Birthday Letters

Yesterday I dug into our lock box to find Glenn's pin for his FAFSA and I saw the kid's birthday letters. Lydia's birthday was just a couple weeks ago and I knew that we hadn't gotten her 7^th birthday letter out but I didn't realize that we hadn't read Caleb's 10^th (from July), Hannah's 8^th (from August) or Abigail's 5^th (from November) either. Birthday letters are a fun Nelson family tradition. At baby showers for Nelson babies we write letters to the soon to be born babies giving them advice, telling funny stories from when we were that age, explaining milestones that they would probably be reaching in the year to come, or explaining what is going on in the world or their lives at the time they wrote the letters. I always love reading the kids' birthday letters with them. The girl's birthday letters were all written for them after they were born (around their 1^st birthdays) so people knew a bit about them but Caleb's are more generic because when his were written at my family shower a month before he was born we didn't even know if we were having a boy or a girl. 

Birthday letters are treasures. Sometimes we have to explain who wrote the letters and what part they had in our lives at the time that the letters were written. I love Lydia's letters because she has letters from both sides of the family written when some of Glenn's family came in for his graduation from Houghton. I love getting a chance to read stories from his grandpas' childhoods that I never heard growing up. Since the envelopes are closed we never know until when we open them who they are from (unless the writer decided to decorate the outside somehow). I am sometimes slightly apprehensive opening birthday letters not knowing whether they may be from a loved one who has passed on (like Caleb's 4^th birthday letter from my mom.) There is joy in that too because having those letters is like a message of hope from beyond the grave. Looking at Caleb's always gives me a little ache in my heart because my mom wrote the numbers on all his envelopes. How I miss getting notes in her handwriting!

The letters we opened yesterday were fun. Here are some excerpts:

* Caleb's was from my friend Cindy from high school. She told of some of our high school Bible study (Addicted to Jesus) and told him that he is a gift from God and that the Lord is his Father who will guide his life everyday.

* Hannah's was from my Aunt AmyJo. She talked about some of the great things about being an 8 year old girl – “tea parties, pretty pictures, hand picked flowers and helping Mom,” asked if she had accepted Jesus as her Savior and asked if she was thinking about getting baptized. She shared her favorite verse (Jer.29:11) and asked her to be sure to give Glenn a wet willy.

* Lydia's was from my Grandpa Ed. “This is a little advice from your 80 year old Grandpa Nelson – seven years from now I maybe with the Lord only because I accepted Jesus as my Savior – I am Grandpa Roger's Father- I don't know what your world will be like when you open this letter – but I do know that if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior – All things will work together for you for all of your life – May the Lord give you the best in the years to come. All my love to you Grandpa Ed Nelson” Little did he know when he wrote this letter on Lydia's 1^st birthday that he would still be alive on when we opened it on her 7^th and my dad would be in glory.

* Abigail's was from my Aunt Joy. She told her that she hopes she loves school and reading. “A good reader is a good speller. So read, read, read...” Aunt Joy told her “I love your name – It means 'source of joy.' That makes you close to my heart.”

Is it any wonder that we look on these letters are treasures? Is it any wonder that I store them in our fireproof lockbox? When they are out of the lock box I am usually begged to read them over and over again, all of the from the first to whatever age they just turned. I am so thankful for this tradition. I have tried to encourage other to do it as well. I had birthday letters growing up and I remember loving them. We were never prompt with opening them so we usually opened 2-3 each when they were pulled out but they were fun. I think that they were probably burned or landfilled when we were emptying my parents' house which is sad but I am glad that I have the ones written for our kids.

A Thief in the Night

I guess that this is the sequel to "A Thief in the Day" from last summer. The kids have been passing around a a stomach bug and since it was nice on Sunday we opened the windows to try to blow the germs out. Before going to bed Sunday night Glenn took extra care to make sure that the door was locked because Abigail was sleeping downstairs because she still didn't feel very good and he thought that it would be awful if someone came into house and did something to his little girl. We had closed the windows but didn't think to lock them. On Monday morning I went downstairs to start Glenn's birthday cinnamon rolls and wondered why the screen was missing on the living room window and why Glenn's hiking backpack was outside on the ground. I was still pretty sleepy but Glenn came downstairs to look around and asked "Where's the Mac? Where's our camera?" GONE! and my purse was dumped and rooted through.... Ugggg. At least we still had our cell phones this time so I called 911 right away. The scariest thing to me is that Abigail was asleep on the chair downstairs and the thief must have walked right past her. Anything could have happened to her!! So scary! The police and tactical unit came and we discovered that our camera was not taken, somehow it had stayed in my purse when the thief dumped it, that was a praise. I feel so violated again. I am so thankful that God kept Abigail safe. I don't know what I would do if something had happened to her. She didn't have any idea that someone came into our house. I am so thankful! In my unease I went to the Psalms - one of my favorites is Psalm 46 and so whenever I felt ill at ease I just said over and over again "God is my refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." It was such a comfort. God is in control and allowed this to happen. We are thankful that it was just our laptop and not our kids. The other things that we are missing are my phone charger and Glenn's watch. Definitely not as bad as it could have been.

We were planning on heading to Syracuse to find a place to live yesterday but instead spent the day canceling credit cards, signing up for LifeLock because our tax forms with all 6 SS numbers were saved on our computer, calling pawn shops and generally feeling pretty unsafe in our home. I locked the door and windows when I was not downstairs which I never have done before. We really live in a very safe neighborhood but the lilac festival starts soon and there are people all over the park getting ready for it and I am assuming someone just took advantage of the situation. I just need to be more careful. It was an expensive lesson to learn but it could have been SO much worse! I laughed because many people told me that they hope that the next place we live is much safer and I am certain that the neighborhood we move to in Syracuse won't be nearly as safe as this one but I will be more careful. Our neighbors all told me that we need a dog. If we did have a dog I really doubt that anyone would have come into the house this time or back in August. Maybe we should get a dog but we can't commit to that unless we know that we are allowed to where ever we are living. One thing at a time.

The evening was much better. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for Glenn's birthday dinner then had our small group over for cake and ice cream and a walk in beautiful Highland Park. I am so thankful for our dear friends who are such a blessing to us!

So today... I trust God that He loves us and has good plans for us and will work all things out for His honor and glory. We lost a lot of information in losing our laptop but it is OK. We still have our kids and we are still safe in the hands of our gracious God.

Eight is Great!

Caleb turned 8 today and we had a fun day. First thing this morning after he had enjoyed his birthday cinnamon roll (here he is picking out the biggest one) he and I went to the Public Market to get veggies for supper. It was fun to go just the two of us while Glenn was home with the girls. After we got home Caleb opened a couple of gifts that we had given him (here he is with his old army t-shirt that he used to wear all the time that Hannah, Glenn, and I made into a pillow for him) then we all went to the movies to watch Charlotte's Web (the real people one) which was Caleb's pick of the free movies available at the theater this week. It was really funny. We all enjoyed it. Then we got subs from Wegmans for lunch (yum!!) and Glenn went to talk to someone about a laptop that he found on Craigslist then headed home. All three of the girls took a nap and Caleb and I

I am interrupted by announcement... Hannah just came in to tell me that they usually watch TV from the house next door after they go to bed but there is no movie on it tonight. Oh my, what else do I not know goes on around here?? :)

Where was I? Oh yeah, Caleb and I read a couple of books together and we all tried to find our house so that there was a place for people to walk around and sit down amidst all of our boxes and packing unknown stuff and started supper.

One of Caleb's best friends this year has been Will Dudley from our church so we invited his family over to enjoy his birthday supper (Hawaiian Haystacks!!) with us. Kristina Lishawa and our neighbor, "Miss Betty" came too. Chaos reigned in our house (I know, what is new?) as we had a good time with good food and good friends. Along with Hawaiian Haystacks we also had watermelon and Caleb made Strawberry Fizz (a recipe from the Redwall Cookbook that he checked out of the library). After supper and opening a few gifts we had cake and ice cream. Caleb wanted a Cars cake. He really wanted Mater on it but I could only find Lighting McQueen. I think that the cake turned out pretty cute. It was really easy too, just two circle cakes put together with melted chocolate chips brushed on for a road. He enjoyed it and my favorite part was it was shaped like an 8 for my 8 year old!

I think that he had a really fun birthday. He is such a great kid and such a great big brother. I am so proud to be his mom! I can't believe he is already 8!!

This last picture is of our kids giving Miss Betty a hug good bye. She lives in the house next door to our driveway and we often see her when we go out for walks in the park. She is a sweet little old lady whom we have grown to love as we have gotten to know her over the last few months. We are really going to miss her when we move! It is because of Betty that we have decided to adopt "grandparents" where ever we live. It has been such a blessing to get to know her and I know that the kids especially have been a blessing to her as well. We will probably never live near grandparents again but there will always be lonely older people in our neighborhood where ever we live. My little sweeties work their way into everyone's hearts and God can use us to be a blessing to our "grandparents" and I know that it will teach my kids a lot too.

Lydia's 3 Years Old!

Our kids get Bob and Larry cakes for their 3rd birthday and Lydia was no exception! She has been saying "My birthday coming up soon!" ever since Christmas because she knows that her birthday is the next one after Jesus' birthday. She has been picking out random items at every store we have gone to and saying "Me want that for my birthday." We celebrated Lydia's birthday on Sunday afternoon with a birthday party at Paul and AmyJo's house. The party was also to celebrate Sonja's brother Russell's graduation from his Masters. Lydia had fun playing with cousins and eating Cheesy Puffs. She loved her Bob and Larry cakes and practiced blowing out candles all afternoon whenever she saw one lit anywhere. We also went sledding down Grandpa Roger's driveway and had a tea party with Lydia's new princess tea set. On Monday, her actual birthday, she opened presents after her birthday supper of hot dogs and bread and cheese fondue. The three girls are showing off their new sweatshirts from Grandma and Grandpa Maas and Caleb has on his that he got from them at Christmas time. They are excited to have pink hoodies to wear together! Lydia, our "Pixie Dust," had a very fun birthday and is excited to be 3!
I am also including a picture of Hannah and Lydia as flower girls from Dan and Laura Kilpatrick's wedding on the 17th. Hannah was giving Lydia a little hug and pep talk before walking down the aisle. They were cute and did a great job.

Princess Hannah is 4

Hannah turned 4 on August 26th. She wanted to be a princess and have a princess cake. Glenn likes the picture of the cake by itself because he thinks it looks like it is coming to get you. Hannah had fun at her party with her cousins (actually Sonja's cousins) Kyle and Ehren, her Aunt Amy Jo, Great Grandparents: Ed & Jean Nelson, Eileen Hansen, and Earl & Ruth Reynolds, and Grandpa Roger and Teena. We can't believe she is already 4!!

Caleb's 6

Caleb turned 6 on July 15th. We started the day with a waffle breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's pool with lots of fruit and whipped cream for toppings. Afterwards the kids swam with their cousins Kyle and Ehren. We didn't figure birthday cake went too well with breakfast so we had cake and ice cream Sunday afternoon and Sonja's 3 grandparents were able to join us. Caleb wanted a boat cake and it turned out pretty cute with 3 little people made of starbursts. Glenn was quite proud of his rescue ring. Caleb loved the cake and said the people were himself, Hannah and Lydia and they each got to eat themselves. Caleb's favorite gift was little Army men sized cowboys and indians that have had skirmishes all over our house. You can see them on the table in front of his cake.