Christmas Dance

The St. Andrew Christmas dance was a masquerade this year.  Perhaps Phantom of the Opera colors my opinion of masquerades, but I find them quite creepy.  The girls were super excited, however, and had a marvelous time finding a mask for Katherine to wear.  And what's a mask without a bit of makeup, so they slathered some of that on as well.  They felt beautiful as their carriage....I mean the Camry....drove them to the ball!

 

  

A Little Seamstress

Annika began a quilt with Grandma last spring.  Whenever they had an opportunity, Annika would stitch squares together til finally, this past month they completed it.  She is so darn proud of it; she did do an amazing job.  It was awesome that Grandma taught her how to sew, because now I'm reaping the benefits.  Stuck away in the sewing closet was a bag of Christmas material that I had been wanting to make into napkins for years.  Annika sewed all the napkins, as well as couple table squares, to decorate our dining table for Christmas.  Not only did she do that, she got on Pinterest and taught herself how to fold the napkins in the shape of a poinsettia.  Our party with Shannon's family was extra pretty due to all her hard work!

Thank you, Annika, for your dedication when you wanted to go play!  

Snuggled all up in her quilt

The little seamstress zippin' along ~

Her first idea was fold the napkins like a rose.

Cookies

It takes a brave soul to eat cookies that have been made in our home.  Actually, this doesn't apply to all cookies, mostly just frosted sugar cookies.  There's just so darn much licking going on.  No matter how the kiddos are reminded to wash their hands, I never feel entirely comfortable sending a plate of them anywhere.  Nevertheless, my brother-in-law, Pat, loves them.  Since he will be here for Christmas we made sure we got a couple tubs stashed in the freezer in anticipation of his arrival.
Bon appetite, Pat.  We were just thinking of you and boosting your immune system!

The olders get pretty creative....and intense 

Just tastin'

I meant to get these little guys made for St. Lucy's feast day

When you top a melted peppermint kiss with a green M&M they look like ~ yuck ~ an eyeball!

Kath helped unwrap hundreds of Kisses.

She deserves a kiss!

While Nickles is all about helping in the kitchen, Dom would rather be creating a

stealth bomber paper airplane.

Nickles was super excited about the Nutter Butter St. Nicks until I 

decided that painting a cross on every miter was too much work.

The situation unraveled and soon we had miniature marshmallows 

glued........well, everywhere.  

If anyone remembers the pie making episode, this kid loves rolling dough, 

but it gets kinda wild.  

http://letterstogramma.blogspot.com/2013/02/pie-making-gone-wrong.html

When Daddy helps, cookie decorating becomes oh-so-serious!

Whew ~ cookies are exhausting business.

And I don't understand this about boys!

To Believe or Not to Believe

Lately it seems as though my kiddos have been bombarded by children of purist parents regarding the nonexistence of St. Nick.  Or Santa Claus.  I get not buying into the secularism of Christmas.  I understand wanting to keep Christ as the focus.  Really, I do.  But I believe that we can have our cake milk and cookies and eat them too, so-to-speak.   

As a child, Christmas was my favorite holiday, or holy-day.  Everything about it was magical, joyful, warm....perfect.  The time of preparation before Christmas......the Advent wreath, filling our manger with straws earned with kind deeds to make a soft bed for Jesus, the songs, making cookies for neighbors...:..the whole thing was really the most wonderful time of the year. And topping it all off was St. Nick's magical arrival on Christmas Eve.  

There's the argument that we shouldn't be encouraging our children to lie. Really?  They're going to learn how to lie from this example?  I submit that lying is more deeply ingrained in our humanity.    

Dad did an awesome job of keeping the St. Nick mystery just that ~ a mystery.  I don't even want to admit how long I believed.  We definitely shouldn't bring up the Easter Bunny in this discussion  

Shannon was not my favorite person after he broke the bad news to me.  

Anyway.  I remember the reindeer and sleigh prints that ran down our driveway.  What else possibly could have left such evidence other than the little fat man himself?  My point is, despite my horrendous, lying parents, I know what Christmas is all about.  I made it through childhood unscarred, in this aspect anyway!  

Shannon and I teach our children the true meaning of this most special of seasons, but I love the suspense, the investigation, the imagination (especially my husband's), a good story.  I just love it all and would beg anyone who sees fit to ruin our joy and excitement to please just go jump in a snow bank!  Because if I'm standing there when your children spill the beans, I may just push you               in one ~:o)

Besides, if Santa really is your parents, as my children have been told, how do parents get presents??? There.  
I've proven his existence.  

Maximo after someone telling him bad news ~~~

And Colin too ~~~

Despite being heathens, we still pray before a picnic ;o) 

    

Same Song, Second Verse

Michaela had her ACL surgery Friday.  What was supposed to take two hours ended up taking four.  Apparently, my girl has skinny tendons which are used to replace the ligament, thus complicating the harvest and grafting into her knee.  She is relieved to now be on the road to recovery and has been telling friends she'll be ready to run the Snow Joke half marathon in February.  Hopefully, that is a joke!

Physical therapy began his morning.  She's up and moving a bit sooner compared to her last ACL surgery.  For her sake, I hope that shortens her recovery time ~ last time it seemed to take for.e.ver.

She's looking forward to skiing next year.  I thought she'd have more study time since she won't be up at the hill this year. For some reason, she didn't think that was an awesome substitute. 

All smiles when she first was being prepped for surgery. 

Two hours later, she's no longer smiling ~

It was a long day!

Basketball ~

I love basketball.  In the interest of full disclosure, it's really the only sport I understand enough to follow.  So when a friend called and asked if my boys would be interested in playing ball this fall, I agreed.  Then, for reasons unclear to me now, I agreed to be the AD for the team as well.  It must have seemed logical and simple enough at the time.  While the extra work associated with organization of the team took too much time, I certainly enjoyed seeing the progress Eric and Joshie made during the season.  Before the season basketball was synonymous with pop and cotton candy, now it's synonymous with sweat and sore muscles.

While I'm relieved that the season is over, the boys had a great time.  They met new friends and learned how to play something more than backyard ball.  They learned discipline and fortitude.  All in all, the season was positive.......but now we are ready for ski season!

Eric learned a ton and enjoyed being one of the bigger boys on the team.

I really would be curious to know what Eric was doing, 

because he doesn't appear to be listening to Coach TJ!

Josh's job on the court was to a find a man and stick with him.

He managed to perfect that by the final games. 

Max always seemed to find a girlfriend ~

even if he was crawling around the floor.

It was pretty cool to see the brothers playing together.

November Funnies

During phonics Dom states, "Mom, I think we need some TNT."

I'm not certain if that pertained to the task at hand or if it was just because.

One Monday I simply had a horrid attitude and was dragging around the house telling Shan how I detested Mondays.  The work that needs to be completed for some reason seems impossible at the beginning of the week.  Shannon, of course, attempted to lift my spirits by telling me all that I have to be grateful for; when that didn't work he got pretty darn mad which certainly did nothing for my glum attitude.  

Shortly after Shannon left for work, Nickles had a huge accident in the bathroom. Huge I say.  The irony was not wasted on me and I snapped a pic, sending it to Shannon, proof positive that Mondays are crappy.  

But the funny thing about it all......in the middle of that disastrous mess I realized that life is pretty darn good.  The kids must have thought the train had the left the tracks as they watched me cleaning the bathroom and laughing about it, despite the horrendous smell.  What a sense of humor God has!

Halle was spending the night with us.  While watching Frozen she informed us that her dad (Joey) was a bit of a fixer-upper.  Out of the mouths of babes.  

Michaela's friends were out for Thanksgiving and were discussing which movie they might watch later.  Dom asked Bridgitte, one of the girls, if her parents would let her watch a PG13 movie.

"No Smokin' and No Drinkin'"

Because we do that a lot around our house ~

I love discovering pictures on my camera that I didn't take ~

Of course, I can only guess who took them ~

Any time the iPad is in use, suddenly all the boys arrive as if it emits a siren song ~

Apparently, Max and Nickles found the last play pretty awesome ~

It doesn't take much in our house....they were playing Stack the States...exciting stuff!

Halle cracks me up ~ she must think she is going to lose at Trouble ~

Someone tucked Daddy in when he fell asleep on the couch.

Katherine and the Moose

Katherine drew a coveted moose tag this year.  If any of my girls are hunters, it is Katherine.  She is in it for the long haul.  When she found out she had the tag, she was on the treadmill and bike every day, even giving up sweets so she would be fit enough to hike after any moose that was spotted.

We have seen a couple respectable moose in the area in years past, so she knew she wouldn't have to settle for the first bull she encountered.  A week prior to the season opener we saw one that would have made any hunter drool.  At that moment Kath decided she was going to hold out in anticipation of crossing paths with that animal.  She passed up smaller moose after smaller moose, only seeing one that she decided if he was still around at the end of the season, she'd shoot it.  More than one person stated that she was going to eat her tag, not harvesting anything.  Last Sunday we were headed to a favorite scouting spot when we saw Gabe.  He had a moose spotted and thought perhaps Kath would take this one.  Sure enough, Kath decided she wanted to try and sneak up on it with Daddy.  They ended up getting within 40 yards and Kath made her shots count.

Congratulations Kath!  Not many 15-year-olds have this opportunity!

Kath immediately had  her tag and harvest kit out,

ready to collect the samples necessary to send to FWP.

Kath and her proud Daddy ~

You are loved, Katherine!  

    

The Geography Fair

Back in August our home school newsletter advertised a geography fair to be held mid-November. This seemed like a fun project to do with the kids and I had plenty of time so I signed up.
Two months passed and we had done absolutely nothing.  Zip. Zilch.  We had chosen our states and thought about doing some research, but other than that we had yet to even begin.  Since it had seemed genius to ask some fellow home schoolers to join us in this project, there was really no backing out at that point.  

We spent a couple intense days reading and putting all the information together, but the projects turned out pretty darn well if I do say so myself.  We learned a lot about a few states that we knew relatively little about, so I'm going to consider it a schooling success, despite it not really flowing as I had planned.

Thank you for sticking it out Eric, Isaiah, Joshie, Lukas, Annika and Adria!

Eric and Isaiah 

Joshie and Lukas 

Annika & Adria 

My Daughter, the Wreck

As a preface, I'm teasing you, Michaela!

Michaela has had her share of accidents the past years.  Among little sprains and tweaks, she broke her wrist playing basketball, followed by tearing her ACL a couple years later, again while playing basketball.  When she called me a couple weeks ago stating she had hurt her knee during PT, but that it didn't hurt too bad I advised her to wait til Monday and we'd decide what to do at that point if her knee didn't seem any better.    

As it turns out, she tore the ACL in her opposite knee.  Yep, she was playing basketball at the time the injury occurred.  No more basketball for her.  Ever.  She will have it repaired December 5th, but she is benched for ski season again.  Darn it.  

This injury didn't deter her from hunting before we realized the extent of her injury.  Katherine and Shannon spotted a buck on a nearby hill, and Kath determined that Michaela should shoot it since she had a tag, damn the torpedoes.  Shannon, Eric, Katherine and Michaela headed out to try and sneak up on this deer, complicated by the fact that Michaela was on crutches.  Try being covert with two metal sticks, pegging up a hill!  They made it to the top, then Shannon and Michaela crawled the last yards for a decent shot.  I'm not sure who was more excited, Katherine and Eric, Daddy or Michaela! I do love that my kiddos truly celebrate in one another's joy.  Oh sure, there are those twinges of jealousy, but overall they are happy for one another.

As a side-note, my darling daughter, never, ever marry someone who is as accident prone as you are. Your poor children would be doomed ~:o)  

Congratulations ~ and way to tough it out!

      

Happy Birthday to Maximo ~

You're so special,
Oh so special,
God gave you to us!
It's no wonder that we love you so!

Wow ~ what a year!  In the days preceding Max's birthday, Shannon and I would recall what we were doing a year ago: the uncertainty, the fear (for me at least), the doctor's appointments, then finally his arrival.  It was a crazy time to be sure, but now, a year later it often seems as though it was all a bad dream.

Everything the doctors cautioned us about has proven to be wrong.  I do love Max's physical therapy appointments.  They are proactive therapy, but it has been fun watching his therapist work with him. I haven't enjoyed all the doctor's visits since Max's birth, but we wanted to ensure we caught any issues that would possibly arise as soon as possible.  Now  that he is a year ~ YIPPEE ~ we can bag the neurologist and frequent checkups!

Max, you have added so much to our life!  Your brothers and sisters adore you, your bright smile and crooked crawl, racing towards a sibling erases any annoyance.  You think Dom and Nickles are rock stars.....Nickles especially, for some crazy reason.  You have Katherine and Annika wrapped around those tiny fingers and we haven't even begun to talk about Daddy.  You simply like to be next to him: building a fire, getting a back rub, watching a movie, telling a hunting story.  Of all the toys laying around, your favorite is the tv remote.  Really?!? The buttons don't even make noise.

We love you, Max, and cannot wait to see what the future holds for you!

Love,
Mom

I've known you forever ~

Ahhh, the days when Max would just snooze on the counter while I made dinner ~

Playin' the piano with his brother ~

"Awesome ~  Someone left the chess board out!"

"and I just polished off some more dirt from one of Mom's plants"

Say cheese!

Max loved everyone singing to him ~

 "May the dear Lord bless you......"

He wasn't quite sure what to think about the monkey-in-the-box!

Now I'm one!