Happy 2010!

Happy New Year! We rang in the new year by watching Shorts! (which was painful enough to watch once, can't believe we rented it!) and an Eloise Christmas movie and watching the ball drop. It's too bad the year lights up when the ball finally drops. It would be nice if I could have taped this year's countdown and just replayed that for the kids around 10pm next New Year's Eve. Danielle especially gets a little cranky by the time midnight hits. That's all part of the fun, I suppose.

Ron and Tyler have been working on their car for the Pinewood Derby. The race is next week (I think). Tyler and Ron are going for "coolness" rather than speed. Tyler sketched out his design and they are working from that. I have tried to stay out of it but did get a couple pictures while they were working this afternoon. I'm not allowed to reveal their secret plans, so everyone will just have to check back next week to see the finished product.

Here are a few misc pictures from our final Christmas get-together yesterday. I think Danielle received a total of 8 Webkinz for Christmas this year (no repeats). She was delighted with each one of them! My aunt Barb gave Tyler a book called Cool Stuff 2.0 and How it works. It is a perfect book for him. Danielle enjoyed playing her new Connect 4 game with Uncle Ron.

Danielle was kind enough to ignore my camera snapping in her face while she was drawing. Have I mentioned how much I like my new camera??

Snow Fun

Despite the chilly temperatures, the kids enjoyed playing in the snow for awhile this morning. The dogs did, too.












Danielle's snow angel













Tyler's snow angel













Hunter's snow angel

More Christmas Pictures

We finished up our major Christmas get-togethers today. We have one more left next weekend with my mom's extended family. Today we got together with my dad. Yesterday we visited Ron's parents. We celebrated with my mom on Christmas Eve day. We had a nice time visiting with all our family. And, as my brother said, we need to add a wing onto the house just for the kids' new Christmas toys. I'm looking forward to a relaxing, restful week while the kids explore all their new goodies and enjoy another week off school.

Here are a couple misc. Christmas pictures and pictures from our various family celebrations.

Merry Christmas!

Once again we had a wonderful Christmas. Santa's pack must have been considerably lighter by the time he left our house. He barely managed to escape this year, though. I think Santa finished up around 12:30am. Tyler popped into our bedroom around 1 because he just couldn't sleep, and "Mom, guess what?!! Santa was here already!" Our rule is that you can't get out of bed until 8am, so he spent the rest of the night in the sleeping bag on the floor in our room to prevent any early morning wandering. (He fell back asleep, though.) We made it to 7:40. Not bad.

Ron bought me a new camera, the kind I've wanted forever. I love it and am looking forward to figuring out all the bells and whistles. I am still getting use to it, though, so some of my pictures were a little out of focus.

We started the festivities yesterday and will continue them on through the weekend. Hope everyone else had a great Christmas, too!

Our Greatest Gift - Jesus

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Silly Dog

Clara meets Tawny:








Clara meets Chunk, the Zhu Zhu:

(What I like best about this one is Tyler's giggle in the background)

The Rest of Our Vacation Pictures

After disembarking from the cruise ship Saturday morning, we rented a car and visited Rob, Leah, Caleb & Annalise. We had a wonderful time with them!

After lunch we visited the Everglades National Park. This was our first visit to the Everglades, but we certainly hope it won't be our last. It was everything we hoped it would be, but I'm sure a lot of that was due to our tour guides. We saw a lot of wildlife, including many alligators. I think the cousins enjoyed being together (although the sun was always in someone's eyes for the group pictures).

We really had a nice time with Rob's family. It was a perfect way to end our amazing week.

Danielle's Christmas Program

Danielle had her Christmas program today.


She was so excited this morning and took her duty quite seriously. Ron was supposed to be taping her, too, so I wasn't quite as diligent about starting the video on time. (Ron's video didn't turn out, though.)


She did such a nice job, and she looked so pretty. Personally, I love the dirty knees. Somehow it makes her look even cuter. I also enjoyed watching her bop around with her little friends afterward. She is such a neat kid.

Danielle & her teacher.

I stopped by Tyler's class before leaving and saw some papers hanging outside the door that the kids had completed after watching The Polar Express last week. The kids pieced together parts of the story in the proper order. The last paper glued in place says "Though the boy grew up, the bell still rang for him, as it does for all those who believe."

What I liked best was what Tyler wrote after his name: "Tyler R (who also believes in Santa)". He whispered to me, "I wrote that in case Santa sneaks in the school some time and sees this."

As rotten as he is sometimes, I sure do love him.