Only in MN

Where else can you go from 42 degrees on Monday to 35 below windchill on Wednesday? I guess that's why we love MN!

Here are some pics from our Christmas celebration on the Farm!

Elianna loves to do crafts!

Here they are playing the game...I did end up joining the next time. Connor LOVED helping the adults play!

Trying to get a picture of everyone isn't so easy!

Thank you Tante Kate, Uncle Khachik and Alex! I love it! (Elianna also loves her Barbie and bed!)

Elianna helping the boys with crafts.



We had a great time on the farm! Right now we are wishing we were with our friends in Acapulco, or with Kirsten and 3 of their cousins (Heather, Ian and Nathaniel) in Panama!! It sure would be warmer :-)

I didn't bring my camera, but we had a fabulous time with friends at Chanhassen Dinner Theater on Friday night where we saw "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". The kids stayed at my parents' house that night. Then on Saturday we all went to the Newsboys concert...great time! We saw friends from church there..the Schmidts and also Pat Krommendyk and their oldest daughter, Ally.

Sunday was Cadet Sunday. We are all about ready to walk out the door when we remembered it was Cadet Sunday...so 1/2 of us had to go change clothes! Connor looked so cute in his uniform up there with all the boys. (Jon looked good too...)

Monday night Jon had a council meeting at church and last night I had to work a gymnastics meet at school, so we will enjoy our evening at home tonight! We got an extra week off from choir practice. I'm glad! I would not want to go back outside!

Only Wednesday?

Is it really only Wednesday?! I know this is a short week of school, but so much has been packed into this week already, it is hard to believe there are still 2 more days of school left.

We celebrated Christmas with the Van Hulzens (minus Kate and her family) this past weekend. The kids love to go to the farm! Although with the cold temps, they did not get to go out and play like they love to do there. We enjoyed the time we got to spend as family. Josh, Alecia, Kirsten, Dad, Jon and I played a couple of games of "Settlers of Catan." I didn't play the first game...it looked like it would be too much like Risk...but I did play 2 other games of it. You build settlements and roads and cities depending on what cards you get. It is probably too hard for me to explain it all...I did enjoy it. It took around 2 hours per game when we had 6 people playing!

I had called Mom when I was in Target one day and she asked if they had a certain drum set on clearance that she had seen before Christmas. Kirsten had smartly told Mom to check with Alecia before she bought them a drum set! Alecia did not want a drum set in her house (smart girl!!). Well, it was now on clearance for $25 (originally $70!) so Mom decided to keep it at her house. The kids all enjoyed making a joyful noise on the drums!

I wasn't sure if the kids and I would come back on Sunday with Jonathan or wait until Monday. After much debate and them switching their minds on what they wanted to do, we decided to come home on Sunday. After I saw the snow we got on Monday (not too much, but enough to make roads slick) I was glad we had driven home with Jon. Jon also woke up sick on Monday morning. I thought he was safe from the same bug the rest of us had since it was a week later. His response, "I just have a tougher immune system!" Whatever.

Elianna went to a pizza party at the gymnastics club. They got to do gymnastics for over an hour, then had pizza. She thought it was great! Connor and I then had a date for lunch. He decided he wanted to try Major's. After we were seated, the waitress told us that kids eat free on Monday--BONUS!! It was a good thing too! After we ate I decided to look in my purse and was going to get the credit card out so that we could pay right away...I had forgotten my wallet! I don't usually take it out of my purse, but do remember thinking that my purse was pretty light as I brought it out to the van. I usually don't have cash just hanging out in my purse (or even in my wallet for that matter) so I was thrilled when I remembered putting some cash in my pocket before we left. It would have been very embarrassing to not have been able to pay for lunch!

I don't think I'll get the pics off my camera tonight since we have Wednesday Night Alive at church (Cadets, Pioneer Club and Choir) but maybe tomorrow night!

Off to the Farm we go

We are heading to see Grandpa and Grandma Farm today! We are going to celebrate Christmas with Jon's side of the family...except for Kate. I'm sure there will be a phone call made to her, though! (How many times will Kirsten be called Kate this weekend? How many times will Connor be called Josh and Elianna, Kirsten?--and not just by Grandma! Jon starts calling Connor, Josh, when we are all together too!)

It is SOOOO cold outside! The kids had a field trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art today. I told them to wear their hats and gloves, I hope they listened! Pretty sure that their teachers will remind them too.

Not quite sure when the kids and I are going to come home. We might all drive home together on Sunday, but since the kids and I don't have school on Monday, we may stay until then. Jon can ride home with Kirsten on Sunday if that's the case. It all kind of depends on the weather and if it is super cold or snowing.

I'll probably have plenty of pics to post after this weekend! Have a great one!
heidi

Baby it's cold outside!

What a difference a few days can make! On Saturday while running errands I wasn't wearing a coat...today there's no way I'd go out without one! Yesterday it stayed below zero all day, so the kids didn't go out for recess. Today it was above the zero mark so they could!

I did get hit by the bug that the kids had. And I had it worse than them! Saturday morning I didn't feel the best, but did what I had to do in bringing Connor to his make up gymnastics lesson, buying a birthday present for Elianna to bring to a party, bringing her to the party and then meeting Jon for lunch (with Connor) so that he could bring Connor home and I could go grocery shopping. When I couldn't finish my mac and cheese at Noodles & co. I knew something was wrong ;-) I did the grocery shopping but then when I came home had Jon put the groceries away and I went up to bed. An hour later I decided I better call the girl from work that was hosting our department Christmas party and tell her we weren't going to be there. It has been a long time since I was that sick! I had major intestinal issues, was throwing up and had a fever, which the kids never had. I slept in the basement that night, so hopefully Jon wouldn't be exposed any more and I figured I'd have a restless night of sleep anyway.

I stayed home from church in the morning and was feeling MUCH better. We had small group Sunday night, so went for that and thought everything was fine. I was fine all day Monday too, but this morning I woke up and did not feel well again. I did make it to school--I thought I was going to have to burn another sick day, but thankfully there is medication to help what ails us!

Jon has not gotten the intestinal bug, but he has a pretty bad cold right now. So tonight is the perfect night for some potato soup (not the good homemade kind like we had at Aunt Adri's, but good Tastefully Simple stuff with other goodies added).

Tonight our favorite TV show returns! Yes, we are American Idol junkies! Jon really only likes the first few episodes when people make total fools of themselves. I love it all :-) The kids really like the first episodes too, but they'll watch the rest with me. Because we usually have something at church on Weds. nights I record the results shows and can watch them very quickly! Have to love a digital recorder!

This is one week I really wish we lived in FL! Their cold weather is much easier to handle than our cold!

Sick House!

I realize I have not posted in a while. We are going through a sick time at our house!

Elianna became sick on Tuesday morning. Thankfully, Jon had not left for work yet, so he was able to stay home with her. I stayed home with her on Weds. and she was able to go back to school around 10:00. She was able to keep Sprite and food down, her color was back and she was running around asking to go back to school! Because I am part time, I am not able to take a 1/2 day, so I had the rest of the day to myself :-)

Wednesday night we had church stuff. Connor and Jon had Cadets, Elianna had Pioneer Club and I had Pioneer Club music, then choir.

Thursday morning everyone went to school/work as scheduled. I had been at work about 30 minutes when I got a phone call from Connor's teacher that he now was sick. Thankfully, my mom was subbing a 1/2 day for someone else, so she could cover my afternoon classes. We combined one of the morning classes and the other class I am in a mainstream class.

Connor did not feel well all night. He missed his first gymnastics class (after sitting through a session watching Elianna, he decided he wanted to try it too!) but we have rescheduled that for Saturday.

He was not feeling well this morning either, so Jon stayed home again. We are fortunate to be able to have sick days and be able to stay home with our children! Connor is bummed that he won't be able to stay overnight at his friend, Gavin's house tonight, but we don't want anyone else to get sick!

Hopefully Jon and I stay healthy! I get to scrapbook tonight!! It's been about 2 months since I've worked in the kids' books!

Have a great weekend!

Back to work...bummer!

The inevitable has happened...back to work! We had a full 2 weeks off for the 1st time in a LONG time! But we used it to the utmost :-)

Our house is as clean as it ever has been! We had Jon's work party at our house on Saturday night and I spent most of the day Weds. and all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday cleaning. I did spend a lot of the 1st 2 days organizing, so not everything is stuffed into tubs and hidden in closets ;-) You can see the floor in the craft room!! Mom came over on Saturday to help do the deep cleaning...Thank you!

The party went well! The food from Buca's was delicious, the Wii provided some of the entertainment and the dart board was also utilized. It has been a long time since I threw darts...my arm started to hurt!

Since our house was so clean and we had a lot of leftover pizza we invited the Mellemas over for supper after the evening service. You know they are good friends when you can invite them over for leftovers!

And a time check on what time we left the house today...7:24!!! The kids were so excited they were going to be able to wait in the hall! (If you get to school before 7:45 you wait in the main hallway until the teachers get out of their morning devotions...so extra social time :-))

Happy Monday!

A new blog link

I've just added another blog under Family and Friends blog. Amy Thompson attended our church while she was going to graduate school here and for a year or so after she graduated. She is now working with the CRWRC in Kenya. Kenya just had elections and there is a lot of unrest throughout the country. She has posted more info on her blog. Please keep her and all of our missionaries around the world in your prayers. (And cousins that are teaching/working around the world too!)

Happy New Year!

We made it home...and it was 70 degrees cooler than when we left FL!! Mark came to pick us up at the airport and bring us home. Thank you!

Jon had to go back to work today, so while he's slaving away the kids and I are enjoying a day at home. They are having fun right now playing with the Wii while I downloaded our pics from FL and update the blog. They go back to school tomorrow and I don't :-) It will be big time cleaning days for me though, we have Jon's work party here on Saturday night.

Here's my first try at adding a slideshow for you! Enjoy a few of our Florida pics!



Yea!! It worked!! A couple of hints I figured out after playing with it a little bit: You can see the labels for the pics if you click on the little word bubble on the bottom left. If you click on the picasa icon on the bottom right, it opens it full screen. Click on slideshow after it opens, and you'll see the pics bigger than life :-) (If you don't see those icons, click on the slideshow)