My 41st!

Field Trip To Chicago

After a hard week of "hitting the books" & "frying our brains" ~ we took a field trip to the Museum of Science & Industry. Thankfully the month of January is free admission & we even found free parking on a nearby street. What a big museum! Megan brought her friend Andrea and they were able to go on their most of the time - so they really had a good time without us hanging around. : ) We ended the day early enough to miss rush hour traffic - once through the Windy City, we stopped at an Oasis and the let the kids eat.

I am not sure why alot of the pictures are blury - maybe the camera, the museum lighting, or the photographer???

Special Dinner

This past weekend, Caleb really wanted to make a dinner for us. So with a little assistance from mom - he made "goulash", corn & I toasted buns with butter & garlic. He used Italian sausage, tomato sauce, Chili powder, brown sugar, basil, Italian dreesing seasoning pouch & a few other ingredients - Yum it was good!

Caleb & Jacob really love to help in the kitchen. Maybe one of them will be a chef someday.

When Jake caught wind of Caleb making diner - he so badly wanted to use Aunt Virginia's special china. Thankfully, we had recently unpacked them from a long stay in the basement. Jacob used a piece of fabric for the table runner -good idea, huh?!?!

I planned all of this while Megan was at a youth activity - goulash, helping in the kitchen & china are not her "cup of tea" - so I knew she wouldn't miss out on anything.

Belated Christmas memories & pictures

I know that I am REALLY late in getting these Christmas photos on the blog ~ but I couldn't just skip over them either. So please bear with me. We really had a nice Christmas and wanted to share some pictures with you all. We were able to bake and take goodies to a few shut-ins, watch Megan in a play called "Eyewitness News From Bethlehem", our Christmas Program at church, attend the church Christmas parties & activities, spend an evening with George & Jan, spend Christmas Eve with the Rehfeldt's, go to Grandpa & Grandma's for Christmas Day, game night at Aunt Juliet's, and enjoy extra time with Rick ~ he had of 12/24 - 1/5. Oh, we also had two bouts of the flu as well! Eeeks ~ what a way to spend some of the holidays. : )

I hope & pray that you all have a very happy & blessed New Year!

Winter is "SNOW" much fun!

Finally! It has been so long since I have been able to post. Today, we took a break from busy-ness in the house and went outside to build "snow forts". Rick and Caleb worked on a fort for the boys to play in and Jake and I dug tunels for the rabbit to run in. Megan hesitated in coming outside, but finally did enjoy some wrestling in the snow. We love winter!

WINTER FUN!

BUNNY TUNNELS MADE BY JAKE & MOM

DAISY ENJOYING HER TUNNELS

CALEB IN HIS TUNNEL

DAD HELPING MEGAN OUT OF SNOW BANK

JAKE HELPING "CHIP AWAY" AT THE TUNNEL

Thanksgiving Day Weekend

Sorry, it has taken me so long to get this to post ~ I had a problem getting my photo's to download. Forgive the extra turkey picture - I'm not sure how delete the extra photo.


The boys and I started our vacation days by making our traditional turkeys. Since we were going to spend Thanksgiving at my folks - I didn't have much prep to do at our house. : ) This year, we brought Rick's step-mom along so she wouldn't be alone for the day. She ended up getting sick and went to the ER for the entire day. YUK!


Friday, we took the kids shopping and then to get our tree. Megan begged to stay home. PARTY POOPER!!! Although, we still made her go. We go to a small tree farm across from the Children's Farm. Cheap prices, friendly people, and a short drive. We found our tree rather quickly and we were on our way. Rick & the boys worked on outside lights and we all worked on the inside (well, except Meg).

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas . ? . ? . ? .

For quite some time now, my boys have been wanting to get out our Christmas decorations. I keep telling them, "No, we always do it after Thanksgiving. So let's wait." In recent days, I have been wanting & needing to go through my Christmas things and purge and re-organize. So yesterday, I told the boys that if they were good and did all of their schoolwork - we COULD get out our Christmas bins. In my mind, I thought this would be a perfect time to purge, sort & re-organize it all. So as I would go through each bin, they would haul them upstairs for me. After a while, I noticed they were taking a while to come back for the next bin - "Humph!", I thought they probably got sidetracked - watching a cartoon or something. No sooner did I think that - and I hear running feet on the floor above. "Mom, come see what we did!" they shouted. I went upstairs to see bin lids strewn everywhere, our Americana decor in a heap on the floor AND the shelves were decorated with Christmas and the stockings were hung with care. And yes, it was just Nov. 20th! I would like to wish you all special memories as you plan and prepare for the upcoming holidays!

Sunday Afternoon with the College Students

Last Sunday (10/19) was our day to host the MBBC college students. We had nine students this time. We love having them over - especially the kids. Normally we play a game or two and then they nap or study. This time Aaron dedicated all of his time to jump on the trampoline, teach the boys to jump onto the swing and took all of them for a bike ride. Melissa (Aaron's girlfriend) - also spent alot of time with Meg. This is the 1st time I didn't get a picture of everyone around the table - Sorry! : (