A Star is born

This Sunday Elijah was in our church's annual Christmas play, performed by all of the kids in the church. He played the important role of Sheep, along with all of the other two year-olds. Eli took it upon himself play the more specific role of "lost sheep," and happily trotted around the stage and out into the crowd during the performance. I guess I didn't think of the fact that my kid might one day be "that kid," you know- the one who doesn't follow the script and has his own agenda.

I couldn't have been prouder. :)

Eli the sheep

(one little girl thought she was a cow and mmoooed during the whole performance)

Notice my son staring at all of the little conformists sitting on the stage

The Sunday School lady "helping" Eli back to his spot....hehe.

Catching up

I was out of town on business last week, so I took Monday off of work to be with the family. Eli, Debbie and I spent the afternoon decorating Christmas cookies.

This is a random photo of Matthew tucked into his car seat...I just didn't want him to feel left out.

Christmas Tradition

This past Sunday our house trekked up to the mountains for our annual Christmas tree cutting. The mountains were laden with a fresh fallen snow, and the scenery was fantastic. Elijah had a great time playing in the snow and helping to decorate once we got home. All in all, a day well spent.

Here's our tree before we ripped it from it's earthly sanctuary. Aren't Christmas traditions wonderful? :)

Eli had a blast in the snow.

Matthew wasn't so sure about the cold at first, but he settled in.

Mom and Eli decorating the tree.

Thanksgiving

The family had a great Thanksgiving this year! We started the day off by taking some meals to elderly folks in our neighborhood who couldn't get out of their house for the holiday. The afternoon was spent at my father's. Debbie cooked up a PHENOMENAL meal for us and a couple of guests. All in all, a very relaxing, restful day. Here are some photos for you:

Debbie and the boys reclining after a good meal

The Thanksgiving crew: Debbie, Dad (trying to sport his Bills sweatshirt), Eli, Matthew, and our friends Ed and Nathan. Yours truly was taking the picture...

Elijah and Dad reclining after a long meal

The holidays seem to put Matthew in a good mood.

Weekend getaway

We spent some much needed "family time" together this weekend. I was helping a friend work on his parents' new home in the Stillwater Valley on Saturday, and Debbie and I have a friend who has a cabin up that way. So we spent Saturday evening and Sunday tucked into a cozy cabin hideaway in the mountains. We forgot the camera (sorry, no pictures), but had a great 24 hours relaxing together.

Matt, if you're reading this, thanks a bunch for your hospitality!

Just the family and 175 high schoolers

This weekend the family made its annual pilgrimage to Great Falls, MT. Every year the Montana District of Key Club (a high school service organization) asks me to do a presentation at their state-wide conference. It's turned into a good weekend away for our family, just relaxing together and enjoying the hotel pool. Plus, a lot of the kids that we went to Florida with this summer were also there this weekend, so Eli got to see some of his old pals. He naturally made himself right at home with all 175 high school kids. Matthew was a big hit to. :) Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Debbie and Matthew getting quality time

Dad and Eli mastering the the art of "self-photography"

Eli mastering the art of flirting to get food

Matthew with a Key Clubber, pre-puke

Matthew with a Key Clubber, post-puke

Eli hanging out with tons of high school kids (can you find him?)

My beautiful, picturesque, lady-like wife and I

Fall Festivities

The family has had a fun week enjoying the cool Montana fall season. Last weekend we went out to a local farm to take a hay ride, pick out some pumpkins and wander through a corn maze. Then of course there was "dress your kids up in stupid costumes day"...A.K.A. Halloween. Here are some pictures:

Debbie and Eli enjoying the hay ride...Matthew is the lump under Debbie's sweater.

Pickin' out punkins

Carvin' the Punkins

Eli tellin' Ma how to draw a face on the Punkin

Eli was a plane for Halloween. Debbie and I made the costume. It actually turned out pretty good, and Eli got a kick out of it

Matthew was a dinosaur. Those who have been around may remember the Dinosaur ensemble from Eli's first Halloween

Two of our little housemates looked pretty cute too

Odds and Ends

I wanted to post a few photos of some things our family has been up to lately:

Eli is totally, 100% plane crazy. He loves, I mean loves, airplanes. A friend of mine is an airline mechanic and is working at a private hangar on several airplanes. Debbie and I were able to take Eli out there not too long ago, and he had a blast!





Debbie's mother, sister, and nephew (Connor) came out to visit for a few days in the beginning of October. We had a blast with them and were super grateful that they took the time out of their busy lives to come all the way to Montana. Here are a couple of pictures of them and the kiddos.




Last July we went to Storyhill Fest (a folk music festival in the mountains near Bozeman, MT. About 10 friends joined us...here is a pic of some of the crew that came- we took a small day hike to Grotto Falls, and had a splendid afternoon relaxing in the Montana wilderness.



Kind of a random post, but gives ya'all an idea of some the things we've been up to...we'll post again soon!

Woodstock revisited, or just plain odd?

Many of you know that last January Debbie, Eli and I moved into an 8 bedroom house with a bunch of other folks. We call it "intentional community," you may just call it weird.

So I thought I'd take just a moment to try and explain at least a little bit about why we made this decision. I cannot explain it all in a short amount of space, and I'll expand more on this subject in my upcoming second blog, which will have more journal type entries. But I figured you all deserved at least some explanation of this weird little phenomenon.

Debbie and I profess Christianity, along with 70% of the American population. And as Christians, as you might guess, we have spent a little time trying to understand what this guy Jesus was talking about and teaching in his short time on earth nearly 2,000 years ago. The scary thing is, as we moved in and around the Church (note the capital "C", meaning God's church, not a particular denomination or affiliation), we saw that maybe all of us who profess Christianity have gotten quite a ways away from the things that Jesus plainly taught. Unity for example (40,000 protestant denominations and counting). Growth through relationship is another example- We kind of believe that the way God causes us to grow is primarily through each other; other people are used by God to sharpen us. This is contrary to our private, individualistic lives we lead here in America. Third, Jesus was pretty adamant about caring for other people, even going so far as to place them before our own needs and desires, if you can believe that.

So we said to ourselves, if we are going to take our beliefs seriously within the context of our current culture, how might it look? How could we best learn to practice what Jesus taught? And so 5 years ago we began a discussion with some close friends about how we might learn these things through the vehicle of community. The fruition of those discussions was our little fellowship that formed in January. We are learning a great deal, as you might guess, and growing in ways we didn't expect.

We are discovering that community is a good way to learn how to be transparent, practice grace, and serve others. It is not the only way, but it is a way. And the community is slowly changing and evolving into its intended identity. I will keep you posted on the general happenings of our community on this blog, but there will probably will be more detailed thoughts and reflections in my soon-coming second blog.(In fact, here is the updated link)

So we're not a cult, and we're not high. Don't worry family, everything is as normal as can be. ;)

Way too long, but so goes life...

Well, life has progressed an I've neglected this here little blog. I have some valid excuses (i.e.- the birth of a child, company visiting, the end of fly fishing season, etc.) but I can't help but feel as if I've let you all down. :)

Anyway, I am kick starting this blog again with three, yep, three posts all at once. This first one is about the most important event to happen to our family in the past two years- the birth of our second son, Matthew Macrae. Matty was born five weeks early, and even though he was 6lbs 10oz he had to stay in the hospital for 10 days in order to develop his lungs. It was a long week and a half for our family, but nearly three months later Matthew is doing well and gaining lots of weight. Here are some pictures of the little guy:

This was taken about 2 minutes after Matthew was born. We didn't really get to hold him because the nurses and doc were a little nervous.

This is Matthew in the Neonatal ICU unit. He had to have oxygen and about 103 wires attached to him at all times. We didn't actually get to hold him for several days.

Big brother visiting little brother. The picture is dark because we didn't want to use our flash and wake up the little guy.

This is the two boys at home two months later. As you can see, both are doing great!

Florida is Hot- part 2

After spending two short weeks in the retirement capital of the world, we made it home safe and sound. Elijah did a great job and enjoyed spending his birthday at Disney World. Overall the kids we were chaperoning were fun to be around.

Next week we're headed to Bozeman for a music festival with several of our friends. This will be the first time that Eli will be away from BOTH mom and dad overnight. Debbie is a little nervous (like a good mom should be), but it'll be good for everyone.

Here are some more pictures from Florida:

The heat had some strange effects on Debbie:

Me, Eli, and the Grasshopper. I squished him after this picture was taken...

Those of you who have been to Disney World know about Tom Sawyer's island. It's this little island in the middle of Disney World that you have to take a raft to. Well, the family was checking out this little island when a big storm hit. It poured for about forty five minutes, and the only cover we could find was Tom's Sawyer's treehouse- this little 5x8 fort with a rickety rowboat for a roof. Here we are hanging out all by ourselves in Tom Sawyer's treehouse

Eli found Pooh's playground, got naked and got wet.

Eore, Eli, and Debbie (Debbie, by the way, was completely giddy and starstuck by the characters we saw)