New Year's Eve

It was nice to spend the last day of 2012 together as a family.  Jeremy took the day off.  First thing in the morning, we decided to get out the door, as snow was predicted.  Jeremy needed to take his car to Ellsworth to be looked at.  On Friday, when he went to the garage and started it, it was leaking fluids all over.  He was able to duct tape a hose back on it to get it the 5 miles this morning, but he feared the worst...  The car is 14 years old and has over 240,000 miles on it!

We stopped a a couple car dealerships to do some in-person looking--just in case

We went to Sam's Club for some grocery and household items, had lunch at Pizza Hut, then went to Meijer for some more groceries.  Shopping with Jeremy is always entertaining.  Listen to what Caeden, who has always been a horrible shopper with constant whining and complaining anytime he is in a store, says to his dad...

Jeremy and Annah needed new gym shoes, so we stopped at Shoe Carnival...

We decided to try to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year.  Jeremy and the kids decided to watch the second Lord of the Rings movie.  We started blowing up balloons after it was over.

But around 10pm we all started to get very tired, and decided to do our tradition of "fake midnight" again this year at 11pm.  

After we popped the balloons, we got ready for bed, tucked the kids in and prayed with them, and fell asleep.  We are so thankful for all God's blessings of 2012, and are holding tight to Him for 2013!

All 5 at home

These are the days I love most--the ones where we get to be at home with nothing we have to do and nowhere we have to go.  

We slept in until after 8:30 this morning, and didn't really get out of bed until 9:30.  I made waffles and bacon and eggs for brunch.

The kids and Jeremy tested out the tabletop ping-pong set Pastor Todd gave us.

It was quite entertaining!

And it even got a bit vicious!  But they sure had a lot of fun with it!!

 I've decided to spend the whole day in my bathrobe, 

going through photos and working on Project Life.

Right now, Jeremy and the kids are watching the first Lord of the Rings movie.  I think it is too scary for them, but he is warning them when a scary part is coming, and they are actually liking it I think.

Good times together at home...I am so thankful for these moments.

PoC Staff Christmas Dinner

This evening, the PoC staff families gathered for dinner at Pastor Scott's house to celebrate together.  Pastor Todd and Kim made an amazing meal of pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots au gratin, cornbread muffins, oh my!  And between the rest of us we added broccoli slaw, cranberry sauce, pudding pies, drinks...it was an absolutely awesome meal!

We played a crazy game where we each received 3 clothespins when we arrived.  We were to wear them on our clothing until someone earned the right to take one away if we said, "Uh, um, I don't know, or poophead."  (Pastor Todd makes the rules.)  

Jeremy did very well by not talking much.  Caeden was ornery and asked people questions he figured they would answer, "I don't know." I was out right away, because apparently I say, "Um." a lot.

 Over the past couple weeks we all answered a survey of 150 questions that Pastor Todd put together.  During the course of the evening tonight we tried to guess who answered questions a certain way.  It was a fun way to learn some unique things about people.

This is a great group of staff and families, and we are blessed to serve the Lord with them!

Relaxing

Oh, we are enjoying the break at home.  Jeremy had to go back to work the day after Christmas, but the kids and I are loving being home with nowhere to go!!

Sylvia says her pop beads are her favorite Christmas present.  She has already made many bracelets and necklaces of different patterns from them.  

Annah is loving her voice-activated Bluetooth headphones.  

(And Sylvia appreciates them at night because Annah likes to fall asleep to music and Sylvia doesn't.)

We are playing lots and lots of games together, and watching lots of movies.

In the past couple days we watched all 3 DVD's the kids received for Christmas--Mars Needs Moms, The Lorax, and Legend of the Guardians--Owls of Gahoole.  There's also been instrument practicing, book reading, Barbie playing, lots of Lego building...and I taught the girls the way to make knotted friendship bracelets from floss.

I LOVE having the kids off school!!

A night out!

This evening Jeremy and I were blessed with a date night out with Todd and Kim!  Celia gave us the much appreciated gift of hanging out with all 6 children.  They all had a fantastic time together, eating pizza and popcorn, watching movies and playing Last Word, and snuggling up with their pillow pets once it got late.

We grownups had dinner at Biaggi's, coffee at Starbucks, and went to see the new Les Miserables movie.  What a wonderful, wonderful evening with our friends!!  

Oh yes we did...

Yep, we went there...We elf'ed ourselves...

Merry Christmas 2012

How blessed to wake up together in the comfort of our warm home today, to spend the day with those we love most, to celebrate by giving gifts in honor of our Savior!

Bedtime was about 2am, and awake time was about 8:15am.

Gone are the days of truly believing in Santa.  This year, because this myth is no longer a concern to our kids, they were happy to have less.  We chose a family from our community mitten tree a few weeks ago, and spent a day shopping for them.  We are beyond blessed, having our own needs more than met, and we were so glad to be able to help meet some needs and wishes of others in our own community.

Our morning together began with Jeremy reading the story of Jesus' birth from Luke 2.

The kids first gave their gifts they bought for each other.

There was a lot of excitement, even over little things...

We had biscuits and gravy for brunch, per the kids request.  

Then we Skyped with Krampa and Gram in sunny Arizona.

Sylvia made all of us beautiful glittery cards!

Caeden received "the big gift" this year--a classical guitar.  He is very excited to start Childbloom guitar classes next week.

We relaxed in the living room the rest of the day, watching Christmas movies and the kids playing with presents.  After some afternoon naps, we enjoyed filet mignon for dinner, and just enjoyed each other's company.  

We are so grateful for the love of the Lord.  He has been so very good to us.  We give Him all the glory, praise, and thanks!

Christmas Eve

Jeremy is working today, although it is Christmas Eve.  We are bummed not to have him home with the rest of us, but so grateful to him for working so hard.  I'm actually doing quite a bit of church work today myself, so that I have it done until about Thursday.

The kids are playing, playing, playing around the house today.  So far, it's been Mouse Trap, Trouble, Candyland, iPad, iPod, Legos, LPS, Barbies, Flingsmash on Wii...

They even had DDR going on the Wii...lots of fun and laughing around the house today!

This evening we watched Polar Express.

We had a late night Christmas Eve service at church, so all the kids wore their pj's.

It was a beautiful candlelight service.  The girls blessed us with their duet of What Child Is This?

We were reminded about how Jesus is the light and hope of the world, and that
"In His name the nations will put their hope." - Matthew 12:21

I am so thankful for our Emmanuel, God with us, and the peace and hope that comes only from relationship with Him!  Glory to God!