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!

November 2007

We are so busy enjoying the boys and life that we have really fallen behind in blogging. We promise to do better and keep up in 2008. Time goes by so quickly but it's important to remember these times too.

Early November was still beautiful outdoor weather and the boys were busy with soccer and then switched to gladiator sports which was a rotation of different things to try including: soccer, basketball, gymnastics, floor hockey and more.

We got our first snow just in time for Thanksgiving. Grammy was here with us and the boys played outside in the snow with a happy Hayley dog.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to visit Grandma Cindy and Papa Terry and had fun at their condo playing with toys. The next morning we got up and went to ride the Polar Express train. You take an hour ride to the North Pole and inside there they have an indoor carnival and Santa!! We had lots of fun on the rides and the boys got brave and decided to sit on Santa's lap after all. A great adventure. We saw lots of deer in the snow covered fields on our trip.

That weekend, Papa Mark came home from Arizona for the holidays. Grandma Kris was at her mom's for a few weeks so the boys had some great adventures with Papa.

How to embarrass the dog, two ways!

Poor Hayley, she gets no respect. The boys insisted she needed puppies so she has a little of pups they insist on following her around with. NOW, we dress her up for Halloween too! Love my three little superheroes. I don't think they would intimidate any evildoers!

Our house is ready for Halloween too, are you?

We fell into Fall

Not happily, fall has arrived in West Michigan. We went from 84 and sunny on Monday to 45 and rainy on Friday. Not such good beach weather.

We did manage to get a last day of beach fun in on Monday and the water was a glorious 72 degrees.

Tuesday, the boys had a day with Grandma Cindy and Papa Terry as I had dispatch training. They spent some time at North Shore beach and played. They had soccer in the evening, which is always entertaining. We raced from soccer to Grand Haven Twp Fire Station for their annual open house and had some fun checking out all the rescue trucks. We didn't last long, the winds kicked in and it got chilly.

Yesterday we road tripped to Rockford and went to the original Rosie's Diner, home to all the tv commercials with Rosie and the quicker picker upper Bounty. We got our pumpkins too and have been having trouble explaining why it's too soon to carve them yet.

Today is rainy, inside fun with playdoh. We're making a big pot of chicken soup for dinner.

We have definately hit the defiant fours and new depths of parental frustration as the boys test their limits and boundaries and seem to have no fear of getting in trouble. We'll continue to try getting through it but it's sure been hard this week.

The boys did make it over to Grandpa Mark's this morning after church and found bounty the pirate left them for Halloween. (For those who don't know, there is a pirate who visits Papa and Grandma's house and leaves the boys regular treasures to find. It started last spring with a treasure map and hats and outfits for the boys who had to follow the map to the beach to find buried treasure boxes. Ever since then, the pirate has been visiting to leave gold covered chocolate coins and other treats.)