Christmas Evening

Christmas evening was spent at Matt's Aunt and Uncle's house for an extended family gathering. The kids enjoyed opening gifts (yet again) and playing with their 2 cousins from Indy and Matt's cousin's kids as well. By the end of the night, everyone was ready for a good night's sleep!

Christmas Day - Home and The Weatherton's

We always start Christmas Day with the reading of "Jesus's birth" from the Bible, and this year Noah and Matt shared the responsibilities of the reading!

Christmas morning is spent at home opening gifts, just the five of us.





This year Hope and Faith each received a Snowflake Necklace reminding them that twins are like Snowflakes, no two are alike!



All three of the kids love to watch the "High School Musical" Movies, so they each got one for Christmas...



After the traditional egg casserole breakfast, and playing with some new gifts, we head next door to my parents for Christmas with the Weatherton's.

After lunch, (a "full" Christmas lunch of ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower with cheese, rolls, red cake, "Christmas Tea", and a few other items I am sure I missed), the afternoon is spent opening gifts and playing Bingo together as a family.

The kids love spending time with their grandparents and cousins (and their aunt and uncle as well)!

Christmas Eve - Church

Christmas Eve Evening (?) was spent at Church for an hour of worship and fellowship. This year while the "Christmas Story" was being read from the Bible, some of the children were asked to be in the Live Nativity. Noah had been a Wise Man for the children's nativity program, so he was asked to participate in this one as well. We left the decision up to him, and he decided it was something he wanted to do.

It was a great evening spent together as a family, and we kept our family traditions alive by ending the evening watching "White Christmas" when we got home with their new pajama's on.

Christmas Eve - Lunch at The Brown's

Christmas Eve day is spent with Matt's side of the family, usually for lunch, at his parent's house. Lunch consists of whatever sounds good to people at that time, and lunch that day happened to be Ham Salad sandwich's, chips, pretzels and dip, and ice cream for dessert. It is just the 5 of us with his mom and dad when we get together, and the kids enjoyed opening their gifts and spending some time at their house.

A quick stop at the mall...

While out running errands today, the girls and I made a quick stop at the mall. While there, Hope and Faith saw an older man with a face painting cart set up in the center circle. They both asked if they could get their cheek painted...the prices were such a steal I couldn't say "No"! Each butterfly cost a total of 50 cents! A much better "prize" than something you could get out of a gumball machine!

Santa Claus

This year Matt once again "played" Santa at a Christmas party for the Boys and Girls Club of Nappannee put on by Interra Credit Union. Noah had such a great time last year, that he decided to miss his swimming party at church to go along and "play" Santa's helper. He had just as much fun as the other children, and stayed until Grandma Weatherton was done helping and ready to go home.

All three kids wanted to get their picture taken with "Santa Claus" before they left for the party!

Grandparents day

The girls had a great time at Grandparents Day with both Grandma Weatherton and Grandma Brown. The children sang some songs, ate cookies, made gingerbread houses and showed their grandparents around.

Cookie Decorating Day

I took all the kids to school this morning so I could help in Mrs. Snider's class (Hope's teacher) at 8 am. For the next hour I wrapped her Christmas gifts she would be giving to the children later in the week, and then had to attach a candy cane and bow on the outside of each gift.

At 9 am, I moved over to Mrs. Davies class (Faith's teacher) where I would be helping the rest of the morning...It was cookie decorating day! All the cookies that were being served at Grandparent's Day tomorrow had to be decorated with frosting and sprinkles. Another mom and I took turns helping the groups of 4-5 children that were sent down to the cafeteria. After each child decorated 4-5 cookies, they were allowed to lick the frosting off the Popsicle stick they had been using. That was the best part of the morning for most of the kids!

College Football Hall of Fame

Sunday while us girls were at the "Theater", Matt and Noah headed over to Southbend to the College Football Hall of Fame. They had been wanting to go for some time, and this was the perfect opportunity. They both had on their Ohio State jersey's, and Noah was so excited, this would be his first time there.

Surprisingly, it was not that busy for a Sunday afternoon! They even had special activities going on for Christmas, and Noah got to decorate and eat a Christmas cookie!

A note from Matt:

Noah and I had a blast together! It was fun having a day where it was just us guys. I enjoyed watching Noah explore all the history of college football. Plus, we happened to go during a time where they had the "Bucks and the Blue" exhibit. It was a special room designated for experiencing the rich tradition of the Ohio State/Michigan rivalry (which Ohio State has dominated the last decade).

Of course the best part was being with our son and having a chance to talk to him. He's a great kid and I look forward to spending more one-on-one time with him in the future. Noah you're awesome and I love you!

The Sound of Music

Sunday afternoon, after church, the girls and I went to Wagon Wheel Theater in Warsaw to see The Sound of Music with my parents. An old family friend, Jennie Sophia Yoder Grunseth was performing as Maria, and her mom, Susan Hepler Yoder was performing as the Mother Abbess.

The girls faces were smiling when they realized we were in the 4th row...they couldn't believe we were so close (last time they had sat a few rows back). Grandma and Grandpa made sure they had snacks for the performance, and they looked so grown up sitting there.

The girls had seen Jennie perform in Cinderella, and were excited to see her in this as well. They were on the edge of their seats throughout the performance...I am excited to think I have 2 future theater attenders in the family!

After the show, when they were getting their picture taken with "Maria" (Jennie), they were happy to hear she would stop by soon for another visit!

Thanksgiving Cont...

Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving this year was held at my brother's house in Bronson, MI. The kids had a ton of fun playing with their cousins - Noah and Dillan had fun playing the Game Cube, and the girls had fun dressing up. Matt even enjoyed a short time of playing the Game Cube with Cory after the boys were done with it!

We were originally expecting to have Turkey or Lamb for lunch, whichever was missing from their pasture when we arrived. Cory hadn't had time to "prepare" the lamb or the turkey that week, so we had stuffed pork loin, which was out of this world!! Desert was celebrated with a cake for my niece, Eliza, whose birthday had been in October.

All in all it was a wonderful day. Every time we go to their house, the kids love to see the deer in the fields close by where they live. We were not disappointed on the way home!

Christmas Cards and Followers!

Christmas cards were finished and mailed a few days ago! Woohoo!!! That is such a good feeling...although I did not do a nice "family letter" this year, I did include this blog site, so hopefully we will have a few new people stopping in to read!

It's always nice to know who is reading the blog, so if you haven't done it yet, please click on the "Follow" button on the left hand side and follow the instructions. This will allow me to see who is reading our blog, and it will also let you know when I have made a new post! If you have any problems, contact me and I can help.

Thanks,

And happy reading!

My Birthday...

My parents surprised me by getting me lunch from Dandino's, a Lobster Tail meal, one of my favorites! They also got the cake that my kids gave to me that night after one of my other favorite meals, Take-Out Chinese! I received many wonderful things, all of which were things I had been needing. I love getting practical gifts!

Church Christmas Musical Pictures

Will it ever end?

Yesterday morning (Sunday), Hope woke up with a stomach ache. Matt was already staying home with Noah so he could get some extra rest, we didn't want him missing the church musical last night.

Faith and I went on to church by ourselves, she helped me teach the 1st grade class during first hour. I kept her with me while I went to service 2nd hour, I had left my "ID Card" at home, which I needed to show to pick her up out of her class if I put her in.

Needless to say, Hope threw up while we were at church that morning, and continued to do so the rest of the day, all while running a fever. I stayed home with her last night during the musical and Matt took the other two. Faith looked so grown up in her Christmas dress - I told Hope she would be able to wear her same dress next Sunday.

Long story short? The Christmas musical went well, and Faith ended up throwing up about 2 hours after they got home from it...and continued all through the night.

I am slowing down and close to running on empty, which could explain the "jilted" writing this morning. I have been battling some type of sinus cold myself, and can somewhat feel the flu coming on. I just keep "pushing" that feeling down, I cannot get sick right now, life must go on!

You may have noticed...

I have a second blog, One Day at a Time. This blog is my personal exercise/weight loss/"spiritual" blog, and you are welcome to follow it and post your thoughts or your own struggles. Sometimes as women we just need that little thing we can call our own, and this is mine. It may not always be pretty, but it's my life and my struggles, and I am taking it One Day at a Time!

www.givemetoday.blogspot.com

Once again...

I am home for the 2nd day with a sick child. Wednesday Noah came home from school with a stomach ache, I didn't think too much about it though at the time. All three kids had received the H1N1 shot at school that day, so I figured his stomach had been tied up in knots for several days in anticipation of the shot. On the way to church that evening, he kept complaining that it still didn't feel good, so he and Matt stayed in the church library that night while the girls and I went to class.

Then it happened later that night...12:30 am I was awoken by Noah saying he just threw up. He slept peacefully until 6:30 when it happened again, and by then he was running a slight fever. Long story short...he ran a fever all day with it finally breaking around midnight last night. At one point he was .4 degrees away from going to the emergency room, they thought it might be a side affect/reaction to the shot. But, thankfully, it never came to that point. He appears to be fine this morning, no fever, but has not been fever free for 24 hours, so he cannot return to school today.

Due to this stomach bug/flu, he had to miss the 2nd and 3rd grade Christmas Musical (Santa Goes Green) at school that he has been working so hard on. He had a solo part this year, and was going to be an evergreen tree. Needless to say, he was devastated when he found out he wasn't going to be able to participate.

We ended up renting "Santa Buddies" for the kids to watch last night, to try to take his mind off what he was missing. I think it is actually a blessing that he is missing school today, hopefully all the talk of last nights musical will have died down by Monday...