sue was working, so we decided to have the big celebration with presents and cake the next day when everyone could be here! Here's Catherine with her brothers on her actual birthday:

Catherine's birthday post wouldn't be complete without several adorable poses from her:
Now it's Saturday and Catherine wanted to wear a dress for her party. She had a pink balloon and posed again:

Here she is in her "birthday seat" to open all of her presents - she really enjoyed opening everything!

Here's Catherine opening her first baby from Mommy & Daddy - as soon as she saw what it was she exclaimed "Baby!"

She received many wonderful gifts that she enjoyed from all of her relatives! After the presents we had lunch and, of course, cake. Catherine chose to have a "cuccape" or cupcake. Here's the cake we decorated and put candles on - she said that she wanted a "choclate" cake - she says that word pretty clearly!

Here she is enjoying her cupcake:

All done! That was delicious!

Here's Catherine the day after the celebration wearing her new dress to church! What a pretty girl! It was a great birthday weekend!

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

• My sister, who helped immensely with the kids today with all of the various trips, concerts, dinner, and babysitting while I went to a meeting and helped make a speedy (not really) and inconspicuous (not really) exit from the concert when I had to leave - if anyone was at the AIES concert tonight, you surely saw all of us - we apologize if we were distracting!
• Jack, who did a wonderful job ringing hand bells at his school - he tried it for the first time this year and he did a wonderful job!
• Once again, the Covenant family - for the leadership and all of the people and relationships - I love that everyone is real and that all of them truly love on our family in good times and bad
• Laughter and great food with my Beth Moore group this morning
• Sweet Catherine, who joined our family 2 years ago tomorrow - Happy Birthday Sweetie!
• God helping us even when things are not looking so good and we're going through tough times - for His strength, provision, and love through members of the Body of Christ

"I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." Psalm 9:1-2

Adam's Birthday

Adam turned 7 today, 7 Dec 2008! We had a very fun event-filled day! We let Adam open one present before going to church. At church, he got to pick out a present from the Birthday Box and he chose a small stuffed brown dog. After we returned from church and ate some lunch, Adam opened the rest of his presents - here he is with a couple of presents:

In the afternoon, we went to Mr. Biggs for the first time with a couple of Adam's friends from school and church. It's a HUGE place with Go Karts, Laser Tag, Bowling, Mini Golf, Bumper Cars, An Arcade with inflatable bouncy houses, a carousel, and a huge play area with climbing things, places to dress-up, a sandbox, a pirate ship with air cannons that shoot out balls - it was amazing! It was not very crowded when we went and the kids all had fun running from place to place trying out all of the amusements. Here's Adam with his friends (L to R): Justin, Jonathan, Jack, Adam, Aiden, & Andrew:

Here's the cake they provided for his party:

Our whole family was there, plus the friends and their moms or dads and Doc Sue. Adam said when we got home that night that this was "the best birthday"! We're glad that he had fun and it was wonderful celebrating with him. Hard to believe that 7 years ago we were in Okinawa at Camp Lester hospital where Adam was born! Children grow up so fast! People always say that, but when you have your own, you really understand that.

Ski Mask Fun

Catherine had some fun with Jonah & Adam playing in the basement with the boys' ski masks I bought last year. Two of them ripped, so there's just one big hole in the front. They were laughing and running around in the basement - I think Adam & Jonah were playing "robbers" and Catherine was just running and laughing. Here they are:

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday, I want to think about this scripture...

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thes 5:16-18

I am thankful for:

• Safety and health after a minor car accident
• Wonderful friends and family
• Catherine & I feeling better after getting some stomach bug
• My house and the Christmas decorations to remind me of this wonderful, amazing time of year

May you all think of your many blessings at this time of year!

Decorating for Christmas

Saturday afternoon we began decorating for Christmas. As we started pulling out the boxes, Catherine was right in the middle of things:

Right after taking these pictures, Catherine got sick and missed out on the rest of the day of decorating, spending her time sleeping or being sick, poor thing!
Here's the family in front of the tree after Tom put up the lights. Adam is being a character as usual:

Here's the tree after we decorated - it was a fun family time for everyone!

Playing in the Snow

Thanksgiving night it snowed some and then it snowed some more on Friday night. Sue and Debbie woke up early Friday morning to try and catch some shopping specials and decided we were never missing anything by staying home on Black Friday - we will remember that for the future! Also, Debbie was in a minor fender bender with another car on the icy roads Friday - thankfully no one was hurt and the kids weren't in the car! Anyway, on Saturday, the kids wanted to dress up and go play in the snow, so we uncovered all of the cold weather gear to let everyone go out. Here's Catherine's outfit (she was VERY excited to get dressed up and go outside!):

Here are Jack & Adam with Catherine
The boys enjoyed pulling Catherine around on the sled, even thought there wasn't that much snow and she loved the ride around the yard!

Tom went out to play with them too - they had fun making snowballs and riding in the sled.

Here's the snowman that Tom & Jack made with the little snow that they had:

Thanksgiving Thursday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Our neighbors, the Flanegins, and my sister joined us for the meal at about 4 in the afternoon. We cooked a 21lb turkey and had more than enough food for the 14 of us in our house that night. We began the meal with everyone saying one thing they were thankful for - many blessings were talked about - the food, family, wonderful neighbors, jobs, normal things that we take for granted that others don't have. Here's a picture of the "kids" table with our three boys and 4 of the Flanegin children - Kyle, Kevin, Lada & Katya:

Here's the "adult" table with Rob, Tom, Sue, Tresa & Anastasia (Catherine ate with us):
Here's everyone after the big meal enjoying a little relaxation. We watched some "Punkin Chunkin" - a first for our family. People create machines to see how far they can shoot pumpkins - very entertaining.

We are all very thankful for so many things and that we had a wonderful Thanksgiving day with terrific friends and family!

Thankful Thursday

"Joyful, joyful we adore thee
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Opening to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day." Henry Van Dyke

I keep singing this hymn over and over in my head - I love it!

Today I am thankful for many things:

1) My Beth Moore group of ladies studying Believing God. This is an amazing group of women and I love sharing Thursday mornings with them. We also shared what we were thankful for today in our group - I could only share one thing there, but I can share more here!

2) Friends & Doc Sue who help out in big and small ways when my husband is out of town - especially for the dinner tonight that we will enjoy courtesy of Tammy.

3) Facebook - I know a very silly thing that can also become an addiction, but I am very thankful to be able to catch up with people that live so far away (and some that live just down the street). I am thankful for all of my many relationships that I can maintain in a small way with Facebook.

4) The Path small group - a WONDERFUL bunch of people from our church who can get together and laugh, cry, share, study God's word, decorate Christmas trees with less than stellar decorations, and share our many blessings with others as we give Thanksgiving dinners to two families in our community who would not be able to have a big dinner on that special day. I m very thankful for this group!

5) The beautiful weather that we have experienced here in Colorado this fall.

6) My friend, Angie, who had the wonderful idea of starting Thankful Thursday and inviting others to join in!

As Anna said in the Pioneers teaching last night - "When you look for the good in people, you'll find it." I think we can choose to look for the good that God gives us every week - some weeks may be more difficult than others - but we can CHOOSE to find the good & joy! No pictures this time - perhaps next week for Thanksgiving on Thankful Thursday!

Visit With Old Friends

We have dear friends from Okinawa that we have not seen since we left there in April of 2004. Nick & Christi Seaward came to Colorado for Nick's AFA reunion so we were able to meet with them and some other friends at Fargo's Pizza. The last time Tom and I had been there was about 16 years ago when we were still cadets and were able to go on frequent dates. Here are Nick & Christi:

Here are their beautiful daughters Isabelle & Elise. Elise wasn't feeling too well at first, but after some finger puppets and conversation with our boys, she started feeling better.
Here's a photo of all of the adults there. The Seawards knew Peggy Skattebo and we know her from our church. Also, their friends Felix & Amor are Navigators and it turns out they live in our neighborhood and know many of the same people we know - very small world!

Here's a photo of all of the kids - they had much fun together visiting in this cool booth at Fargo's:

Here are all of the Seaward's right before they left. It was wonderful getting to visit with them again after all of these years and we hope that our paths cross again in the future - "Friends are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them" - Amen!

Thankful Thursday

A friend of mine started having a "Thankful Thursday" entry on her blog and encouraged others to join in. I LOVE the idea, so here's my first Thankful Thursday entry. I'm very thankful for Operation Christmas Child and all of the children touched by this ministry. It is amazing to me the stories of how God uses each box for a specific child. The children are amazed when they open their box to reveal what they had wished for or better. Here's a few of the boxes our church filled:

I'm thankful for my three handsome sons who each picked out special items to go in the boxes they packed for three little boys (Catherine & I packed two for little girls, although she had a hard time parting with the new little girl things that were going to others). I love how great their minds are and how they're learning with each other and friends and strangers to try and think of others - not that they have that lesson learned yet, but that they're getting there.
I'm thankful for a beautiful little daughter who is so much entertainment. I love to hear her say "clean" when she gets out of the bath. I love that she poses for pictures like this one:

I'm thankful for a wonderful husband of 15 years that is willing to stay with the kids while I go on a retreat (I am also thankful for a wonderful retreat packed with Christian fellowship with some awesome ladies of God and for God's words to me regarding risk and moving to England), stay home to help with sick kids, loves me unconditionally & grows closer to God and me every day - he's the best!

I am thankful that my sick kids are getting better, my son's broken tooth will get fixed by the dentist today, and that we have wonderful extended families that love us and send us wonderful gifts & love us even when we're so busy we don't get to call or write them very often. I am also VERY thankful for our church family - Covenant Presbyterian Church - they are such a blessing to our family and they are family to us while we are so far away from our relatives - yay!!

Catherine's First Haircut

Today Catherine went to get her first haircut. We went to Joanne Huddleson's house - she is a lady who goes to our church, lives in our neighborhood, and is a hairdresser. Here is Catherine before we went wearing her "Bad Hare Day" shirt and all of her hair is in her eyes:

Here is Catherine sitting in my lap waiting for the haircut to begin. Joanne had many wonderful distractions for Catherine and she never screamed and cried, though she was a little leery of the whole process.

Here is Catherine after getting bangs - what a difference!

Here's Joanne and many of the combs Catherine enjoyed holding:

All done! It's great to see her eyes without looking through all that hair!

Halloween 2008

This was an eventful week at the Torkelson house! Monday night both Jack and Adam were sick all night. Tuesday morning the boys seemed better (after an essentially sleepless night) and we found out that we will be moving to England - RAF Mildenhall - this summer. Here's Catherine rejoicing over the England news (she really doesn't understand, but had fun listening to her brothers try to talk with British accents):

Friday night the kids dressed up along with Daddy to walk around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Mommy stayed home to hand out candy to other trick-or-treaters. It turned out that Gumby was the hit of the night with Catherine as well as all of the other neighbors who were out that night:

Here's Catherine sporting her new necklace and glasses - fun Hallowen treats:

Pumpkin Carving

Sunday afternoon Daddy helped the boys carve the pumpkins they picked out at the pumpkin patch on Friday. It was another beautiful day here in Colorado! Adam & Jonah thought the goo inside the pumpkins was too slimy and gross, so they watched for a little while, then decided to jump and play on the basketball court while Mommy & Daddy scooped & carved their pumpkins. Jack scooped most of his and helped do most of the carving, which was a first for him. Here they are with their pumpkins:

Here are the jack-o-lanterns all lit up that night:
Catherine enjoys looking at the pumpkins and now says something close to pumpkin. She also enjoys taking off her clothes and unfastening her diaper which poses some problems at night when she does this and gets her crib all wet, like last night. Maybe we'll start safety pinning the zipper to the top of her pj's... Tom left this morning for a three day trip to Alaska - leftovers for dinner!

Bubble Bath

One of the kids' treats of sleeping over at Doc Sue's is taking a bubble bath. They love to play with bubbles in their hair and Jonah named the results "new improvements" to their hair. Here's Jonah's "new improvement":

Here's Adam's "new improvement":
Here's Catherine with Adam & Jonah in the bath having fun:

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went with Doc Sue and a couple of families from our church to the Colorado Springs Pumpkin Patch. It wasn't a patch so much as it was many large crates of pumpkins for you to look through. However, it was a gorgeous fall day here in Colorado and the views and open space were very fun for all of the kids and the adults. There were several handmade slides, a hay maze, some goats to pet and hay rides. We all had a great time and each of the boys were able to pick out their own pumpkin.

Here's Tom and Catherine going down one of the slides:

Petting one of the goats - Catherine didn't want to take her hand off:
Several from our group crowded on the wagon for the hayride:
Gorgeous views and our group that went - our friends the Velarde's & the Geertsema's - because each or our families have 4 kids, we were able to get a group discount:
The beautiful view behind our family including Doc Sue!
Today, our families helped out at church wrapping Christmas boxes for Operation Christmas Child - check out this link to find out more and how you can find a location in your area to help. It is a wonderful ministry - we have filled boxes before, but this was fun for our church group to wrap so many to hand out to our congregation tomorrow for them to fill. Also, all of the boys had their last soccer game of the season - it was another beautiful day here for that. Tonight the kids are all going to Doc Sue's for a sleepover - woohoo! Thanks Doc Sue!