Scuba boys...

Spending 3 years in Hawaii, our boys learned a little about scuba gear (though they were a little too young to ever figure out how the mask and snorkel worked). Each year our church hands out those little candy canes full of M&Ms to all the kids at our annual church Christmas dinner. This is the second year that the boys have turned them into snorkels... Here is a picture of Seth as he is swimming through the house.

The Annual Christmas Letter...

Each year we try to get our annual Christmas letter in the mail sometime before Christmas... Many times, it is a last minute deal.


This year, we knew we were leaving for Wisconsin on the 19th, so my goal was to get it done before that. (By the way, this was made a little more difficult thanks to a glitch in saving the address book last year... I think I accidently replaced the new one with the old one and had to spend several days searching for or updating addresses).

I can usually convince Chad to help me stuff envelopes, but this year the boys decided to get involved too! Merry Christmas to all!

Hope For the Holidays...

Our church had their annual Christmas dinner and "Hope For the Holidays" Concert tonight. Chad and I sang in the choir. This year there was a children's choir that sang with the adult choir on a couple of songs. All the boys participated. Here they are all dressed up before we left the house.

Getting ready for the concert was a lot of work and long nights of practice, but we did have a good time. To take the cake, Seth, during one of the kids songs, decided his pants were crooked and in front of the church pulled his pants down to straighten them out... The dangers of a three year old in front of the church!

Snow Flakes...

There hasn't been much snow on the ground in Indiana yet... (I hear there is a possibility of a few inches tonight). The boys, however, are always getting out their scissors and cutting things out. Today I got them started on a project that is sure to leave more little clippings all over our house for months to come! We opened up a package of Coffee filters and the boys began folding and cutting.

JJ, in typical JJ fashion, was very careful and artistic.

This was one of his first attempts, and his favorite because it has little hearts in it. He also created several that he thought looked like flowers and butterflies!

Noah is rarely able to concentrate on anything without sticking his tongue out... Which is why this picture is so odd!

He was thrilled with his creations!

Zeke tried a variety of different techniques of cutting.

He was always excited to unfold the new snowflake!

Seth got really good at cutting out the center.

His snowflakes all had various size holes for him to look through!

Journey to Bethlehem...

As part of our Christmas preparations each year, our church hosts a "Journey to Bethlehem". The multi-purpose room is transformed into lots of little shops and the shopkeepers sell thier "authentic" Bethlehem treasures of jewlery, dredles, fruit, bread and candles. Along the journey each person is asked to register with the Census at the door and they are given papers to show that they have registered.

They then walk through the shops and use shekls that they are given when they arrive to buy items from the shopkeepers. While walking through the shopkeepers are all abuzz about a baby born in a stable and the Shepherds who have been spreading the word.

In addition to the shops there is also a Hebrew School, where the rabbi teaches the children about the prohpecies of a Messiah who is to come from Bethlehem. Aren't the kds cute... Hmmm, maybe I am biased! This year one of the Hebrew children said that Abraham's wife's name was Lincoln!

There is also a Roman Soldier who goes through the city asking to see your papers and making fun of the Messiah. If you don't have papers or are causing trouble, he puts you in jail! This year the Roman Soldier was handsome! I decided to bring him home with me!

At the end of the shops you are directed to the inn, where the innkeeper and his wife apologize that they have no rooms, but they offer a hot meal of Lentil soup and bread to the travelers. Once you have your meal you leave through the stable where there are animals and you meet the baby that everyone has been talking about! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Mad Ants!

In Fort Wayne we have a NBA Development league (players who have either been drafted and need some work or are looking to be drafted) called the Mad Ants. Today Chad and the boys were at the seminary playing in the gym. A friend of Chad's was talking about how the Mad Ants practice there and that we are welcome to come and watch them practice. He also happened to have extra tickets to the game tonight. So off we went!
We got there early! Note the empty bleachers (I think we might have the first ones through the door)!

The boys got to participate in something they call the "High-5 Tunnel". They line up the kids and the players come running through the giving high-5's. Zeke was super excited. He came back and his first words were, "Those guys are so big". They did this a couple of times before the game and then again at half-time.

Can't say that the Mad Ants won, but it was a fun time anyway!

THANKS, MR. PELZ!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving Day was spent quietly at home! (Well, at least as quietly as it can be with 4 boys in the house!) I got up and started the Turkey at around 8:00 a.m. Then the boys got up. We started our morning watching the parades on TV.

The turkey was done in time for lunch and the boys lined up to grab their plates. We filled them up and then settled in for the Lions Football game.

After lunch and a football game we decided to head out to enjoy the outdoors a little. The boys played some Hockey in the Driveway, while Chad and I hung the Christmas lights. Here is the picture of how they looked after dark! Then, of course, we had Turkey leftovers for supper!