Krampa & Gram come for Christmas!

For many reasons, we decided not to travel over the Christmas and New Year holidays this year.  This means missing out on some traditions, but also creating new ones.  

This weekend Krampa & Gram came to celebrate Christmas with us at our house!  It was awesome to have them here, and we had such a blessed, sweet time together! 

We exchanged gifts on Saturday morning, and Gram & Krampa went first.

Gram marked this box 'FRAGILE' because she didn't want the kids to shake it and find out it had M&M's in it before they opened it.  They loved it!

Sylvia received the game Mouse Trap--how fun!!

Caeden was ecstatic about this LEGO airplane set!!

Annah got a snazzy new outfit!

Gram & Krampa gave the kids a tent!  They cannot wait to camp out next summer!!

Jeremy's traditional Twizzlers.  :)

We are very, very honored to have one of my grandfather's paintings hanging in our home now!  He was a gifted artist, talented in oil painting, pencil drawing, photography, woodworking, jewelry.  He died when I was only 3 months old, and we did not see his paintings and other pieces of art for many years.  They are still being sorted through and gifted to family members now.  We are very touched by this gift!

We built the mouse trap!

Caeden worked all by himself and built his new LEGO set in 2 hours of intense concentration.

Jeremy discovered a big icicle on our house and brought it in to show us.

Dad, writing a note on the back of the painting.

Our Christmas-y mantle...

Jeremy's Grandma D. gave us 2 of these mugs a few years back.

We are enjoying having a real Christmas tree for the first time in this house!  

The girls have been begging to make sugar cookies, a task which I do not enjoy in the least.  They asked Gram if she would bake them with them, and she was happy to.

They had a great time baking and decorating together.

They turned out great!

All done!

We played some games of UNO together.

Annah received the really cool new game, Scrabble FLASH.  

We all love it, and are taking turns playing it.

And of course our little snugglebug, Sylvie, had to get in as many snuggles as she could. :)

Elementary Holiday Concert 2010

This evening Jeremy, Annah, and I attended the K-3 Holiday Concert at school.  Annah's grade wasn't performing in it, so she got to sit with us and enjoy watching for a change. 

Of course the kindergartners were first.  We knew Caeden had been asked to have a special part as a reindeer.  I couldn't contain my mommy's "Awwwwwwwwe!" when he walked into the gym in his costume; he was so adorable!

All the kids are filing in, and Caeden is getting cross-eyed looking at the black make-up on his nose...

Caeden assumed we'd be in the front row, and we could see him frantically scanning the huge crowd looking for us.  We were waaaay up in the bleachers, almost to the top, where he could never find us.  Obviously, he did see someone he knew...and waved at them...

They sang, "I'm Gonna Mail Myself to You," and I cracked up laughing every time they said, "stick some stamps on top of my head," and knocked themselves in the forehead as they did it.  It was hilarious and adorable at the same time.

Kindergarten is in the center here, 1st grade on the left, 3rd grade on the right, and 2nd grade waiting on the floor in front of the kindergarteners.  The gym was full for this great performance!

When it was time for the kindergarteners to recite the poem "Reindeer Have Antlers," Caeden came forward in his costume and stood there, smiling sweetly.

Caeden was so excited to play the part of the reindeer!
We got very excited when we saw him reach up his sleeve...

"Reindeer have antlers on their head.

At Christmastime they pull a sled.

They live in the North Pole where it snows the most,

But their brown fur coats keep them warm as toast!!!"

...and throw 3 pieces of toast into the audience!  I didn't catch a picture of the actual toss, but he and all the kids grinned and laughed with their mouths wide open when the toast went flying!

(Sylvia's friend Ella happened to get one of them!)

"Ten little angels in the band..."

S-A-N-T-A!

S-A-N-T-Ho!

S-A-N-Ho-Ho!

S-A-Ho-Ho-Ho!

S-Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho!

Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho!

The 1st graders sang about their gingerbread cookies.  The art teacher worked with the music teacher, and helped the kids make gingerbread cookies just for this song!  Total cuteness!

Here is Sylvia's grade, singing "Don't Eat a Poinsettia!"  They had lots of fun with this song, and did a great job with their choreography!  "Aye, aye, aye, aye!"

"DON'T!"

Great job 2nd grade!

Sylvia even smiled and enjoyed herself during the performance!  We talked about thinking about having fun and smiling while on stage, and even practiced her songs in the mirror with a smile while I was doing her hair for the concert.  She has a tendency to look really mad or scared when on stage, but was at ease and having fun tonight!  Yay!

Each of the 1st through 3rd grades performed a round in 2 to 4 parts!  They did a great job keeping them together!

And the 3rd graders ALL played instruments together--boomwhackers, handbells, and Orff instruments. It was a lovely arrangement of Carol of the Bells, and so neat to see every student in the 3rd grade playing music together!

We thoroughly enjoyed the concert!

Remember the Story Performance

This morning at church the choirs performed their Christmas programs.  The children's choir sang their Remember the Story program first.  They did a fantastic job!  Everyone was impressed and proud of them!  There are some good little singers in this group.  And, most importantly, they sang from their hearts!

(Here you can see Caeden and Annah in the middle of the picture.)

(Sylvia is towards the left here.)

I LOVE getting to make music with my kids!!  What a gift!!!
The adult choir presented "The Star Still Shines" today too.  One of the songs, "Twas the Light Before Christmas" also featured the Children's Choir.  Annah started the song with a solo, and sang so well, it was quite emotional for me to follow her with my solo.  Then all the kids came in, and then the adult choir too!  My heart was definitely blessed!  Such a privilege we have to sing for our Lord together!

And working with my friend Lisa is always fun too!

My mom made the girls darling dresses for Christmas.  She wanted me to get a nice picture of them in their outfits, but after we survived the drive home in the blizzard, our nerves were pretty frazzled, and we just wanted to get the picture done with and get into our comfy sweatpants! ;)  Anyway, this is the best picture I got of them.  They did look adorable in the outfits.  Thank you Mom, for spoiling them with your fabulous talent!  :)

Blizzard!!!

RIght now, here in central Illinois, we are having an actual, official blizzard, with a warning from the National Weather Service and everything.  I don't think there is that much new snow coming down, but it is BAD out there!  Yesterday it was in the 40's and raining most of the day, so the 8 inches of snow we had gotten last Saturday became soggy and slick.  Then the temperature dropped down into the teens in the late evening, and ice froze on every surface possible. Then it snowed a little overnight, on top of the ice.

This morning on our way to church, the roads were snow on top, with drifting here and there, and ice underneath that.  As we approached church, the winds picked up and started blowing the snow around.

We had to be there by 8:15 or we might not have gone to church this morning.  There were calls of people coming part way and having to turn around and go home.  

Our trip home from church at 11:30 was treacherous.  In the flat prairie land of central Illinois, even if it is not snowing a lot, when the NOAA weather radio says there is a blizzard warning and "DO NOT TRAVEL," it is good to heed the warning.  Even though we didn't accumulate much more snow today, it was blowing around like crazy!

See, there aren't many trees along the roadsides in our county, because the fields go all the way up to the roadside ditches.  There is nothing to block the snow, and nothing for it to stick to or be held back by.  It just goes around and around!  Then, when you drive by a house or barn that is somewhat close to the road, there is a big drift in front of it to navigate through...

Quite the adventure!

Even Jeremy was nervous, and I've never seen him get nervous driving.  

It was a complete white-out the entire way home.  

Many cars were off the sides of the roads, and we were very fortunate not to be one of them.  And, we couldn't stop to help anyone, because the risk of being hit by someone else who couldn't see was far greater than the help we could offer.  This was about the clearest it ever was on the whole 20 mile trip home...

  

At one point, we came upon a truck that was stopped completely in our lane, but we couldn't see it until we were right up on it, about to rear-end it.   Jeremy applied the breaks, but the car didn't stop.  Instead of choosing to rear-end him for sure, or go in the ditch, Jeremy chose to go left around him.  As he did, we saw a car from the oncoming lane that had gone mostly into the ditch.  Jeremy maneuvered us between the two as well as anyone could have in those conditions, as we all panicked and prayed.  We were very grateful that no oncoming cars were there, that Jeremy had such quick instincts, and that we escaped a serious accident.  God definitely protected us!

The rest of the way home, the kids were silent and still, except to whisper prayers.  I'm positive we were all praying the whole way home.  Thank you, Lord, for getting us there!

School Days

For the past couple months, I've been volunteering at the school all day on Tuesdays.  In the afternoons, I help with the junior high and high school choirs.  (I started that in February.)  But, I thought I would see if any of my kids teachers needed help in their classrooms, and just make it an entire day at the school each week.

So, now I help in Sylvia's 2nd grade classroom first thing in the morning, then I make copies or work on bulletin boards, or whatever the kindergarten teachers have for me to do.  Then, I get to eat lunch with Caeden and Sylvia before going to help in the music department.  It's been great fun each Tuesday!

Sylvia's class has been learning about their bodies in science class!

Their teacher, Miss Sands, had me take each student out in the hall one day, and trace around each of them.  Then they worked very hard to color and cut out their internal organs, leg muscles and bones, brain, and faces and put them on in the right places.  Then they cut out their bodies.

When I visited this week, I got to hang them all up in the hallway outside their classroom.

Here is Sylvia next to her body...

They look really neat in the hallway, and all the students who ride buses walk past them each day and admire the 2nd graders' hard work.

Caeden's class made elves of themselves!  Aren't they about the cutest things you've ever seen?!

(Caeden's is 4th from the left.)

Usually when I am at school on Tuesdays, I don't have a chance to see Annah at all.  

But this week (Wednesday) was the special holiday meat for 3rd through 5th grade, and parents are always invited to join their students.  I was so glad I could go!

Annah's sweet friends Michaela and Alexis sat with us for lunch.

Sylvia had a cool homework assignment this week to make an animal habitat inside a shoebox.  She was very, very excited about making her ocean habitat, and really enjoyed the process!

I love being able to be part of my kids' school life.  It is a great community!