Santa Visit

Gotta love those long lines waiting to see Santa at the mall... Last night we waited in line for about 30 minutes to see Santa. In years past we've taken our camera and made our own pictures. Well, the mall now asks that you do NOT make your own pictures so that they can 'provide this service' in years to come... I'm not about to pay $20 for 2 5x7 pictures of Santa! Therefore, no picture with this Santa...

However, Santa did visit our neighborhood Christmas party. Yeah! Therefore, we have a picture of the kids with Santa this year. How many more years are we going to have to wait in line to see Santa?!

Snow Day

Today was the first real snow day of the year. We got about 5.5 inches of snow. I don't think the kids could have been anymore excited. Libby came running in my room this morning to tell me it had snowed. "Can we go play in it now?" That was 7 am this morning. I told her not right at this minute. So she hurried to her room and quickly got dressed and did her room chores so she could go out and play in the snow. Maybe if it snowed everday she'd get ready that quickly every day!

The kids' favorite thing to do was to run alongside the snowblower so that the snow would blow on them! Thank goodness for our 'new' snowblower (it's a hand-me-down). It's wonderful. I swear it only snows when Chad is out-of-town; and last year I had to shovel it. The snowblower was much better!

Libby's other favorite thing to do is eat the snow! She's done that since the first time she could walk in the snow. Bon appetit!

David

My uncle David (my mom's brother) passed away tonight. My heart is heavy for the wife and six kids he left behind. He was only 57 years old and only found out he had cancer a month ago. It was quick, for which we can be thankful, he didn't suffer long.

He is in heaven with his Savior and he is seeing his parents again... that must be pretty cool. I'm sure now that he's crossed to the other side he would never even want to come back to this screwed up world.

Knowing he's in a better place is a wonderful faith to have, but it doesn't make those left behind miss him any less. Our prayers are with the Farnham family tonight.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Michigan with Chad's family. The whole family was there, plus his grandparents, and aunt and uncle, some cousins and some family friends. It was a good crowd and a feast of food! It was fun chaos. We spent the weekend eating, eating some more, and eating some more, visiting with family, and playing cards. The kids really enjoy there cousins.

Libby and Kyler love each other! They are two peas in a pod!

- Late night with Mary Poppins!
- Great Grandma and Grandpa














- Great Grandma and Chad battling for the checker championship title...
- All the grandkids with Great Grandma and Grandpa.
- Trying to get a picture of the grandchildren. That was fun!

Hawaii

Chad and I just returned from a fun trip in Hawaii. Chad had business on Maui and I got to tag along! We spent a few days on Maui where did some snorkeling and drove the road to Hana. The picture to the left was taken at Blue Pool along the Road to Hana. It was a beautiful waterfall alongside the ocean shoreline. We attended a luau on Friday night where we ate some Hawaiin food and watched some Polynesain dancing.

We spent the rest of the week on Oahu. We hiked up into the mountains and saw a great view of Honolulu from up high. Chad's favorite part of the trip was playing in the waves on The North Shore where the waves were 10-15 feet high. There we also jumped off of a big rock that was a little scary.


We also visited Pearl Harbor where we toured the USS Bowfin (a submarine) and the USS Missouri (a battleship). We also saw the USS Arizona memorial. I learned a little about WWII while we were there! Chad didn't want to visit Pearl Harbor but I dragged him there. When we left he said he was glad we went!

We had a good time, but were ready to see the kids when we got home.

Happy Halloween

The kids enjoyed trick-or-treating yesterday. They went as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. They decided right after Halloween last year that that's what they wanted to be this year. I'm surprised they stuck with it!

Aren't they cute?

Here's the whole gang of friends...

Who Do I Call?

Today I dialed the same number four different times, only to get that annoying tone and then the message, "I'm sorry, you must dial a 1 before this number...". Can you guess who I may have been calling? No, it was not my long distance sister or in-laws, it was my good friend four houses down the street. Yes, here in wonderful Chicagoland Naperville we now have to dial like we are dialing long distance to call our next door neighbor!

Supposedly, we are running out of telephone numbers (thanks to cell phones, I guess) so there is now a new area code that is overlaying our existing area code. Great! Whoever made this wonderful decision, could we have just created new area codes again? We did just that several years ago - and I was still able to dial a 7 digit telephone number when calling my next door neighbor. Maybe I should just make better use of speed dial...

Who do I call to complain about this one?!!

Princess Libby is 4

Princess Libby's two day birthday celebration has come and gone. She really enjoyed being a princess for those two days!

We started her birthday, Oct. 3, off with a trip to Krispy Kreme for breakfast. After breakfast we returned home for a visit with Nana and Papa where Libby got to open her first birthday present of the day - dress-up clothes. She tried them all on and modeled them for us. She even "swam" on the kitchen flour for us in her mermaid dress!

When Daddy came home from work we immediately opened presents because she had been asking all day when she could open the rest of her presents. I had been saying all day that she could open them when Daddy got home. We had cupcakes and sang 'Happy Birthday'. Then we were off to AWANA where the Cubbies sang 'Happy Birthday' to her again.

On Thursday we had her birthday party. Four girls came to her party dressed in princess dresses. It was very cute! We played a few games, decorated a foam tiara, ate dinner, ate cake and ice cream, and busted a pinata ( and, of course, opened presents). Libby enjoyed it all to the fullest. As Disney says, it was a "dream come true"...

Austin enjoyed being with all the princesses!

The Man with the Yellow Hat

This week is Literacy Week at school. On Tuesday the kids were supposed to dress-up as their favorite book character. Austin decided at school the day before that he wanted to be Curious George. How in the world am I going to come up with something that looks like Curious George in one evening? (You gotta love these things - homework for the parents!) These kinds of things stress me out - but I better get used to it, I guess, because it's part of the school culture... Anyway, one of my friends suggested being the Man with the Yellow Hat. That was a little easier costume. We borrowed a hat from a friend and wrapped it with one of Austin's yellow pillow cases. Austin wore a yellow t-shirt with one of Chad's yellow ties. And Austin carried a monkey that we also borrowed from a friend. He looked cute, don't you think?

Ballerina Libby

Monday Libby attended her first ballet class, and boy was she excited! The Park District has ballet classes for several ages and Libby's friend, Anna, invited Libby to her class on Friend Day. Libby didn't turn four soon enough to be enrolled in the class. However, I believe I will enroll her for the winter session because she loved it! Although, I don't know which she loved more, the ballet or just dressing up in the ballerina outfit! :)

Thankfully, we had the ballerina outfit amongst all her dress-up clothes that we've accumulated from garage sales and hand-me-downs from friends...

She's already asked me when she can go to ballet again. (Austin even asked me yesterday if boys can take ballet - wouldn't Chad love that).

Stargazing

Tonight I took the kids (and my mom) to Family Night at the local planetarium. The topic was the Earth's Moon. It was pretty cool. We learned about the moon phases, the dark spots on the moon, and we got to take off and land on the moon with Neil Armstrong! The planetaruim director also simulated the rise and fall of the sun and moon and pointed out some constellations. After the program was finished, some volunteers from the Naperville Astronomical Association set-up their telescopes. We were able to view the moon, Jupiter, the Hercules cluster of stars, and one other star I don't remember the name of!

- We were able to view the craters on the moon.

- We saw Jupiter's rings and two of its 30 moons.

- The Hercules cluster of stars is a cluster of half a million stars - pretty cool

Austin REALLY enjoyed it. He's been very interested in the solar system for a while. Actually, my mom and I really enjoyed it too. Seeing Jupiter was really cool! Even Libby enjoyed it. She liked the bear constellation we saw in the planetarium the best. They actually draw the picture of the bear so you can see it clearly.

If you have kids intrested in space, I would highly recommend a trip to the planetarium.

Sparkie

Here is the picture you have all been waiting for... drum roll, please... Presenting Austin in his Sparks vest!!!



In the picture, Austin is holding his official Sparks membership card. He's pretty proud... He finished his Rank section of his book tonight and will receive his Rank patch next week.

Here's a cute one of both kids in their vests:

Summer is Over For Sure

Even though I felt like summer was over when Austin started school in August, it wasn't really over until this past weekend. For the last 3 summers I've marked the end of summer when all the water toys come out of the water at the cottage. This past weekend marked that end. Chad and my dad worked hard to pull out the boat, dock, and boat lift. It's a lot of work for them. My mom and I, and the kids, cheer from the sidelines. :) The boat lift is the hardest of the jobs. It weighs a lot and has spent the summer sinking in a few feet of muck! The wave runner and floating dock are still in the water, but they don't require much effort to pull out (at least that's what Chad says - I wouldn't know :) ).

Even though summer has passed we will still make a few other trips to the cottage for apple picking and fall festivals. Sometimes we even do some wine tasting. There are lots of vineyards in the areas surrounding the cottage. It's really a pretty area.

Cubbie

Austin and Libby started the AWANA season last week. Last night they both passed their entrance booklets - Austin for Sparks and Libby for Cubbies. We spent all week last week listening to the Spark song which we could download from the AWANA website. I find myself singing it in my head daily! Help! However, it was very helpful in helping Austin learn it, which was one of the things he had to do to pass the entrance booklet; along with learning the Sparks motto ("My friend for Christ"), the Spark key verse - John 3:16, The Pledge of Allegiance, and the pledge to the AWANA flag. (Wow, maybe I should try to pass the booklet myself!)

Libby had to learn the Cubbie motto ("Jesus Loves Me"), the Cubbie key verse - 1 John 4:10 (you'll have to ask her to say it to you sometime, she's cute), Romans 3:23, and Romans 5:8. I was very impressed at how well they both learned their verses.

Libby received her Cubbie vest last night, also. I almost cried when I picked her up and she was wearing her vest. Oh, my little girl, my baby is growing up... I cannot believe she is old enough to be in AWANA. For some reason I wasn't so sentimental when Austin became a Cubbie.

Austin will receive his Sparks vest next week. Stay tuned for a picture of Austin in his vest!

Bee Sting

Yesterday Libby received the first bee sting of her life. She made it much longer in her life without one than did Austin. Austin was only about 14 months old with his first bee sting, Libby is a few weeks shy of her 4th birthday. We were having a picnic at the park with some friends before Austin went to school. The kids were playing in the sandbox while the mom's (and Chad) were finishing our lunches, when Libby let out a screaming cry - you know, that cry that you know for certain your child is hurt... She screamed, "I hurt my knee!". I suspected it was a bee sting and I took the ice pack our of our lunch box and put it on her knee and she immediately stopped crying. She was quite the big girl about it. Of course, she had to keep the ice pack on her knee even for her nap that afternoon!

Chad was present for part of the picnic. He just returned from a nine day trip to Europe and met us at the park. Boy are we (especially me) glad he is home!

Single Moms

Today is my last day as a temporary single mom. I cannot give the single moms of the world enough credit. It's exausting... and I don't even have to work outside of the home! For you single moms out there... I hope you have other people around to help support you and your children. Thankfully, I have friends and family that took me in for my short-term singlemomhood. :) My mom cooked us dinner and kept me company and watched my kids a few times, while some friends had us over for a meal or two. That reallly made the week much more bearable. Thanks, Mom!

I have to say my fuse is much shorter than before Chad left 8 days ago. Praise the Lord he will be home tomorrow afternoon. We have missed him tremendously. Welcome home, Daddy!

Labor Day Weekend

Fun with Grandma & Grandpa

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Austin and Libby spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa Martinson. (Chad and I had a free day, woo-hoo!) They spent the day at Deer Forest Amusement Park in Coloma, Michigan. Grandma forgot her camera so she used ours - see some of the pictures below...

They enjoyed riding rides, feeding the animals, riding ponies, and eating ice cream.


Austin wouldn't feed the animals until the very end of the day. Once he tried it he liked it. The first picture show him not wanting to feed the deer. The second pictures shows him finally trying it.










Libby enjoying the ferris wheel...












Do you think they enjoyed their ice cream?!

Austin's 1st Day of Kindergarten

I'm a little late at posting this, but "better late than never"! Austin's first day of school was August 27th. He went for 1/2 hour with mom tagging along with him!

Tuesday, the 28th was his first 'full' day of kindergarten all by himself. He walked in, turned and waved to me with a big smile just like he had been doing it forever. I wish I could say I walked away smiling, but I'll have to admit I had tears in my eyes. They had to be quickly wiped away so I could console my bawling 3 year old daughter, Libby. She cried all the way home. She did the same the very next day. She told me she was sad because she was going to miss Austin. So sweet.

This is Austin with his teacher, Miss Erickson. The first thing Austin had to say about his teacher was, "Mommy, she's pretty"!

So far he LOVES school. He can't wait each day until it's time to go (he has afternoon kindergarten which starts at 12:50 PM.

Oh my little boy has grown up too fast. I'm so thankful that kindergarten is only 2 hours and 45 minutes a day. I don't want to even think about next year when he will go a full day. It makes me want to cry.