Christmas Eve!

Our evening with the Bolkema's started with a delicious meal of homemade soup and fresh bread. 

Instead of exchanging names with my siblings, this year we decided this year to assemble gift bags for Compassion in Action which is an organization that Rodney had set up to help families who are dealing with Leukemia.  We put 12 bags together and Kerry was going to distribute them to the families who are staying in the wing of the hospital where Rodney spent so many weeks, and even one year over Christmas.  The kids drew pictures to put in each gift bag.  It was a good thing for us to do this year as we continue to miss having Rodney here with us.

Then Grandpa and Grandma had gifts that they wanted to give to all of us.  Grandma decided to use a spinner to determine who would open their gifts first. 

Levi and Dorian happened to be first and they each opened their very own camera.  Now I don't have to share mine!  :)

The boys also each got a new game!

When all of the unwrapping was finished, the kids had a blast throwing all of the paper in the air.  :)

 

We had decided to stay overnight at mom and dad's house so after the kids were sleeping, we enjoyed talking together until midnight!

Christmas party at our house!

December 23

We enjoyed our day together as a family!  The boys were super excited this year about the presents that were under the tree and couldn't wait to open them.  So when they woke up, they opened their first gift which was a remote controlled truck for each of them.  

 

After church and lunch, the boys opened up their stocking gifts which were a Lego man and a crayon ornament for the Christmas tree.

Nathan and I opened a few presents...mostly very practical gifts this year. 

Then the boys opened a tabletop Foosball Table which was a lot of fun to play together.  It was a relaxing day.

Christmas Cookies!

 

December 19

I went to Levi's preschool Christmas party!  He enjoyed making a nose so he could be Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.  He frosted and decorated a Christmas tree.  And he sang some songs with his class.  It was fun to see him interacting with his teachers and friends and I'm glad that I got to be there!

December 20:  Dorian went to Crown Pointe with all of the Kindergarteners to sing Christmas songs to the elderly people who live there.  It was a blessing to watch him singing!  He is in the following picture...this was my view.  :) 

Yeah!!!!!  Time to make cut-out Christmas cookies!  The boys were both super helpers.

Friday, December 21, was the first day of Christmas break.  Nice!  Dorian came out of the laundry room looking like ME! :)  He likes to be silly and it was funny to see him in my hat, coat and boots.  Shortly after this, he put on his outdoor gear and shoveled the entire driveway, sidewalk and the deck by himself.  It was awesome!  What a huge help!

In the evening, we went to visit my Great Grandma.  It was nice to eat supper with her and see where she eats every day.  We felt special to be her dinner guests.  :)  Then we walked around the Retirement Home looking at all of the Christmas decorations together.  Dorian and Levi were especially fond of Mr. and Mrs. Claus!  :)  And lastly we talked in Grandma's apartment, did puzzles, and ate LOTS of snacks.  :)  It was also fun to bring Grandma some of the Christmas cookies that we had made.

Christmas is coming!

On December 8, we went to Sioux Falls to celebrate Ashley's birthday and spend the evening with family.  We ate pizza for supper and then drove around looking at the many displays of Christmas lights.  Dorian couldn't wait to stop at Falls Park to climb up the tower which overlooks the park.  This year it was snowing outside which added to the ambiance...but made it hard to take pictures and also made it very cold!  We enjoyed eating Christmas cookies and sipping on hot chocolate and hot cider before heading back home.



 



On Monday night, we took out Nathan's train set that's been boxed up for many years.  It was fun to watch the boys setting it up and taking turns running it!  What a fun memory.  :)

Dorian discovered that he is able to read the entire book "Hop On Pop" by Dr. Seuss!!!  Nathan and I have each heard it multiple times this past week.  I'm not sure who is more proud...him or us.  :)  He is learning a LOT in Kindergarten so far!

On December 5, Levi got to celebrate his half birthday at preschool. This was a pretty big deal! They sang happy birthday to him, he got a special birthday crown, and picked out a matchbox car from the gift box. He also got to ask the kids in his class to put their heads down and surprise them with a birthday treat of peanut M&M's that he picked out. He is now officially 4 1/2!!!

Last night was Levi's Christmas Preschool Program. He couldn't wait to be on the stage! They sang about 10 different songs and said about 10 different Bible verses that they have memorized so far. It was quite impressive!

 

And today at preschool Levi is the Lucky Duck which is also a big deal. He had fun packing his bag with show and tell items and we were the first ones to arrive this morning! :)  I can't wait to hear all about it.  He is usually very talkative and excited when I pick him up and I'm sure that he will be today!

fun family time at home

It's amazing to me how many pictures the boys have colored since moving the little table into the kitchen and setting the coloring books out. 
Last week Thursday I was babysitting and it was fun to see Eden and Levi coloring pictures for each other!

Dorian loves his doggy!  He requested that I take a picture of him.  :)

On Friday night we were invited to the Brunner Household for supper, dessert and to make gingerbread houses!

Saturday, December 1.  We had the entire day ahead of us and no plans had yet been made.  I love days like that (most of the time:).  In the morning, we decided to move the office stuff into our new office room.  The boys did a great job helping with moving all of the books from the bookshelf! 
Mid-morning we sat down to each have a cup of hot chocolate!  Yum!  As you'll be able to tell from the pictures, we all really enjoyed ourselves.  :)  The boys had fun making milk mustaches, taking pictures and being silly for the camera. 

 

Every so often it is necessary to find some new rewards for the boys to keep their behavior in check. We have been giving tokens for positive behavior lately and the boys really wanted to cash in some tokens by taking a bike ride to the park. Sounded like a good afternoon activity since the weather was sunny and mild. The boys went to the park and then to the bakery for donuts and to Fareway for a few groceries. Dorian has really been enjoying bike rides lately.  They had a lot of fun!

On Sunday afternoon, after a busy morning at church we decided that each of us needed to have some quiet time.  It was so peaceful and enjoyable that I found that I needed to take pictures to capture the memory.  Nathan was working in the new office.  Levi was playing with the Duplo Fire Station that Dorian and I had previously built together.  Dorian was playing downstairs with cars and beanbags.  And I was reading a book!  After moving our bookshelf, I've discovered some books that would be good to read.  :)

 

 

And now it's Monday, a new week is here.  We had a busy morning getting both boys ready for school.  Levi is having pictures taken today so we had some tears and debate about what he was going to wear.  Dorian didn't want to go to school and wanted to stay home so we had to encourage and motivate him.  But once Dorian was dropped off, Nathan went to work to attempt to get the many things on his to-do list started on.  He's very busy at work right now.  I dropped off Levi and went on to pick up TRIP money for the month at SCCS.  I stopped at McDonald's because I saw that if you bought a $5 gift card, you got a free Peppermint Mocha and that sounded like a good deal to me!  Then I went to Nathan's office to download blog pictures which is amazingly faster to do there than it is at our house.  And then I stopped to see if I could find an ugly Christmas Sweater for a party that we were invited to this weekend.  :)

 

Now Adria is taking a nap in the swing and it's nearly time to pick up Eden and Levi from preschool!  My life is good.

Giving Thanks.

 

Thanksgiving Day 2012

I have so many things to be grateful for.  It's fun to think about them and write down the good memories that have been made. 

We spent Thanksgiving day in Sheldon.



Dorian made a pilgrim hat at school.  On Wednesday evening, he was so excited that he made hats for all of us!  :)

 Emma was playing the piano and Levi was turning the pages for her.  :)

After church, mom and dad were busy preparing a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for nearly 40 people!

Ashley discovered that she really liked taking pictures with my camera.  It worked out well because there were tons of really great pictures at the end of the day!  Thanks Ashley!  I really like this picture of Emma and I.

 Emma's baby is her dog Macey, and my baby keeps getting bigger!  :)

 Love my grandma!

 

The Lamfers made a Turkey out of veggies!  Gotta love Pinterest ideas.  :)

 This is how you know that all of the kids are having fun.  :)

 

On Friday Nathan and Dad willingly watched all of our children, so that I could go shopping with Mom, Kerry, Heidi, Emma and Adria.  Since the stores open much earlier in the morning than we are willing to get up, it doesn't even feel like Black Friday shopping.  It is nice to have most of my Christmas shopping done already. 

On Saturday morning we enjoyed having Steve and Sara and their kids at our house!  In the afternoon we turned on the Christmas music and had fun putting up our Christmas decorations.  I'm quite sure Molly didn't really enjoy getting a Santa hat put on her...but thankfully she takes a lot from the boys!

Yeah!  I love having our Christmas tree up.  Nathan was replacing bulbs.  Dorian was very proud to be putting his homemade candy canes on the tree. He made them a couple of years ago out of pipe cleaners.

Time to hang up all of the ornaments!

The tree looks good, but the boys certainly make the picture spectacular.  :)

We hung 5 stockings!  Nathan, Lisa, Dorian, Levi, and Baby.  :)

I've been doing a lot of thinking about moving rooms around and making the current office into a nursery and the toy room into our office.  I decided to start by picking up the toy room and moving many of the toys downstairs (mostly because Nathan was bored and willing to help move the bookshelves for me :).  There was a stack of papers on the piano that was growing to be about a foot tall of all of the papers that the boys bring  home from school, etc.  I "sorted" them and put up my favorites on our art wall.  I love organizing.

I don't think it's ever looked so cozy downstairs.  I think I'm going to like having most of the toys down there! 

On Sunday, Dorian spent much of the church service finding words that he knew in the bulletin, circling them and writing them down.  He is really having a lot of fun finding and reading words that he knows how to read and sounding new words out.  I love it!