Mis familia maravillosa (Our wonderful family)

At least that's what I meant to say in Spanish...

 

Christmas brought lots of family time and enjoying being together after long stretches of being apart.

We had time with Jason's Mom's side where we had a day of almost seeing everyone.  There were probably over 70 family members there and only a few cousins that were missing.

Here's Jason with almost all of his cousins on his mom's side.

 

 

This is his grandparents and their 10 kids with their spouses (just one missing)

 

Here's our oldest niece getting in some snuggle time with Noah.

 

We also celebrated Christmas with Jason's parents and his siblings one night.  I forgot my camera that night, but someone has pictures from that (I think) and hopefully I can get some to share here.

 

 

For my side of the family, my brothers and their families met up with us at a hotel with a nice waterpark about half the distance from us all.  The kids had a blast running around in the water together and we had some (short) quality time together. 

 



 

This Christmas break has us enjoying time with family and friends.  We're getting in some much needed R & R and trying to take in all of our precious time together with the kids when they're still small and somewhat like being around us as parents.  Advent season brought us time to reflect on ourselves as well as our family and how we can continue to work and grow to build better relationships based on the bigger picture of what the gift of Christmas truly is, why we're here, and what we're here to do.  With less family members with us this season, and with Christ as our example, we think about how to value our time together, how to respect each other, and how that affects the world around us.  To all of our families...we love you & thank God for putting us here together!  Thank you for all you did for us in 2012 & have a Happy New Year!

 

 

The roolz uv pla tyma...By Faith

I'm not exactly sure what she was getting at, but I thought how she spelled "allowed" was absolutely adorable so I had to share it!

Chick magnet

Ian has been AJ's little shadow lately & is sad when he doesn't stay to play with him rather than the kids around here his age.  This morning Ian followed AJ upstairs while he got ready for school & was all smiles when they came downstairs.

Ian:  Mommy!  AJ gave me some of his smelly spray!
          AJ is smiling.
Mommy:  He did?!  Let me smell! 
           I smell his extended arm with turned up wrist.
          Mmmm!  That smells really good!  Mommy's gonna have to chase away the chicks today!
Ian:  Yeah, they peck at my arms when I get the eggs.
        Mommy and AJ smile puzzlingly at Ian like we know what he's talking about.  Then it hits me...
Mommy (looking at AJ):  Ohhhh!  He means chickens!
        Mommy & AJ get a good laugh at Ian's innocent cuteness.
Mommy:  Ian, we were talking about girls, not chickens.
Ian:  Oh...I like chickens...

I'm really glad that the 3 year old doesn't understand the concept of attracting the opposite sex yet.

Winter hath arrived!

We had an actual, official blizzard of the season.  It starting snowing on Saturday and continued well into Sunday.  The wind blew strongly then making blizzard conditions and then to top it all off, the temperature dropped to single digits on Monday.  With the wind chill factor there were moments it felt like -25 degrees.  The kids were giddy with the sticky snow, building forts and snowmen and sledding until they were numb. 

 

Here's Jason spending his Snow Day off from school and Ian enjoying his extra time with Daddy.  (Unfortunately I missed the photo op that had Ian "snowblowing".  If you can imagine it, he was walking in that space in front of Jason between the handlebars. 

 

I, for one, was enjoying my excuse to be inside to take care of the baby.  Unfortunately that doesn't get me out of any extra housework that occurs when you have 6 people out in the snow bringing in wet apparel, not to mention the extra cups of hot chocolate.  I am proud to say, though, that I made some homemade chicken noodle soup (from freshly made stock) and some muffins made from scratch to help warm up their bodies.  My house might have been a mess, but we enjoyed the extra day together playing games, eating and just plain vegging out.

 

Game on!

Here's an example of Jason getting in some quality Daddy time, while feeding the desire to coach not only sports, but Christian attitudes while being athletes.  (And let's not forget the fact that AJ's grade needed a coach.)  Enter Coach Deacon Mr. Myhre.  I personally think he can't pass up the opportunity to do "the coach stance".  In his defense, it does look good on him & he's a great coach.

 





 

Here's the team of 4th graders.  Look!  They're all sitting nicely, watching the game... 

and patiently awaiting their next game. 

 (Maybe it's also because they are pooped out from playing 2 games in a row.)

AJ was enjoying this break.  He was pretty sore & tired the rest of the day.

He had a great time & played well scoring 14 points in his first game &

making great plays offensively & defensively.  He's got his Daddy's natural talent.

 



These moments never get old...

 

 

Chalk it up

We've had a few "chalk it up to lessons learned" moments lately.  For instance, my judgement call on traveling up to Fargo to go to my cousins wedding by myself with all of the kids.  Let's just say that the cross of that trip got to be so heavy that my back muscles literally freaked out on me and I have been spending much of my time icing and heating them.  I thought it would be "nice" for my family (aunts & uncles we don't see often) to get to see the kids, but we were too overwhelmed by it all that we just jumped from one thing to the next & didn't really get a chance to visit much with anyone.  Thank goodness for my sister-in-laws & brothers, for they all helped me to soothe the savage beast in them all & distract them for moments to allow me to catch my breath and attempt to grab a hold of my sanity for a brief moment.  Let's just say that I won't be doing that again anytime soon!

The next lesson...
Be careful what you wish (or pray) for!  My hope this Advent was to occupy more of our time with activities that involved less TV time.  Well, we are about a week into the season & today the 3 year old decided to use the TV as a backstop for his pitching arm.  He claims it was a golf ball, but I have yet to find it.  Either way, there is now a large, dust collecting object on our TV stand that no longer functions to its capabilities as such.  So now than rather have a choice whether or not to watch the one TV in our house, the option is off the table.  I might add that this was the "new" flatscreen TV that we inherited from my dad when he passed away.  Maybe we shouldn't have given our old ones away...

We are fortunate that we still have computers that work & could probably function as a tube in desperate situations, but maybe this is a way that we can help our reliability on these "time zappers" for the time being.  I have found this evening to be a way to catch up on the numerous things that have lagged in attention...this blog being one.  Thanks for sticking with me as the gap between posts frequently looms!