Was the wife home?

Yes the wife was home.

Then what was he doing?

Well, he found this projector which became his Christmas present. It seemed this was the best place to point it at and he needed a white screen. So he painted the wall.

Over the River and through the Woods

To Grandmother's house we go.
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
In white and drifted snow. Oh!

We spent Christmas with the Olferts in a cabin in Minnesota. It was a warm, cozy place with a real fireplace and TONS of snow.

We went on a sleigh ride while at the cabin. The whole time I felt like we were in Narnia.

The hat. I know. The hat. But it kept me warm.

Carl and Jet, two students who came with the Olferts.
The sleigh ride really created romantic feelings. :)





The dog made a very stinky mess.

Here's what the dog's master was doing.

Hmmm...who is she married to?
Aaaahh, him.

Julie and Jerusalem both were able to soothe Juliana.

Learning about Ethiopia...
The boys snowmobiled all day Christmas Eve and this is the product of that.
Hadden.
In deep conversation:

Story time with GramO!
Please note the book my man is reading.
Mah sista!!
The kids started off the weekend with a little twister.

narf narf

I don't have much to say so I'll let ya just look at the pics. We've been enjoying life around home.

Reading that birth order book.... :)






The sewing machine at work. Thank you PapO and GramO!


We went on a fun little outing as a family to a pizza place we had a groupon for. Turns out this place has 2 tables and a counter seat with 5 chairs. They mostly do delivery and carryout. We were able to get a table though, ordered our pizza and really had a good time together.


This is peek-a-boo. :)

ConLai, concerning her dolls, "They wanna go to Montana."


ConLai and Mommy were dancing, so Nana decided she wanted to, too. She was hanging onto the chair with one hand and the other hand was up with her palm facing in, just holding it there.

ConLai: "Loudy! Loudy!" Meaning - turn up the music.

The other day as ConLai was coloring she said unexpectedly, "I need Jesus to help me be kind to Nana."

We went on a bike ride to the library and this is what happened on the way back.

When Daddy comes home, all three females go a little nutty. ConLai runs and hides. Jules starts screeching and flapping her arms. And Mommy, well Mommy's just plain happy to see him.

For Perspective

For a little bit of perspective to those who have a very unrealistic view of our family based off of the fun, smiley pictures normally posted on the blog. Today was not that kind of a day. One child woke up a chocolate kiss; the other one woke up a ball of sauerkraut dipped in vinegar. And Mommy was more like the sauerkraut, too. So the sauerkrauts battled throughout a lot of the morning and some of the afternoon arrows of whining, yelling, conviction, apologizing, whining, frustration, time-out, whining were thrown.

Then Daddy called. Daddy gave sauerkraut his first talking-to over the phone. And sauerkraut became chocolate. Then Daddy came home. And within minutes chocolate giggles were heard within the bedroom.

Now as I am writing this I am more like chocolate only because of God's continuous grace and a faithful, loving husband.

Life

Life is precious. It is a privilege to watch these two girls grow up. We went on an adventure last weekend to Delevan Lake, Wisconsin. We took the train to visit Daddy at work. There were several people along the way who assisted a mommy with 2 young 'uns. Miss Val dropped us off at the depot and we hopped aboard. ConLai was captivated for much longer than I thought she would be, nothing like her cousins Diek and Hadden would have been, but her enamor lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. A gentleman showed us to the back seat and another gentleman showed us how to turn it around to make a big double seat.



Then we got to get off and see Daddy. We found a cute Italian place.



It was special to be with Daddy and it was wonderful for him to sleep in the next morning and not be on the road. We went to an animal farm and shopping the next day while he was at work and then came home again.


To dancing. :)

We had the opportunity to hang out with Matthias a couple days this week while Mama was at school. ConLai and him get along very well. I think it's because he allows ConLai to Mama him.

Some tidbits about Nana:
*She is standing very well on her own. (I wish I had her quads.)
*Her sister is still the most amusing to her.
*Smiles are not worked for but given freely.
*She gets very excited to see Daddy.
*She acts shy sometimes and buries her face in whoever or whatever is holding her.
*She says "Mama" even though Daddy worked really hard for Dada.
*Her hair has a reddish tint.