Christmas Day

Lovely Christmas day with our family.  So beautiful to have snow!  Micah was so excited to get to play in it. I don't think he remembers playing in snow before.  Daddy built a great snowman for him.

Opened lots of presents.  So much fun seeing what the kids picked out as presents.  Also fun seeing them open gifts we know they want.  Funniest-- Micah was just THRILLED with the calendar, timers, and calculator we bought him.

iPod

Katie purchased her own iPod on Monday!  Boy, is she happy with it.

Claire

Here's Claire, looking especially pretty last Sunday.

Snow

First time in ages-- we had a white Christmas!  Beautiful snow.  About 2 inches fell on Christmas Eve.

Yesterday, much of it melted.

Today, the snow is piling on again.  I think we're up to about 4 inches.  We're about to go out to shovel and find out.

Kids love it, and I do think it's beautiful-- but I wish we didn't have to think about driving to MI tomorrow.  Good thing we didn't go today.

Michelle

Paycheck

Katie earned her first paycheck!  Big stuff.  :)  She's been tutoring a Chinese exchange student after school, and doing a terrific job.

The Next Noel

This was Grace's Christmas program on Thur.  The band played first and then the 1st thru 5th grade did a wonderful musical.  I still can't get over how happy I am about it-- this was the new music teacher's first program, and she did a terrific job!  The kids all love her and enjoy music class.  That's huge, too.

 Newly formed band-- Jenna's in the front in red, playing clarinet.

 Claire and her good friend Audrey were the narrators for one scene in the play-- she did a fantastic job and really enjoyed it.

Katie helped paint this backdrop.

Trio

This is what happens when you leave something on the woodstove by mistake.

Hancock House

This is a missionary home we've stayed in a few times over the past year or so.  They need someone to occupy it at least once a month for insurance purposes, I think.  Chad took the kids, and they had a great time!  Loved staking out where to sleep.  Played some games.  Watched the Best Christmas Pageant Ever (cheesy!).  Ate food I packed.  I stayed home to try to catch up, but I'm still not anywhere near that!  A little closer, tho (Thanks, hon!), and I very much enjoyed Christmas shopping by myself, and working around the house in total peace and quiet.

Light Bright

My dad also helped us replace the disgusting light fixture that I've hated for about 14 1/2 years now.  Took a little planning and building a box just to get up high enough.  Made me a little nervous.  Had these thoughts about everyone always saying, "Yeah, Don was healthy and working great... right up til that fall he took at Michelle's house in 2012..."

Bed Business

Couldn't get these in my preferred order.  Jump around and you can see what happened with the room switch while my parents were here.  The yellow room is the downstairs room with the bunkbed removed.  This is now Micah's room (currently, he's sleeping among the flowers.  Hope to rectify this in Jan)  The surfer blue room is Jenna and Claire's.  My dad cut down the old bunkbed and built another one.  Now J and C each have a bed up high (which they are loving) and they each have their own private area below.  Someday

when they finally get their stuff put away and I get the curtains up and beds painted, we'll send you a finished pic.  Everyone's very much enjoying the new arrangement.

Programs at IBC

Program season at IBC.  See if you can pick out some people you know!

Thanksgiving

I know, I'm terribly behind.  That's my life right now.  :)  We had a lovely Thankgiving day.  Chad's parents and the DeVrieses joined us-- lots of good food and friendship.  On Friday, we went up to Sight and Sound in Lancaster and really enjoyed a showing of Jonah.  Picked out my friend Albert in several scenes!

Surgeryversary

Yesterday was Claire's 8th Surgeryversary! :)  She doesn't like to make a big deal of it, but we want to again  say "Praise the Lord!"

M video

Alright.  Since you begged...

Micah's silly singing in King's Kids

http://youtu.be/4rLs5XucsW0

Party Girl

Claire went to her friend Addison's bday party on Sat.  Had a TERRIFIC time.  It was held at the 4-Star Gym, run by one of the workers there, and the girls got to do all sorts of games and gymnastics activities. 

 Claire trying to stand on her head. :)

 One of Claire's best friends, Audrey, is very tall for her age-- she can easily pick up Claire.

 And Claire picked up Marlie, the younger sister of the birthday girl.

 Above-- Claire jumping into the pit.  Below-- Claire and friend Jenna in the pit

WV Leaves

Calculator

This is one of Micah's favorite entertainments.  Besides games, he likes best to play with timers and calculators.  Not cars or trains or blocks, etc.  Those things are only for when someone else will play with him.  When he's entertaining himself, it might be with a book or paper and pencil/crayons/paints or playdough... but, otherwise, it's with timers and calculators.  Sometimes, I feel guilty about him spending a half hour or more at a time just watching the timer run out (seems an odd occupation, doesn't it?) but that's what he loves to do.

No Stage Fright

This is Micah on stage at church last week.  Sorry, we don't have a better still pic, and I'm not going to post the video because it's embarrassing. :)  Let's just say he doesn't have any stage fright.  I didn't actually see him up there, because my children's choir also sang that day, so I was occupied elsewhere-- when I saw the video later, I could have crawled in a hole.  He sang, oh, yeah!  He sang!  He also did some motions.  He also did extra dance moves and stuck his tongue out at the camera, etc.  I think he was hamming it up because he saw Daddy over there with the camera.  I think before his choir sings for Christmas we'll have to have an in-depth conversation about how to act on stage.

Vote

This is what the girls did while Daddy waited in line to vote.  We have a really nice school to do that in now (new one in Spring Mills)-- farther drive, but much nicer waiting environment.  Micah and I waited about 75 min; I think Chad's wait was a bit shorter.  I think maybe they need to get some more voting machines-- we only had 2, so the line inched along.  For this election, the girls really learned a lot.  We made/encouraged :) them to watch much of the debates, conventions, and the election results on the 6th.  We had quite a few discussions on the electoral college, etc.