Christmas Celebrations 2014

The kids let us sleep in a bit on Christmas morning - that was nice!  After everyone was up, the kids opened their presents.  This year, I wrapped their stocking items in a small box and put them under our "clump of small trees"...the kids never realized that the presents were really for them! They all got candy and a small Lego set.  The girls received a jewelry set while Will received some money.

The kids continue to do their shopping at the Awana Christmas store.  They have a lot of fun selecting items for their siblings as well as their parents! Kaitee received this blanket from Maddie - I think Kaitee likes it as she drapes it around her everywhere she goes in the house!

They saved their big gift to open last.  All of them knew what they were getting - but some had forgotten (they picked out 2 or 3 things in October that they wanted and we chose from there).  All but Alex chose Lego sets.

Alex made a deal with us - she would go half and half with us on Isabel, the American Girl doll of the year.  We purchased the doll when we were visiting Kansas City in October.  She was so proud of herself (as were we!) that she had saved up all $60 of her part of the doll.

Our initial plans were to go to church on Christmas Eve and then head to Becki's parent's house for Christmas with the Barman family.  Unfortunately, Debbie's family was sick so we postponed our Christmas with them until New Years.  We at dinner then Becki's mom introduced the "Barman Tree-Skirt Singers".  Each grandkid performed a song by singing, piano, percussion or flute...Kaitee also wrote a Poem and recited that for us...

'Twas the Night Before New Year's (She literally wrote this in 15 minutes)

'Twas the night before New Years,...
When all through the town,
Everyone was watching as
The New Years' ball dropped down.

The countdown to 12,
The excitement right then
And you finally notice:
2014 is now a has been.

Cross Country is done for,
And volleyball, too.
It's out with old year,
And in with the new.

Bye-bye kid years,
Hello to teens! [her 13th birthday is in May]
To me, no-one
knows how much it means!

Good-bye, December,
Good-bye ebola and ISIS,
Good-bye 2014,
Hello to a year full of hope for no crisis.

So, Will was being shy and (possibly) a bit tempremental...he didn't want to perform anything.  Brad encouraged Will to do a song with him.  Yeah, had us all laughing!

Maddie was nervous about performing but did it "for Grammy".  Afterwards, she ran over and gave Grammy a hug!

The TreeSkirt Singers!

We put the younger kids to bed...after ringing in the new year a few hours early...then hunkered down for the remainder of the evening with snacks and Catch Phrase.  It is always so nice to laugh and have fun with family!

We all spent the night and woke up to the smell of Grandad's Biscuits & Gravy!  Yum!  After breakfast, Grammy got the kids rounded up for the annual Christmas pageant. 

Gabriel visiting Mary

Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem

Sheep & Shepherds being visited by Angels

All of the cast, including Kayla who played music for the whole performance and Grammy, the director.  What special memories this pageant has given us!

Time to open presents!!!

Doll set from Grammy & Grandad

Lego Friends Encyclopedia from Barb & Willy

Lego Chima Encyclopedia from Barb & Willy

Lego Set from Grammy & Grandad

Lego Advent Calendar from Grammy & Grandad

Isabelle Accessories Set from Grammy & Grandad

Grammy & Grandad

Brad & Debbie

All of the kids also received a stocking with candy and goodies as well as a craft kit from Becki's aunt & uncle.  They were/are spoiled!  We were blessed by our time together with everyone.  Merry Christmas & Happy 2015 to you!

An Adventure in Rockford

One of our letterboxing friends, Toni, invited us to visit her at Hoo Haven sometime when we were up towards the Rockford area.  We had the remainder of our Thanksgiving weekend open and the weather was great, so we contacted her to see if she would be able to show us around. 

From Hoo Haven's Website...
"Hoo” Haven is dedicated to rehabilitating and releasing, sick, injured and orphaned, North American Wildlife. And to educating individuals to the importance of the conservation of Mother Earth, to maintain the land, clean and beautiful for all.

It was a wonderful experience to see all that Hoo Haven does to help these animals!  The kids loved it (minus the smell in some areas!) and Toni did a wonderful job of educating us on things we never knew before!

We left Hoo Haven and headed into Rockford for lunch and letterboxing.  We found a box at this medical facility - the kids thought the short stop signs were funny.

We then headed further downtown Rockford to Sinnissippi Park & Gardens.  This is one of our favorite places to visit while in Rockford!  We were excited to find two letterboxes there as well as enjoy the view of the river for a bit.  Unfortunately, once we were there, we realized that our van was not going to cooperate with us.  Between letterboxes, our van was very sluggish and not shifting correctly.  As soon as we realized something wasn't right, the dashboard lit up with error messages! 

After a few calls to the dealership (and our friend trying to track down a van to rent on Thanksgiving weekend...after 3:00 in the afternoon), he decided the best way to get us home was to send a tow truck from the quad cities with a loaner van to swap out with our van.  We were very grateful for his generosity...but quickly realized that we had 3 hours to "waste" at this park before our loaner would be there.  We got out and walked the path a ways, took a couple of trips to the bathrooms (luckily they were nice, year round bathrooms!) and got to witness the most beautiful sunset - right there on the river!  We knew that none of these things were by accident.  We knew that God was watching over us in our time of need.

Other letterboxing friends, Russ & Chris, came to our rescue with pizza and pop.  They stuck around and chatted with us for almost an hour.  The kids were extremely bummed as we were supposed to spend the remainder of our time in Rockford with Chris & Russ - seeing their horses!  We will have to head back another time.

The kids watched a movie while we waited...and then finally, we got a call from the towtruck driver!  He was almost there!  He switched us out and we were on the road within 30 minutes and heading home. 

We looked back on our day as we drove home.  We are truly blessed by friends!  Without our friends in Rockford, our day would turned out completely different.  We are also so thankful for our friend at the dealership...he went above and beyond...and we are forever thankful!

Getting Ready for Christmas 2014

Thanksgiving Weekend means Christmas Decorations go up in our house!  This is also the time that we give the kids their new ornament to commemorate their past year.  Here are the kids waiting to see what their ornaments will be.

Kaitee - Cross Country Running

Maddie - Our popcorn maker!

Alex - she loves to do cartwheels EVERYWHERE she goes!

Alex - School Patrol

Will - our rock wall climber

We enjoyed putting the rest of the ornaments on our tree and decorating the house for Christmas.

A few weeks later, the younger three kids participated in the school Christmas program.  Alex also played her flute.

Alex front row, black dress/white sweater

Maddie & Will's class...

Will front row, 2nd from left.  Maddie front row, black dress/white sweater

Enjoying the Christmas Season

We always love looking ahead to Christmas and some of the traditions that we have leading up to it.  One of our favorite traditions is getting out and looking at lights.   We always take one day to drive to Peoria and drive through the "Festival of Lights" display that they put together every year.  After we drive through the park, we head to Tyronni's for pizza & breadsticks!  This year did not disappoint. 

We hope, one year, to make it to Peoria to watch the parade of floats!

While driving around Peoria, one of the kids noticed these wild turkeys.  We counted 5 of them!

A friend told us about a light display in Kewanee, IL so we headed out another night to see them.  We were happy that the night wasn't extremely cold (and that there wasn't snow on the ground) as it was best to see everything on foot. 

The bridge was amazing!!

Will didn't listen to me when I asked him to wear shoes & socks...he was a little cold!

We drove through Geneseo on the way home and found this home with a wonderful Nativity display (hay and all!)

We try to visit local houses/neighborhoods as well as drive up to Clinton to enjoy their "Symphony of Lights".  We were blessed with unusually warm temps and no snow for December - this sure helped us while driving to see these lights!

We attend Awana at Homewood Evangelical.  This year, Alex played the narrator in 4 weeks of skits leading up to Christmas.  It was called Unfrozen and told the gospel story.  She had a lot of fun doing this! (I will add pictures when I get them from the director).  Kaitee was asked to play a part in the "Bethlehem Bound" production at Homewood.  Bethlehem Bound is a audience participation play.  Kaitee was one of the two main characters.  She also had a lot of fun!  Both girls did great in their roles and we are so proud of the time and effort they put into the productions.