Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

After this post, you will have seen all my pictures and heard all of my stories, at least for the time being. With 6 adults and 6 kids in our house for Christmas, we took a lot of pictures and opened a lot of presents. Here is a link to my final web album for now.
At our house, Santa comes on Christmas eve...usually after dinner. Its amazing how he always times it so well. We had fish and shrimp Christmas Eve, then Paul, Rainer and Krista took the kids upstairs to look out the window for Santa. Amazingly enough, while we were doing dishes, he came! We heard bells, and when we ran out to the living room, there was a pile of packages for all of us. The Nativity scene we had on the piano was now on the floor in front of the tree, complete with the addition of the Baby Jesus. The kids were shocked and we all stood in the living room and sang 'Silent Night' in English and German. Then it was time to open presents!
I had told the boys earlier that they could be responsible for reading tags and handing out presents, but as you can see in the pictures, Joey still felt so sick from our stomach bug that he laid on the ground for much of the time and just watched. Poor guy...what a let down! He did perk up by the end of the evening. I wish I could write everything that we all got, but at the risk of leaving out something important, I will wait and do that at another time. Suffice to say, we all were very happy with all our gifts, and you can see many of them in our photos.
Christmas morning the kids woke up to their stockings full of goodies and we got ready for church. We got some nice pictures of the kids in their new Christmas outfits. We came home from church and started in making Wienerschitzel for Christmas dinner. We have it other times besides Christmas throughout the year, but I try to make it every Christmas anyway, since everyone seems to like it and it is something special. I don't really have a good explanation as to why we are all wearing crowns in the picture, except they were in the box with some Christmas poppers I had bought. I think it is a British thing, although I wouldn't know, since none of us are from Great Britain. A good time was had by all and we are all very grateful that Christmas is here.
Everyone went home at the end of this week, but not before we went to Sears and had family portraits done. I already posted a picture a few posts down, so look for it if you want to see our formal pose. I will be sending some out as soon as I get the prints back.
Merry Christmas, again, to all our friends and family. May God bless you in the New Year.

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Christmas Cake

I made this cake, in this pan, for Christmas day. It was delicious with some whipped cream and coffee on the side. I would highly recommend it! I didn't put icing on...just some powdered sugar. I also didn't use nearly as much orange zest as they called for, and it was plenty orange-y for us. I used the zest of only two oranges, compared to their 4 large oranges.

Back in Time--Part III (Mid December-December 23)

What a last few weeks we have had! On 12/16, my parents, Krista and Rainer, and their two kids, Lukas and Maggie, arrived for 2 weeks. The only problem was that while they were here, a stomach bug made its rounds through the house. Luckily (or unluckily for him) Paul was the only adult to get it. It seemed like for a week straight, my kids were carrying big bowls around with them, 'just in case'. I won't talk anymore about that...its best left in the past.
I have yet another web album with a ton of pictures we have taken. In case you are wondering about the kids in the photos, there are our 4 kids, as well as my sister's 2 kids. Luki is 3, 5 days older than Anna, and Maggie is 14 months. They are really cute little kids. Luki is at an age that he loves Thomas the Tank Engine, just like my boys did at that age. Maggie is walking and has a mouth full of teeth, although she has less hair than Sophia does. My sister was like that when she was little too.
Just after they all arrived, my neighbor, Paulette (the lady with the blonde hair in the pictures) arranged for Santa to come visit. He came in, sat in a big chair, and the kids took turns sitting on his lap. He had a small toy for each child, as well as candycanes. It was a complete surprise for the kids and it was very fun for everyone. My sister's son was the bravest of all, and my daughter Anna was definately the most scared. She wouldn't let go of Paul's neck the whole time Santa was here.
There are also some pictures of my birthday, which was on the 22nd. My mom made a nice breakfast for us, and we opened presents. I got a nice Columbia coat from Paul and the kids, a waffle maker and some pottery from my sister and her family, and some more pottery, a chip and dip set, an apron, and some cute little things from my parents. I also got a garlic keeper and the promise of one of these from my mother-in-law and Jack (I can't wait!). I love all the things I got. It was a really nice birthday. I baked some cookies and we had a nice time. Poor Paul was in bed most of the day though...I wonder if he was faking?! :)
I will post some Christmas pictures later. Thanks for reading this much!

Back in Time--Part II (Early December)

We had some warm weather in early December, and consequently we had time to do some yard work. Paulie had asked to take the camera for a while, and I said yes because I love to see what little kids come back with after having the camera for a while. The first 9 pictures on this web album are from him...things that he deemed important enough to take a picture of.
Then there is a picture of Paulie and Sophia. Joey lost two teeth in one week...one on the top and one right under it...of course we needed a picture of that!
After that, came our party for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe...there were more kids than are in the picture, but they were boys and didn't want to stop their sword fighting to pose with flowers!
Then there is Sophia and one of the dogs, Daisy. It is amazing how dogs can tell that the baby has food and come running in case she drops something, which she usually does!

Going Back in Time--Part 1 (Late November)

I have been meaning to post these pictures, and just haven't gotten around to it, since we now have our photos on our laptop, but do most of our computing and internet stuff on our desktop. It makes it hard to go back and forth.
This web album has a bunch of pictures from late November. A sleeping baby, a baby sitting on the counter (no, I don't do that anymore, now that she will lean forward and try to fall off!--plus I was always in arms reach...don't worry!), lots of playing outside in the leaves during a cold spell here. Paulie was having a great time with Sophia that day, and for some reason he is the one that can always make her laugh. Anna was playing and climbing on our wysteria vines that are probably as old as our house, and have beautiful flowers in the summer. Joey had a stick and was beating the heck out of a rotten birch stump. He actually reduced in in size by about half after working on it for most of the afternoon. Also, there are pictures of Joey going for his third belt in karate. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of his front, but you get the idea. Finally, there are pictures of Joey with his puppets he made, and subsequently put on a puppet show with. He loves using the glue gun and gluing together random art supplies we have around.

Yet another bird.

Joey has been bugging me to put this one on here. He just saw it out the kitchen window the other day, and ran all the way upstairs to let me know that he found another bird.
Its a mourning dove!

Merry Merry Christmas!

We have had a wonderful week. My parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and their two kids have been here and we have had a wonderful time. I have a lot of pictures, but again, I don't have time to post them right now. I did want to post this one photo though...we had it taken this week and I am going to send out copies to all (or maybe MOST) of you. If you don't get one, and you would like one, please let me know.
We hope you all enjoy the Christmas season and have a Happy New Year!

So busy lately

I feel very badly about how I haven't posted many pictures lately. I am sure you all are dying for some news from us! I have been taking pictures, but I just haven't been posting them. I am going to try to get to it tonight or tomorrow, so that you can all see what we have been up to. We have been getting ready for Christmas...I have been doing 90% of shopping online this year. I am sure the UPS man hates us, but it is so nice to be home with the kids, when everyone else is out fighting over things at the stores. The kids hate having to go shopping, so this is much better for them too. We have been reading a lot of Tomie dePaola books, since he has so many Christmas and Saint books. One of our favorites this year is The Legend of the Poinsettia, which we read and then made poinsettia pins out of felt to wear. I have pictures of that to post later.

Also, we have been keeping up with our bird watching. Today we saw about 10 Oregon Juncos and 10 House Finches --I think they like the new bird food I bought recently and there have been a lot of birds out there to look at. Here is a picture of a house finch...











Yesterday we had three other families over for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We made tissue paper roses, and the kids brought them up and laid them in front of a statue of Our Lady that we brought in from our garden. If you don't know the story.. you can read about it here. Tomie DePaola also has a book about this to read, so it has been on our coffee table for the past week.







Here is a great painting I found when searching for things for our party. We also ate Mexican food, since the apparation took place in Mexico, and was responsible for the conversion of 8 million people there. My sister and I were lucky enough to go to Mexico in high school, and we were able to go to the Basilica where the tilma is still held. I wish I had known then what a miraculous image I was in the presence of.
I will have pictures of our party to post as well. Keep checking back!

Are you tired of the way things in this country are going?

Birds we've seen

Joey has lately been somewhat interested in the birds in our yard, so I dug out my old bird book from high school to see if we can identify them. We have quite a few Oregon Juncos at our feeder. They are cute little birds that are often in pairs or groups.





A couple weeks ago, Joey heard tapping out in our birch tree, and there he saw a downy woodpecker, who came back to the same tree for three days in a row. He actually made some decent sized holes in our tree.
















One day we saw a Northern Flicker...I had never seen one before and it was quite a neat looking bird. He even pecked the ground looking for bugs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Here are a bunch of pictures that I took today, some of dinner and some of things around the house. We had a nice day. Some friends had planned to come down to visit and stay for Thanksgiving dinner. They got sick, however, and couldn't come. Too bad! We missed them! Anyway, we had a nice day...Paul had to go into work a couple times, but we got all the cooking done, the kids played football outside with the neighbors, and we played a few board games! I'd say it was a success. The only problem was that although I didn't make a ton of food, we did have small portions of all the Thanksgiving staples, none of which the kids liked. What kind of children don't like mashed potatoes and gravy? Paul and I ate a lot of everything, but the kids just ate peas and then had pie and ice cream for dessert. At least they ate their vegetables! Here is a link to the pie I made this year...Joey said it was the best he ever had. It might have been because he was so hungry! I actually thought it was delicious too. We miss all our family and friends that we couldn't be with this Thanksgiving. God bless you all!

Recent Fall Pictures

I have been taking a bunch of pictures, but haven't been able to post them lately. Here is a link to a new album with Fall pictures. The baby is getting so big and complex...she is sitting up alone now and is looking very cute. Everyone else is doing great. I will try to think of cute stories to post but I don't have any at the moment, as I just want to get this on here. There are captions on some of the pictures, so look for them!

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No posts lately :(

I haven't posted lately...our laptop is in the shop, and so I can't upload pictures at the moment. I have a bunch of great pictures, but you will have to wait till next week! Have a great Thanksgiving!
Oh, for those that are keeping track, Sophia got her first tooth the other day. She didn't seem too upset by it!

Paul went hunting today...

and he got a buck! The guys he went with said there is about 80-90 lbs of meat, so we will be eating venison for while. Paul is really happy with himself and is going to get the antlers mounted. Very exciting...I hope these pictures don't bother anyone!

Halloween

Last night we did a little trick or treating in our town. Our downtown area businesses handed out candy for the kids and there turned out to be some great giveaways...at one place, the kids each got a beanie baby, a restaurant was handing out hotdogs right at dinner time (perfect!) along with a coupon for a free kids breakfast, and there was even a dentist handing out toothbrushes. What a deal. Of course, we did get way too much candy.
Here are some pictures. In case you can't tell, Joey was a ninja, Paulie was NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon (his pick, entirely), Anna was a dragon and Sophia was the frog (the fourth in our family to wear this costume). We had a great time.
Today we are off to another All Saints Day party! Here is a link to info about All Saints Day, which is a holy day of obligation. You can't have all that fun and candy without a little bit of sacrifice, you know!

Feast of All Saints--a few days early

This year, for All Saint's Day, Joey is St George, Paulie is St Peter, and Anna is Mary, Queen of Heaven. Last night we went to some friends' house for a party, and all the kids were dressed up. As you can see in the picture, there were about 20 kids (more weren't in the picture) and Anna was one of only 4 girls. They were all younger than Joey. It was a very busy place!
Anna didn't want to be in the picture, unfortunately, and was crying and crying. We started calling her Our Sorrowful Mother instead. Some adults even dressed up, although Paul and I were not among them. In case you are wondering, the lady in the back is supposed to be the Holy Spirit. As you can see, by the end of the night, Anna was happy again, sitting with Sophia!

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Sophia's new tights...

I assume she will grow into these!

Happy Birthday Paul!

This is the weekend for birthdays! Today Paul is 32. Happy birthday to my kids superhero and my best friend. I couldn't imagine a better person with which to spend my life!
Happy Birthday!

Joey's presents

Joey has been wanting to learn guitar, so we got him a 1/2 size one for his birthday. He is excited to start learning. He also got a Leapster from Grandma and Grandpa, a remote controlled dragonfly and a light saber from Oma and Opa, and a quilt from me. It is bigger than Anna's and is out of cowboy fabric. Paul used to play guitar, so he is showing Joey a few chords. Joey has such long fingers, and I think they will be helpful as he is learning to play.

In case you haven't heard...

I posted here a few weeks ago that we were moving to a property we recently made an offer on. Well...things have fallen through and it looks like that isn't happening now. There was a water rights issue with the property (the neighbors had rights to come and drill for water on our land) and we were worried about what would happen if we ever sold or if any of the neighbors sold their property. Would they sell to developers who would come in and take our water, would anyone ever buy our house if we wanted to sell, with something like that going on? Anyway, there were too many concerns with that, so we rescinded our offer. We were disappointed, but it really is probably for the best. We will just take the time we are in this house to make it nice and the right thing will come along eventually.
Just wanted to let you all know!

I just love this thing...

Little Sophia loves this too...sitting up at the table like a big girl. It is almost as if she is floating there.

a couple more pictures...

Here is another I just found of Joey. I think he was about two. It was at wedding of a couple of friends of ours...I am sure it looks familiar to some people!
















Who is actually blowing out the candles here anyway?

Another birthday for Joey!

In case you haven't been keeping track, Joey is 7 years old today! It seems like only yesterday that he was born, and now our first child is getting so big, sometimes he seems like he is no longer a child. He is funny, smart, athletic, considerate, and cute. He is also very persistent and stubborn, but at least no one can get him to do something that he knows is wrong.
Here are some pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have any baby pictures of him on my computer. The oldest I have are of him when he was almost 2. I can't believe how he has grown.

We had a nice day today...Paul had to help some friends move, so we were without him for much of the day, but we did some fun things...we went out to lunch to his favorite restaurant and then went to the ice cream store where I let him pick out any ice cream cake he wanted for after dinner. Then, in the afternoon when Paul got home, we opened presents. It was a beautiful day here...so warm and sunny, and the leaves are falling. Joey and Paulie played outside with Joey's best friend. Paulie had gotten a light saber for his birthday, and now Joey got one as well. Their friend already had one, so the three of them were out slaying Darth Vader with their light sabers. They had a wonderful time.
After that, we had pizza and cake, and the boys played some more. I am going to try to invite some other friends for a little party sometime this week at the mini-golf place here in town, since Joey didn't quite get the party that Paulie did for his birthday.
Here are some pictures of the day...

Cat in the Tree

Last week our dogs treed a cat in our yard. We thought he would come down by himself, but the next morning he was still there, meowing so loudly we could hear him through our closed front door. I tried taping a bucket with cat food in it to a pole, but the cat wasn't going to try that out. So what does every doctor dream of doing on his lunch hour? Getting out his ladder and climbing a tree for a cat, in his work clothes, of course!
Joey did think that his dad was a hero, so it made it all worth it!