New glasses

Greetings!

The big news for the crew this week is Elsa's smashing new glasses!  She loves them!  Her new glasses are purple and pink.  The picture of her and Jonas on the stairs shows off her new specs.  She is really proud of them and we think they look great!

Elsa has become really interested in being a doctor.  She loves to make diagnoses when something happens and then take charge.  Dan had a cut on his hand this week and Elsa jumped up and ordered him to wash the cut off and then she applied a Band-Aid to it!  Way to go Elsa!

Jonas is really curious about how adding works.  He will continually ask math addition problems at various times around the house.  "What is three plus four?"  He will then solve the problems and be satisfied for a bit and then ask another problem.  It is great!

We are doing lots of word and letter work with the kids now and they are really starting to make connections between letters and words out and about to what they are learning in school.  It is a fun time to see them learning so much!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Pumpkins!

Greetings! 
Fall has arrived!  School is back in session and Jonas and Elsa are learning tons.  They really starting to show all those cool pre-reading signs...recognizing letters and numbers when we are out and about...recognizing words that are parts of brands they know (sigh)...etc.  It is very exciting to seem them learn and learn and learn.

Mari and Dan had a chance to speak this week at PLU about some of their experiences with Jonas and Elsa.  It was a really wonderful day to visit PLU and share our stories.  Dan is not much of a planner for speeches and Mari likes to map out the direction of a speech so we were so happy that it all came together! :) :).  (Dan would rather bring a guitar and sing a couple of silly songs about triangles or cats).  It was great to share how our faith gave us strength when we were weak...and in some ways how we can be a strength to others that might be at a moment where they are weak. 

Jonas and Elsa went to the pumpkin patch and picked out some winners!  We spent our Saturday morning carving a piggy pumpkin and a silly/scary face pumpkin.  They kids were very happy with their final results!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

And the band played on...

Greetings!
What an amazing week of celebrations!

Wednesday, Elsa and Jonas helped their grandma Charlene celebrate her retirement.  We went to Gram's retirement party in Olympia and celebrated!  Elsa and Jonas loved seeing her and her (now former) coworkers celebrate her career. 

Thursday, Elsa and Jonas and Mari and Dan sang at a fundraising event for the hospital where the kids spent five months in the NICU.  It was a very special evening and we couldn't be prouder of how well our kids did at the event.  It was great to give our time and energy to such a worthy cause of building a new state of the art NICU. 

To see Mari's speech and our songs...click this link to go to youtube.

Friday, we had a play date and dinner with friends!  It was good to play and relax with the kids!

We made it to the weekend and we were tired.  Lots of naps for all!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

The band broke up...and then we got back together (during one song)

Greetings!
The days start to fly by once we are all back in school.  Elsa and Jonas are loving school this year and really look forward to it!  Jonas sometimes needs some reminding in the morning before he is fully awake, but once they step into the school it is all smiles. 

We were asked to sing a couple of songs at a fundraiser event for the new NICU.  We are thrilled!  The past several weeks the Lysne band has been practicing.  A lot of songs currently end before they begin...one of the kids wants to start the song and the other is upset because they didn't get to start the song...and attempts at unified starting have not, yet, been successful.  We sing later this week and it will be a blast...but we are going to forewarn the audience that multiple breakups in the band can and will happen during each song. 

We are also battling the first colds of the school year.  Our tissue supply is quickly running out! 

All is well...all is great!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Scones and Cow-Chip Cookies--it is fair time!

Greetings!

Elsa and Jonas had a great time at the Puyallup Fair!  We took them on opening weekend and were pleasantly surprised by the relatively small crowd!  The tractor ride was a big hit, as well as, the pig palace!  The kids wanted to stay all day and do "one more thing" but were so tired and took well earned naps.  We managed to avoid all fried food at the fair...not an easy task when there is deep fried butter on offer.  Elsa and Jonas split their first "Cow-chip cookie" and loved it.  Mari and Dan stuck with the scones. 

Dan's Uncle Bob sent up a nice present for E & J.  He sent up a really nice train set.  Elsa and Jonas had a great time the past two weekends driving the train around the track and switching the "points".  We have a good little team most of the time and it is a lot of fun to see them think about how their decisions impact the speed and direction of the train and if it will stay on the tracks:).  Good times!

One week of school down for everyone and we are off to a great year!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

School is in session

Greetings!

Jonas and Elsa have returned to another year of preschool.  This year the first drop off of the year was so different than previous years.  The first year of day-care, there was a look of disbelief as Dan headed towards the exit and said goodbye to E and J.  They were convinced that he was going to take them with him and that they were just visiting the day-care.  There were tears and crying.  It was not a good scene.

This year, Jonas and Elsa ran through the door and were as happy as could be to be back at their school.  They had a great short week this past week at school and are excited to go back next week. 

Grandma Lysne got them little back to school presents to help with the transition.  They loved them!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas