Projects complete!

After hours and hours of mudding, sanding, texturizing, priming, and painting our 95 year old house with it's fair share of charachter cracks..here are our children's rooms-The girls room...

Juleah picked out the accent purple wall color

Clara likes to say "Pink and purple are my favorite"

Here is Nolan's room-we have added a shelf under his name. The train on the heat register-belonged to his father. So does his bassinet!

Here is the much awaited finished room!

Nolan's First Week

Proud Father

The back seat of our car-maxed out!

Nolan's first bath-I am loving his hair!

Precious!

Our adorable children-the smiles the bring!

My thoughts on turning 30

My husband waited at he top of the stairs. I asked why? He said he needed to say good-night(as we part ways so myself and the girls don't breath in the fresh smell of paint from the babies room). He continued, "because tomorrow you will never be he same again." Deep down that sounded like a dream come true-like tomorrow I will magically arrive in this life. But truthfully we both know that tomorrow will come and go and I will be the same old me, but instead of being 29, I will be 30! I looked at Ryan and said, can you believe you met me when I was 19? I can still clearly remember having my 20th birthday party after my college hockey game-dinner at the nearby steak house with my parents and boyfriend Ryan of three weeks. My mom and dad had bought me a nice watch-TIME! Wow-ten years-that goes fast, and yet a lot has happened in ten years. Many new experiences, fulfill dreams I still hadn't even dreamed at age 20, some things and many people have even came and left my life all in that 10 years. So I then said to Ryan "If those ten years came and left so fast, what about the next? Suddenly 40 doesn't seem so far away!" His response left me dead in my tracks, "just think Juleah will be a teenager in 10 years!" Now that is alarming! Maybe it is the everydayness of being a stay at home mom, hardly ever leaving her side-not knowing more than a few days without her constant presence in 4 years, I have accepted that she is old enough for Awana Cubbies and notice daily that she is growing like a weed, but the thought that my first baby I still remember holding the night she came home from the hospital might actually become a teenager-shocking! So it is starting to all make sense-why is it that my Grandma Larson can so quickly and easily say "This too shall pass." If I can hardly comprehend how life has so come and gone in ten years (not to mention 30) and I can only kinda anticipate what God willing the next ten might bring-then surely my 79 year old Grandma has experienced enough to confidently say in times of challenge and tribulation "This too shall pass." And right now that is what I need to tell myself-no-I won't sleep in the living room with my two girls forever, and the snow may eventually melt! This baby Lord willing will eventually come out of my body on the very minute God has already ordained. Someday I won't own two houses, and some day we will tell stories and laugh of having three car seats in the back seat of my 4 door car. Someday the decision to home school or not will be a life reality and not a question, and someday I will no longer produce babies or milk. Looking back at ten overall great years of my life, with a few life lessons under my belt. I can look forward and confidently remind myself these light and momentary afflictions will someday pass. Turning 30-scary? No-bring it on!

Merry Christmas!

Family and friends,

Our 2009 has seen many wonderful experiences and we look forward to many more in 2010. As a family we have grown, served, pioneered and been challenged in different areas, but we have done it all together.

We have hiked through Kilen Woods State Park (and toted Clara on our backs part of the way); explored the world of animals during a day at the Minnesota Zoo; climbed, balanced and vaulted around a gymnastics floor with the LaMotte cousins; walked a picturesque Halloween trail with cousin Reagan; enjoyed the fun and food of a few days at the county fair with Auntie Angie; dug into numerous gardening endeavors at Grandma Leah's; and often strolled the meandering trails in Jackson.

Clara, our just-turned-2 sweet pea and snuggle bug, prefers to spend her days on Mom's or Dad's lap with a pile of books. She can keep up with Juleah in most areas, including counting. She did not like the idea of pursuing hockey until she saw the boys playing and realized more of the action and checking that was involved. So do not be deceived; our innocent little blonde-haired, blue-eyed "shy" girl could talk your ear off and has a wild side in her that often comes out in daring tricks, including jumping and turning anything into a balance beam.

Juleah, nearing her fourth birthday, started hockey this year in nearby Windom and progressed from holding a chair to tip-toeing to skating with some glide in a matter of a few weeks. In the moments she gets off the ice to give her doll a hug and then returns to skate, we try to remind ourselves that she is only 3 years old. As Clara has grown up, we have seen her and Juleah develop a deep companionship. They are the best of friends and each others' No. 1 competition. Including vying for the chance to open the door for Dad first or to get the next turn of dancing with him in the living room.

Juleah also gets her thrills in the AWANA Cubbies club her mom directs, in her Sunday school hour and running the hallways at church with her buddies. She enjoys weekly visits to the library too, especially because it's just walking distance from our house and offers lots of movies to pick from.

Ryan, as news editor of the Jackson County Pilot and Lakefield Standard, got to shoot hundreds of photos of the city dam being ripped out, ride in a snowplow during a blizzard, roam the race track pits during the Jackson Nationals, join the set of a Duracell commercial that will air nationwide on New Year's Day and join controlled burn specialists in the middle of a prairie as they set it afire. After work hours, he directed the weekly AWANA game times, participated in a Men's Fraternity at church, topped several of his cousins in regular season fantasy football play and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with his family. On one outing to the river, Juleah finally let him try fishing after she caught two catfish before he ever got his line in the water.

Jody, who closed the daycare chapter of her career halfway through 2009, found an avenue to turn her passions in health and nutrition and helping others into a family-friendly career that kicked off with a trip to Baltimore this fall. She also enjoyed her weekend away at the Hearts at Home motherhood retreat, which was highlighted by speaker Kevin Leman and opportunities to visit with Iowa friends. She pioneered the AWANA Cubbies ministry at our church with a small group of kids and has enjoyed reliving her memories as a long-time AWANA clubber.

Our family eagerly awaits a little boy who is expected Feb. 26 (however if he waited until March it would keep the birthday months even). It has been a very healthy pregnancy and we are blessed with a like-minded doctor. Our little boy is sure to receive lots of love from two motherly big sisters when they are not running off with his pacifier, the prized posession of our house.

Merry Christmas and may you have a fulfilling 2010!

Ryan, Jody, Juleah and Clara Brinks

Playing with our cousins!

What a fun place to play! An indoor playground saves a cold day!

The "older" girls Juleah 3 1/2, Brianna 4 1/2, Sidney Almost 5

A train of fun!

Party on! As Juleah would say.

Summer Fun!

Here are my motorcycle mamas!

We are at our favorite place in Jackson - "The blue park!"

This is the park that put Jackson on the map for city girl Jody and little Juju justa little more than a year before we moved here as it was our break for dinner and some activity on our 5 hour car ride back to IA. When Ryan mentioned the prospect of moving to Jackson a year later I asked, "is that the little city on the way home from you parents house with that big blue park-seems nice?" Two years and a little more insight later thankfully I still think it's nice, little, but nice!

Summer Fun!

Summer fun at the Jackson County Fair!

Clara our sweet pea!

A week of High Power Soccer kept us kickin'! Auntie Angie was here that week to enjoy VBS soccer and the fair-did we mention we also went to a Go Fish concert! Girls night out-full of fun!
It wouldn't be right to live 30 min. from the Laura Ingalls Pageant and not take my two girls!