New Year's Eve 2009

We spent New Year's Eve at home this year, so thankful for a chance to have some quiet time at home, just the 5 of us.  It was wonderful!

The girls made star mobiles, in honor of celebrating a new year.

Caeden lost his second tooth!

Jeremy brought home Monical's pizza (my favorite!) for supper.  Then we all put our warm comfy jammies on and chilled out!  We decided to celebrate the new year at our own "fake midnight"---9pm Central time!

We blew up balloons and popped them at "midnight," and  yelled, "Happy New Year!!!"

Then the kids decided to have a slumber party in the living room, so that Caeden could use his new sleeping bag.  We popped in The Happy Elf DVD and each drifted off before midnight.  We didn't even hear the Tooth Fairy come take Caeden's tooth and leave him some money.

It was a lovely, cozy way to end a wonderful year.  Goodbye 2009.  Thank you, Jesus, for all the many blessings you added to our lives this year!!

A play, by Annah & Sylvia

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Since Tuesday morning, the kids have been putting together a play to perform for us.  Sylvia came up with the idea to do a play, Annah "wrote" it, and they all 3 worked on lines, props, costumes, lighting, scene changes, flyers, and tickets!  After he'd had enough practicing and conflicting with the "director" (Annah), Caeden decided to drop out of the play, and he was replaced with a new "sister"--the Raggedy Anne doll, temporarily named "Claire."  Between Jeremy and myself being sick, the performance had to be put off until this evening, so a lot of anticipation was built up!

The performance was held in the girls' bedroom, and began with "Mommy" Annah reading to her two girls at bedtime.  Couches were formed but putting chairs together and covering them with pillows, and they really did change in and out of their pajamas for the play.  The note book on the floor contains the script--just in case they forgot their lines.

In this scene, you see the "moon" hanging from the bookcase.  Sylvia is playing "Starlet" the tiny star who feels insignificant because she is smaller than other stars in the sky.  ("Mommy" is reading the book Tiny Star.)

Starlet falls from the sky and finds a dark little stable and a newborn baby to shine on...

Then her light becomes very bright and she is happy to be an important big star.
(As you can see there was another costume change.  There was also sparkly make-up, and 3 colors of lip-gloss for Starlet!)

taking a bow

We very much enjoyed the performance, and of course gave them a long round of applause and a standing ovation.  Daddy asked all three kids to sing Away In a Manger for an encore.

SNOW!!!

We've had an interesting few days back at home...continued sickness, a little more snow, cabin fever ensuing...  It snowed some more yesterday, and I felt well enough today to get up off the couch.  SO, I went outside with the kids and let them play in the snow--FINALLY! 

They eagerly ran around the yard making tracks and picking up snow to play in, just like excited little puppies.
(It still seems strange to see our yellow house in pictures, but so wonderful!)

Sylvia was really getting into the snow this time, lying down in it, digging, just totally enjoying it.

There are lots of icicles on hanging from our house right now!  The large one in the corner there is probably about 5 feet long!

Okay, I totally cheated and Photoshopped this pic, including adding the lens flare, but I like it anyway.

While we were outside two flocks of geese flew right over.  We thought my parents will see them in Arizona...but I doubt they're going that far south.

I'm glad Caeden is a boy and doesn't mind the fact that his snow gear is totally mismatched this year.  In fact, he thought it was cool that he "looked like a tree" with his brown snowpants "trunk" and green coat "leaves."

Boy didn't even notice it was freezing out.

The kids thought it was cool to get their own icicles to play with in the snow!

Sylvia worked on digging a tunnel under the snow as far as she could!

Much to my disapproval, yes, everything can be made into a pretend gun.

WE LOVE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One "advantage" of living on Main Street in our little village is that we get our "own" Christmas decoration on the light pole near the end of our driveway.  The kids are always excited to see which one it will be each year.  This year we had a bell.

Sledding!

Today has included some more unexpected adventures.  I guess that is what life is best at giving us, huh?  We can still find joy and things to be thankful for in the middle of the things that don't go just how we'd like.

I woke up with my stomach feeling odd this morning.  I'd gone upstairs to make a cup of tea to [hopefully] soothe it, when Annah came running into the kitchen crying, "MOM!  I just threw up!"  We were all dressed and almost ready to head out the door to church.  Somehow she managed not to ruin her beautiful dress, and I got her calmed down.  She spent the rest of the day in bed, mostly watching movies.

But having the flu around meant that we weren't going to see Erin or Travis again while in Indiana, because we didn't want to get flu germs around to the baby, especially after Erin had already been through struggles with the flu the week before!  We also missed the McEowen family gathering, including the family band and handbell choir playing Christmas carols...big bummer.

We thought we better pack up and head out in the afternoon instead of tomorrow morning.  BUT, by the time we started packing up, the snow was coming down at a crazy-alarming rate!  We didn't dare venture out on a more than 4 hour trip on snow and ice with sick people in the car.  So we decided to stay the night.

Sylvia and Caeden grew increasingly itchy to get in the snow as it came down and covered everything so beautifully!  They asked Daddy to take them out sledding, and he was so kind to oblige.

Uncle Travis happened to sneak over while they were trying to get the sleds down what used to be big hills, and they decided Uncle Trav's hill was steeper and probably better for sledding.  So they hiked on over and tried it out for a few minutes.  Then Jeremy pulled the kids on the sled around Gram's & Krampa's house!  Whew!  Everyone was tuckered out! 


Thank you, Uncle Travis, for the pictures!



Sylvia trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue as Jeremy gets ready to push Caeden's sled down the hill...

A little tiny kick!

Aunt Erin is about 33 weeks along in her pregnancy now, and the girls and I were all able to feel the baby kick today!  Such an amazing miracle!!  We are so excited to meet our new niece/cousin!

DeHaven Christmas

This evening we celebrated with the DeHaven side of the family (Jeremy's mom's side) at Eric's & Marti's house.

Marti said she was keeping the food simple, but man there sure was a lot of it!  I seriously ate as much as I probably should eat in a whole week.  First there were trays of cheese and crackers, two different kinds of meatballs, trays of cookies, and a tray of fudge.  Oh my!  Then there was ham for dinner, two kinds of amazing scalloped potatoes, garlic couscous, steamed carrots, corn, salad, 3 pies, cheesecake, birthday cake (Wilson is 11!) and probably other things I'm not remembering.  It was all soooo good!

Our nephew and Godson, Simon was playing pirate, using his Wheat Thin cracker for an eye-patch.  Such a cutie!

They have some amazingly beautiful ornaments on their tree!

I'm not sure, but I think these might be some Marti said (at her blog) were made by her grandmother.  I would love to learn how to make these.  They're so gorgeous, I think!

Simon doesn't like to wear pants, apparently, and we are glad he is comfortable around us. ;) One of our kids went through a phase of pantslessness, though I can't remember which it was. 
You may notice Annah and Sylvia on the couch in the background.  That's pretty much where they were most of the evening, they were so exhausted by that time!  Will is the other one on the couch; they were watching Night at the Museum II.

I took a picture of Jeremy and his cousins Seth and Danielle, and they looked at me like I was an annoying photographer.  So, I told them to act like they liked each other for the next picture.  Jeremy decided to plant a big ol' kiss on Seth's cheek.  Definitely a better picture than the first!

After we ate, the girls had brought their violins to play some Christmas songs.  Great Grandma is always asking them about their violin playing, and none of Jeremy's side of the family had ever heard them, so we thought we would oblige.  But, I was the one who grabbed their books, and didn't know that Sylvia's book was not with the rest.  So Annah played several songs on her own, and everyone seemed to enjoy.  Charlie was a great cheerleader, telling her how good she was!

Thank you Eric & Marti for hosting again!  We had such a lovely time with our family!  We love you all!

Christmas Day is here!

Christmas morning is here!  Seems like we just fell asleep, but the kids were up by 8:30 Indiana time.  Time to open presents!

Mom has a beautiful tall tree.  I didn't get all the gifts in the picture...Supposedly we all "cut back" this year, but I'm not sure that's really accurate.  Mom said there were as many gifts, but they didn't cost as much. 

We keep the doors to the sunroom closed until everyone is ready and cameras are set up.  Here they are, first seeing the presents under the tree.  (Mom is imitating Caeden's expression of excitement.)

Mom & Dad reading their Christmas card from us. Aren't they cute?!

Erin & Travis (and Li'l Baby) with their card

Our stockings had lots of little Disney-related items...hmmm...
Caeden was just SO excited about each and every little thing he opened.  It was so fun to watch him!
Here, he's opened a little magnetic Figment.

LEGOS!!!!!!

New things for the Wii!  A controller and a wheel!

The one thing Caeden asked Santa for was this game.  HUGE reaction when he opened it!

Sylvia and Annah both received shoulder rests for their violins.  Sylvia's is purple and Annah's is blue.

Light-up Disney toothbrushes!!!!

Caeden and his sleeping bag..."I've wanted one of these my whole entire life!"  I think he liked it.

Travis & Erin were excited about the School of Rock DVD we gave them.  We had the best time watching it with them when they visited us over the summer!

Jeremy received Wii Madden 2010 from his loving wife. ;)  He kinda likes it. ;)

Oh yeah, I was there too...with my big mouth, and my camera around my neck, as usual.

This cracks me up.  Here is my mom poking a little fun at me...  At Thanksgiving we were talking about how certain things have gone up so much in cost at the store...I used to buy graham crackers for $.99/box, but now they are over $2.50 and I can't bring myself to buy them at that much of an increase.  So, she gave the kids a huge box of graham crackers since their mom is too cheap to buy them anymore!

Jeremy got 2 pounds of Twizzlers and he's not sharin'! (Too bad we all snuck them anyway!)

My brother gets the award for finding the most unique but useful gift.  He always knows just what to get Dad.  This year he got a Honeysuckle Popper, which is actually something Dad really needs.  The woods on his farm are overgrown with honeysuckle and it has to be removed.  Perfect gift.

My family has this ornery tradition of pulling out "the big gifts" from some hidden spot after "all" the presents have been opened.  I thought since we were cutting back this year, we made it through without this happening...until Travis and Dad hauled this huge box in from the garage.  "Hmmm...we just found this big box out in the garage, and we don't know where it came from.  Wonder what it could be?  Mom, you better open it.  Nope, maybe not...It looks like it's for Jeremy & Taryn's family."  Oh geeze.
Jeremy said he knew what it was the second he saw them bring the box through the door, but I had no clue.  Needless to say, we were all surprised...

...and amazingly grateful to receive a new flat-screen TV!  WOW!  How do you say thank you for that?!
THANK YOU Travis & Erin, and Mom & Dad!!!!!!  We love it, and we LOVE you!  (And not just because you gave us a TV! ;)

Mom made a fabulous brunch!  Really light pancakes with red raspberry sauce, and a super yummy breakfast casserole with hashbrowns, eggs, bacon and other yummies.  It hit the spot!

What can I say?  He loves his Pepsi.  It's his "coffee."

The afternoon was spent relaxing and busting out as many presents as could be used.  Here the ladies are creating animals with Sylvia's new Bendaroos.

I'm so glad and thankful for presents, yes, but mostly for THE best gift of all, the reason we celebrate...Thank you God for sending us Jesus, the meaning of life and the source of all love!