This is going to be long...

We just returned from our "Christmas" vacation, taken for a week at New Year's Day, missing 4 days of school for Xander, one day of preschool for Maia and burning a full week of vacation time for Matt on the first 8 days of the year.

We went to Indiana to visit our dear friends there and so I could play for Rachel's wedding. Rachel called me months ago asking if I would consider coming all the way out to play for her wedding, because she just couldn't picture it any other way. (My students all think I'm the only piano player in the world, apparently). Rachel's always held a special place in my heart, she started taking voice lessons from me when she was 14, and in high school became my go-to girl for emergency special music fill-ins. She worked hard to develop her talent, and by the time she left for college, she was preparing for a career in commercial music (she later changed to a much more practical major in the medical field). Over the years, we developed a great friendship.

She & Jon are both Marion HS grads and have been dating for 5 years. They both graduated from Purdue in December and had promised all the parents that they would wait to marry until after they graduated. So 3 weeks after graduation, they finally tied the knot!

We left New Year's day, and it looked like this in Sioux Falls:

The roads were clear and it was sunny, but cold. I had talked to Melissa K the day before and she was talking about how it was muddy and 40 degrees out, so Matt thought he should take his road bike along and try to squeeze a ride in. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

We had a gorgeous sunrise and as the sun rose, the ice crystals blowing around in the air made for the most vivid sundogs we'd ever seen!



It wasn't long, however, before we caught up with the blowing ice crystals and it turned into a ground blizzard. We observed an estimated 60-100 cars in the ditch, and briefly toured the ditch ourselves before ending our 15 hours on the road.

We are always hosted by Brent & Kathy- here's what they look like when I'm not wearing my glasses:

They are like a mom & dad to us out there, and are so hospitable. They welcomed us in at 11:30 pm with hugs, then pretty much told us to make ourselves at home and went to bed.

Wednesday morning, Rachel came over to B & K's and we worked on some music for her wedding, caught up and looked at some pictures. She seemed so relaxed (the pressure increased as the week went on). That afternoon, we went to Dave & Teresa's and Maia & Megan hit it off immediately. D & T have their house up for sale in Marion (a common thing), but have not even had anyone look at it yet... One of the bonus features of the Brown house is that they have a toddler swing mounted in the ceiling of the living room. The kids love it...

Wednesday night, we went to Adam & Ronda's (I didn't start taking pictures until the wedding on Saturday), and the Derbys and Phinneys came over. Wonderful to see how God is working in their lives. A & R have had the most traumatic year, they had to demolish their home because of faulty construction, but the community totally supported and helped them, and one year to the day after the first fundraising letter was sent out to family & friends, they moved into their new house. They've also had some significant health issues effecting Ronda's brother and their oldest son, Elijah. But God's been faithful, and they see miracles happen every day.

Thursday morning, we started out bright and early at Keith & Christy's and saw Keith's "Man Garage" and heard all about his latest toy obsession, his debut on the stage as an actor, his purchase of a VW bus to match his Bug, and his cartoon series that is airing in Australia. He's not just another "spiky-haired, middle-aged guy" folks! What a spaz. That Christy, she's a saint! Their beautiful China-doll daughter, Grace (4) and Maia got along well, though we didn't have time to stay for long.

At lunchtime, we went to Kokomo and met our friends the Kesslers at Chuck E. Cheese... It was very... active! After we spent all our tokens (Xander & Josh spent most of theirs shooting dinosaurs together in the Jurassic Park jeep game), we went back to the Kessler home and Jeanette brought her kids and they played together for the rest of the afternoon.
Xander, Josh & Micah had a GREAT time playing together. Here they are at the wedding reception. Fast friends!


Allie...
& Leah played together, Maia played by herself, and Andrew... well, Andrew didn't burn the house down, so it was a good day!

Thursay evening, we went to Dan & Leanne's for dinner with Eric & Susan and Danny & LJ. Xander had a lot of fun playing video games with the older boys, and Maia slept through the whole thing.

Friday, we chilled out for a while. Did some laundry, and went to Kyle & Adela's for lunch (our first non-tomato-based meal of the week, after pizza, spaghetti, pizza & manicotti). It was a brief visit, but got to catch up on Adela's new job and Xander played some X-box there.

Friday night was the wedding rehearsal and dinner. Finally got to connect with Pastor Tim & Karen.

Their oldest, Cori's getting married in July, so marrying Rachel off is good practice for Tim, since the girls were so close.


Saturday, we snuck in a visit with the Lehrians before the wedding, here they are in a couple of installments:
Tim & Ian

and a blurry Renee & Collin (it was dark and my camera isn't very fancy)

We walked into their house, and Collin took one look at Xander, said, "Oh, I remember you," and they played like they'd never separated! Didn't even ask to play the Wii

Saturday was the wedding, and I have to say, it was probably one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to. It was of course, a winter wedding, and there were white lights, tulle, bare tree branches, pillars & pearls everywhere. The candles (there were many) were a deep wine-red color to match the bridesmaids' dresses. Rachel's dress was a collaborative effort, made by her mother, grandmother, mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law. They also made all the bridesmaids' dresses. When I found out what things were going to look like, and heard the samples of music that Rachel wanted for the bridal march and the solos and all, I knew exactly what kind of music to play to create the right wintery mood. It was fun to play, and hard not to cry, as the maid of honor (also the groom's sister and Rachel's brother, Zack's girlfriend) was killed tragically 3 months ago in a car accident. Also, Rachel sang "When God Made You" to Jon, and she choked up a little (she's always been solid as a rock).

Here's the remaining pictures from the wedding reception:
Jon & Rachel's first dance:


The cake:


Cutting the cake:


The ice sculpture:


John & Tammy, the mother & father of the bride:


Maia, pretty as a princess:



Of course, we were able to catch up with most anyone we might have missed in the previous days, like

Jeff & Cris (one of her rare, non-crying moments):


and Tim & Bev:


Shannon & Lucas...


and Eric, Zack & Zane:


Craig & Charlotte:


Steve & Connie with their whole brood of kids:




These kids were just, well, kids when we were here, but they're mostly in college now...
Here's Matt, Jason, Erin & Christal, and behind them is favorite camper, Hether:

... and Jacob, Caitlin & Beverly (Bubbly):


The Smiths:


...and the moment I went nuts with the camera, the father/daughter dance.

Rachel & her dad, John:


Matt & Maia:


Steve & his twin girls, Rachel & Jasmine:


Scott & Leah:


Greg & Sarah:


and Jeff & Caitlin:


Sunday morning, we went to Hanfield, both services, and sang a special music. I only cried a little. We got to visit our old Sunday school class, and the kids sang for both services. Both of our kids went to kids' church upstairs first service, then sat with us for 2nd service. Maia wanted to go up on stage and sing again 2nd service with the preschool class, but then threw a fit when she didn't get to stand in the front row. That was funny! Little diva.

After church, we went to one of our favorite restaurants with Bryan & Melissa and caught up with them. Sunday evening, Tim Tedder came and hung out with us for a while at Brent & Kathy's.


Monday, Kyle Bixler came over and had coffee with us before we hit the road about 11:00. The weather was weird, a strong, warm South wind, that brought temps up to the upper 60's and melted off all the snow.


We went as far as Des Moines, then stayed with former Hanfieldites, John & Becky, who have a lovely new home and fixed us a delicious late supper. We stayed there until noon on Tuesday, then it was only 4 hours back to Sioux Falls in windy but clear weather. Matt's poor bike rode up on top of the car the whole time, and never got to feel Indiana roads.

What a great trip! We are so rich in friends!

Kids' Christmas Program

Mercy had their kids' Christmas program last night, and both Xander and Maia were involved.

I helped with the directing this year, and we chose an "instant" pageant, entitled, "A Not So Silent Night." It was cute- takes place in a courtroom where 3 shepherds are on trial for disturbing the peace. The kids didn't have to memorize any lines because it was all done with recorded actors and the kids just pantomimed the scene. A little different, but definitely streamlines the process.

Xander was the judge- he got to sit on a tall barstool behind the big pulpit and bang an oversized "gavel" which was actually an inflatable mallet from a McDonald's happy meal. I draped him in black and made a really pathetic white fuzzy wig for him out of fake fur and taped eyebrows and a mustache to his face (they left some pretty red marks!). He also wore round "Harry Potter"-style glasses. He did a great job as Judge Willie Snooze.

Xander as judge and Maia as sheep:


Maia was in the flashback scenes as the shepherds were talking about their experience. First she was an angel, then after a quick costume change she was a sheep. I wasn't sure she was going to be either, because in dress rehearsal all she wanted to do was cry and sit on my lap, but she was excited to perform for her grandparents (all 6 showed up!) and she did a great job come show time.

Maia as angel (what a pretty girl!):

Christmas Lyrics Revamped

These are some mixed up lyrics that I hear frequently- mostly from Maia:

"The little bored Jesus asleep on the hay" (Away in a Manger)

Frequently, she inserts people's names into songs:
"Shepherds, why Miss Julie?" (2nd verse of Angels We Have Heard on High)
"Glo----ria, in Kelsey day-o" (Gloria refrain of Angels We Have Heard on High)
"Ring around the rosies, pocket...mmgnmgm...osies, Ashlyn, Ashlyn, we all fall down"

This one was actually a college student:
"So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh, come PHEASANT, king, to own Him." (3rd verse of What Child is This?)

I'm sure there are many that have slipped my memory right now.

Never a dull moment!

Quotes of the Day

"Musician humor is practically funny." - Xander

"It's making the baby Jesus scream" -Maia in reference to a Christmas song on the radio that was not to her taste.

Christmas Pictures

ACK! I just sent my Christmas card out and told you all to come here for pictures, so I'd better get some uploaded!

Here's our weird new house. Well, the outside. If you want pictures of the inside, check out the blog posts from July & August.

From the outside, the place looks like a child was stacking blocks and decided to call it a house. We live in the left 2/3. This is the view from across the street. And yes, those terraces are pretty much our yard.



This is the view as you drive up. Imposing, huh? Where's the front door? (way over on the left) We call it "The Fortress" and we've got a Bible verse for it: "He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children, it will be a refuge." Prov. 14:26


Here's some pictures of the kids. Yes, I realize they're mostly summery, but that's what I have on hand. I'll post more later.

Let It Snow

We got our first snowfall last night. Just a 1/2 inch or so, but it seems to be sticking around.
The view out our bedroom window

(believe it or not, that IS the sunrise. I'm seeing the sunrise on my day off... What's wrong with me?)

From our kitchen window to the Hagan Financial building across the street


My birthday was last Friday, and I chose to decorate my house for Christmas as my birthday activity. I don't know what I was thinking, because Matt had to work at noon, so he helped me get all the boxes out, then left. This is the finished product. (Turns out it's really hard to get a good clear picture of Christmas decorations because of the lights. You'll have to imagine how these look not blurry...)
Here's our family room tree upstairs- the kids and I decorated it together.


The stairway and the little Christmas tree that Grandma Leigh Anne gave us last year (Xander mostly decorated that one). This is the view as you come in our front door.


Maia's little tree and even littler tree above it. This is right beside our front door.


My Willow Tree Nativity scene sits on the piano. Very pretty. I love the gracefulness of these carvings.


It was fun to decorate the new house, see where everything would go. Man! I had a lot of stuff crammed into that little apartment that last 2 years!

My friend Cris from Indiana told me about a Christmas tradition of theirs that the day that they put up the Christmas tree, the whole family would sleep in sleeping bags under the tree that night. I thought we'd implement this tradition into our family, but it didn't work too well because Xander had this loud dragon cough that kept everyone awake, so I took Maia back down to her bed and I slept in mine just on the other side of the wall from where Xander was and didn't get any sleep because I felt so bad for him coughing all night. Matt took some Benadryl and zonked out right next to Xander and slept like a baby all night. He must not have mother's guilt.

Matt did my birthday shopping at Scheels, but in the gift lodge, so I didn't get tennis shoes for my birthday, I got this painting


and this cool platter


and a prayer journal.

Mom got me a couple of neat cookbooks for holiday gift-giving and a pretty sweater. I mostly got money from everyone else, so I have to decide what I'm going to spend it on. Wonder if I'll be able to save up enough for Lasik eye surgery? I suppose eventually...

Oh and the other thing that I did for my birthday was borrowed "Pretty in Pink" from the library as my movie to watch. I finally got around it it Sunday night and told Matt I had to be careful how I dressed the next day because that movie along with "Desparately Seeking Susan" (minus the smoking part) influenced my fashion sense for an entire decade of my life! Lucky for me, the style of the 80's is coming back! Pull out the leather pants! Bring on the hairspray!

Quotes of the week

I had to take the kids to the doctor this week because both of them showed symptoms of Pink Eye. (Xander was just tired, but Maia really had it). While the nurse was taking Xander's blood pressure, she asked him what he wants to be when he grows up.
Apparently, he's not pondered the question in a while, so when she said, "You're really smart. I bet you're going to be a rocket scientist or something," he thought that sounded like a good option.
I said, "Well, for the longest time, he's wanted to be a garbage man."
She asked him, "Why a garbage man?"
Xander said, "Oh- I can handle extreme stinks!"
I thought that nurse was going to wet her pants, she laughed so hard!

Yesterday afternoon, Matt & I were talking after I got home from work (it was his day off), and Maia was watching "King George and the Duckie" in the other room by herself. Quick synopsis for those of you who have not seen every Veggie Tales movie ever a billion times: It's the Veggie version of the story of David & Bathsheba, only instead of wanting another man's wife, the king wants another man's rubber duckie. It's really quite amusing when you think of the duckies as wives, because they all look the same, and they all just sit on the shelf decoratively and the king gets bored with them pretty fast. ("Those are yesterday's duckies."
Anyway, there's a song where King George (Larry the Cucumber) is singing to his servant, Louis (Bob the Tomato), commanding him to go and get Thomas's duck (Junior Asparagus). The words are:

I must have it, I must get it,
You must go and get it for me...

As Larry's singing these words, Maia's shouting at the TV, "No Warry, be nice! Don't steal!" How 'bout that? She DOES know right from wrong.

As for the Pink Eye, what kind of maniac doctor thinks that it's possible to put eye drops in a 3-year-old's eye? 2 drops in each eye, 3 times a day!? It's really hard when Matt has to work 9 hours a day, so I have to do it myself. Mission accomplished- she's looking much better, and feeling better too.

Quotables

Last night, the kids & I were driving back to Sioux Falls from Yankton (Matt had to work), and I turned on the radio.

Maia wanted her music to listen to, and I said, "I'd really like to listen to my music so I don't fall asleep."

Xander translated to Maia, "Mommy has to listen to her music or we're all going to die."

Whatever works.

Happy Birthday Xander

We celebrated Xander's 8th birthday last weekend, though his actual birthday wasn't until Thursday. Friday night and Saturday we went to Grandma Georgie & Grandpa Bruce's. Grandma Katie & Papa Svale came over from Ft. Dodge, and we had a nice visit with them.

When it came time for presents after lunch, Xander was so excited to open his first gift! I forgot to warn him that this set of grandparents always give clothes for birthdays and toys at Christmas. So when he tore into his present and saw these cool Spiderman pajamas, he said, "oh. clothes." I was mortified! But later, when it was time to get ready for bed (we left after supper on Saturday evening and put the kids in PJs before leaving), he was swooping around with his webbing under the arms of his jammies. He thinks they're pretty cool now. He also got a Transformers shirt that he really likes.

Sunday after church (I'm insane), we had the party for the boys. It was a Bionicle Barraki theme. If you have any interest in learning what this is about, click here. Bionicles in general are Xander's passion.

What a sad cake. I should have just bought one. It tasted good...

Anyway, we had 8 boys and Maia at the party. It was very active. Last year, I was really worried because we invited all the boys in Xander's class (17), and I was a little scared of how to handle them for an hour and a half. I planned a lot of games and activities, and had a lot of help with execution, and things went so smoothly, I was surprised when parents started showing up.

So this year, I figured, "That wasn't so hard. I'll plan a couple of games, have a lot of space for them to run around (we had the party at church, not our house), let them play with Xander's Bionicles, have cake, presents, and we should be able to last a couple of hours."

Yeah.

If I learned anything from this year's birthday party, it's that structure is important. When you let 8-year-olds just run amok, they are really hard to reign back in. And an hour and a half is plenty of time for a party.

(Notice how blurry everyone is. They're moving really fast)

I did plan a few activities. I thought this would be pretty fun, and I was proud of how cheap and creative I was. Back-story: Bionicle Barraki are underwater creatures, and their weapon is a "squid launcher," so how about if we have a slingshot and launch little rubber "squids" out on the lawn? I made the launcher with free stuff that Matt got at Exercise University (work training) the week before. This is a Pilates Magic Circle (which the two boys are holding on the sides) and some short exercise tubing. Some of the boys were really good at it! They all tried hard.

The other thing I had planned was decoding the place mats using the Bionicle coded alphabet. Some kids had more patience for this activity than others.
But Xander got some great presents, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves.

After THAT party was over, we cleaned up really fast and headed back to our house for the family party. (Did I mention that I'm insane?) I had made a pot of chili and some apple crisp on Friday before we left for Morrisons, and we had relishes and dips. Mom, Jim, Rena, Lexi and Dad came over and we had a nice evening. Xander & Lexi disappeared (as usual), the rest of us ate for a while, then adjourned to the living room and talked for a nice long bit.

It was really cool. Everyone was relaxed, my mom & dad were telling stories about when they were married, and nobody was in a hurry to leave. I thought, "How amazing is this? Only God could heal this family." And He has. Sadly, Marie was not feeling well and didn't make the trip, and we missed her.

I'm thinking I might have everyone here (both sides of my family) for Thanksgiving...
Revolutionary.

Genetics!

OK, so for the longest time, I've said I was genetically a blank carrier for my children because they both look so much like Matt, but I was cleaning out my closet this week, and I finally found all my scrapbook supplies (temporarily lost for the last 2 years since we left Indiana). Check this out (especially notice the teeth):

Xander at age 8 (this year's school picture)

Me at age 8

See? That's the problem, I don't look anything like I did as a kid.

Yep, those big ol' bucky teeth are a gift from me. The dentist says there's enough room for all of them in there, and he probably won't need braces. Fortunately, my teeth are pretty nice looking now, so I could have given him something worse... like his attitude about mornings, or lightning fast temper... oh wait... he seems to have inherited that too.

I was telling my mom this, and she said that poor Xander is about to enter a long, awkward stage until he grows into those teeth. Sadly, he does NOT have genetics on his side for this one. Matt & I were both really ugly middle-schoolers.

Really.

And I'm not posting pictures. Some things are just better left to the imagination. (OK, most of you who read this blog remember the truth and won't argue anyway)

Anyway, I think Xander's pretty cute right now!

Halloween Fun

We had a fun night of trick-or-treating. Here's the costumes. These pictures were taken last Friday when the weather was a little warmer, and the kids went to Xander's school for the Fall Festival.

Here's Tinkerbell

and a Bionicle (again)
Activities at the Fall Festival

Last night, we got to have my niece, Lexi go out with us, then we went over to our friends' Hal & Martha's to have some chili, then bum around their neighborhood for a while. Martha said she had NEVER been trick-or-treating before. I told her she was missing out on an entire slice of Americana! Dressing up and begging candy from the neighbors. It's tradition, man! Their kids were so cute. They were dressed as Superman and a pumpkin (I didn't get pictures).

Obviously, we had to bundle up a bit more for Halloween evening than the previous pictures.

Once Xander hit the sidewalk, he never stopped running. This was as close as I could get to a picture of him!Here's the kids at a doorstep begging for candy.

Eventually, Maia wound up riding in the wagon that Hal was pulling (originally meant for Charlie- age 1). We thought it was funny that she was "flying" in a Radio Flyer. She was content with visiting about 6 houses. Xander wanted to press on for quite a while, but when Lexi wore down we decided to call it a night.