Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a great week of Christmas activities. Praise God that we were all healthy enough to enjoy the festivities. The girls still seem to be fighting congestion, but I'm thinking it might be teething related. And I have received word that we did manage to infect a couple of family members with strep (Seth's mom, my sister Amber and niece Alyssa).

We started last Saturday with Seth's immediate family. Here is a picture of my kids with Seth's sister's boys: Mark (in the yellow shirt) and John (spiderman shirt).

Christmas Eve was a sick day at home but we did manage to open the boys' pedal tractors in the evening. Ephraim got the Case IH tractor and Emmet got the John Deere tractor. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED!

Christmas Day was spent with my parents and we opened our stockings in the evening. The boys were most excited about their $1 Teradactyl dinosaur. Sometimes you just never know what's going to be the greatest toy to them.

Friday the 26th was the extended Van Zante family. Here are Eliza and Eden at the party.

Saturday was spent with my parents and my sister's family.

Sunday was the extended Ferguson family. (I'll post a picture later.)

Monday night we finally had a good time for the girls to unwrap their Christmas gift from Seth and I. Okay, they actually didn't even have to unwrap it but there was some assembly required.

We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas!

Strep throat for everyone

Monday night I felt a tickle in my throat and by Tuesday I thought I should probably go to the doctor because this sore throat felt different than others. Yes, I have strep throat and am now on amoxicillian. Tuesday night Seth felt his throat getting sore so he went straight to Urgent Care to get some medicine, too. By Wednesday morning (Christmas Eve Day), it appeared that the kids were getting it too. So, "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said: Antibiotics for everyone". I ventured to the pharmacy today and now all six of us are on antibiotics. It is kind of strange how strep throat has a lot of symptoms and we all have different symptoms. Anyway, we should all have enough medicine in us to be better by Thursday and beyond.

Away in a Manger

Our church's Christmas program was Sunday night. Ephraim and Emmet both had parts in the program. Ephraim was one of many shepherds and Emmet belonged to the flock of sheep. They each sang about three songs and did very well. As a parent, you just never know what your child might do on stage. I took some pictures of the kids during rehersal on Saturday and some during the program on Sunday night. Ephraim is in the middle in the brown robe with red belt.

Emmet is in the middle with the kahki pants and plaid shirt. They are singing "Away in a Manger" and doing the actions.

Ephraim and Emmet both have very large Sunday School classes and they both look forward to Sunday mornings and seeing their friends.

I also took a picture of Ephraim, Emmet, Eden and Eliza Sunday night after the program. (Eden has the pink shoes and Eliza has the purple shoes).

Saturday night hair cuts

Twas the week before Christmas and the boys desperately needed a hair cut. . . I have cut Seth's hair since we were married and knew that I would cut the boys' hair, too. Little did I know that Ephraim and Emmet would be deathly afraid of the scissors and clippers. Just in the last year we have finally gotten Ephraim to sit for hair cuts. Praise God! Getting the job done in the past has typically involved some sort of restraint and a long extension cord on the clippers. . . We have even cut his hair while he has slept. Yes, that's desperation. Well, Emmet was no better at hair cuts and we've had to restrain him also, while he kicks and screams that "It hurts me." And once Emmet gets too itchy, then he's done with the hair cut. After getting advice from a friend, she mentioned using a hair dryer at the same time as the clippers to remove the trimmings. Here's what actually happened.

It was Emmet's turn for a hair cut. We had the vacuum handy to suck up the trimmings from Ephraim and Seth. I started clipping Emmet's hair and Seth just started vacuuming the trimmings right from the clippers. It worked wonderfully and Emmet didn't mind! And he sat for the entire time. Another answer to prayer. Now, I should mention that the whole time the vacuum is humming and the clippers are buzzing--two toddler girls are standing at the bathroom door's baby gate wailing. I don't know if they were scared or just wanted to be a part of the action. Eden is a long ways from needing a hair cut, but Eliza could probably use one soon. I try not to think about how she will handle hair cuts.

Sugar Cookies

First, I think that you either grow up making sugar cookies a tradition or you don't. I didn't grow up making sugar cookies so this activity does not come naturally to me. The past few years I have made the cookies from scratch. This year, Betty Crocker did the hard work and I added the eggs and butter. We make a great team.

Here are a couple pictures of Ephraim and Emmet using the cookie cutters. I have to pick the play doh off of them because we are going to actually be using them as COOKIE cutters.

Ephraim

Emmet

We do end up having a great time decorating our cookies with friends from church. And it has become a yearly tradition which we enjoy with the couples in our Bible study/fellowship group. Here is a picture of Emmet and Ephraim coating pretzels. However, we did discover the kids were eating directly from the fork they were using for dipping the pretzels. We tried to take home the ones that our children dipped. The children all have a great time playing together. There were 14 kids there but there could have been as many as 21 amongst our ten couples.

Eliza sampling a decorated cookie. She will nibble and nibble.

Eden sampling a decorated cookie. I had to take the picture fast because she was ready to shove the whole thing in her mouth. It is interesting to see the different personalities between Eden and Eliza.

Stay tuned for Christmas program pictures!

Moving Day, part 1

We went ahead and moved a few things on Saturday. Mostly our basement and attic stuff. The boys wanted to stay and help us load boxes and Ephraim did a good job helping. Emmet on the other hand was cranky one minute, happy the next and then whining after that. I suppose his tumble down the attic stairs didn't help his attitude at all. (Yes, I feel terrible about it. He had his snow boots on and just missed a step. We all heard him fall but none of us saw it. We estimate that he fell from about halfway down).

Here is a picture of the boys in a box.

Of course, with this being a really busy day for us, it ended on a high note! Emmet went potty twice in the toilet. Yes, we get excited about the little things in life.

We had originally put the Christmas tree up at the new house, but we brought it back home and put it up again. Here's a picture of putting up the tree the 2nd time.

Ephraim with an ornament.

Emmet putting all his ornaments on one branch.

Eden (in the red) and Eliza were intrigued by the lights.

Stay tuned for pictures of cookie decorating!

Change in plans

Well, we were planning on moving to our "new" house this weekend but there has been a change in plans. After spending many days of cleaning over there, having the carpets cleaned, having the ductwork cleaned/deodorized/sanitized, etc, there was still a smell in the house. After several "discussions" with the cleaners & the trustees of the house it was decided that the smell was coming from all the dog urine in the carpet and carpet pad. We talked with the trustees and demanded that something be done. We got a call at 4pm today that they are carpet shopping. That's what we wanted to hear :) There has been some other issues (i.e. mice) with the house but I think we have them taken care of as well. Needless to say, there will not be an indoor pet or indoor mouse problem while we are in possession of the house.

For those of you who may not know why we are moving, here is a recap. This summer there was a farming opportunity advertised for a young couple who would like to get involved in farming and make it their life's work. We applied, were interviewed and eventually offered the opportunity. It is a farm south of Fremont that a gentleman with no heirs left in a trust for 100 years, to be reasonably leased to a young couple for a 5 year term. After your 5 year term, it is anticipated that you would have enough money saved to buy a small farmstead of your own. We are quite excited about this opportunity. The house is a little bigger than where we live now and we will be in the Fremont school district so Ephraim will be able to ride the bus.

So, that's the latest.