Grandpa Pants

This is the third Christmas my Mom has made the kids pajama pants. This year all of the grandkids and my Dad got matching pairs. Here are all seven pairs of "Grandpa Pants" being sported by their owners. :)

Merry Belated Christmas

Since we didn't go back to MN/WI for Christmas vacation but knew we'd be making a trip for Ethan's baptism my family put "Christmas" on hold. When we all were together we had Christmas on January 19. It was a fun-filled day of celebrating. Lydia's birthday had passed too so that was celebrated at lunch with a caterpillar cake (My mom used to make a version of this for me as a girl.). The afternoon was filled with hanging out, jam making, snowmobile rides, snacking, baby cuddling, and napping. Later that evening we had a feast-of-a-meal and exchanged gifts.

Picture 1: Delighted Lyd and the caterpillar cake.

Picture 2: Clockwise from the left: James, Brian, Katy, Bill, Cora, and Jesse.

Picture 3: From left to right: Dad, Mom, Grandma, and James

Picture 4: Hans, Evan, and Joey in a heap of gifts.

Jam by James

For as long as I can remember my brother James has avoided kitchen duty like most people avoid the plague. Suddenly he has a house that came complete with a giant raspberry patch and abundant grape vines. Voila! James has discovered a love for making jam! He saved (froze) some fruit from this summer and over our trip to WI earlier this month he made a batch of jam with Evan, Hans, and their cousin Joey. Yummo!

Meeting Ethan

The newest addition to my side of the family is James and Holly's son Ethan. Not only is he a new nephew/cousin but also our god-son. The kids and I left here on Monday the 14 and (after spending a night with our friends the Maertzes :) we went straight to meet Ethan. Our three kids loved him immediately. Evan says "I want to cuddle him he's so cute." Lydia was always checking out his tiny fingers. And Hans wanted to hold him every chance he got. Thankfully Ethan was a good sport and let the kids get their fill of their newest cousin. For me it was very special to get to hold him as he became a child of God last Sunday morning. We look forward to getting to know him as he grows.

Around our House

Sometimes the most fun pictures are just ordinary, every day moments.

One: Lydia and I got matching apron's as a gift and she's named then "dots." Whenever she catches me wearing mine without inviting her she quickly finds her "dots" and demands to be involved with the current baking project. She's apparently figured out that the best part about baking is getting to lick the beater at the end.

Two: Silly kids watching Mom work on supper while sporting new Christmas gifts.

Three: One of those father-daughter moments that warms the heart. Hmmm. :)

Happy Second Birthday Lydia

On December 28 Lydia officially turned two. We celebrated by taking her out to lunch with our good friends the Smiths. Lydia was born on Kelly's thirteenth birthday so the two of them are "birthday buds." Since Lydia didn't offer any suggestions as to what kind of cake she wanted I took my cue from one of her favorite activities, coloring. The cake was a purple crayon. It worked well that Lydia was two since then she and Kelly each took a turn blowing out a candle.

Once we got back home Lydia opened her gift from us. Since she had just recently decided to like girly stuff we went with it and got her a doll stroller. It usually carries "babies" around but in true Lydia fashion it is occasionally used for transporting trucks or animals and is driven like a race car.

Happy Birthday dear Lydia. You are Daddy's "Pretty-Lydi" and Mommy's "Lydi-Girl", our dear sweet daughter who we wouldn't trade for anything and love more everyday. God bless you always.

Yeah for Company!

Picture 1: As I shared in an earlier post, Joanna spent a week loving up our kids while Nathan and I were at school. This is a "movie night on the big bed" watching Lydia's birthday gift, Cinderella. It was more than a hit. Joanna and I spent more time laughing at the kids laughing at the movie. The mice are even funnier when watching kids belly laugh at them.

Picture 2: Evan was certain he didn't need a nap but somehow cuddling with Grandma in a cozy chair by the toasty fireplace made him a little sleepy. Here he's waking up happy.

Picture 3: Lydia and Jo shared gift opening. Lydia got several girly-girl gifts like a feather boa, magic wand, and a princess phone.

Picture 4: Hans got a model rocket from Aunt Andrea and was very excited. He and Evan had just had "Daddy projects" and built airplanes so now he has another to add to a collection and an excuse to have some time alone with Daddy. (oops, I just realized I attached the wrong picture.)

It was a very nice couple of days which we appreciated very much. :)

Christmas at Storybook Island

On another family adventure over our Rapid City Christmas we visited Storybook Island for their Christmas event. Storybook Island is a free kids park in Rapid City with hundreds of storybook characters to play on or with. There are classic nursery rhyme characters, Disney characters, Bible characters and everything in between. For a few weeks in December the staff decorates it all with what has to be millions of lights. For $1/person you can wander the grounds and admire the display.

1: The kids and I cold but happy. :)

2: Nathan played with the camera and extended the flash to capture all five of the sheep lit up at once. The lights were actually timed so it looked like one sheep jumping over the fence.

More from Jingle in the Jungle

In my own little world I pretend I'm great at photography instead of just some lady with a blog. As a result you get to see the pictures I think turn out kind of neat. :) These are from our trip to Reptile Garden's over Christmas. Close up flowers make me think of Georgia O'Keeffe (my favorite artist) and the lizard's bright colors amazed me. Thanks for humoring me. :)

Oshkosh

I'd hoped to catch up putting pictures on here but haven't had the chance lately. I will keep trying to carve out some time to do it.

Something we wanted to share without pictures is news many of you may have already heard. As of June 30 this summer Nathan is resigning his call and won't be teaching anymore. This isn't a recently made decision but one that he/we have been praying about and talking about for well over a year. He announced it to our congregation about a week and a half ago. After seven years of teaching he is certain this isn't for him; his heart just isn't in it. We love St. Paul's, we love Rapid City, we love so, so many people here who are like family to us but Nathan doesn't love teaching. Instead of continuing and beginning to hate it, it is best that he resign and begin a new career. Those of you who know Nathan well won't be surprised that he is going into aviation. He's going to go back to school to learn how to be an aircraft mechanic and also work with avionics (the computers in the cockpit that make a plane fly). Sometime in early July we will be moving to Oshkosh, WI where we'll be living for at least 2-3 years. We chose Oshkosh because Fox Valley Tech. College has the two programs Nathan was looking for and there is a WELS school for our kids to attend. We also do like that it's only about 4 1/2 hours from each of our parents and closer to lots of family.

We still ask that you keep our congregation and the situation here in your prayers. We will be calling principal/7&8 grade teacher and ask God to guide that process along with the other decisions being made. We are confident He will keep us all in the palm of His hand. We are looking forward to where He takes us in this next adventure.

The Smiths

Jingle in the Jungle

Staying in SD over the week of Christmas also meant we had the opportunity to take in some local attractions we would otherwise have missed. One such attraction was Jingle in the Jungle at Reptile Gardens. (The kids and I visited Reptile Gardens several times this fall and there are pictures somewhere back in October I think.) During the Christmas season RG decorates with thousands of flowers and lights. The kids liked checking out the aminals and showing Dad around since this was his first visit.

1: The kids posing by the poinsetta tree.

2: Evan is in the middle of the picture frolicking down the path.

3: Hans found a nice place to hide.

4: We squeezed in a picture of Dad and kiddos.

If you're ever in the Black Hills you'll have to check out Reptile Gardens on Highway 16 south of Rapid City. :)

More Christmas

I've got some catching up to do on here so these pictures are actually getting old but they are still worth sharing.

We shared our Christmas with the Frees and the Burows. Frees have often invited us to join them for holidays but usually we head back to see family instead. We chose this year to take the time to have our own Christmas here on Christmas Day. Although the Free boys are all a over a decade older than our kids they still seem to get along just fine. I have often described them as "adopted uncles" and this year Evan even began calling James "Uncle James." We had an enjoyable day with the whole bunch.

Picture 1: Evan and James enjoying some quality time together. (James went to college here in town and he and Evan have been buds for a long time. Now James is a "grown-up and lives in Colorado" but Evan sure likes it when he visits.)

Picture 2: Hans and Mr. Burow getting in on the rough housing.

Picture 3: A quieter moment of the day. Pastor Free had Lydia and Hans happy on the couch reading. If you look close you'll notice he's reading her a book about military uniforms. :) It was eventually replaced by a few Dr. Suess.

Picture 4: Our gracious hosts and friends, Pastor and Mary.

In His Hands

Dear family and friends,

For the last few weeks you may have heard bits and pieces of things about our lives being a little crazy and caught on that things aren't going well here. Nathan and I are fine as are our children. The week before Christmas the principal/5th-6th grade teacher of our school resigned for personal reasons. The reason is very bad and effects our entire congregation in a very big way. Nathan has stepped up and is now principal in the middle of a huge mess and with little direction. Our congregation has been working on a building project which is near complete so all the classrooms were getting moved over Christmas break along with several other rooms in the building. We made the decision to stay here for Christmas vacation so Nathan could work at school. Nathan's sister, Joanna, came to stay with us for the last week to watch the kids so I could help Nathan at school and sort out the classroom stuff in the 5-6 grade room to get them ready for the new teacher. Thankfully this all exploded the day before mid-year graduation at MLC so we have been assigned a capable, excited graduate. Things are going to get harder before they get easier here but this congregation has been abundantly blessed by God in countless ways in the past. God will not abandon His people but will bless them though this too. If you have prayers to spare we could still use them in the months to come.

In the midst of this we didn't make it home to see our families at Christmas but Joanna and Nathan's parents came out to see us. We only had the weekend with them but it was wonderful. On the 28th of December my grandpa passed away. My grandparents winter in TX so that has been a bit of an ordeal for my mom and my family dealing with cremation, getting Grandma moved out of TX and back to MN, and planning the memorial service. On January 2 my brother and sister-in-law had a baby (a beautiful boy names Ethan James) of which we are god parents. We are planning on the kids and I going home for a week and Nathan for a weekend so we can be there for baptism and to have Davis family Christmas which they were able to just pause until we could join them.

I know it will all work out according to God's purpose. Thanks for the flood of encouragement and prayers.

Our love,

Jenny & Nathan

Evan, Hans, & Lydia