Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Note that Nathan is the only one dressed. He wanted to put his clothes on as soon as he woke up this morning. He's still the only one dressed!

Prayers

We have our Christmas cards and pictures posted around the entryway to the dining room. We decided we would pick one family each night to pray for. We asked Nathan to pick the first family. He picked the Contants (our friends, Dave and Kristin from church). Here is our discussion:

Mom: "Nathan, what should we pray for the Contants?"

Nathan: "That they would not start a war."
"That they would worship God."
"That they would not have any injuries on their ride home."


Tonight, we picked the Suwyns (another family from church). Here are Nathan's prayers for the Suwyns:

Nathan: "That Kiera and Lexi would be less wild."
"Please help Mr. Suwyn to not want to be bald."
"Help Adam never to get sick."
"Please help Mrs. Suwyn to be able to breathe again because she was on that train that bumped."

Apparently, I'm supposed to know about some train accident that Mrs. Suwyn was involved in...I'll have to ask Sue....

Caroling

I took the boys caroling to a nursing home with our church yesterday afternoon. During one of the songs, Andrew leaned over and said to me (rather loudly), "Mommy, that man lost some of his teeth!" Thankfully, everyone was concentrating on the song and not on the comment!

Singing for Prelude

The Sunday School children sang for our Prelude on Sunday morning. They sang three songs, "Jesus Joy", "Joy to the World", and "O Come Let Us Adore Him".

During the first song, Nathan whipped off his sweater. Elbert and I both gave him a dirty look, and he said (loud enough for everyone to hear), "But, I was hot!" During another song, Nathan pushed Andrew off the stage. The director put Andrew back on the stage, and Andrew refused to let go of her for a moment or two. Then during the final song, Nathan started shouting the words, and Andrew (of course) followed right after his brother.

When the songs were over, Pastor Eric thanked the kids for singing and told the congregation (only half jokingly), "This is why the Bible says to 'train up a child in the way he should go'".

Cookie Baking

Our neighbors invite us over every year for a Saturday morning Cookie Baking party. The kids decorate sugar cookies, and the adults bake about 8 additional varieties of cookies. Everyone comes home with a large plate of cookies to enjoy.

Nathan and Daddy discussing a cookie design


I don't think I should touch this...


Well...maybe I can...

After a long morning of playing (thankfully, he we kept him away from the decorating), Evan just plopped himself on the floor in the middle of the dining room to rest.


Andrew's favorite part of the morning was going down to the basement to see Mr. Hoogsteen's trains.

We tried to take a nice family picture by their Christmas tree...Note Nathan's "football player" pose.

A Valid Question

Andrew (on the way to preschool this morning):

"Mom, do girls cry when they get timeouts or spankings?"

Preschool Cookbook

For the past few weeks at preschool, the kids have been working on a "secret special surprise" for parents. Today, the kids got to take it home. Nathan was so excited for me to open it. It's a cookbook that the kids created. They each "submitted" a recipe. Here's Nathan's entry:

Vegetable Dip
by Nathan Yeh

3 bottles of ranch dressing
Lots and lots of different kinds of vegetables

Put them in groups. Put the small vegetables in the same and the large vegetables in the same. And put out the ranch. And that's it!

Here's what Nathan tried to convince me to make for lunch today:

Chicken Noodles
by Jackson Force

Ketchup
Honey mustard
BBQ
Mustard
Chicken

Make it in the oven, a super duper hot for 10 minutes. When it dings, you put it out in a bowl and then you dip it in ketchup. Then some chicken soup and crab soup. That's it.

Needless to say...we went with PB&J instead.

Andrew is Thankful For...

Here is a picture (that I just found) that Andrew drew for Grandma and Grandpa during Thanksgiving.

Andrew told his teacher to write "Thank You God for Grandma and Grandpa".

According to Andrew:
The person on the left is Grandma. "She is a little bit worried because she is walking through a forest, and there is a bear and a lion.

The person next to Grandma is Grandpa. "He is not worried because he has an invisible sword."

There is also a bear and a lion.

Waking Andrew Up

It was a strange morning because Evan was the first one awake at 7:34 am. Usually Nathan and Andrew are up right at 7 am (or earlier...but, they can't come out of their room until the "7" is in front). Let me say it another way...I got to sleep until 7:34am!!!

I had to wake Nathan and Andrew up to get ready for preschool. When I woke Andrew up, he said, "But, I didn't go to sleep yet."

I said, "Yes, you did. You slept all night."

He said, "No, I just laid here with my eyes closed."

Oh Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

We went to Hart Tree Farms in Rockford today to get our Christmas tree. It's been a family tradition to go out every year to chop down our own tree. The kids love the tractor ride in the big wagon out to the trees. It was very cold today (20's with blowing snow), but we all had fun. Evan was excited to ride in a sled for the first time.

I Can Help, Daddy

Elbert got a new drill combo-pack for his birthday. Evan wants to help Daddy use it.


Note the huge smile on Elbert's face...

Flashback Friday - Nathan and Mom

I haven't posted Flashback Friday in a few weeks. Since we just celebrated Nathan's 5th birthday, I thought I post pictures of Nathan and me.

Here we are in the hospital...



Here we are 5 years later on his birthday...



It's amazing how sometimes 5 years can seem like a blink of an eye and other times, it seems like an eternity. I feel both perspectives when I look at these pictures next to each other.