Getting Ready for Christmas

Decorating the real tree with our family ornaments
Adorable in pigtails
I like this picture b/c of the cute face she is making
Isaac enjoys "washing dishes" otherwise known as making a big watery mess
I took this picture and then Caleb threw that snowball at me when I turned around. Little punk.
It's marshmallow girl- I can't put my arms down!
Chilling in the fort Daddy made

Going for a sled ride
Opening presents from his teacher at the Kindergarten Christmas party


First of all, the Bulls game Nate and I went to was awesome! We had good seats and the game was alot of fun. At the end of the game, the Bulls hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer and sent the game into overtime. The Bulls then won the game- it was all very exciting! Scottie Pippen was at the game too! He was sitting directly across the arena from us and they showed him on the big screen. The night would have been perfect if Michael Jordan had been there too. Nate laughs at me b/c I cover my ears whenever someone tells me what Michael Jordan is really like. I prefer the hero I followed as a kid to the real person. :)

On the 11th we celebrated Julia's Family Day! She has been home for one year now. She has adjusted so well and we can't imagine life without her.

About that same time we had the stomach flu hit our house. Julia had it for the first time and it wasn't pretty. I wasn't prepared for how stuff gets stuck in girls' hair- gross. I then got the flu and had to call Nate home from work. Isaac had a mild version and we thought we were done. However, Caleb then got it and once again we thought we were done. About 3 days later, Nate got it. This is the most drawn out flu bug ever. Thankfully it was just the 24 hour bug and we recovered fairly quickly. I hope all of this sickness means that we will be healthy over Christmas. :)

The kids are enjoying this snowy time of year. Julia loves being outside, which is good because it takes about a half hour to get her snow stuff on. I am always proud of myself for going outside with the kids. I really don't enjoy it, but I know it makes them happy if I do it once and a while.

We have all of our Christmas decorations up and have been celebrating Advent every evening. I am slightly embarrassed to say we have two Christmas trees this year. A couple years ago we bought a pre-decorated tree for a charity event. The tree is pretty, but we can't put our family ornaments on it. And Nate really likes real trees, so we bought a 5 foot tree for the toy room. The other day we stopped at a friend's house and Isaac said, "Look Mom, snow poo!" I looked and realized he was pointing at a Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas decoration. Too cute.

Caleb had his church Christmas program last week. It was a fun program and he enjoyed singing the songs. His age group dressed up for the manger scene and originally Caleb was going to be a rooster. And he was excited about being a rooster. You all know Caleb doesn't do dress-up, but he was looking forward to this. The day before the program he found out he couldn't be the rooster because he was too big for the costume. He had to dress up as a sheep instead, he was not excited about that. :) But, I give him credit because he wore that sheep costume with a good attitude and looked pretty cute. But don't tell him I said that!

Christmas vacation has now started and we'll be off and running. On Monday we're taking the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I hope they aren't too young for it. We'll also spend the night with my grandparents and see some extended family. We celebrate our family Christmas on the 22nd and then leave for Pittsburgh on the 23rd. Nate's whole family will be there for Christmas! That means we'll have two family get-togethers with them in one year- that doesn't happen very often. We'll then drive to my parent's house on the 26th and have Christmas with my family on the 27th. (My sister will be home for that too- yay!) We'll have a couple days at home and then we'll head to my grandparents on New Years weekend for the Jongsma Christmas. And then school starts again! Can you see why I'm praying that we all stay healthy? :)

If I don't update before Christmas, I pray that you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus' birth!