Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Isaiah 9:6-7

Christmas Past and Present

2009

2008 (I think this one is my favorite)

2007

2006

2005

I will have to do more digging and scanning to go any further back. So, I will leave this now with my favorite verse from the Christmas story.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

Sweet, young Mary... just a girl who was willing to do God's will even at a great personal cost, and she had a mother's heart.
What are you treasuring and pondering today?

Shiloh saw the vet today,

and she weighs a whopping ten pounds. Wow! A three pound weight gain in three weeks! Anyone want to guess how big she will get? Since she is a mixed breed, we have no idea.

Picture December at Our House

I offer another picture post:
Zach participates in wrestling tournaments every Saturday. Weigh ins start at 8:00 or 8:30, and Zach is not usually finished before 5:00 p.m. His coach announced tonight that Zach is the number 1 heavy-weight in the state. Although, we are not sure where he gets that data. We do know that Zach's current record is 19 and 1.
These are Zach's buddies Blake and Matt.

On December 5th the girls and I attended the annual American Heritage Girls mother/daughter tea. It was Julia's first one and likely Savannah's last. We learned about Christmas around the world. A missionary from Papua New Guinea shared her experience with Christmas there. A mom who grew up in Switzerland shared Christmas traditions from Switzerland, and our troop coordinator and her daughters put together a skit about Christmas in Afghanistan.

We used my grandma's antique teacups this year. She collected them from Kroger years ago, and I ended up with them. People sometimes ask why I would use these for the tea and let my little girls handle them, but I always say that we can't enjoy them if they remain wrapped in newspaper in a box in the basement.

The cat likes sleeping in the manger again this year. I believe this is the closest to God that she can get. I am afraid that if there is a Heaven and Hell for animals, our cat will be feeling the heat.

I decided one night that I wanted to get a picture of Shiloh under the tree. She decided that she had no idea what I was trying to do and that camera was a curious thing, so I snapped this picture in an effort to show her what the camera would do.

My crazy plan worked.

Wyatt celebrated turning seven with friends at a pool party. I could not get pool pictures because it was too humid and fogged up the lens.

A grown up taking pictures!! UGH! This was the best shot I could get of the whole group..Jack, Emmanuel, Wyatt, and Abby (standing). Wyatt had a blast!

After pizza and cupcakes the kids got to play in the gym.

On Sunday some of the extended family celebrated with us. Wyatt has been over-stimulated and rather rotten for the past several days. To follow up on an earlier post, he never returned to school before the start of Christmas break.

I get up twice in the middle of the night to let Shiloh out, but of the kids, Savannah is the most helpful. She is also the biggest reason I decided we needed a dog. I consider a dog to be a good home safety asset.

I tried to post a picture of that cool Bakugan cake, but it kept flipping sideways on me.

and the birthday tradition continues...

Wyatt with his Aunt Tara

Grandpa and Grandma

Uncle Joshua

Uncle Tony, Austin, Logan, and Aunt Tiffany

Rock On!

Aunt Tessa

They think Julia is looking at Tessa's camera.

Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Danielle

All the activity called for a nap in a quiet place.

"The Show" - This is my term for the activity that takes place when Sparkle and Shiloh become aware of each other. Sparkle hisses and paws at Shiloh while Shiloh jumps around and pounces. Sparkle is not playing. Shiloh is. If Sparkle had claws in her front paws, we would have needed at least one extra vet visit for Shiloh.

Bambi was always completely indifferent to Sparkle. Shiloh loves to antagonize her. Maybe there is a reason that she is evil.

These pictures were taken this morning just before the sparring got out of hand and they started chasing each other around the Christmas tree. I don't have this much sibling rivalry from the kids.

The shopping is not finished but getting there bit by bit. I am ready for some rest and relaxation though I am not sure that I will get it. It is nice to wake up later than 5:15a.m., but the kids have an early dentist appointment tomorrow, and next Monday Zach has an early wrestling tournament two hours away. Is it really selfish to want to sleep until 8:30 every day of Christmas break?

On a completely unrelated note:

Zach has another friend from school hospitalized with a leg fracture. She actually broke both legs. He and Megan were great buddies in kindergarten, so I hope to get up to the hospital to visit her. She was in a car accident and her little sister is also there with more serious injuries. This eighth grade class has really been through it in the last few months. They lost a classmate this summer. Another classmate miraculously survived a serious infection complicated by leukemia. Now since Thanksgiving, two of them have been hospitalized. Of course the holidays are not always fun, and I am definitely aware of that this year.

Happy 7th Birthday Wyatt!

Today marks Wyatt's 7th birthday. We celebrated simply with strawberry cupcakes made by Savannah. Wyatt gets to celebrate with his friends at a swim party on Saturday night and will celebrate with extended family on Sunday.

Unfortunately today was not as we had hoped it would be. Savannah stayed home from school on Tuesday with a fever and is still not at 100%. On my way to work on Wednesday, I was called home to a feverish Wyatt, and his fever did not break in time for him to attend school today. He would have had a field trip today, and as you might recall he missed his only other field trip this year when he had the flu. Right now we are still wondering if he can do school tomorrow. Of course missing tomorrow means missing a pajama day Polar Express party.

Taking a look back:
Wyatt turns six, and Julia convinces him that they should open his presents together.

Wyatt celebrates his fifth birthday in China with a cake from us and probably the first indication to him that he has parents.

Wyatt has not been completely miserable with this illness. On Wednesday I stayed home with him and we ran some fund-raiser stuff out to my parents' house. While there, I asked Mom to watch him while I ran to a nearby store to try and pick up some Leapster Tags for Wyatt and Julia. We left there and came home to some nap time, and the Tags remained in the back of the van. When I picked Savannah up from the bus stop, Wyatt and Julia played in the van while awaiting the bus, and my little snoop Wyatt found and announced that they had Leapsters. He is such a snoop! I am pretty quick to get presents wrapped, but those didn't even make it a few hours. UGH!

Oh well, we love that stinker anyway, and he is excited about the fish tank he received today. A gecko, fish, a cat, and a dog - Oh MY!

I like my bed pretty well, but...

I must try this.

Let It Snow!

4 kids have eagerly anticipated the first snow this year. Why? You may ask. Well, borrowing an idea from another blog, I decided to launch a new tradition. For weeks now four gifts have been wrapped and stored in our living room to be opened only on the first day that it snows. Everyone had to see the snow, and everyone had to agree that it was snow indeed! -not a difficult decision for four eager children. This morning we awoke to falling snow with very little accumulation. In fact it was gone by lunch time. Julia and Savannah ran around waking the boys and warning them to make sure to see the snow. They then awaited having the whole family together after school for the opening of the gifts. Our plan was to celebrate with Rice Krispie treats and hot chocolate, but I couldn't afford the ingredients today, and Zach and Savannah had to race off to a band concert anyway. So what did they find in the gifts? warm and cozy pajamas....and that is the planned gift every year if this tradition continues.

Since I had the camera out, I decided to try and get a good picture of the tree. I can't remember it ever being so pretty. We bought new ribbon this year, and I am amazed by the difference it makes. Of course the lights that would probably get me in trouble with a fire marshal help the look of the tree as well.

I also tried to get a good picture of Shiloh as the other pictures don't show off how much black she has on her. Shiloh really wants to be a good dog. Her potty training is going very well. However, Wyatt and Julia really struggle when her chewing instinct kicks in on them. She scares them when she starts that stuff, and they get excited, so she thinks it is a game. I worked with them today on just standing still and ignoring her so that they don't reward this behavior. For the most part, she is a good girl unless we fail to do what we should, such as get up in the middle of the night to let her out. She goes right away and comes right back when she goes out, but she does not know how to tell us she has to go, so that is our next lesson.

I have really been praying hard for a good, healthy dog. We were spoiled by having a dog like Bambi. She was neurotic about a few things, but she lived a long life and only saw the vet for regular check-ups until the very end. When she got loose, she stayed close to home and returned to us. Beagles tend to follow their noses, so I am praying that we are able to teach Shiloh to "go to her bed" when the doorbell rings and that she won't be a digger finding her way out of the fence. Shiloh is smart, so I am hoping she can deny her natural instincts and stay safe.

Savannah is quite attached, and we made a big mistake in getting our cat. The cat is evil and has really showed that this week, so you can see why I am working so hard and praying so hard for a good dog.

Life comes at you fast!

Thursday night was a bit different around here. Normally, Andy takes Zach to wrestling then heads off to Bible study. I take Julia to gymnastics, and another parent brings Zach home. However, Andy's study is on break right now, and the informational meeting about moving Julia up in gymnastics was scheduled for that night. Since I am in a quandary about this class, and Andy has not seen her practice this semester, I let him take Julia and attend the meeting. I took both the boys to wrestling as Wyatt has joined the team.
Wrestling is a different world. The high schoolers practice before the elementary and middle school students, so I left home with a warning from Andy to let the boys go in and then wait a few minutes before entering myself. Apparently, weigh ins occur at the end of practice, and some of the high schoolers shed everything to make weight. Some moms have been privy to full frontal nudity simply for walking their boys into the gym...ick! Anyway, I digress as this post is not about making weight for wrestling.
Although it was a two hour practice, I felt that I needed to be there since Wyatt is new to this and so very young. At first when I watched the boys warm up, I got a huge kick out of Wyatt. What a hoot!!! He works, stops, works, stops, and has the confidence to think he is hanging with the big boys. They all treat him like a beloved little brother and watch out for him. Seeing this, I knew it was safe to leave and once the sparing started, I was tempted.
However, I was parked a good a piece away, and it was a cold night, so I kept just sitting there...sitting still does not come easily to me. I stayed for the entire practice and ended up witnessing probably the most awful thing I have ever seen. In the last 25 minutes, I heard a loud pop and then a scream rang out along with a cry, "MY LEG!" I knew that voice well. This was the voice of a child who I have driven home from a nearby county weekly during last year's wrestling season and right up until the start of football season. This was a friend of Zach's and a great kid. I knew his leg was broken from hearing the pop. Coaches ran to him and shuffled the kids to the other side of the gym as parents ran out of the gym (cell service is hard to get in there) and called EMS and the police. I knew that since our boys have joined a bigger team that those parents don't know Tristan's parents. I left the building and called my friend and Tristan's mom, Barb. How do you tell someone their child is injured and in agony when they are likely to be driving? As it turns out, Barb was in the parking lot.
EMS transported Tristan to the hospital. Hearing his cries as they splinted his legs and moved him onto the board was just about unbearable. His leg is broken in two places and will require a rod and pins. The swelling is so bad that they don't believe they can perform surgery until Tuesday. Please pray for Tristan and his family. Tristan has pinned every opponent he faced in wrestling this season and had a good shot at state. He is a true athlete and now faces a long recovery. I am praying that he has a full recovery as I know this injury could have long term consequences.
Our Zach is a talented athlete, but this is the very reason that I encourage him to concern himself with school more than sports. Sports are iffy. Andy ruined his knee in high school playing a pick up game of basketball. That event shifted his career choice as his plan A was the Air Force, and they wouldn't have him. Life can change in an instant, but I am hoping that this change is temporary for Tristan. After all, it wouldn't break my heart to call him son in law someday (lol).

P.S. Allie, He is a little old for Julia, so it would be for Savannah.