Christmas jammies

What's goin' on here?

Last Friday Roland stayed home in the morning to study. I set the girls up in the family room to play and read and ran downstairs to get the big kids started on their school work. A little while later I came up to check on the girls and found this scene.
"What's goin' on here?" I asked Roland through the door.
"Oh, well, the girls slide their hands under the door and wait for me to give them a piece of candy!"
I had to smile as I thought, Is this the same daddy who insisted, just a few months ago, that there would be no interruptions while he studies?!

We are so thankful for how the Lord has answered prayer in regards to Emily and Ashley's relationship with Roland. They run to greet him when he comes home from work. They go to him and sit on his lap. They love for him to throw them up in the air. We are feeling more and more like a family....
Thank you, God.

The boys go to Seattle!

Last weekend Roland and Cade went to Seattle for the 49er/Seahawks game. It was a very special father/son time. They hada great weekend together-even though the 49ers lost.

My dad is home!

My dad was able to come home from the hospital on Tuesday. We are so thankful for this answer to prayer! He didn't have to go to St. Luke's like was originally planned, so that's great too! He came home with oxygen and is quite weak, but he felt like he could get more rest at home than at the hospital. And the bonus is now the kids can visit him. 16 days of not being able to see grandpa in the hospital was hard on them.
Thanks for praying!

Update on my dad

My dad was moved out of the ICU on Monday. He is now on the cardiac floor. He has the ventilator out and one of the chest tubes. He is recovering slowly-eating soft foods and sitting up. Hopefully in the next day or two he will get the remaining two chest tubes out and be able to start walking. Thanks for your prayers.

My dad

We would appreciate your prayers for my dad right now. He went in for a relatively "simple" hernia repair on Monday. There were complications with the surgery-uncontrolled bleeding, low blood pressure, a collapsed lung. He never made it out of the recovery room, but instead the surgeon did a second surgery to try and find out the cause of the bleeding. He has been sedated and on a ventilator and in the ICU since. They are supposed to extubate him next Tues. (They've postponed it several times.) Today they discovered that he's running a fever and has an infection-somewhere.
Please pray for his recovery, for my mom, and for our family as we try to care for both my mom and dad.

Hope, Idaho

We just got back from a week in Hope, Idaho. We stayed in a condo on Lake Pend Orielle. We played lots of games, watched movies, played by the lake. Though it obviously isn't "beach weather", the kids still had a blast building "dams" and playing in the sand.