Christmas Letter and Pictures

It has been a LONG time since I have written. We went on vacation and I was pregnant most of the year, so that is my excuse:)
Here is our 2013 Christmas letter with a few pictures of our boys!

See how God, for us providing, Gave His Son and life abiding;

He our weary steps is guiding From earth's woe to heav'nly joy.

While there certainly are times of woe here on earth, the Lord also blesses us with many joys. One such blessing is an addition to our family, another son, Matthias Rahn. He was born on November 26th (2 weeks early! 7.14lbs and 19.5 inches)and born again in Holy Baptism on Dec. 8th. We are so thankful that Matthias is healthy and we look forward to life with the 3 boys!

Abel is now a big 5 year old. We started homeschooling this year and he has been doing a great job, reading is just around the corner for him (which will be great for him and me!). He has been taking horse back riding lessons. The teacher says he talks the whole time, but does a great job. In Sept. Abel took a trip to WA to spend some time with my mom. He was there for 10 days by himself before Elisha and I flew up. He had a great time and didn't miss us at all! Abel is very into pirates right now. For his birthday Samuel took him to a junior production of Pirates of Penzance. He enjoyed it a lot (he has seen the TV version so many times that he often hums the theme song while playing!). We also had a pirate themed birthday party for him, complete with a treasure hunt and a treasure chest (made by Samuel out of cardboard and duct tape!). Abel is a great big brother!

Elisha is 20 months old now. He doesn't talk yet, but makes certain you know what he wants/needs. He is very into animals and animal sounds. His most used word right now is “mom”. I'm pretty sure that word means most things to him (I'm hungry, thristy, diaper change, look at this, etc.), but it is nice to hear (even if it is all day long!). When he isn't saying “mom, Mom, MOM,” he likes to ROAR! He is in love with his baby brother. He enjoys holding Matthias and giving him kisses all over. Often he will get upset when it is Mom's turn to hold the baby.

Samuel is kept busy with church work and also tutoring local children in math and English. Like years before we made two trips for Samuel's conferences. The first was to the Tacoma area where we were graciously hosted by the Faugstad family once again. Samuel delivered a paper at this conference. We were also able to visit many family members and spend a week with my mom. In June we took our trip to Minnesota for the annual ELS Convention where we were able to spend time with Samuel's side of the family and also many friends, including the MacPherson family who hosted us in Mankato. Samuel served as the chaplain for this year's convention. As the chaplain he ordered the daily devotions and also preached. He did a great job! Samuel also worked hard in our garden once again. This is the first year we did our garden at home and it worked out well. Samuel was up every morning at 5 to take the dog for a run and water our garden! He is already planning next year's garden.

As for me it was a pretty low key year. Being pregnant in the summer here wasn't terrible, but it limited our family's outdoor activities (I just couldn't see a reason to sleep on the ground outside when I had a nice comfy bed at home!). In August I started homeschooling Abel. I am excited for all the things we will learn together! I stay quite occupied homemaking, homeschooling, and keeping 2 very active boys busy and one little boy fed. Some days are long, but I thoroughly enjoy it!

Our family was blessed to have a number of visitors this year including the Jacobsen family who came from Oregon to visit for a week and a half in October. My mom and sister also came for 10 days to meet Matthias and help out around the house. We put a lot of food in the freezer and they got a lot of baby holding in.

We were also blessed this year to be able to purchase a new vehicle. About a month before Matthias was due we decided to see if all the car seats would fit in our little car...they didn't! So, we headed up to Reno and found a new (to us) Honda Odyssey. We very much appreciate the extra room and will enjoy using it for all the trips coming up next year!

May God bless and keep you all in His grace through this next year.

Love,

Samuel, Anna, Abel, Elisha, and Matthias

Gracious Child, we pray Thee, hear us, From Thy lowly manger cheer us,

Gently lead us and be near us Till we join th' angelic choir.

Abel 5 years old 

 Elisha 20 months old

Matthias 3 weeks old 

 The boy's feet (the footprints are Simeon's)

From Grief to Glory

Samuel and I were asked to write about our experiences with Simeon for a blog. I wanted to share it here.
http://www.holyhenhouse.com/baby-loss-part-three/

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

11 Months and Easter

 Elisha is now 11 months old! Time is certainly flying! This is the same shirt that Abel wore for his 11 month picture! They look completely different, and yet, they have similar qualities too (ie both very cute:).

Abel now:)

 "Horse" riding! Despite Elisha's face, he really liked it (especially when the horse goes fast).

Happy boy!

 He did an Easter Egg hunt the town put on, he found two! 

 Another egg hunt, he kept finding the real eggs and squishing them! 

 Found some more!

 Abel on the hunt...

 Eyeing another egg...he got quite a few on his own.

 Abel's booty. We have shared a lot of these (and there were only 5 kids at this one, everyone had this many!)

 Dying eggs together

 All done...he was pretty happy with them

 Easter family picture

 My precious boys!

 Playing around while waiting for Easter brunch

 Finding eggs at home...Dad is REALLY good at hiding eggs, it took him awhile to find them all!

 Found another! Notice the sword? He has been Zorro the past few days and needed to "patch his sword in" before we went out. 

 Found one Dad!

 The basket!

I had to laugh at this one because they have almost the same expression! 

10 months old!

Elisha is 10 months old today! I can't believe I will have a one year old in just 2 months...He was kind enough to sleep through the night for the first time ever just 2 nights ago! It was very welcome. He is still a happy kid. He still adores his big brother (he follows him around and wants to play with whatever he is playing with). Elisha says, "D" (in a high pitch voice) for Dad and dog (he really likes our dog too...). He also says "Mama" however, it doesn't really refer to me. It mainly means "Feed me". In his mind I'm sure food and mama are pretty closely related, so I'm not too offended:)

 The boys got some magnetic gears and have had fun playing while I am working in the kitchen.

 Here is my beautiful red hear, blue eyed baby boy! :)

 10 months old today!

 Brothers 

I wanted a picture of Elisha standing by himself (he can do it for about 15-20 sec before he sits down) but he wasn't too happy about doing it...:) 

On Guard!

Abel is beginning to read more and more. Here he is sharing a book with Elisha! 

Here is Elisha at 9 months...obviously I couldn't get one "perfect" shot, so you get 3.

Elisha has discovered the piano. He loves to crawl over to it, pull himself up, and bang away! He really likes to play if someone else is practicing. Abel has just started lessons. I am going to teach him the best I can and when he gets to much for me I am hoping we can find someone in the area to teach. He is really interested and we thought he might as well start!

My Mom and Sister came for a visit at the beginning of Feb. They stayed 8 days. We had a great time!
I don't think Abel was happy about sharing Grandma with Elisha...

But Elisha sure loved the cuddles!

Aunt Lydia and Elisha hanging out!

Elisha with the dagger...Pirates was played most of the time they were here. Abel loves Pirates of Penzance...so not only was their sword fighting, but most of it was done while singing!

On Guard!!

Here are the pirates in their boat. Elisha is actually pretty good at sword fighting with Abel!

To avoid sleepless nights, Abel bunked with Grandma and Elisha took Abel's room. Abel and Grandma had a lot of fun having sleepovers and telling stories and playing in the mornings. I'm sure Grandma would have liked a  little more sleep, but they had fun.:)

Of course we went to Schatt's Bakkery! Abel only gets to ride these when Grandma comes with her quarters.

More sword fighting!

Grandma attempting to snuggle our very non-snuggle baby.

Our last day together. We were so happy they came to visit us. It is always nice to have some company. Abel and Elisha went through some attention withdrawal when they left (ie they both cried all the way home from the airport...).

Now we are getting back to our "normal" routine. Samuel has taken a tutoring job, which means a lot of evenings away. So, we are adjusting to a new "normal". The weather has been great though, which means a lot of time outside to play and ride bikes!