The Kneeland's

Aaron was baptized on July 18th, 2010. In the pictures you will see our good friends, the Petersons and their five children.

On Friday the 11th of June Paula started having contractions at 1AM. By 8AM Grandma Weinreis was able to come and pick up the other 5 kids so we could head into the hospital. We waited, and waited for the contractions to get more painful, but they never did. Eventualy with a call to the doctor Paula was able to get some sleep and try to catch up on her rest.

In the evening Paula thought we should head into the hospital to make sure everything was alright with the contractions not getting stronger.  It was great timing because by the time we got there, they were getting stronger.  Sure enough Aaron Thomas was born at 12:21AM the next morning! (thus Aaron was born on the 12th)

Facts: 8 lbs 10.5 oz 20.5 inch completely healthy!  Praise God!

Paula went in for our first ultra sound. These have got to be the most clear pictures I’ve ever seen!

From ultrasound

This morning before our family started celebrating Christmas with the opening of presents, around the Christmas tree and with grandparents, I was dwelling on a verse from Romans. I came to this verse with a desire to get my heart focused on the reality of what we are celebrating. It is not just presents, decorations, or even family. It is the birth of a baby in a manager. Yet even that at face value isn’t the truth of our celebrations. The “why” behind the birth is the true reason we ought to celebrate, but to see the “why” we must first think of the “what.”

Christ was born, God in flesh, God coming down to live among us. Coming to achieve the single most important thing of all time, the single thing that all time truly points at and is focused on. God, coming down from His perfect, majestic, and holy throne in heaven to be born in a nasty, dirty and lowly barn. It’s not even a modest hospital, not even compared to a home birth, its where animals live, sleep, eat and drop their waste. The Creator of the universe being born into a human body in the absolute most humble environment. This was just the beginning of the example given of this baby, the example of His love for us. His love for us is truly the “why” behind the birth. His never ending pursuit of our hearts and lives begins with a baby in a feeding basin in a barn.

So why does his humility show us His love? Because a God who reigns over His people and has lived on their level, understands and has compassion on their lives. The contrast would be a ruler who orders his people’s allegiance, demands their obedience and has no love for them.

But He saw us as being worth it, being worth leaving His place in heaven in the midst of all perfection and coming down to live among us, so that He might show His extreme passion and love for us.

Romans 8:38 and 39 reminded me of this even further today.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Merry Christmas everyone!  I pray you remember and know His never ending, truly non-conditional, love for you today and always!

Gingerbread houses have become a tradition around here. This year we tried something different.

I realized this year how funny it is when you make it’s not that hard to get the design down, mix the frostings, and place everything just right. The hard part really is trying to keep you kids from eating it while you are encouraging them to help you put it together.

I can’t believe I missed this one! Hope turned one in October! Here’s a cute picture of her on her birthday.

I came across this… and yes I know the guy sounds a little crazy, but he sure does a good job describing my King… do you know Him?

Okay, so I am not usually the cook around here.  But in my family growing up it has always been a long standing tradition that every Sunday my dad would cook pancakes on Sundays after church.  I had my first attempt at this while camping and found that I didn’t have enough ingredients for the whole family to enjoy a full helping.  So I tried it again… do you think I made enough?

Well we were able to go camping again in September.  Our friends were unable to make it so it was just the family.  Around 50° at night and close to 80° in the day.

About the most crazy part of the trip is that our kids always sleep with fans, and our site had no electricity.  So being the genius I thought I was I used a AC/DC converter to plug the fan that was in the tent into Little Red Rusting Hood (the old van) for the night.  Two problems I found.

1) The extension cords were not long enough.  I had three cords that I thought were long… but not enough.  Easy fix, Paula drove to the store and got a 100′ cable.  Problem Solved!

2) Car batteries are not made to power house fans.  ”It’s just a fan” I thought…. and grumbled when I rolled out of the sleeping bag in 50° weather to go jump Little Red after the first 3 hrs, then again after 2 more hrs, and again after another 1hr.  The next day, we drove the 40 min. drive home to pick up the keyless starter for Little Red.  The second night my cell was set for every two hours on vibrate, I’d awaken, find the keyless start (the keyring from which was on my finger like a actual ring) press the two buttons.  Little Red would then startup from about 150′ away and run 10-12 minutes before shutting down again.  No more dreams, but Problem Solved!

Camping… wait but Paula despises dirt!

Yeah it was rough for the first 24 hours or so…. but then something happened.  The heavens opened and an angel from heaven must have spoken to her because she quit caring.  She realized that dirt = entertainment, especialy for our kids.  So here’s Hannah, doing what the kids did all week long… getting good and dirty!

(updated)