Christmas 2009

Christmas flew by! Seems like we were preparing forever, but when the weekend finally came it went too fast!! it was fun and extra special this year with Rod's sister and family being in town.

The boys did great for all the get togethers this year. definetely the easiest year we've had in a while! (now next year it's back to the "drawing board":) They stayed healthy, which i'm so thankful for. We still have an evening gathering with my mom's side on Saturday.

Here's some photos of a combination of get togethers:

Adam testing out his new flashlight...."Mommy, there's lots of stuff under here!"

Big Sky Big cousins...(the sledding pic is before christmas).

The boys didn't get too spoiled :) Lots of books, a couple videos, tractors, clothes, tools. Rod and I are saving the gift we got them for later- maybe around the time the baby comes. I found a really neat tool bench at a consignment shop. It's what i wanted to get them for Christmas, i was so happy when i walked in there and saw it!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Have a blessed year 2010!

Merry Christmas!

Love Rod, Sherry, Adam, Ben, Brad, and (wouldn't you like to know:)

Brad

Thought Celene might like this video, Brad's version of getting into bed! sorry it's a little dark.
Next year, when i get the twins room painted they will be in 'big boy beds'. Not neccessarily looking forward to that!

our christmas tidbits

What fun it is to watch the excitment and understanding of christmas unfold in little ones. i feel like all 3 have a good understanding (for their age) of jesus' birth, christmas being his b-day, all part of God's plan, etc. it's been fun and rewarding teaching them things this year. and also doing the other stuff, like bake cookies, sing songs, open cards together, drive around looking at lights, and so on. the boys play "manger scene", where one is joseph, one mary, and the other whoever they decide to be (shepherd, sheep, angel). poor brad always gets stuck being mary :) do you think they need a sister? :) We did a fun project, where they could pick out gifts they wanted to give from the samaritans purse catalog. they each picked 2 things. ben couldn't decide. that was a decision of the year for him! then adam came to the computer with me and watched me check all the stuff they picked and send it off. we also went to the columbia food bank (thanks for the idea daniele!) and delivered some grocery items. they enjoyed that. we first went to the store and i set the basket down and let them "load it" with canned things. after the basket was too full, i said "that's enough, let's go deliver these now!" inside the food bank they had everything lined up in cupboards, it was neat to see. they took time to explain how it all works.

i finished my parents calendar! We surprised them by letting the kids give it a week early. some of my favorite months....

The summer months:

December:

and the Baking theme: next year there will be 2 more babies, i need a bigger calendar :)

We had our first of 6 family get togethers on Saturday. My dads side, at my parents house. Here's Great grandma giving the kids gifts...

Actually, we bagged one of the 6 get togethers today and played in snow instead...Adam could not get enough of the snomobiling..

Ben liked it ok...and Brad....Well he didn't want to go!

My favorite song line this Christmas is from Little Drummer Boy: "I have no gift to bring (pa rup pa pum pum), that's fit to give a king....." How true. Enjoy your celebrations this Christmas, remembering that our King was born!!

Christmas play

Over the weekend we had our Christmas play at church. It was a neat walk-thru "journey to Jesus". It was put on by the kids, ages 3 - grade 6 (plus some adults). and they did a wonderful job. Adam was a sheep this year, which was special for him. I was a shepherd to him and his fellow sunday school class friends. It was a lot of fun, but there were moments where i wondered if it's normal for sheep to rolls down hills, tackle one another, and have races...and just how strict are shepherds supposed to be?? The audience really enjoyed them though and i appreciated that they were so willing to be sheep, outside, in very cold temperatues. i don't remember any of them complaining. I can't say the same for the 3rd graders.

A scene at the Inn: Ceasar, this was Adam's favorite scene, he loved the guards.

The sheep "baaaa-ing"..

The last scene, in the manger after baby Jesus was born:

Me and Adam before the play started...

Over 200 people walked through the Journey, that makes it all worth doing. We have wonderfully organized people at our church who makes things like this happen!

Benny Hen

Ben had a little accident over the weekend. We've had this stove in our living room for awhile now and Saturday Rod got the gas hooked up... Rod was in the middle of telling Ben not to touch, it's hot and before you know it, Ben's hand was on it! When i heard the scream i knew it wasn't a "brother took my toy" scream. He cried for about 1/2 hour straight, then took a nap and has been fine ever since. However it was burned pretty bad. He has a huge blister on his hand and a little blister on each of his fingers. He was so tough, i wasn't sure how bad it was originally. but now after seeing the blisters i know it was very painful. He loves the cast that daddy made for him..He hasn't complained at all about having to use his other hand (left) to do things. Daddy is afraid he's going to turn into a left-hander. yay!

We he's asked what happened to his hand he says "it got messed up, but it'll be ok". I love that boy!! thankful it's not any worse....

If anyone knows anything about how to treat a burn, i'll take any advice.

Christmas Tour

Here's some Christmas things we have set up around the house... but first Adam singing "Joy to the World".

Our trees:

Rod's the only one with a stocking! One that he Grandma made once upon a time..Adam wanted to decorate his room...

wreath on our front door...made by my aunt, given by my mom.Merry Christmas!

Some pictures of our first snow. They've been going out every day and are really having fun in the white stuff. i'm glad we could get a little snow so early in the season... The twins like the snow this year, last year they weren't so impressed. Adam loves to sled...Our snowman fell down, this was after we put him back together..Daddy and Adam made the original....Poor adam's hands were so cold by this point!...

Made my day

I receieved this autographed baseball card in mail the other week. i was on cloud 9!

Here's the story:

Eariler this year my brother told me he read this book (wow!) about Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers. He saw his story/testimony on ESPN and wanted to read his book. Well, i had to read it too. If Mikey can read a book, so can i! (neither of us read very much), plus i like autobiographies. Anyhow, this man, 20 something years old, has an amazing story about his young life in little league baseball, getting drafted right out of high school, and then totally messing up his life. He spent several years out of baseball, and finally came around and truly received Christ and made a huge comback to the majors. His story is great. But 1/2 of the greatness is that he shares it, freely. I've seen a couple interviews with him after ball games, or at the all-star game and he openly talks about God. He is one cool dude. He's been back in the majors for 2 years now and has made the all-star team both years, he's that good.

Sooo, since i was so pumped about his testimony i decided to write to him (like i have nothing better to do!) and tell him how awesome the book was, his openess and example for Christ, etc. Then i said that my brother would love a signed baseball card, if he has one sitting around i'd love for him to mail me one. (in his book he said he always writes back when he gets mail, it was worth a shot!) Well, 6 months later i got the card! and i'm not giving it to my brother! This just confirms my opinion of him, he's a quality guy, working for the Lord. Like he says in his book "this is about so much more then baseball". You go Josh.

~if you want to read the book, let me know!

My gifts are under the tree!

I was at bible study last night and Rod said it got real quiet so he looked for the boys and here they were, laying under the tree! They are so intrigued with the tree and other people's trees at stores or houses. so funny. In the evening, when the lights shine so pretty, they seem to have a calmness about them. I'm thinking about leaving it up year 'round :)

Website

To the young moms...This is the best website i ever found for printing out coloring pages for kids. They have anything and everything you can think of......All types of animals, anything transportation, shapes, alphabet, all holidays, they even have Bible characters or Bible story themed pictures with verses. It's very easy to get around on. Check it out! http://www.coloring.ws/

Here's some of Adam's picks..He's been coloring up a storm lately and really improving on staying in the lines.

(i think i helped him with the Christmas tree). He likes pink and purple!!!?

Our trip

Rod and I got home last night from our trip to Aruba. It was such a refreshing time, a nice amount of time to be away (4 nights), i was comfortable leaving the boys for that amount of time and they had a blast here at home w/ grandmas, cousins, and krista. so thankful for all who chipped in so we could get away!

since we went to the same place last year, we knew what we wanted to do. which ended up being going to "Flamingo beach" every day to layout, swim, eat, snorkle, and see the beautiful and not so beautiful animals! this is our favorite beach and it takes an 8 minute boat ride to get there. it's actually a seperate little island right off of aruba. You can only go to this beach if you stay at the marriott.

it's just beautiful. We took lots of pictures of the animals for the boys.

My favorite picture, i really couldn't get enough of these birds......

The pool at our motel, with the ocean and cruise ship in the background...

We had a great time together. It was nice to be able to talk w/out interruptions or talking over our talkative little boys!