Hills of Fun

Gabe took Drake out this afternoon for some sledding on the fresh new powder we have been getting. They headed out after church and lunch (while Hadley was napping) to a local golf course that opens up the hills for sledding. They had a blast and spent several hours there!

Christmas, take 3

(pictures to come..)

After a short night of sleep, we got up early and headed down to visit the Sugars. We got there just after they had lost power and had to move the traditional Christmas brunch to a cousin's house that did have power. It was nice to arrive to a warm house, a hot breakfast, and lots of welcoming hugs. After eating, we headed over to Sugar's house to let the kids play. That evening we headed over to another cousin's house for Christmas dinner complete with appetizers, turkey, ham, green bean casserole, corn, etc..etc... makes my mouth water just thinking about it again. After dinner, Drake pulled a classic Drake. Kiersten (6), Drake(5), Blake (7) and Hadley (2) were all playing in Kiersten's room and getting along very well. Kiersten was showing my kids all of the things in her room that she uses to take care of her pet kitten, including the litter box. Drake proceeded to throw up all over her bed when she pulled out the scoop with some "product" from the litter box. Nice. So, Kiersten came in and told us that Drake had just puked. When I went in there, Drake started gagging again just while Kiersten was telling me what happened. Oh, my poor, weak-stomached boy. I feel sorry for his wife someday as I foresee diaper-changing being a hard task for him.

After dinner and puke clean-up, we headed to a hotel for the night. We got there in time for 15 minutes of swimming before the pool closed but also made it down for more swimming in the morning before heading back over to Sugar's to visit.

We interrupt this Christmas holiday for...

A WET BASEMENT! UGH!

After we got home from Christmas Eve service in the evening, we discovered that the days and days of rain had caught up to us and we had wet carpet in the basement again! This happened once back October, but we thought we had fixed the problem by adding some new fill dirt around the house. Well, after spending several hours shop-vac-ing the wet carpet and starting the fans and dehumidifiers we finally got to bed to sleep for a few hours before getting up early to head down to visit the Sugars. When we get back, we will try to figure out this mess- again!

Christmas, take 2

We decided to have our immediate family Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve morning since we are heading out early in the morning to go down south. The kids had a lot of fun taking turns opening their presents and then spending the next several hours engrossed with their new belongings. Drake was super excited about his new (used) DS that we found a good deal on and the games that some others bought him to go with it. Watching the kids open presents and seeing their sheer delight does my heart good. It IS better to give than receive.


(pictures to come...)


Gabe had to head to church about noon to get ready for services. The kids and I headed to the 4:00 service with the Holzers and Grammy. Grammy took the kids home after that service so I could stay and volunteer at the 6:00 service.

Christmas, take 1

We really spread out the Christmas celebration this year. We started off with an early celebration with the Farwell side. We spent the evening at Grammy's house on Monday, complete with pizza and lots of conversations by the fire place. We had brunch on Tuesday, Christmas dinner that evening followed by the chaos of opening presents. Drake loved his new skateboard from Grammy and Hadley's most common statement as soon as she would open a present was "I love this present!". She got decked out with a Snow White costume, movie, and doll and she was also super excited about the movie "Wizard of Oz" from Grammy. This is one of her favorite movies since she and Drake and the cousins got to dress up as the characters for Halloween. Now, everytime she sees a lion on anything, she says "There's Annabeth!"
(pictures to come..)

SNOW!

We welcomed several inches of snow this weekend. The Holzer crew decided to stop off at our house for a few hours to play in the snow and take a break from the treacherous roads on their way to Grammy's house. The kids loved getting bundled up and having fun in the snow. Then, they all warmed up in the bathtub afterward!

Hadley made a really funny comment after coming in from the freezing cold temperatures. I got her un-bundled and put her on the potty before getting in the bath. As she started going potty she said, "Woah, my privates are really, really hot!"

Joy

Drake participated in his second performance at WS this weekend. He has been practicing for several months on Sunday evenings. He really enjoys choir and gives it his all. Drake showed such an improvement from last year's performance to this one. He was extremely focused and intentional throughout the whole program. Someone made the comment to Gabe after the performance, "I could tell which one was your son, he looked like a human metronome." Thankfully, Drake has inherited Gabe's sense of rhythm. Nana and Papa made the trip over to watch him perform and then we all went out for Monical's Pizza afterwards.

Merry Christmas, consider yourself “Card-ed”

Well, I don't think many Christmas cards are actually going to happen this year, so consider this your Christmas Card...

Our year, for a change, did not include too many transitions, as the last several years have for our family. We continue to serve at West Side, where Gabe loves using his creative abilities in the worship and technical arts department. His main responsibilities include stage design, creating video elements for the services, worship planning, lighting elements and he even has gotten to speak a couple of times, including one Sunday morning sermon. (Which he did great at, as well!)
I guess I did have a little transition this year as far as work goes. In August I was at the dentist office getting some fillings and my dentist offered me job. Seriously. He was looking for someone to work one day every other week, assisting an endodontist that would be commuting to his office. After some serious consideration, we decided it would be a nice financial perk (seeing as I don't seem to have the best teeth in the world and they were starting to cost us a lot of money) since we would get a discount on dental services plus a little money each month to help with our expenses. It works out nicely with two of my friends each watching Hadley one day a month. I am really enjoying it and the days really go by quickly as they are packed with patients.
Drake's transition this year was starting full time school. As some of you may know, this was a grueling decision for Gabe and I. Drake has such a late birthday (July) that we really debated whether or not to send him to Kindergarten this year. Then, we also had the big decision of public or private school. There is a Christian school attached to the church where Gabe works. Finally, when it came down to the wire, we decided to try it. So, in August, we packed our little boy's bag and took him to his first day of Kindergarten in the public school. It was by far, harder on me than on him. He was so excited to go and had no reservations about us leaving him there. He has done amazingly well. He has far exceeded my thoughts and fears about the school year. He is doing great learning how to read, loves going to school every day and seems to be maturing by the minute. I just can't get over how far he has come this year.
Hadley is our little beauty with an attitude. She is quite the talker and she definitely knows what she wants and is not afraid to get it, or at least try to get it. She continues to amaze me every day with how much she is learning and growing up. She loves to play with dolls and is really getting into pretending. She just went through some transitions in the last couple of months. She now has a big girl bed and also gave up her beloved paci. Both have gone much better than anticipated. She has adjusted really well.
One great memory for our family this year was going on a family vacation with the whole Rutledge family. In May, Gabe's parents took us all to Florida where we stayed in their condo for a few days and then we all got on the glorious Disney Wonder cruise ship. It was a great trip with family and I would definitely recommend a Disney cruise for any family with kids. The kids had a blast, the shows were great and the atmosphere is so family friendly. What precious memories.
We are looking forward to another great year in 2010 and the blessings God has in store for our family. May God bless you and yours as well!

Great Friends

I have been continuing to do our little playgroup/preschool on Thursday mornings. It has been a lot of fun and Hadley LOVES having her friends come over each week to play and practice letters. Well, this Thursday the moms asked if they could bring lunch over to eat together afterwards. Of course, I wouldn't turn down food! Little did I know they had planned this to thank me and brought over pizza, fruit and dessert along with a special little goodie box for me including a Starbuck's card and Gordman's gift card. Man, do I have great friends, or what?! It also happened to be little A's birthday the next day, so we got to sing Happy Birthday and watch her blow out TWO big candles.

A big milestone

Drake had a big milestone this week- he lost his first tooth! It had been wiggly for weeks and was so close to falling out for days but today on the way home from Christmas at Sugar's- it fell out. No drama, no crying, just simply fell out in the van on our way home. He was really excited about it and put it under his pillow in anticipation of the tooth fairy!

Big Girl

So many things have happened this week to our ever-changing big girl! One big milestone we have passed is giving up the paci. Monday, I took it away at nap time, which resulted in about an hour of crying and/or pleading. I reminded her that she is a big girl now and doesn't need the paci anymore and we needed to give them to babies. She said, during one of the many times she called me back into her room, "NO give them to babies, give them to ME!" Finally, after almost an hour, she called me back in AGAIN and this time said, "You can go get my big girl present ready now." It was like she was telling me that she was giving in and ready to go to sleep now. Then, I didn't hear from her again for 2 1/2 hours. Bed time went amazingly well that night, only asked for the paci once and then conked right out.

Another big milestone Hadley has accomplished this week is drawing. She loves drawing faces and is getting really good at it ( I mean, for a 2 year old). She also attempted to write her name today. Here is a picture of her progress.