How to get 5 kids to sleep at 7:15 pm with no complaint

First, you feed them a good breakfast. Then, you send them sledding for a few hours followed by lunch. Throw them all in the car and take them to a hotel to swim for a couple hours. (We were planning to go to the Holiday Inn where Papa Pete was staying but some kid had thrown up in the pool there the night before so it was closed. Uncle Doug had to use one more night at a Marriot Hotel before the end of the year to upgrade to the next class for business travel so he was kind enough to save the day!) We had the pool and hot tub all to ourselves. We pulled the kids out, fed them cookies from the lobby and showered them all in the room. They snuggled in the bed there and we brought them home and fed them dinner. By the end of that, they were all half asleep and no one put up a fight when we put them to bed and we didn't hear another peep from any of them.

A good grilled steak dinner and some wine was enjoyed by all those over age 10 that evening, and peace and quiet reigned.

A new way to sled

Climb to the top of the play fort, leave sled at the bottom of the slide, slide down and land quickly in the sled and go flying across the yard. Makes for hours of fresh air fun!

A few more Christmas present opening chaos pictures!

Too bad no one got presents here this year....


I think I am going to make the boys write their own thank you notes this year, or at least make pictures for people. We'll see how that goes.

Christmas at Uncle Ralph's

Aunt Kathi and Uncle Ralph were kind enough to have all of us for dinner on the 28th. The Newmans met us there after a horrible drive up from Cincinnati in freezing rain and lots of snow. Aunt Judy and Uncle Dick made it too.

The boys had a ball running Uncle Ralph's trains in his train room. They were pretty proud of themselves that they could operate them and follow Uncle Ralph's directions.

Great time and great dinner and then a snowy ride home bringing the Newman's to our house for four days of fun!

Preschool Christmas concert

The boys' preschool decided this year to have a concert with just the 4 yr old class. They practiced from October until the big day in mid-December. Matthew was fine until they moved practices from their classroom to Fellowship Hall where the concert would be. He got scared and wouldn't go on stage. We talked to him and the teachers worked with him and he did continue to practice but kept telling us he didn't want to do the show.

Jeff took the boys since we knew they would cling to me and not go. Matthew cried when they got to their room and hung on Jeff. The teachers got him calmed down and he agreed to go.

They were expecting about 75 people and there were easily over 125 there. Everyone brought grandmas and grandpas and family. The poor little four yr olds had to walk into that room with all those people and go up on stage.

Matthew was fine until he saw all the people and he just lost it and sobbed. Broke my heart but he kept going and went on stage and ended up spending the whole show back behind the curtain with a teacher. He was fine then. Jonathan did really well and is really proud of himself. It was a very cute show. The boys had 4 grandparents, us, great grandma Kelley and Jane and Sopie Stoepker there to cheer them on.

Kris has a great picture of Matthew in the show, just his feet under the curtain showing. I will add it when she sends it to me.

A quick December recap

We started with a spaghetti dinner with Santa at the YMCA so the boys had another chance to visit with Santa. They also got to decorate cookies and make a reindeer ornament.

Jonathan has been writing his own letters to people and making cards and pictures alot. These are real treasures and if he gives you one you need to hide it away or display it proudly out of reach because he often decides to re-gift the same picture to someone else if he can!

We got the biggest Christmas tree we have ever had, it's well over 10 feet tall and just beautiful. We added new LED lights this year that have 16 functions so Daddy has been having fun with that.

Grand Haven has new Christmas lights out on Harbor Island this year. They are huge and hard to get a picture of that you can see well. They synchronize to music. Papa Mark spent a few cold nights volunteering out there helping with traffic and passing out candy canes. Donations go to the Rotary this year. Last year, they made over $30,000 for Make A Wish.

Jeff and I made our annual trek into GR for Trans Siberian Orchestra. Every year we debate if we really need to go again and we do and we are blown away each year by the lights, the music, the fireworks, and the spirit of Christmas instilled in your soul by the end of the evening. Next year we are going to take the boys for the first time.

We have had Christmas now with three of the four sets of grandparents. The Newmans come tonight and Papa Pete will be here tomorrow. It's snowing and beautiful out right now so we are hoping for sledding with the girls and we're planning a big New Year's Eve party!

Santa was very good to the boys. The Pirate came too and left them wave boards and gold coins. Trains, cars, and drawing supplies have been the biggest hits.

Jeff found a new place to display my nativity set away from little hands. It's way up on the wall. I got a new camel and two sheep for Christmas to add in too.

Warm Christmas wishes from our house to yours. Remind me to tell the story of the preschool concert later!