Our Christmas

Here are pretty much pictures that tell the story of our Christmas. We did go caroling some, but not nearly as much as we'd hoped to since our children got sick and we didn't feel right taking them out in the cold. We felt bad for some of our caroling "regulars", but there are things we can't change. Anyway, on to the pictures. :-)

Christmas Eve breakfast--bacon wrapped "Egg muffins".

Christmas Eve supper--hot dogs wrapped in soft pretzel dough with cheese!

Jaron looking forward to supper.

Cookie tray, sampling all the baking I've done in the last month!

The princess

For special we ate around the fire.

Another view of the princess.

So adorable!

Any more explanation needed? ;-)

First blizzard of the winter!

Our winter decorations on our porch.

 

The night of the blizzard--Jaron was outside helping his daddy while the snow flew and the wind blew. He has his "own" snow shovel and loves to make it work!

This morning, Jere out cleaning the snow up so we can get out!

A shot of the drift by the wood shed. Not sure how much snow we got...

Christmastide activities

 

Not sure how much explaining these pictures need! :-)

A couple shots of the pups.

December happenings

We're having a very busy December this year! As you can see from the below picture, there's a lot going on at our house. Cookie baking, school, and oodles of other activities going on. Guess at least it keeps us out of trouble! :-)



Jaron doing school, cookies cooking, empty granola bucket waiting to be filled, banana left over from Leanna's breakfast, can of oil spray from greasing the fudge pan, butter waiting to be made into cookies, etc., etc., etc.!

 

Jaron busy at his school work. He's doing a tremendously good job!

Eliott playing with his tape measure.

Leanna walking.

Yesterday we went to Carolyn Oberholtzer's to bake cookies with some of the others from church. What a blast! We all had so much fun. The children are here cutting out butter cookie dough...

 

Last night we went out caroling for a bunch of neighbors. A number of them weren't home, so we'll have to catch them another day. We had a really good time. Micah and Amy, and Jon and Lisa came with us, then we went back to Micah's house for a snack and visiting once it got too late to bother folks anymore.

 

Tomorrow we plan to go to a couple of assisted living places to sing, then Wednesday and Thursday we plan to go out caroling again. It's a busy time of life, but oh so much fun too!

Snow!

Hooray! It snowed yesterday! We've been looking forward to snow for a long time, and finally got some. It ended up being about 6 inches of delightful white fluff that turned our barren brown landscape into a glorious winter wonderland.

 

Leanna has been enthralled recently with putting things on her head. She LOVES to play peek-a-boo with any and all clothes, and sometimes she'll wrap (or balance, depending on the size of the clothing article) something around her neck and crawl all over with this hugely satisfied grin on her face. Here's a series of shots of playing peek-a-boo the other day:

Discovered the clothing.

"You gonna play peek, Mama?"

"I'm hiding!"

"Peek a boo!!"

Computers. . .

For those who noticed, we were having computer problems while we were in Haiti. Well, they didn't quit once we got home, and now we bought a desk top that will hopefully be able to handle everything we need it to! So far, I've spent about two days working at getting things set up. Some things are going well, some not. So, that's part of the reason why I haven't been real inspired to write on here. I'm over my head in computer stuff all day already! Not that it's all I do by any stretch of the imagination. But once I set something to download, install, etc, I walk away and let it take its own sweet time. With our SLOW internet connection, it takes awhile!

Otherwise, it's been normal life. Amy came today and we baked cookies all afternoon, so that was fun! We're planning to go caroling quite a bit over the next few weeks, and need to have something to take along and give to folks. Caroling sure fills up the holiday season for us--I think we'll be singing 4-5 different days, between senior living places and walking the streets and the neighbors. Should be fun, though!

Jere's truck quit on him yesterday on his way home from work. It was a fuel pump, I guess, as he ran back down there today and fixed it right where it sat by the side of the road. Quite some man! :-) I think he plans to start logging again soon. Plus he's getting people asking him to do this or that for them--more work than he needs! Praise the Lord!

Well, it's time I head off to bed. Jere's at a meeting and the little ones are sleeping, so I ought to take advantage of the quiet house and get some sleep myself while I can! :-)

Little milestones, busy time of life

I couldn't quite figure out how to title this post, obviously! Seems like there's SO much going on I just can't keep up.

Okay, for the biggest milestone first: I have one completely out of diapers!!!  Eliott graduated to undies at bedtime after being dry at least 7 nights out of 8! I'm impressed!!! I expect every once in awhile I'll still have to change wet sheets, but he's even been waking us up at night so he can go potty. Nice. Now for the other two. . .

Leanna's about to put in her next three teeth all at the same time from the looks of it. She has 5 right now. What a doll. She just discovered she can climb up on the child-size chair we have! She stands on it, grasping the back, and rocks back and forth laughing hilariously! I set it up against the soft recliner to make sure she stays upright, and she has a blast. Too cute!

The first time I saw her up on the chair!

 

Jaron has been doing very, very well in school. He's reading quite well for his age, often able to read through a whole sentence and comprehend it the first time! Of course if some of the words are too hard he has to go back over it, but I'm quite happy with his progress. Yesterday I saw him valiantly trying to sound out the words in his little Bible. SO sweet. He doesn't know his long vowels yet so it was impossible for him to get it right, but he was trying so hard!

 

Puppies are taking up a lot of my time these days. Between keeping the website updated and answering emails, I also have to supplement the feeding of the little runt of the litter. Poor little guy isn't as big and strong as the others and doesn't get his fair share--or even enough to survive on.  I've been bottle feeding him three times a day, but he's still not gaining so I'm afraid it will have to go up to four times a day, if not more. I feel like I totally do NOT have time for it, but the children so love the puppy coming in to be fed, and the boys fight for the priviledge of getting to put the bottle back in the fridge when Browning doesn't finish it all. So we relax and enjoy it since we have to do it anyway!

 

I've started making our own yogurt again, instead of buying it, and I'm experimenting with sour cream. Plus I'm trying to get back in the swing of making granola and all of our bread, and cutting down on the food we buy. We have a freezer and cupboards bursting with food--good, healthy food from our garden--so why should we have to spend so much at the store? Yes, it takes more time and effort to prepare meals, but it's healthier and cheaper too. So I'm enjoying the challenge most days, and some days wonder why I even try! ;-) I am finding, though, that it forces me to be more faithful and diligent, and inspires me to find things the boys can help with. They love helping SO much, and then when they know its really needed they just thrive. And that keeps them from fighting over toys or making bigger messes too!

 

And that reminds me, the house IS rather a mess right now and I'm needing to clean up the kitchen to get started on some supper! Better get it done while Leanna is sleeping, since she seems to be in the habit of cat-napping these days and not sleeping very long at all. Ah, little ones!