We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo....

The past several days, we have had a much needed break from the frigid temps. It has been quite nice. It was in the upper 50s on Monday, so I decided to take the kids to the zoo. We have a membership, but we haven't been in awhile because it's been so cold. ( Side note- I thought it was so weird to have to buy a zoo membership. Apparently, you have to do that in most parts of the country, but I didn't realize it. I was spoiled to live near the National Zoo in DC where admission is always free.) Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is rated as one of the top 10 zoos in the US and it is only 30 minutes from our house. We did a little schoolwork in the morning and we stopped at Chipotle for lunch on the way out. We just discovered Chipotle a few months ago and have been very happy to have another place that serves fast food that is gluten free. We decided to first see a movie at the IMAX theater, as we haven't done that yet and it's included with our membership. It was the kids' first 3D movie and they loved it. I do think it freaked Hannah out a bit though, but she was fine once she was on my lap. The movie was about Lemurs on Madagascar.

After the movie, we toured the aquarium. We've been there several times before, but we haven't gotten tired of it yet. How could penguins and sharks ever get old?

They love them even more after reading Mr. Popper's Penguins.

We love the walk through shark tank.

Look, mama!

Checking out the Japanese Spider Crabs

Does the aquarium make anyone besides me see Finding Nemo everywhere???

Eels!

That was all we did on this visit. We'll come back again when we get another nice day.

Happy Birthday, Micah!!!

Can you believe that my sweet baby boy is 7??!?!?!? When and how this happened, I don't know. I mean just yesterday he looked like this:

And now he's reading, writing in cursive, and singing in Latin to me. Oh, what a bittersweet thing it is to watch your children grow! My sweet boy has grown a lot in the last year. Whereas his selective hearing has not improved as much as I would have preferred, he has matured in many ways. He is a big helper. He helps clean bathrooms, take out trash, unload the dishwasher, dust, start laundry, and will ask if there is something he can do to help me. He is reading much easier now and comprehending as he reads instead of me having to remind him what was said in the last sentence. He's skip counting, adding, subtracting, and doing basic algebra. He lost his first tooth after we moved here, which was a pretty big deal to him as you can see a "Man Tooth" poking through. He's grown in height too, of course, and is within two inches of Nathanael. Thankfully, he has not outgrown his need for regular snuggling and is a super cuddly kid. Not sure how much longer that will last, but I'll take it while I can get it. :)

On his actual birthday (which was Friday, the 16th) we celebrated with a breakfast he requested.  We had some special guests at our house sharing this wonderful day with us. Some of our very good friends are missionaries overseas. They have been back in the States to renew their visas and have a baby. We saw them back in September when the mom was still pregnant. Due to a delay in getting their new visas, they are still in the US and decided to use some of their extra time to come introduce the baby to us. They came on Thursday night and stayed through Sunday around lunch time. We were so excited to meet our new little friend! And we were really excited to share another birthday with our good friends who have been at almost all our birthday parties since Luke turned 1. There are many years of memories with them. The weather was fabulous and we got a break from the frigidness we have been having and had a 63 degree day. So the kids got to play outside for the first time in a long time. We went out for gluten free pizza for dinner and had apple crisp for dessert. John and I gave him our gift, which he had requested for Christmas and had not received at that time. He was pretty happy with it.

To celebrate his big day, Micah had his first pool party! We held this on the 17th. As a perk of being YMCA staff, I get half off party packages. We have often gone to King's Dominion (amusement park) to celebrate Luke and Nathanael's birthdays, but those kinds of places are never open in January. So Micah was pretty excited for this opportunity. We invited all his friends from his CC class, as well as our new friends from church, and a couple of kids from our neighborhood. We had a great turnout. The kids splashed and played and slid down the waterslide for the first hour. I was in the pool with the kids, so there aren't pics from this part of the party. Then we changed and headed into the gym for the second hour. We had cake and ice cream (yonanas for the dairy sensitive kids) and then Micah opened his gifts. One perk to having a lot of people at your party is that you get a lot of gifts. He got some great stuff! After the gifts were opened, the kids played with the balls that are in the gym until it was time to leave. We went back home and had one of Micah's favorite meals (chili and cornbread) and then my kids and our friend's kids watched Planes:Fire and Rescue and had popcorn. Micah said it was a great birthday and he had a great time.

He asked for a pool cake

Having fun eating cake

Playing with the balls in the gym

Now marks that time of year when all my boys' ages line up for the next three months and I get to have fun shocking people with the closeness in their ages. They are now seven, eight, and nine (until the end of April when Luke turns 10.) The year that I got the most fun out of it was in 2009 when they were really little. People would ask if they were all mine and be shocked that they were and then ask how old they were. Answering with "One, two and three" was sure to draw comments all of kinds.

I will leave you with my little cutie on his very first birthday, getting tickles from his mama.

Brrrrrr!!

It's so stinkin' cold here!! I have never experienced a winter like this one before. This is my first experience with subzero temperatures. And we don't even get any snow for it! It's so cold that I can't even load my groceries into the van without having to stop and warm my hands several times in my pockets because they are so cold they hurt (if I forget my gloves, which I keep doing). The winds are crazy here, so when the wind blows, it feels like -20 outdoors. The wind pretty much blows all the time, so we are seeing a lot of that temp, unfortunately. This winter seems so long already. I'm used to three months of cold and then you move on to spring. But it's been three months already and we still have Jan-Mar to deal with.

Here was the temp when we left for CC on Tuesday morning (our homeschool group):

And here is the "feels like" for that:

My kids haven't been out to play in I don't know how long. They have had cabin fever since November. I'm very thankful for indoor toys that use up energy and for the indoor pool at the Y. I'm also thankful for our new bounce house. They got a new, bigger one for Christmas from their grandparents and John and I. We worked the coupon codes and got it for much less than retail price. It's got a 500 lb weight limit so unlike our old one (which I sold in less than 24 hrs on Craigslist for only $5 less than I paid for it) they can all get in this one together. It holds 6 kids and is about three times the size of our old one. It's fabulous!! I make them jump in it whenever they start getting too crazy. I also make them jump before we run errands. It's the perfect toy for kids who live in the frozen tundra. Yes, I know this is not the tundra and that there are much colder states, but it sure feels like the tundra to me! Still thinking about taking up hibernating.....

New Year's Eve

Since John and I had no one to party with this year, our kids got to stay up for their first New Year's Eve celebration. Previously, we would get together with our good friends and have a potluck dinner and let the kids play. At bedtime, we would put all the kids down at whichever house we were at and then the adults would play games and talk and eat dessert. We'd all ring in the New Year together and then people would pack up their kids and go home. My heart was longing for my friends all day. We had so much fun together and I always looked forward to our NYE get togethers. I miss them terribly. But this has been a year of change and it ended with learning to make a new tradition, which was fitting I guess. I must have a party on NYE, and so we decided to have a family one! We started out by having a nap in the afternoon so that we wouldn't have grumpy party goers. :) Then we had a special dinner followed by Yonana Sundaes.

Mama even let us have chocolate sauce and dye free sprinkles this time!

We played some Wii together and then the older four of us decided to play Monopoly. The big boys are always wanting to play, but it takes so long to play that it doesn't happen often. But this was a perfect night for a long game.

Monopoly Jr.

Daddy preparing to kick our booties

The little ones are not so captured by this game so they set up next to us and played Monopoly Jr. and Memory and bug the big people and dress up in costumes and bug the big people and run around like crazy and finally a little more bug the big people. :) 

When midnight came we almost missed the countdown! I was trying to keep the TV off for as long as possible as we are not too keen on our kids seeing the bands and hearing some of the dialogue of the hosts of the NYE show. When we turned it on there were just 8 seconds left and Micah missed it because he was downstairs putting a costume away. Those of us who were upstairs blew our noise makers, threw our confetti, and yelled "Happy New Year!" Then the kids got to have their first taste of sparkling apple cider. (Which they said was spicy, but they loved it.) We followed that with a little time of prayer for 2015 and then headed off to bed with dreams of a New Year's Day pancake brunch. It wasn't the same as the gatherings I was longing for, but it was a nice time as a family. I think we will have to play a little Minute to Win It next year.  ;)

Happy New Year!!!
(Don't worry, it's the non-alcoholic stuff)

Also, Happy Birthday to my Mom! She always told us that when she was born, the whole world threw a party. :)


May all you who read this have a blessed New Year! May you grow in your knowledge of God and in your faith! May the desires of your hearts be granted according to God's plans and purposes. I look forward to seeing what this year holds for us all!

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas. I wasn't sure how I would feel emotionally, with this being my first Christmas to not see my family. While I did miss them in different ways and at different times, we did have a wonderful time here. We were blessed with a visit from both of John's sisters, our brother in law, and our niece. We had gone out to Colorado to visit them in August and this time they came to see us for Christmas. It is nice to be closer to family that we have been really far away from previously and haven't been able to see as often. I am excited to be able to be a part of my niece's life as she grows up instead of just seeing photos!

Before they came out, the kids took part in their first Christmas musical! I was so excited to have them participate. The boys all had lines and Hannah was an angel in the nativity scene. They did a great job learning their lines and music. I could totally hear them singing out and was able to pick their voices out from among the other children. Just as I suspected he would, Nathanael was singing out harmonies instead of singing the melody line that was on the practice cd. He is definitely gifted musically and picking out harmonies on his own is the latest way he is displaying that. He's definitely better at it than his mama is.

Hannah the Angel with her friend Lily (who was Mary)

We didn't get to any special light displays this year, mostly because the ones I know about are at least 35 minutes away and also because it's so stinkin' cold here. We are preferring to stay indoors as much as possible. We did miss our previously annual trip to go see the National Christmas Tree in DC, however. I got to join the worship team for worship a couple times and also for the Christmas service they had. It was nice to be able to worship with them. I cannot commit to the team at this point in my life, but I am thankful to be able to participate occasionally.

The arrival of our CO family members was greatly anticipated. We were happy to have them with us for several days. We enjoyed talking, laughing, eating, watching White Christmas, singing, praying, and shooting with them (that last one was a dad's only event). We especially enjoyed playing with our niece, who is 8 months old. It was her first Christmas. She is an easy going, delightful little girl. We got to see her hit a few milestones while she was here, so that was special. She loved playing in our Jumperoo. On Christmas Eve, we all attended John's grandparent's church together. That night, my kids built a gingerbread nativity scene with Aunt Rachel and mommy. I was really pleased with how it turned out. It was pretty tasty too. Previously, we had bought kits and made trains or houses. But when we became dairy and gluten free that had to stop. This year, I found a recipe for making DF/GF gingerbread from scratch and it came out wonderfully. I ordered dye free, organic candy from that place I mentioned in my previous post and I let them decorate the nativity with that. It wasn't anything elegant looking, as I allowed them to do whatever they wanted to, but I was really happy with how it turned out and with the knowledge that we could resume this tradition in a way that won't bring harm to anyone's nervous or digestive system.

Aunt Rachel and the kids get to work decorating

The dads put it together for us

Voila! Like I said, I let them do whatever they wanted to. I still thought it was cute.

The back

My sister in laws helped me prepare Christmas dinner and there were 21 people here for dinner, including John's aunt, uncle, cousin, grandparents, and a family from our church that we are friends with. It was a tight fit, but we made it work and people seemed to enjoy themselves. I got lots of complements on dinner.

The kids with John's grandparents (their only remaining great grandparents).
Oh the mischief on my daughter's face!!

Lydia tried her hand at opening gifts.

And then did exactly what Luke did on his first Christmas...yummy paper!

She loved our Jumperoo

One thing that I really cherished this year, was the opportunity to minister in song with Ruth and Rachel at my church this past Sunday. Ruth played the piano and Rachel and I sang together. We had a sweet time of prayer together the night before that I also enjoyed. (Sorry, no video for you.) I also enjoyed times of sharing spiritual insight and things we are learning about God. It's so nice to be able to have times like. They all left Monday morning and I had to console the kids. They are always sad when it's time for goodbyes. But we will look forward to seeing them again sometime in 2015, Lord willing.