Merry Christmas

Christmas was like a whirlwind of wrapping paper, ribbon, and tissue paper here at our house.  I'm still picking up scraps of such from every corner and crevace of the house... probably will be until next Christmas!

We had a fun-filled Christmas this year, as always... full of celebrations with family.  So blessed to have spent Christmas morning with my Mom and Dad and then Christmas evening with Jesse's Mom, Dad, & family.  That was sandwiched between Christmas parties with each of Jesse's Grandparents.  Whew!  Cousins, cousins, and more cousins... and as if they haven't seen enough of each other already, I was hit with, "Please Mom!  Please can they come home with us and spend the night!!!"  So we had 3 extra kids here last night.  I think they all transformed into wild animals... the whole house shook at times!  I'm amazed it's still standing!

The kids also took part in our church's Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve.  Here's a few pictures from it...

And finally, some shots from Christmas Day...

Kaylee with her new iPod... she was so excited!

Jacob with his new Wii.

Anden with his new pedal tractor.

The kids playing Wii.

Our first attempt at a Gingerbread House... hoping to make this a tradition!

Our Life... The Past 10 Years

1 Marriage

3 Babies

10 Anniversaries

17 Birthday Parties

3 First Smiles

2 First Days of School

4 ER Visits

2 Sets of Stitches

1-2 Boo boos kissed per day

3,432 Loads of Laundry

16,425 Diaper changes

And a slew of snotty noses wiped.... and counting.

Did I mention the babies?

Totally worth it!

Compassion International

This fall, I started teaching the Kindergarten and Third Grade Religion Classes on Friday afternoons.  Until the check arrived in the mail the other day, I had no idea I would be getting paid to teach these classes.  Jesse and I talked about just donating it back to the church, but with Christmas coming up, greed took over and I decided we would use the money to pay for part of our Christmas presents for the kids.  So last week, Anden and I ran a few errands and then were headed for the bank, where I was depositing several checks, including the one for teaching Religion.  I reached over, pulled out all the checks I had to deposit, flipped through them, and realized I was missing the one for Religion.  I searched everywhere... even went back to dreaded Walmart because I remembered Anden pulling a paper out of my purse while I was in the vacuum aisle.  No luck though, I couldn't find it anywhere.  Finally, I gave up and told myself, "Well, that's what you get for being greedy!"  As I was buckling Anden back into his car seat, my phone rings.  It was the clerk that checked me out at Maurices earlier that day.  She says to me, "I think you may have dropped something.  You can swing by and pick it up."  She had found the check on the floor and looked me up using my Rewards Card information I had used while checking out.  I picked up the check, thanked her ten times over again, and then prayed the whole way home, asking for guidance on helping me to do something good with that money. 

That's when it hit me... Compassion International! 

Meet Fatas Abdoul...

Isn't he the most adorable little guy!  I'm so excited about this...

Fatas is from Burkina Faso, Africa.  He's five years old and he loves to play soccer.  I swear, every time I look at his picture, I fall more in love with him!

Our family is sponsoring Fatas through Compassion International.  Kaylee and Jacob picked him out.  I think what stood out to them is when I told them that Fatus doesn't go to school.  Several of the other kids we looked at actually did attend school.  Jacob came home from school this afternoon and asked me if Fatas got to go to school today since we sent him some money.  How sweet is that!!!  Kaylee & Jacob are both excited about writing Fatas a letter and sending him some of their coloring pages.  I told them that we would get letters back from Fatas as well.  They both thought that was pretty amazing. 

Obviously $38 a month isn't going to change Fatas's life forever.  But I do pray that it will bring him a sense of hope.  I will be praying for his health and safety each day just as I do for my own children.  I also pray that Kaylee, Jacob, and Anden will be forever impacted by this.  I hope this encourages them to do kind things for others and to give back when they are able.  

Dominican Republic Anniversary Trip

Jesse and I were blessed with a trip to the Dominican Republic in August.  Great timing since we celebrated our 10 year anniversary on the 25th of August!  We had such a great time.  One word... RELAXING!  Here are just a few pictures from in Punta Cana.

Here is a shot of part of the Punta Cana Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which was where we stayed.  Punta Cana sits on the eastern tip of the island.  It was beautiful!

The water was so crystal clear!

Here's Jesse & I eating dinner at Zen, a teppanyaki style restaurant at the resort.  The food was amazing, but the show the chefs put on while they prepare your food in front of you is what makes this restaurant so memorable.

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We swam with sharks and stingrays while we were out on an afternoon excursion.  It was located on a reef out in the ocean.  You got into a fenced area with the sharks and stingrays and could get as close as you wanted to.  I guess this guy was napping.  Ha!  There was another one swimming along the fence the entire time we were in the water.  I couldn't get a good picture of him... really didn't want to get that close to him! 

Another day during our trip, we took a day long excursion out into the countryside of Dominican Republic.  We toured a cocoa bean farm where we sampled authentic hot cocoa.  We also toured a sugarcane and tobacco farm, where we sampled Dominican Republic cigars and a drink called Mamajuana which is concocted by allowing rum, red wine, and honey to soak in a bottle with tree bark and herbs (thank you Wikipedia... didn't know that at the time and probably wouldn't have sampled it had I known I was drinking tree bark.)  It's rumored to be an aphrodisiac, as if we needed that on a trip for two!   

 

Here's Jesse smoking a Dominican cigar. Supposedly it was tobacco, but from the looks of him, I'm beginning to wonder what he was really smoking!

 

In all honesty, after this day long tour of the Dominican countryside, I have never been so thankful to be an American.  I consider myself a very patriotic person... I place my hand over my heart when I say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the Star Spangled Banner, I tear up when I hear God Bless America, and I am proud to be an American!  To see children, many of them with little or no clothes on their behinds, waving to us as we drove down their dirt roads, and getting just a glimpse of the poverty in which they come from makes me squeeze my kids that much harder and thank my lucky stars.     

This picture was taken up in the moutains.  It was beautiful up there.

We left Punta Cana on Monday afternoon and Hurricane Irene hit the island on Tuesday.  We could already tell on Monday that the winds were already picking up speed.  I was never so glad to be on a plane heading home!  Here's a cool shot I took on our plane ride home.  I think the pilot said we were flying over the Cayman Islands at the time.



Happy Birthday Jacob! You're SEVEN!

I cannot believe that it's been S-E-V-E-N years since Jacob made his entrance into this world...

We celebrated Jacob's birthday over the last couple of weekends.  Started out with a birthday party with several of his friends from the 1st grade.  Twelve first grade boys, pizza, cake, icecream, and a hayride.  We did run into the town cop during the hayride... while the boys were taking a potty break... on the side of our rode.  I think he got a good laugh out all of it.  Did you know potty breaks are as contagious as yawning?  One had to go, then they all had to go!

Here they are on the hayride.

We celebrated this past Saturday with family.  Here's Jacob with Pa and Nana.  He loves the new binoculars and camo sweatshirt they gave him.

And here he is with all cousins getting ready to blow his candles out.  Anden couldn't help himself. 

Twice I had them lit and twice he had to blow half the candles out.

Happy Birthday Jacob!  We LOVE you!

(Note: I'll be adding "Jacob's Favorite's" as soon as he stops long enough for me to ask him!)

Happy Halloween 2011

Jacob's Birthday & Christmas lists

Jacob has been coming up with ideas lately for what he would like for his Birthday.  It's just around the corner... he'll be 7 on November 7th.  I found these lists as I was tidying up the kitchen after they left for school this morning...

 Birthday
Binoculars
Helmet


Squirt gun

Cake

Basketball

Candy



And as you can see, he's already thinking ahead for Christmas too!

Christmas
iPod
IU Football

Pedal Tractor

Fake gun
Deer
TV
Candy
IU


What a crazy kid he is!  That's why we love him SO MUCH!

Huber Orchard and Winery

We had a beautiful fall Saturday this weekend and decided to visit Huber Orchard and Winery with the kids.  I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we had a wedding we had to get home for.  I had no idea there was so much to do. 

We started our visit with a wagon ride down to the Apple Orchards to pick some apples.  Jacob loves baked apples and apple crisp, so he was picking all the apples he could find!  20 lbs later, I'm pretty sure he'll get some baked apples and apple crisp out of it.

Kaylee & Jacob also enjoyed the pedal-cart track.  Jacob was loving the Case-IH cart.

We passed on the pumpkin picking.  We grew a few of our own this year, and bought some at the store, so we should be set when it comes to pumpkins. 

We also made our way through the corn maze.  The kids had a good time. 

As we were walking through it, even Anden, would say, "This way?  This way?" 

We even got a family picture taken that might just end up on our Christmas cards this year!

Boiler Up!

Soccer Season

Soccer season has come to a close.  It was another fun season!  The kid both had a great time and learned a lot.  Kaylee enjoys playing offense the most.  Jacob loves being goalie.  He begs his coaches every game to let him be the goalie.  Here's a few pictures from the season...

Jacob's team picture.  Jacob is in the back row, 5th from the left.

Jacob playing goalie (in blue.)

Jacob on defense going after the ball.

 Another shot of him at goalie.

Kaylee's team picture.  She's the first one in the back row.

Kaylee going after the ball on defense.

Kaylee on offense.

Anden tackling Jacob during one of Kaylee's games.  He wants to get in the middle of it all so badly!



Love is Patient, Love is Kind, Love Never Fails

We spent a Sunday a few weeks ago, celebrating two of my favorite people in the whole wide world.  Jesse's Grandparents celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary in August.  And after 60 years, they still hold hands.  I don't know what it is about holding hands that gets me... but I hope that after 60 years, Jesse and I are still holding hands. They're amazing.



There was a Mass to celebrate their anniversary.  Here's Jacob with a few of the other great-grandsons carrying up the gifts for communion.

Emma & Kaylee passed out programs.  Such beautiful girls!

Anden was so proud of himself after Mass.  He got to 'hold' some of the flowers.  

Here's Grandpa & Grandma (along with a few of their great-grandkids) outside of the church just after Mass.  Grandpa looks so proud here as he looks out at all the people who love them.  And in my opinion, Grandma's face has JOY written all over it!

Here they are with ALL 17 of their grandchildren.  The grandkids all went together and had 2 photo books made.  One included pictures from their wedding and their children; the other included pictures of all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Even Grandpa teared up a bit.

And here they are with ALL 21 of their Great-Grandchilren.  They range in age from less than one month all the way up to 11 years old. 

Those kids are the luckiest kids out there to have Great-Grandparents as wonderful as these two.



I hope and pray we have many more years to come with them.  They're amazing!