The Days Following Christmas

As I mentioned in the previous post, my older sis, Theresa and her family came for a couple of nights while the rest of my family was here. We exchanged gifts with them and then the family enjoyed their family's new present from Christmas day...the Wii. The kids had a great time together, the gerbils enjoyed the "home" Preston made for them from two boxes, toilet paper rolls and a bunch of other cardboard boxes (ie mac-n-cheese etc). I am sickened that I didn't get a picture of his creation.

In these days following Christmas we also got the great privilege of seeing my cousin Deborah, who lives in the San Fran area, her husband Chris and his parents for a short time. (Jeff and I had a shorter time then the rest because we had a wedding to go to.) Chris's parents moved out to this area from California in these past couple of years, so Chris and Deborah came here for Christmas. It was great seeing them and seeing Deborah's "baby bump"!

Deborah and her "baby bump", along with Chris and his parents (sorry Chris that I got you in the middle of a bite!)

Chris and Deborah...this is what we normally see...SMILES!

Brooke and Megan opening some of the gifts we gave them.

Theresa loving the ornaments the kids made for her!

Kaylie helping Grandpa put the domino's away after playing "Mexican Train".

Matt and Jeff figuring out the Wii.

I did not have my camera out like I normally do so I had a much smaller selection of pictures to choose from. Sorry to all my family members who may not enjoy the pictures of themselves!

Christmas Day

Things seem really quiet, all our company is gone and we are back to just the six of us. My parents, younger sister Tammy and three dogs came down on Christmas eve and then my older sister Theresa, her hubby Matt and my nieces and their dog and two gerbils came over on Sunday night (28th) and then they all left yesterday. So we went from a very busy, noisy house to what seems like a very quiet house (well as quiet as you can get with four kids.)

We had a great Christmas...other then being very tired because my boys got up at 4:20 AM! I sent them back to bed until at least 5...so at 5:00 the boys and I got up and opened our stockings. Kaylie then joined us around 5:30. At 5:50 the rest of the family was awaken and they then joined us and they got to look in their stockings and our kids then got to open their "santa" gifts (we don't "do" santa so it's really the special, "big" gift that is put out once the kids are in bed on Christmas eve. "Santa" gifts are just the easy way of referring to them for my family.) We then ate a quick breakfast and opened the rest of our gifts. I think we were done by 7:30!

We then enjoyed a very nice meal for lunch, we relaxed, we danced (w/ Dance Praise), played guitars (w/ Guitar Praise - this is like Guitar Hero but with Christian music and it runs through a PC), and we played a newly learned domino's game called "Mexican Train". We all were in comfy clothes... some of us even stayed in our pj's all day...but I won't say who! ;oP

Before and After

(We never got a stand for our stockings so the next best thing was laying them on the couch.)

The kids opening their stockings.

My dad and mom.

Tammy and a bird's eye view.

7:45am and ready to go back to bed.

Tanner and Grandma dancing (they have the same exact moves!)

It's Christmas Eve!

My parents and younger sister Tammy are here. They made it in this afternoon. We enjoyed some Taco soup and then we made cookies! I decided since I was doing the "big" meal this year we were going to do it easy. Instead of pies...we are doing cookies. (I made sure all was OK with it first.) So tonight we made some Toll house chocolate chip cookies and some Eskimo cookies. Eskimo cookies are some favorites of my family...they are no-bake. I had some great helping hands, Landon and Kaylie. They did a great job rolling the cookies into balls and rolling them into powdered sugar. (I'm really upset that I didn't get any pictures :( )

I am so ready for bed, but it's only 7:30 and since it's Christmas eve there is still much to do tonight! Wishing you all a good nights sleep!!! and a Merry Christmas!!!!

Eskimo Cookies

1 1/2 sticks of softened butter

2 c. quick oats

3/4 c. granulated sugar

1Tbs water

3 Tbs cocoa

1/2 tsp. vanilla

powdered sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in cocoa, water, and vanilla. Mix in oats. Shape into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Keep refrigerated.

Christmas Lights

I want to forewarn you, before you read this, that I use "Xmas" a lot. I am NOT taking Christ out of Christmas. One thing I did learn, while in Christian college, was in the Greek many would abbreviate the word for Christ with an "X", because the word for Christ began with an X...so I have no problem using it because I know that I'm just being bilingual!

One thing I remember always doing, in my childhood, was going and looking at Xmas lights, and we've continued to do it in my adult years. I have heard that we needed to go to downtown Denver and look at their lights. Well we missed it last year, so I was bound and determined to make sure we saw them this year.

We all piled in the van and headed downtown on a week night so the traffic wouldn't be so bad and went in search of "the lights". I don't know if we totally missed what everyone was talking about, but I was pretty disappointed in what I saw. I can honestly say that I wasn't impressed...for the most part. The city / county building was the only exception! It was lit up very beautifully and we were pleasantly surprised to see that they still display the manger scene...right next to Santa and his reindeer...but still it is displayed!

The city/county building and the manger scene.

The boys' are always thrilled to get their picture taken! ;o)

Jeff is a huge Xmas light fanatic! (We actually had to buy a topper for our van because he bought so many Xmas lights after Xmas one year and that was the only way to get them home with all of our luggage!) Jeff could come into a close second with Clark Griswold off of Christmas Vacation. These past few years he hasn't had the chance or the time, for various reasons, to get out and fully decorate...even this year he got our house decorated but he did not have time to put out our manger scene that he created with Xmas lights. So here is a view of our home this year.

WELCOME!!

I officially want to welcome all who got our Christmas card and is checking out our "ultimate Christmas letter"!

To my faithful readers who didn't get a card (which I would like you all to know that MOST of you didn't get a card), I need to bring you "up to date"... Every year I write a Christmas letter to send to my friends and family to let them know what is going on in our family and how the kids are doing. This year I decided not to write one and instead gave them this website. Therefore the reason for the "official" welcome.

I was thinking of giving a quick run on updates here...but then you might not check out the rest of the blog! I did mention that the one major thing that went on in our lives before I started this blog was we purchased our own home. Here's the story on our home...

We had a set of things we were looking for in a house. (Our realtor, after the fact, told us that he really didn't think we were going to find everything we were looking for.) Jeff and I started praying before we even began looking at homes that God would lead us to the right one and that he would close the doors to any that weren't right for us. Along the way there were a couple of houses that we looked at seriously and they didn't pan out, but neither of them had all we were looking for but we were willing to compromise. God saw something better and closed the doors and we ended up getting it "all"!

• Cul-de-sac
• 3 car garage
• a decent size yard
• at least 4 bedrooms
• a good floor plan, so we could have a "school room"
• nice neighborhood
• 2000+ square feet

Our home, was a foreclosure, so we got a great deal on it. We were ready to make an offer and Jeremy, our realtor, called to make sure that it was still on the market and they had just lowered the price by another $10,000. A wonderful blessing! Because it was a foreclosure it wasn't in the best of shape but it was in a lot better shape then a lot of the foreclosed homes we looked at. The main problem was the carpet. It was NASTY! It was stained and it made the whole house stink. So we ended up replacing all the flooring, except the kitchen's wooden floors, and we repainted the whole house. Jeff and I laid laminate flooring on the main floor, and we had carpet laid in the upstairs and the basement.

Our home, with the old carpet ready to be picked up and the trim out being painted.

The living room, facing out front.

The stairway.

The dining "room".

The "school" room.

The basement, that we are going to finish.

You can see our finished steps that go from main floor to school room HERE.

I'm sure you have now heard plenty on our new home.


We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ramblings

Today I have been trying to get my house back in order. It seems like a never ending job! I still have Christmas boxes out from when we decorated. Clean clothes folded but not put away from before we left for Kansas. School things in the living room and on our table, because I haven't finished the school room. All that "stuff" is cluttering our living area and it feels like it is closing in on me.



I've always heard that if you homeschool don't expect your house to be clean. I always assumed it was because your kids are home all day. Which I do believe that is a huge part of it, but I'm also finding out that even though I may have some time in the afternoon or evening, I am wiped out! It seems like all that I'm putting into my kids, teaching them but even more of dealing with their attitudes, zaps all of my energy. I guess at this point in my life I have to come to the decision of... Am I going to pour my energy into my children, to teach them, train/discipline them, to invest in their future especially eternally, or Am I going to spend my energy making sure everything is put away and in it's correct spot so I can have a clean house so we can invite anyone in, at anytime? I do realize there is probably a better balance then I am achieving, but right now I have to choose my children over a clean home.



I now want to spin this with me being a child of God. I know my attitude is bad a lot of times, there are many times I don't want to do what I need to do. I need lots of teaching, training and discipline. But THANK GOD my Daddy is not human! His energy does not get zapped by me. He never loses patience with me. He is always faithful and always loving. Now I need to draw off of His unending power/energy so I have more to give to my own family.

I think I am done with that set of ramblings...I now just want to throw out a prayer request...My sister Tammy is in an "uncertain" time right now with her living situation, pray for God's provision and guidance. Thanks!

Day 10 HOME!

Thursday morning we got up and got on the road by 9:00 CST. We knew the trip home would take us 9-10 hours. For the most part it was a very uneventful drive home. In Hays, we stared getting flurries and we found via friends and family that Denver was getting snow and the roads were getting slick. So we then wondered if we might need to turn around and head back to my parents, but we decided to keep going and worse case scenario we get a motel along the way.

When we hit the Colorado border is when the roads started getting bad. But for the most part we were almost always able keep some tires on the pavement. Other then going a little slower it wasn't that bad.

When we got home we started unloading the van. We decided to just put everything in the garage because we had to walk through the snow to get to the van and we didn't want to track snow in the house. We then heard a noise. Jeff went in the house and found out that our smoke alarms were going off. Our alarms are electrically wired in the house, and we've never dealt with this before. Jeff looked at the alarm and couldn't see any battery slot so he didn't think there were batteries. As I walked through the house to make sure there wasn't any smell of smoke, Jeff went out and turned off the circuit breaker...that did nothing. We were at a loss.

(The kids in the van.)

I made all the kids get in the van because the noise was too piercing for the ears and it was 12 degrees outside. I then grabbed the phonebook to look up our local fire dept. to see if they could talk us through what we needed to do. No phone number so it was a 911 call. The operator said he would try to get someone out to help us.



Not too much longer, here came a big fire engine with its lights on rolling into our cul-de-sac. Thank God there were no sirens!

Out stepped three young, good looking men. I wanted to line them up with Jeff and take a picture but didn't feel it was was quite the right timing. Jeff even said that they could have been part of a firemen calender. So I jumped into the van with the kids and Jeff walked with them around the house. It was really quite embarrassing because our house was not left in the best of shape...or should I say a MESS!

(Jeff telling the man in charge what was going on.)

The problem ended up being a faulty smoke alarm or a battery, which then made every alarm in the house go off. The fireman wasn't sure but he recommended we replace all the alarms because they were so old. So we ended up running to Lowes and getting some smoke alarms. There went all the money we saved on gas!

Day 9 Our Last Day

On our last day in Topeka, we spent most of the day around the house. I got our laundry finished up, the kids played with their cousin Anne Marie and Brett, whom their Aunt Jeanette nannies for, and Jeff hung some pictures and got some things figured out on his moms computer.

Anne Marie lining up the boys' hotwheels.
Tanner with his head in the cats "house".
Kaylie and Tiger...this cat had the patience of a dog with the kids!Anne Marie just sat on Preston's lap while they watched TV. (We found out later that she wasn't feeling good.)

Then 6:00 came and it was skating time! John and Gabriel's school was having a skating night and they were so kind to invite their cousins. So off we went and all the kids, and Jeff and Michelle got their skates on. It happened that they went skating at the same rink that Jeff and Michelle always skated at in high school.
Tanner starting out!
Kaylie hooked up with Aunt Michelle and Gabriel.
Preston actually did really well but for some reason him and John had a hard time right here.
Landon refused to go on the rink for the first hour. He told me he "practiced on the carpet"!
Jeff (and his speed skates because he REFUSES to wear regular rentals and his own pair were in Colorado) with Tanner and Kaylie.


The boys waiting for "girl skate" to be done.
Landon taking off with no help!



The "Limbo" and the "Hokey Pokey". (Top: Tanner, Preston Bottom: Jeff and several of our group)
Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Justin have always ended our trips with surprises for the kids. This year they got to pick out three books!