field trip: crayola

the week before christmas a friend from mops and i took some of our kids (her youngest 3 of 5 girls and 3 of my youngest 4) to the crayola factory. despite driving through squall like conditions only to have it dry at crayola and at home (strange weather....) and a few wrong turns, we had a really fun time, and had almost the whole factory to ourselves.

more christmas

the boys had the homeschool choir concert which was so much fun (short and festive) and so nice to see them in ties (even if they were a little long, thank you salvation army).



friends gave us free tickets to the christmas production at sight and sound (for us over a $200 value). all peter could talk about was seeing his good friend garrett's new baby brother who sat a few rows in front of us (his dad is our children's pastor at church and in our small group):

karis gave pete a bath and took pictures (thankful she's willing to give the bath and remembers to take pictures):

christmas

our lifelong friends, the snyders, attended christmas eve service with our family and then came back to the house.. we love the snyders! mom and jerry were here too and they KNOW we love them!


and olivia and keri:

christmas

i was busy this christmas having surgery on my foot for two (of three) long standing problems (click on two and problems for the specifics if you dare/care) but i managed to take a few pictures (though my memories of christmas day are very sketchy and vicodin tainted).

art work by olivia (14)


check out the art of imitation by peter (5)
olivia made the tree outline and he spent a looonnnggg time putting all the "ornaments" on it, then he drew baby Jesus in the manger
(isn't that the sweetest thing?)

what karis has been up to...

before she leaves for AFRICA on thursday.
she was asked to make a 40th anniversary cake for some people in our church.

here's how it turned out:



nice, huh?

the joy of new old things

we've gone "stir crazy" for our stir crazy popcorn popper that is. so much cheaper and healthier to pop your own, and the kids love to see how quickly it pops. what we took for granted as kids is fun to introduce to our kids now who think popcorn comes saturated in orange chemicals to pop in the microwave.






happy new year!

happy birthday

to my mom who is 71 years young. so glad you and jerry could join us. we love you and we love being close.