Merry Christmas!

"Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior-yes, the Messiah, the Lord-has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! Luke 2:10-11

Holiday Happenings

We have had a lot of fun this Christmas Season, but to be honest it has gone by so fast and I find that every year I do a little less! Hopefully, it isn't that I am becoming lame since I am tired and overwhelmed with life, but in fact, it is because I am trying to just enjoy and savor the holiday (read: hopefully). So far we baked some cookies, but they were gone within two days, so I don't think that counts. Usually we have cookies to last us into December and give many away. I planned on making more today, but the clock skipped a couple of hours on me (it has been doing this a lot lately) and I couldn't get it done.
Lucky for me, this year I didn't have to sweat over a favorite family tradition of making homemade gingerbread houses. When we started this tradition I was a mom of 3 under 4yrs. and somehow I found a way to make at least 5 homes for our friends to come over and decorate with us. Every year, the tradition has tapered down a bit. The next year, just one friend came over, the next just our family.....and last year, I think I stooped to buying a kit from the grocery store (only to be saved by an invitation from friends to decorate houses at their home)! Anyway, this year we hit the jackpot! Grandma and Grandpa Halverson took Brad's and our family to the Farm Kitchen. This place is great! They are a working organic farm that has a beautiful backdrop for many local weddings. Every 1st Sat. of the month they have a breakfast they serve that is just amazing. At Christmas, you can sign up to come and decorate homemade gingerbread houses (I forgot to ask if they were organic)! It was perfect; there were gobs and gobs of candy for the kids to eat, I mean decorate with. The best part was that I didn't have to clean up when we were done or worry about candy canes getting stuck between our bamboo floors.

Happy Lucia Day -Dec. 13th

So I am late posting this, but just wanted to wish you a Happy St. Lucia Day and a very Happy 30th Birthday to Ingrid! St. Lucia is celebrated in most Swedish homes by having the oldest daughter dress in a white gown with candles on her head, delivering coffee and rolls (in our case pepparkakor cookies) to the family early in the morning. Greta has done this in our house for at least the last four years and this year she could pretty much do it all on her own. I set up the coffee to go off on it's own so all she had to do was pour it for Daron and I. First she visits her siblings and gives them cookies with battery-operated candles on her head in complete darkness and then they all come up to our room singing the Lucia song. It is so sweet. She then celebrated this day and shared it with her class at school. December 13th falls on one of the darkest days of the year in Sweden and St. Lucia is known for bringing goodwill. My sis-in-law has shown me so much goodwill this week and has really been a blessing to me. I am so thankful for her, especially today on her birthday!

The Jag Tree Farm

The first Sat. of Advent is when we usually go and get our tree. This year it was a little different for us. We hopped in our car, drove around the block, and settled on this nice tree right in front of our house! This tree farm had the perfect tree! You see, there is a tree that is growing too close to our house and it needed to be taken down, so we decided that now is the perfect time and we could savor it inside a little longer! We still haven't cut the bottom down and hopefully our neighbors don't notice it, but we have some beautiful boughs you can come and cut down if you need any garland! After our tree cutting ceremony, the nice people that lived at this house gave our family some hot chocolate (since that was the only drawback for the kids in getting the tree at our house instead of the usual Christmas Tree Farm.

A walk in their shoes....

There is a family from WA, that I have met from a friend, that is traveling over in Ghana right now to adopt their 2 yr. old and 4 yr. old. She really captures the emotions of the first time meeting your children, the excitement and fear of being in a new country, and the ups and downs of the adoption process; as well as in life! Check it out if you want to get a feel for what we have in store for us. The link I connected you to is their survival guide for visiting Ghana- I will have to make sure I sleep with my mouth closed. Ever since watching the Lindsey Lohan Parent Trap, I am scared of accidentally swallowing a lizard............you will have to watch the movie if you don't know what I mean. That camping scene is Greta and Ella's favorite part!


By the way, this is why I haven't posted in awhile. I am too busy reading this blog and imagining!

Chaos

There is a bit of chaos going on here in kitsap county. Roads, schools, and offices closing early everywhere. All the snow that we got yesterday and Sat. is gone and melted into the streets, as well as many more inches of rain today(I am talking between 8-13 inches here in Kitsap in one day)! There is flooding everywhere and there is also a lot of wind, which was causing power outages yesterday and today. Where we are located, our home should be fine without any flooding, but there are many friends of ours that are not in the same boat. Hopefully tomorrow things will have been cleared up a bit and water levels going down so the repair can start. Check out some of the water coverage at komotv.com

They say we don't get snow.......HA!

Today was a snow day! We loved having the snow, but we were also bummed because we didn't get to have church today. Kind of different when you have to cancel the one Sunday that you meet a month as a whole church. Of course, we were trying to make the decision all day, and as soon as we called it off, the weather changed from snow to rain and the roads were much better. We personally really wanted to have church, but didn't want to put people in a dangerous situation. We meet at 4:56 PM and we didn't know if the roads would be icy and it would be dark driving home. Earlier in the day, I had seen numerous cars in the ditches and people are uncomfortable driving here with all the hill. I know it was the right decision, but it stinks and because we were waffling all day, I feel like I didn't get to enjoy the snow! I hate being indecisive, I wish I could change........

"Dance, Dance, Birds Should Have a Chance!"

This is the chorus that we haven't been able to get out of our heads since Thanksgiving. You have got to love what the public schools teach the kids! My kiddos love their music class and it was fun this year because they both learned the same Turkey Song. They had fun doing it together and teaching Ella. Sorry the lighting is dark in the video, but I hope you still enjoy it. If you need help with any of the words, let me know. I don't want you to get it out of your head either; that is only fair.

Happy Birthday today to Klockars!

A 5 yr. old, Elmer's glue, and fake nails....

I don't remember when Ella got fake nails, but I guess she has been saving them for a special occasion. Today was that day! While I was cleaning the kitchen, Ella was downstairs in her room awfully quiet; that should have been my sign that she was up to something. That something was that she decided to put her fake nails on- with Elmer's glue! She was so proud of herself that I had to take a picture. They only lasted about 10 minutes, because the second it was snack time, she realized that she didn't like to eat with them on, so she peeled them off.

Today reminded me of a story of 3yr. old Ella and 2 1/2 yr. old Kaia, hot pink nail polish, fingers and toes. Two years ago at Thanksgiving, the two cousins decided that they were old enough to paint their nails on their own. We were busy taking the turkey out of the oven and making final preparations when Greta came running up to tell us that the girls got hot pink nail polish all over the white carpet, their clothes, and of course their nails. They did a pretty good job on their toes, as you can see from the picture, and luckilly we can laugh about it now! I think I am noticing a trend with Ella!

Gobble Gobble!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! We got to have my nieces here at our house for a couple of nights and the kids all had a blast! I do remember though why I hope our little one from Ghana is already potty-trained- how quickly you forget! My little nieces are so sweet though and the kids are tight- I am so thankful this weekend that we live close to 2/3 of my siblings, as well as my parents.

Thurs. morning we had our 3rd annual Turkey Bowl with friends, family, and Alive Covenant sports fans. We had a huge turnout and actually had four teams! Super fun and I even scored a touchdown! I want to give thanks here to my college intramural team, The Ballbusters, who taught me everything I know! And whatever Daron says, don't listen to him about who won the Turkey Bowl.

Later we headed over to my parents for the big dinner and filled our pallets with some great traditional fare! Daron and Brad decided it would be cute to dress alike, so I had to get a picture of the adorable brother- in- laws! (Hee hee)


As I look out our family room window tonight, I see that most of the neighborhood took the opportunity this weekend to put their Christmas lights up already. Not us! Most likely we will start to get into the Christmas spirit next weekend. Actually, Thurs. I will go cut some boughs with friends and make some wreaths; how Martha Stewart of us, huh? I used to love to do that when we lived in NH and Bethany Covenant had so much laurel on their property. A group of people would come together and make wreaths for the church to start off the Christmas season and then I would go the next day and cut some for our door too! I guess I am getting excited for this season, it just overwhelms me a bit to realize that it is here! Who am I fooling? When I put the radio on the day after Thanksgiving and I heard Christmas carols, first I grumbled and then I started singing along. Who can help getting into the Christmas spirit!

water 1st

Last night we went to an auction for a group called Water 1st. Their theme was "give water, give life". It was very powerful to think how much I take our water for granted. Water 1st brings safe water in the form of wells to remote areas in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Honduras, and India. I was surprised to hear that 1/5 of our world still does not have access to safe water, 80% of all sickness in many developing countries is because their water is polluted so badly, and the number one killer of children are water related illnesses. Their goal is to bring safe water to 160,000 people in the next 5 years. Some friends of ours from our North Park community are behind the vision for this group, and I was so proud of them last night for stepping up and making a difference in lives that they may never know they affected. Check out their website at www.water1st.org ! Very inspiring!

Where are you at with the adoption?

This is a common question right now and I thought I would just give a quick update. We have passed the part when the social worker comes to our house to make sure that we are state of the art parents, which we are, by the way..........this part was called the homestudy. Then, we went into Seattle to get our fingerprints taken to make sure that we are not WANTED by any official organization (we aren't). Now, we are just waiting for a referral for a little boy from Ghana that is between the ages of 0-4yrs. old. The agency that we are using, AAI, recently began the Ghana program late this past summer. There are around 14 children in their home, called Eban House, right now, and they will continue to bring other children in when they hear of needs. At this moment, there are no children that are the age that we are looking for for our family and we are just waiting until a child is brought into their home that would fit with us. Most of the children that are in the home are referred out and are waiting for paperwork to be processed until they can go home. We may wait awhile since we are waiting for a younger child, but for our family, we feel it is important to adopt younger than our youngest bio. child right now.

When we get a referral, it could be between 4-6 months for everything to come together. Daron and I plan on traveling over, and we hope that we can bring the rest of the kids. How amazing would it be to go as a family to meet our new son/brother. The kids are so excited for this!

Still amazed!

This was our view we woke up to this morning with the fog over the bay, I am still amazed by God's beauty everyday I look out our windows!

More Birthdays!

Greta and Daron both celebrated their birthdays this month! She got breakfast in bed and she chose Capt'n Crunchberries, banana, and chocolate milk. For her party, Greta had a few friends over for a pj party. We did everything that you would do at a slumber party, but after a few hours, the kids went home to sleep in their own beds and just as important was that I got a decent nights sleep! Greta had a lot of fun with her girlfriends making pizzas, watching Lohan's Parent Trap, eating popcorn, and having ice cream sundaes. Justus was off at his friend's house, but when he stopped by for a second, you would not believe the excitement and giddyness of the 1st graders of this second grade boy already. Ughh! That is what I was afraid of and planned the party when he was busy. Can you believe that I am already having to figure out the motives of the little girls that want to come and play with Greta?

For Daron's birthday, we had our 4:56 Worship Service at Alive. The day before we celebrated with all the Oct. /Nov. bdays in our family. Happy Birthday Inger, Lola, Daron, Greta, and Ella! I think it was Snickers birthday too, but no one acknowledged that! On Daron's bday, we gave him a good hearty farmboy breakfast that he got to eat while watching the Minnesota Vikings on TV. We also made some deep dish Chicago-style sausage, mushroom, and onion pizza- his favorite! This weekend we also had some friends over after a school auction for some Starbucks Mocha Martini's. Yum!

Halloween Fun

We had a great time trick-or-treating with friends and family. Inger, Tyler and baby Elin were in town, so we went downtown Poulsbo with them. They close off the mainstreet and the businesses hand out candy. It is so much fun to run into friends of ours and the kids. It is great to see how many people you know in a town our size after 2 1/2 years here. In case you are wondering, yes the brunette Snow White is our daughter. You could hear her telling her friends, "Hey, it's really me, Greta, not Snow White!" And yes, I probably could have found a better wig for her, but I found cheap Elvira one that I cut off the white stripe and gave the wig a crop. My almost 7 yr. old loved it- that is what matters! And in case you are wondering, Ella was a ballerina and Justus, Luke Skywalker. After walking around town, we went over to our friends house for some soup, wine and fellowship; followed up by some trick-or-treating!

cinderELLA is five

It is that time of the year again when we have three birthdays and Halloween all in a week and a half! Ella just had her 5th birthday and she had so much fun. I think that she was giggling all through the day of her princess party and the next, which was her actual birthday. For her party she invited just a few friends to come and play dress up. She told them to come dressed in their own princess dresses because she didn't have enough for everyone. Then they had their nails painted, played a game or two, watched a princess movie (of course) and had some ice cream sundaes! The next day she got breakfast in bed and went on a date with her dad, to Minnesota! Yep, it was her turn to go to harvest at Daron's family farm with him. Every year Daron takes one of the kids back to the farm to go and harvest, this time it worked out on her birthday. The kids have it all worked out when they get to go and they keep skipping me! I think I need to remind them that I was the first to go and harvest with their dad 14 years ago!

Do you have a pink trophy?

Well, Greta's 1st soccer season just came to an end and it was so much fun to watch her play. It made it even more enjoyable since Daron was one of the coaches. You would think with both of their competitive natures, that they would have had an undefeated team. Instead, it was a very humbling season of no wins (of course that isn't official since they don't keep score for micro soccer). Greta liked playing, but I think she really liked the social part of talking to friends on the sidelines, dressing up in her uniform, getting a snack at the end, and running through the parent tunnel at the end of the game. Naturally, the absolute best part of this season was the pink trophy that she gets to add to her shelves!

I know my math facts.....

Today we were coming back from Cascades Camp in Yelm, WA. We had a pastor's family retreat there. Really fun to get together with all the pastors, spouses, and children and really let our guard down there! You would not believe what pastors do when they get away from their churches....... To tell the truth, which I better because I don't want to get in trouble by whoever gets pastor's wives in trouble, it was a really fun group of people and a great couple of days. We met some new friends and saw some old. I think the kids understood this year that all the kids were PK's (pastor's kids). Last year I overheard Greta inviting one of the other PKs to come to our church sometime. She is a "bringer" as we say in church planting lingo, always the enthusiastic inviter. We also got to stay in the train cars again. If you haven't heard me talk about this before, you have to check it out online. The camp retrofitted a caboose and engine and it has 16 boxcar cabins in between. Each boxcar is a nice carpeted cabin with 10 beds, a bathroom w/shower, and a desk. The meeting hall next to it is a replica of a train depot. All this and Mt. Rainer is picture perfect in the near background. Beautiful. The kids spent their mornings in "school" as Ella calls anything where they do crafts. One of the local covenant churches sent 8-10 volunteers to come out and watch our children while we were in meetings. Our kids loved it since they followed a VBS curriculum that our kids had already done so they thought they were cool knowing all the songs.
On the way home, Ella was asking me math questions. "Mom, what is 3+1?" I would tell her 4 and she would say, "Good job mom!, now what is 4+1?" She did this for about 5 more problems. Greta and Justus were in the back asking each other math questions too. Much harder, of course, trying to trick each other. Then Greta asked me, " Mom, can you tell me what 99+99 is? ....and Justus don't help her!" I guess she didn't think I could jump from my 1's to my 99's. Luckily, I impressed my daughter and son with the correct answer of 198. I wonder how much longer I will be able to answer their math questions and impress them at the same time?

Questions of a 6 yr. old

We were driving home from Greta's soccer game tonight talking about our upcoming adoption and our conversation went down like this:
Greta- "What language will our little boy from Ghana speak?"

Me- "Most likely English"

Greta-"So...like 'Hola?''

Me-"No, that's Spanish"

I guess we need to educate more about the country that we live in too!

Dad's 65th in Napa Valley!

So for those of you that know us well, you know that my family appreciates a good wine! Not necessarily an expensive wine, just a good wine. So, the 9 adults in my family + Elin(5 wks old) all went to Napa for two nights to experience the valley during the harvest season.

Vines were starting to change color and Napa was just beautiful. We toured many different wineries, some large, some small, and ate fabulously. Some of my favorites were Cakebread, Darious, Opus, Twomey, Sterling & AlphaOmega. We went to dinner one night at a place called Martini House; the chef was amazing with his sea scallops, mushroom risotto(okay, I actually didn't like that, but I hate mushrooms), butternut squash soup, and what makes or breaks a restaurant?- the BREAD. We also went to a drive-up hamburger joint called Taylors. This place had amazing blue cheese burgers, chili cheese fries, and milkshakes.

Other highlights, besides the obvious of spending some quality family time, were going running through the vineyards and backroads, stomping grapes like Lucille Ball, stopping at In & Out, staying at the Harvest Inn(chocolate crossaints every morning!), and visiting the Junkers in Sacramento.

Three Weeks Coming..........

Sorry to have been absent for so long! We have had a revolving door here at the Jag Casa! So much fun, but no time to post with all of our company and a mini trip down to Napa to celebrate my dad's birthday with my whole family (minus kiddos).

Our first set of company were our friends Kristina and Jeff. I have been friends with Kristina since 9th grade when we started working at Covenant Harbor for our summers and then we went on to North Park University together too. Besides being a super cool rock star of a woman, she has been a constant in my life that I have always gotten strength from when I needed it. So, this trip was extra special in that she brought out Jeff to meet our family. We had a blast and so much fun getting to know him. They were also good sports going to all of our soccer and football (Greta was cheering there) games that go along with being parents to three!

Next came Kathy and Mark (Daron's sister and husband) from Chicago. Mark is completing his degree at North Park Seminary and Kathy is in her third year of medical school. They are so much fun and we all had such a good time together hanging out, going to more soccer games, and playing cards. They are such great help with the kids when they are here, so it was special for our kids to have that time with them and nice for us to get a little break here and there(we got to go on a date!) Alive Church also had an apple picking and cider pressing party, so it was really

fun for K & M to get a sense of what our church is about as well as meet some great people and drink some amazing cider! Yum!
After K & M left, that same day, Mary (Daron's mom), came for a visit and to watch the kids while we were in Napa. I have such a wonderful mother-in-law that would come out to do this. The kids had a blast doing crafts with her and talking her into going to the bakery, Subway, ice cream and the dollar store and reading lots of books. I think Grandma enjoys Captain Underpants more than the kids! They would say that is what Grandma's are for- sounds good to me!

More on Napa to come.........

Madeline

There is a little girl who I have seen around town at MOPS and other outings for the past three years that I would ask you to all pray for. Her name is Madeline and she is three years old and has already had numerous heart surgeries. Things are really bad right now and I can't imagine what this family is going through. I have met her mom, Cindy, on a few occasions and she has always struck me as an amazing, strong, fun woman of God. They are so hopeful and prayful - please pray for a miracle for Madeline and peace for her family. After reading their blog, it seems unbearable, tiring, and long! Here is the web site if you want to know more: www.madelinelester.com

Home Study

We had our 1st home study a couple of days ago for our adoption. I say first, because we forgot to ask how many more times, if any at all, that she comes. We must have fooled her because she said that she thought we would be a good family for our new child. All kidding aside, all went well and we thought really highly of the social worker. She has been with AAI for many years and was an African Studies Major, so she has a real heart for the continent. This is her first Ghanaian adoption, so she is excited as well to go through the process with us. She gave us some ideas of books to read and we told her of a documentary that we had just rented from Netflix. It is a documentary of a boy in Ghana that is disabled and has changed the mindset of many, not only in Ghana, but in the world. The movie is called Emmanuel's Gift. Emmanuel is disabled with only one leg and decides to bring awareness of the many disabled in Ghana by riding a bike across the country. He decided that he would never beg because he was disabled and found a way to do what all the other kids were doing, without complaining about his disability. Oprah narrates some of it and the movie shows a lot of the culture in Ghana, both in the capital city of Accra and out in villages.

Date Nights

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Like Mother, Like Daugher

I don't know if this is a good thing, but I think Greta is following in my footsteps.... Not only has she started playing soccer this year, but she also asked me to sign her up for the cheer camp that the high school was putting on last Sat. I played soccer through Junior High and was asked to join the travel team. My parents decided not to have me do it because they traveled on Sundays and they didn't want us to miss church. At least that is what they said. I think it was because they didn't want to miss the football games after church on tv (is that right mom and dad?). Anyway, I wanted to be a part of some team, so the next natural choice was cheerleading, of course. I went on to cheer for football and basketball for the next 6 years. "Gimme a G-R-E-T-A, GOOOOOOOO GRETA!"

Justimonte's Goal

I just happened to turn the video camera on when Justus scored a goal in the first half of the game. Justus played goalie the second half and didn't let anyone score on him and their team won, 3-2. This was his second game of the season and his second goal.........Yeah! I am allowed to brag about him on our blog, right? He didn't score at all last year, so he was pretty excited. Daron and I missed the first game, so it was nice to get this one on video. (Sorry about the high pitched scream on the video, but I guess that is what soccer moms do).

Blessed

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and something didn't feel right. I then noticed that there seemed to be an orange glow outside through the blinds. I got out of bed to look out our window and the house diagonally in back of us was up in flames! I have never seen anything like it, the flames were so high over the roof line. I woke Daron up and said, "The house was on fire!" Then I had to let him know after he jumped 5 ft. over to the window that I didn't mean our house, but the house outside. Still scary. The firetrucks weren't there yet and the whole roof was up in flames and one whole side of the house. By the time it was put out, the whole home was damaged. I still can't get that thought out of my head. Daron went over to the scene to see if he could help and the two people that lived in there got out safely and it looks like it was an electrical fire that must have started while they were sleeping; we will have to see. It really put things into perspective though and got me thinking about the fire safety we needed to go over with our kids. How quickly this house went up in flames and was unsalvageable within minutes. The sheriff came knocking on our door to make sure we were awake and ready to evacuate if the fire spread from the wind or trees. I really don't see, but by the grace of God, how none of the other homes were touched as close as we all are and how windy it was yesterday. It took me a while before I could go back to sleep around 5am after I triple-checked on our children and made sure the fire was out. I am so thankful that no one got hurt! Please keep the two young guys that lived there in your prayers.

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend we spent up at Cascades Camp in Yelm, WA near Mt. Rainer. It is a Covenant Camp and they hold an annual family camp during this weekend. Three families from our church all went up and we had a blast! We heard some great music, canoed, blobbed, climbed the iceberg, rode horses on an our trail ride, drove the Rubicon(4x4)'s, and also bobbed(that is Daron on the yellow bobber- He was the only one I saw that actually tipped it all the way over- what a stud!). Even though we camped, I have to admit that we got the meal plan, it was great! No cooking and some pretty good meals! Oh, and they received 3 thumbs up for their espresso stand! What is camping without a 16oz. nonfat latte in WA???

Back to School!

The new school year started yesterday and it has been so much fun for everyone already. The anticipation of who the teachers are going to be and which friends are going to be in their class was probably even more exciting for me. I always remember back-to-school with such great memories. We always got to pick out our school supplies and maybe a new outfit or two and it was so fun! I tried to make it as exciting for our kids, but I seriously think I enjoyed it more. We started out the morning with some eggs and bacon, a good midwestern start to the day! Then after taking the annual pics in front of our door, we were off to school. Unlike other children who were clinging to their parents, I had to remind them to give me a kiss good-bye at the classroom door. After the smooch, I was hightailing it down to my house for the 2nd Annual Back to School Mimosa Party that my friend Suzi and I co-host! Last year we were dropping off our kindergarteners and 1st graders and lamenting them being gone for a whole day. This year the toasts were much more enthusiastic to our cherished schedules we were getting back that we hold near and dear to our hearts. Cheers to the 2007-2008 school year!

2nd Annual Halverson "Boys" Fishing Trip

The guys all went up to Canada for three nights together to go fishing. They pulled out of Kingston early in the morning on the Nordic Dawg (my parent's boat). If you can't tell, the "Dawg" is for the Washington Huskies. Our fam are supporters of this team and we now have the boat to prove it- even a flag! Anyway, back to the 3 day excursion...... My dad, Brad, Erik, Joel, Daron and Justus all got to go for some male bonding. They went through the Vancouver check point and along the way saw some orcas, a seal pup, a starfish eating a crab, and fish, of course. Justus was in his element as you can see from the pictures! The trip ended with our Halverson Fantasy Football Draft! Go Lady Wildcats! (my team)