Happy New Year!

Can you believe it's almost 2010?! The year sounds so "space-age". I remember being in science class as a kid and my "far out" teacher talking about how we'd all be living on the moon by 2000 and all the crazy things we'd be doing by 2010. In retrospect, she was a bit of a dreamer to put it lightly. Ha!

Well, anyway, Happy New Year! I will probably forget to write on here tomorrow, that's why I'm saying it now. Not that we're doing anything exciting - we're not exactly party animals anymore. We're planning to use tomorrow to get some stuff done and organized before we move... 2 more weeks!! We actually got the key to the apartment (for good) yesterday, so we are going to start bringing a few things over there.

I forgot to post on here about Elizabeth's birthday... she's a big girl now, a whole 1 year old!! :) I put all her pressies in bags this time, after she wasn't too thrilled with the whole unwrapping thing at Christmas. Oh! and she's hanging out in her onsie in these pictures because we had just come home from church, daddy took off her pretty dress to make her more comfy. I wasn't even thinking straight that we'd be taking pictures, should have left her in her dress... oh well, chubby legs are cute too. :)




Here's a quick video I took this morning. Elizabeth and I were up very early this morning. She was scooting around and talking on her phone so I took a little bit of video. See how she scoots on her bottom? yep, that's her version of "crawling". haha!



Well, Elizabeth is now napping and I'm going to go work on my 2nd cup of coffee *yawn*. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had as wonderful of a Christmas as we had here.

Last night, for Christmas eve, we spent the evening with our friends at church. We had a wonderful meal, devotion time and had a "white elephant" gift exchange. You know, the ones where you can go up to the table and unwrap a gift or decide to take one that someone has already opened. Lots of fun!!

The children received some gifts as well. They waited patiently for the Pastor to call out their name to get their pressie.

Elizabeth getting her very first Christmas present. :)

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The next morning, we woke up to many many pressies under the tree that the boys were bursting to dive in and start opening!

Everyone with their "big" gifts.

Which one to open first?

Notice Elizabeth in the back, swiping everyone's unguarded gifts.

Elizabeth didnt quite understand what was going on but sure enjoyed playing with anything she could get her little hands on, including daddy's hat that he got from Sean. She rips off any winter hat you put on her head but this one she LOVED!! She would even shake her head to make it jingle.

Classic Dennis right here! haha!

Seany helping his baby sister out, such a good big brother. :)

Elizabeth found a light saber just her size! haha!

Probably one of her favorite toys... the stuffed doggy that looks just like Copper.

Standing at her new activity table.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Cookies

We finally got around to making christmas cookies today. The boys did a good job helping. We made fudge, sugar cookies and ginger bread bears.

Somehow or another we all managed to fit into the closet...err.. I mean kitchen.


Those ready-made frosting squeeze bag things are awesome!!!



The end result! HAHA! The boys were pretty creative! Notice the burnt, non-frosted ones in the upper right corner... those are Dennis's, he likes the burnt ones. ;)

Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Play

Our church did our annual Christmas performance today. This year they put on a play and did such a great job!! Sean played a Shepherd and Ryan was one of the Wisemen.

The Narrator begins the story:

The children singing 'Away in the Manger':

The Mom and Pop telling the story of Christmas to the children:

Mary receiving the news of her conception:

Joseph has a dream that Mary is carrying our Savior:

Joseph and Mary:

The shepherds receive news that Christ is born (Sean in red):

The wisemen bringing gifts to Christ (Ryan in silver):

Here is a video of some of the clips from the play. I found some neat video editing softward and had fun putting all these clips together - enjoy!! Unfortunately I didnt get it all, because my camera cannot hold that much video. They also spoke of why Jesus came and how he gave his life on the cross for all of us to be saved. The greatest gift of all!



And here is are pictures of the boys and Elizabeth before we left for church this morning. They looked so handsome (and cute for Elizabeth) in their little outfits. :) Merry Christmas!!!

Look what I accomplished today

Ok, it's not perfect and the picture is bad. It's very, very late at night, the only chance I get to play with my sewing machine is after all the kiddos are in bed. I've been dying to try out this idea I saw online where you can turn old pairs of jeans into a jean skirt. Long jean skirts are VERY hard to find - especially at a reasonable price. And more than once, I've bought some online, wait a month for them to get here, and then find they fit horrible or don't look like the way they were advertised. The idea of turning my old, holey, super-comfy jeans into a skirt sounded too good to be true.

I made a few mistakes, it's not perfect but it's wearable and BOY am I a happy camper sitting here in my "new" jean skirt. (please forgive my head being conveniently missing in this photo, you dont want to see what I look like at this hour of night anyway ahaha!)



OH and just so you know, I used THIS WEBSITE here to make the skirt. Instead of using a separate piece of cloth in the back panel, I used part of another holey pair of jeans (one of the times it pays to be a pack-rat).

Homeschool fun!

Just some pictures to share of what our day looks like.... and a little homeschooling humor from THIS site.

You Must Be Homeschooled If...

Someone asks what grade you're in and you're not sure.
You sometimes go to school in your pajamas.
You sleep till 9:00 am on school days, but get up early on Sundays.
Your favorite author is Jane Austen (girls) or Robert Louis Stevenson (boys).
You own the entire series of Saxon Math books.
Your birthday is an official school holiday. (The boys love this idea)

You don't get to stay home from school when you're sick. (but not this idea so much)

You are unaware of the current fads, fashions, and slang terms.
Your favorite activity is reading.
You know what a unit study is.
Watching a movie means you'll have to write a report comparing the film to the book.
You dress up as historical or literary characters for Halloween.
You exchange e-mail Valentines with your homeschool pen pals.
Your room looks like a science lab.
You can get science credit for going to the dentist.
You go to the park for P.E.
You check out at least ten books every time you visit the library.
You have ever attempted to teach yourself physics.
You have no idea what rock bands are currently popular.
You get books and science kits for your birthday.
You know what Latin roots are.
Your board games all have names like "Bookworm", "Scrabble", "S'math", "Game of Knowledge", and "Name The State".
Your home library is arranged in Dewey Decimal order.
Your favorite place to study is outside, under a tree.
You can quote lines from Shakespeare, but not from South Park.
You memorize math formulas for fun.
You never get nervous on the first day of school.
The only bully you ever run into is your big brother.
You don't have to remember a locker combination, just your computer password.
It takes you less than a minute to walk to school.
You don't have to worry about forgetting anything - you can just run back to your room and get it.
Your school bus is a nine-passenger van.
All of the students in your class are your brothers and sisters.
You have a 12-year-old, a 6-year-old, and a 2-year old in the same class.
You can get extra credit for cleaning your room.

Holiday Spirit

A little something fun to get you into the holiday spirit!! :)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Now, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, tea, whatever and relax because I have a feast of pictures to share with you!

As you all know, we spent Thanksgiving at church. Everyone brought in dishes and missionaries came from all over to celebrate and be thankful for all the blessings God has given us. And boy are the blessings overflowing!!



I managed to get a picture of the kiddos all sitting together right when we got to church that morning... before they started running around and getting their clothes all out of whack.

Everyone is sitting down getting ready to eat.



Elizabeth too!



Then after we filled all our tummies, the Pastor called everyone to sit down and we listened to children sing songs. They did such a great job!!



Click on the video here to listen!!



After the children sang, we did some singing ourselves and then listened to a Message given by one of the Missionaries joining us. A great message about being thankful in ALL that we do and how important it is to ALWAYS thank God, in good times and bad.





After our tummies were properly filled, and our songs of praise were raised, then the silliness began. The auditorium had been cleared the day before and some game tables set up, with lots of room for the children to run around.





One of the missionaries brought his balloons and made a bunch of hats and swords for the children to play with.









The men stayed closer to the food for 2nd, 3rd and 4th servings, while the girls gathered around the piano to sing songs.



OH! But the pictures dont end just yet!

The next day we got up early to meet up again and take a trip into the Stuttgart center to the Christmas Markets!! YAY!



Boothes and boothes of homemade goodies, chocolates, sweets, candles, and decorations!







The boys even met a street performer haha!



At the end of the market, they had an ice skating rink and rides for the kids. We didnt get to ride any, unfortunately... except for this one we saw on the way down... we ran out of time before we had to meet up again and leave. It was a good exhausting day! We had a lot of fun, enjoyed some fun company and got a little Christmas shopping done!