Christmas Letter

December 11, 2010

Merry Christmas! It is truly a Minnesota Christmas. As I write, we are experiencing one of the top 5 snowstorms in Minnesota history! Which means, my dear husband Chase is out plowing, has been for the past 17 hours, and probably will be for several more hours. Meanwhile, the kids and I hunkered down for a snowed-in day. I comforted Coleton, who was much distressed that our plans to go to “Grandma and Grandpa’s house” for the day were thwarted, by telling him that he and I would make “Homemade Candy Bars” when Sarina laid down for her nap. When the time came, and as we started the first steps on our bars, I was horrified to find that I had forgotten to buy a key ingredient at the grocery store: graham crackers! I considered making the drive to the store, but as I opened our garage door and found that the snow had drifted over 2 feet behind my Jeep, I realized that was not going to be an option. As a last resort, and for the sake of my almost-in-tears 4-year-old; I called the neighbor. “What do you need, Honey?...I have a whole box and I never use it...” Sweet neighbors are so wonderful!!! I told Coleton to stay and watch over Sarina while I walked across the street. “Okay. I will go check on her,” he said in a serious take-responsibility tone. Snow was blowing hard, and I sunk through over knee-deep snow just to get across the street, but the afternoon was salvaged. Later, we watched “Christmas at Plum Creek” from “Little House on the Prairie, Season 1”. Although it’s not a Christmas classic, it’s my all-time favorite Christmas movie. As little Carrie asks, “What’s Christmas?” Pa explains to her that Christmas is about God sending His Son to earth, and that on Christmas we celebrate Jesus’ birthday. As plans are carried out to buy each other extra-special gifts for Christmas, it touches my heart to the point of tears as the love each shows for one another far outweighs any thoughts they have for themselves. Later, Carrie uses her penny to buy a star for their tree, which she says is a present for Baby Jesus. The movie ends with Carrie looking up at her star and saying, “Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!” How good it is to be reminded that, of all the gifts we receive, the very best gift of all is God’s gift to us: His Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. Also, sometimes it takes the simple insight of a toddler to remind us that, of all the wonderful things that happen at Christmas, our celebration is all about Jesus’ birth.

Looking back on the year, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for sustaining us, blessing us, and challenging us to grow! Despite our country’s economic struggle, the Lord has faithfully provided work for Chase. How many times, when work has been slow or the budget has been tight have we been reminded that the Lord has NEVER not provided for all our needs plus some extras on the side. Chase continues to work for his dad’s company, Crown Excavating, doing excavating and even more landscaping this past year. He also keeps busy during the winter months plowing snow. He loves to hunt, both with bow and gun. No luck this year, but our freezer still holds plenty of venison from last year. He also enjoyed playing softball this past summer on a team with his brothers. With all the activities he enjoys, we are blessed that he faithfully puts his family first, and he takes good care of us all.

As my children grow too fast, I become more grateful every year that I get to spend most of my days home with them. Every day is full of wonder, new phrases, hilarious happenings, and yes (lest you think we’re not human) moments of wanting to scream. Being a mom is definitely challenging, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world!!! I continue to teach piano lessons and love it. A highlight of my week is when Chase takes me out on a date and we just get to spend one-on-one time together - away from the home I love, but that beckons me to its many projects; and away from the children we love. Being a mom is priceless, but I find that the best gift I can give to my children is to be a wife first and foremost (not to mention, it just feels special to be dated).

Coleton turned 4 this past November! He has grown up so much this year. It is so fun to have conversations with him throughout the day. He got goldfish for his birthday, and he loves to watch them and take care of them. His favorite places to go are Culver’s, McDonald’s, and Cabela’s - to see the animals and fish. He is very protective of Sarina, and they have become the best of friends. They spend most of their days just playing together. We continue on with Coleton’s Immune Tolerance Therapy (I.T.T.). Overall, his hematologist has been very happy with how things have gone, though we have had some setbacks throughout the process. We continue to give him factor daily (via needle through his port) and one oral immune suppressant. The inhibitor has been held at bay, but still lingers. The coming year will likely hold many decisions to be made regarding his treatment, and we would be grateful for your prayers for wisdom as those decisions are made. We thank God for another year of minimal bleeds and protection over Coleton! He is a real sweetie and brings so much joy into our family!

“Sarina-Bean” was 2 in July. She loves to jump, dance, and sing. She is talking so much more these days. She is our wiggle-worm, hardly ever wanting to sit still for more than a couple seconds; but she has her moments of loving to cuddle, and we often hear, “Wanna cuddle!” She loves her big brother and calls him “my Coleton”. She is daddy’s little princess and loves her daddy’s kisses, from butterfly kisses and eskimo kisses to princess kisses and monster kisses. Her melt-your-heart charmer smile, which also doubles as her mischievous gotta-love-me smile, is almost impossible not to fall for. She brings a lot of life into our home, and we all love her so much!

Sarina is also excited to be a big sister! Yes, we are expecting a new little bundle of blessing in June 2011! Praise the Lord, the first trimester is over, and now I’m just waiting for that 2nd trimester energy-burst so we can start preparing our home to accomodate 3 little ones. We’re ecstatic! Each life is so precious.

We hope this Christmas finds you rejoicing in the reality and the awesomeness of Christ’s birth and the hope of salvation that He brings into this world!

With Much Love From Our Home to Yours,

Sarah, for all of us

Chase, Sarah, Coleton, Sarina and Baby

Best Buds

Coleton's cousin, Clayton, holds his hand while Coleton gets one of his daily infusions. Actually, this was the second one of the day, because we were treating for an ankle bleed. The boys were excited to see each other again after a long time apart.

"Two Peas in a Pod"

I'm so glad Chase was home from his scouting trip! He almost always does the infusions when he's home, giving me a break and keeping his skills sharp, and does a great job!

Please pray for Coleton, as he's been struggling more and more lately with fear of getting poked with the needle. He does great up until the point that we need to put the needle in, and then he squirms and lately has been trying to hold our hands away from him. It makes things very difficult and it has been hard to see his anxiety increasing. Thank you for praying!

Update on Coleton

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Coleton! We saw his hematologist on Monday and she told us that the reactions that Coleton has been having when he gets a factor infusion and the lab results that have been showing his factor levels are lower than they were earlier this year, both tell us that the inhibitor is back, though it is "keeping a low profile" and is not having a dramatic effect on his treatment. Coleton is on one immune suppressant medication, which he takes twice a day orally. His hematologist is going to be talking to some immunologists to see if there are other immune suppressants we should try. Also, because of the reactions he has been having, he gets a small dose of Benadryl before each infusion now, though so far we haven't seen much change since he started that. The new plan, as of Monday, is that we're going to be giving him factor infusions daily (vs. 3x/week) for a while to see if we can't stop the reactions. Please pray for wisdom and insight for Coleton's hematologist as she seeks counsel from other doctors and continues to ponder Coleton's situation. Please pray against anxiety for Coleton. He does pretty well, but he does get anxious before getting an infusion. Please pray for peace and wisdom for Chase and me as we care for Coleton. Thank you so much for praying!

Quote of the Day

Coleton: "Mommy, do you know that Grandma got a 'squito bite from a dog?!"

(Awaiting explanation, Mom.)

Sarina is Two Today!

I can hardly believe she's two! I didn't plan anything special for today, because we're going to be celebrating with family in a few days, and (quite honestly) I almost forgot that today is the actual day! So, Chase had the grand idea of putting a candle in her oatmeal this morning and the 3 of us sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

In these past two years, Sarina has developed into a sweetheart and a spitfire. She recently moved out of her crib and into the toddler bed. We are in the process of potty training, and she seems to be catching on. As I was getting her ready for her nap today, I was about to help her get her Pull-Up on, and she said, “No. I do it myself!” (This is her new favorite line.) As she puts it on, this was our conversation:

Sarina: “It’s diaper.”

Me: “No. It’s actually a Pull-Up.”

Sarina: “No! It’s diaper!”

Me: “No. It’s kind of like a diaper, but it’s called a Pull-Up.”

Sarina: “Oh. Pull-Up?”

Sarina: (Now as she stands I pull her Pull-Up up.) “Oh-weee-so-fun!”

I started laughing. Coleton (who had just been crying because he didn’t want to take a nap) asked me what she said, so I told him, and he starts cracking up.

Just a few pictures I took today of my two kiddos on the front step...

P.S. Notice the flowers. I mean, put it on record that they're alive and thriving. I think this is the first year I've kept my flowers alive this long. (In all honestly, some of them did get scorched when I forgot to water a few days, and I had to pull them out.)

Doing Dishes with Grandpa & Grandma

Sarina is so into helping and doing things by herself lately, so Grandma let her "help" with dishes. She was making a huge mess, but I wasn't going to interfere, so long as my mom didn't mind. It was driving me nuts, but dare I "stifle her creativity"!? This would not happen at my house, but of course things are different at Grandma & Grandpa's house - a lot more fun! Note: it is my mom's idea for Sarina to get Grandpa wet. And when Grandpa returns later with towels, Sarina remembers what she's suppose to do! (Notice I'm kind of freaking out in the background. I was actually controlling myself quite a bit.)

Biscuits & Potty Training

Saturday morning Chase made us breakfast. He's such a loving husband and does this many times so that I can have the luxury of sleeping in. This breakfast, however, I had to blog about. Chase is great in the kitchen, and sometimes he experiments with new things. This morning he tried making biscuits from scratch, just using the recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook. They were out of this world, the best biscuits I've ever had! We had them with butter and All Fruit ("don't ever call it jelly"), and I felt like I was having dessert for breakfast! I knew as soon as I tasted them that I had to take a picture and brag about my chef husband! Thanks, Honey! You're the best! (I won't mention anything about my being in the kitchen for the next hour cleaning up. ;-)

Today, I decided to put Sarina in underwear. We've been having her try going on the potty sporadically, just to get her started on the idea, but I've never put her in underwear or been consistent about having her go. I've been feeling like she might be ready, so today I decided I should just get her in underwear and get more serious about training. She hasn't had an accident all morning and she's gone right away all 4 times I've put her on the potty. So, I'm cautiously optimistic. This is definitely not the way it went for Coleton.

I’ve also had another, greater blessing this morning. Most of the morning, Coleton and Sarina have been playing together, independent from me, but very engaged with each other. At one point, I realized I hadn’t seen them in a while and it was fairly quiet in the house. I walked into their room to see that Coleton had been reading Sarina books for apparently quite a while. Throughout the morning, they’ve been playing together with this toy or that. Coleton has also been a great encourager to Sarina with the potty training. Every time she goes, I give them both an M&M. (I don’t want him to feel left out, as he is already trained and doesn’t have the same opportunity to earn the M&M.) So now, when I tell her to sit on the potty, he goes and watches her, and if she doesn’t go right away he says, “Did you go? Oh, not yet. Sit on the potty a little longer, so you can go pee-pee and get a M&M.” (I'm sure there's no ulterior motive involved.) There's little that brings as much joy as seeing my children love each other. I pray that my children will be the best of friends!