_ _ _ _ on the potty!

Someone went _ _ _ _ on the potty at home for the first time today!  

And it was AWESOME!

And no, it wasn't the one on the left.... well, not that I know of :)

Potty training has been going okay - except that Sav hasn't yet gone poo poo on the potty - until today.  It was a grand victory, worthy of her promised ice cream!

Christmas round 2

We celebrated Christmas with my parents yesterday.  It was a pretty fun time. It was kinda awesome because we waited until new years day to go shopping and everything was like at least %50 off!  For breakfast my mom made "man-cake pancakes" - it was a recipe I found online that uses beer instead of water.  Travis LOVED them.  Me, not so much, but I don't typically like beer anyway.  

Then we did some gifts.  Savannah got her own lip gloss from my mom.  Looks pretty hot! 

We gave my dad black olives and batteries.  When he was a kid I guess they didn't get good stuff like that very often so he tried to shop lift a package of batteries and a can of black olives.  On his way out of the store he got busted and they chased him down across the parking lot.

Savannah also got a trunk full of princess dress up clothes.  She has been doing almost nothing but taking clothes off and putting new ones on for the last 2 days.  She especially likes the clip on plastic earrings and the heels.

Here's her big gift.  

My dad made Savannah her first big girl bed!  

He's really amazing at what he can do.  I'm pretty sure I blogged about a year ago about all the hand crafted items around our house from him. This entire bed is made and decorated with his own hands!

 The headboard of the bed is a little house with wood shingles.   There are several little cut outs / shelves in the house, each installed with LED lights.  The on/off button is right inside the bottom and easy to push so that Savannah can wake up and turn the lights on at night if  she gets scared.

My dad, knowing of Savannah's obsession with owls, also got her this little owl family to live in the house and "keep watch over her at night".  She's been waking up lately after having bad dreams or just feeling afraid of the dark, so any help is good help!  The bed totally matches her room too!  I put her blankets on on it today.  She's SOOOO excited!

And here's how Travis usually spends holidays at my parent's house.  Can't blame him.

The only good thing about winter is...

 SNOWBOARDING!

I used to think that there was nothing good about it, but last year Travis an I took up snowboarding so that we would have even ONE thing to like about winter.  Yesterday my awesome mom took work off and watched Savannah for us all day and night so that Travis, Jasey and I could go snowboarding in Eastern Iowa.  I have to mention that Jasey's mom is pretty awesome too since she paid for our lift tickets!  We are pretty lucky people.  

 It was really fun.  Travis, Jasey and I all picked up new things and had turn around days in our snowboarding skills.  I'm still pretty terrible at it but I'll learn.  There's something awesome about feeling super tired and sore at the end of the day - like I used every single muscle in my body.

I just like this picture because I look crazy and the back ground looks a little fake.  It was really foggy and windy there all day.  

This one is for all you Savannah fans out there. This was her right after waking up yesterday at 7:30am.   She just wakes up ready to go!  

Many Photo Christmas Post!

It's safe to say that so far the Pierces have been having a very Merry Christmas.  Here are a few high lights. 

We hosted a little party with our high school small groups. We did a white Elephant gift exchange and the best gift was this live fish - that Nathan actually really wanted.  Go figure. 

 Here's Charissa and Travis and Graeme all snuggled up on the couch at the party.  Most of the guys and girls don't know each other very well so the randomly paired newly wed game went well :)

We went down to Oklahoma for a few days.  Here's Savannah with Travis' aunt Opal. In the 30 minutes we were there, Opal gave Savannah a candy cane, a GIANT candy cane, cookies, a peppermint candy, and two suckers.

Here's Travis with his Uncle Mortin, his Dad Frank, and his cousin Clifford. They're a good size family.

This is what Christmas is about.  Cousins, playing, eating, loving.  Lani, Savannah and Maggie wont get to have Christmas together again until Savannah's 4.  They are moving to India this summer.  We had some family pictures taken at walmart on Christmas Eve.  I can't wait to post them! SUPER funny.

 Christmas Eve we went and walked around a park and looked at the lights.  It was FREEZING.  But it was good to get out.  Travis lost our camera going down a slide and had to go back out to find it.  Then when he did find it, it was broken.  Christmas disaster!  Until....

 I fixed it.  Here he is before he knew I had fixed it - taking a time out in the garage.   He was kinda upset about it, but nothing a good camo coat and pipe in the garage couldn't fix. :)

Christmas morning Savannah was the first of the kids to come out of her room. Aunt Missy let her open a gift right away.  We had told Savannah that she had to "wait and wait until Christmas comes" for her presents so this was a pretty big deal!

Christmas night we finally got around to Poppy reading the Christmas story.  It was really chaotic.  I was trying to feed Savannah, Maggie (not pictured) was crying, and Lani was getting upset with both of them for not listening.  So we staged this picture afterward so that THIS is what we'll remember it being like.

Here's Sav with Travis' sister Malisa.  We don't get to see her enough so it's good to have a good picture of her with Savannah.

I don't know who that 4th girl in the back is.  

 We went to Travis' parent's church Sunday morning.  They are a part of a new church that started in their town.  They meet in a school since they don't have their own building yet.  It's a great church, but it did make me appreciate having a building.  Cornerstone met in a school auditorium when I started going there - I've pretty much forgotten what that was like!

The ride home was a little crazy, but thanks to Travis being awesome at driving and getting us home fast and Burger King and Micky Ds we made it!  Also thanks to the portable DVD player. Can't forget that one!

Back it up

Quick photo update of our last week: 

We played with Sav's friends Maddy and Max.  Savannah loves playing with... well, anyone.  I was going to say with the Dewhursts (which is true) but she just likes people.  

 Laura, Maddy and Max's mom, made the kids awesome crowns out of felt and who knows what else.  Savannah's is extra special because it has owls on it.  I wonder how long she'll stay on this owl kick.  It's been over a year!!

 We finally got some snow on Saturday.  Savannah could not wait to go out and play in it.  Then when we got her all bundled up and ready to go out she lasted about 3 minutes.  Then she came in and complained about how cold the snow is.  She's going to be like both her parents in that aspect.  So we all hate the cold - I'm fine with that.  I feel like I've typed this already.... did I already post this?

 Here's a shot a took right after she came in.  You can see how much she hated it :)  Someone's going to have to take her sledding and show her how to enjoy the snow..... Grandpa!

Ames High got out early today so I had some girls over for a game of Scrabble during Savannah's nap.  It was super fun.  I'm actually pretty awesome at Scrabble - which is weird because if you've ever gotten a text from me or anything else that I can't use spell check on, you know I'm the worst speller.  

Morgan Ferry won the game.  She said this may be the best day of her life.  We love Morgan.

A Holy Celebration

I've been reading a blog lately called A Holy Experience.  A friend of mine turned me on to it one day when I was feeling a little desperate about life.  I'm not really a fan of this kind of writing or of reading blogs written by people I don't directly know, but something about this blog quiets my soul when it's time for me to sit down and listen to God.  I usually start my quiet time by reading the blog, listening to the soft piano music, and meditating on the goodness of God and the joy it is that we can know him!

One of her recent posts was about What to do Christmas morning when all the gifts are for Him.  She and her family don't give Christmas gifts anymore.  They haven't for years.  Instead they count down the days until Christmas by giving gifts to the needy in the world.  They give gifts to Jesus who says "When you give to the lowest, you give to me".  It's an awesome challenge and it has inspired me to look a little differently at Christmas this year.  Even last night as I drove around looking at the Christmas lights it was like I saw them for the first time as lights to celebrate the birth of Christ (rather than just the festive holiday decor that most people are expressing when they hang them).  Why is it after 12 years of walking with Jesus, I am just now feeling like I finally GET his Birthday?

His Pride and Joy

My brother in-law, Greg, told us this story over Thanksgiving weekend:

There was a famous pastor who came out and said he was gay. During an interview with his parents the reporter said "How does it feel that your son is an abomination?" 

 His mother said "He may be an abomination but he is still our pride and joy."

The words of the mother have been ringing in my heart ever since I heard that.  Those are the words of an earthly, sinful parent.  How much more would those be the words of the Heavenly Father, who is able to and promises to forgive our sins.  To look beyond our unrighteousness, and see US, an abomination, as HIS pride and joy.  

Lord, "Keep me as the apple of your eye.  Hide me in the shadow of your wings" - Psalm 17:8