New Year’s Eve Thankfulness 2009

Last year we started a new tradition with our New Year’s Eve devotion.  The kids each will tell us what they are most thankful for in the previous year.

This year it seems we are all in the same mindset:

Katie: For spending time together as a family

Grace: For spending time together as a family

Jack: My family

Mary: Rachel (although she may have been “fed” this a little by a big sister)

Amy: For a happy, healthy family and for our wonderful time together

Bryan: For our family and our new “addition” – Rachel

The past two weeks where we have pretty much been home just “being” a family have been so incredibly wonderful.  Hopefully we can hold on to at least some of that feeling as we head back into the busyness of school and activities. 

We are humbled and truly grateful for all of God’s blessings on our family this year.

May God bless you and your loved ones in 2010 in all you need!  Here’s to a happy, healthy, peaceful 2010!

And then there was football…

Purdue didn’t have the best of seasons, but the kids had fun going down to a game with Daddy.

It was VERY warm, but they made it to halftime at least!

Then they headed out to Chik-Fil-A :)!

The thing I heard the most about though?

The windmills!

Mount Baldy

I remember going as a child and as a teenager.  Climbing to the top and jumping down.  In many ways, it was just as I remember, but so much more fun experiencing it through the eyes of my children.

We made a trip to the Dunes, the Indiana version of a beach.  It is so pretty there, so close to home and sad to say, this is the first time we have made it there as a family.  So it was all of the kids’ first experience with Lake Michigan up close.  We took the path to the top from the parking lot, but on the way back, we decided to take the “easy” way :)!  It was so beautiful, so magnificent and so much a reminder of God’s greatness.

Katie’s birthday (yes, from last March)

Katie wanted to know if there was a blog post about her birthday.  Oh, yes, of course there is, Sweetie.  Um, well, maybe there isn’t.  So now there will be!

Katie had her first friend party this year.  She wanted a dancing party at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  She invited her closest friends from school and the library and her godmom and cousin and had a great time making dancing sticks and dancing in Grandma and Grandpa’s family room.  In the evening, she had a wonderful family party with a few family friends.  We don’t have many pictures because Daddy and Grandpa were called into work for the weekend.  We definitely missed them.  The flu bug hit Mary a couple days later (after attacking Auntie Shirley and Grandma Johnsen and Melanie and some others), so Katie’s actual birthday was very quiet at home.   We are very blessed to have gotten healthy quickly though, and Katie says her birthday was still “the best ever.”  (at least until next year!)

I think I am caught up with the happenings of 2009 now, with the exception of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  Finally.  We have had a wonderful year, with the addition of Rachel and the way the children love her definitely being the icing on the cake.  We are so blessed and are enjoying our house that is bursting with love right now! 

Halloween 2009

We did carve pumpkins this year.  It was a beautiful day to sit in the yard and not make a mess in the house :)!

Mary’s first experience with pumpkin “guts.”

We had great Halloween costumes planned.  Jack was going to be Luke Skywalker.  Mary was going to be Yoda.  Because I was scheduled to work and Bryan was taking the kids trick-or-treating, he decided he needed a costume too.  He was going to be Obiwan.  Grace was going to be a veterinarian (her career choice at the moment), and Kathryn was going to be a princess (which one changed on a daily basis).

Plans changed when Jack woke up dizzy with a terrible headache the Wednesday before Halloween.  A trip to the doctor confirmed our suspicions – Jack had H1N1, better known as “swine flu.”  By Saturday (Halloween), all of the kids and Bryan and I had it.  Luckily, Bryan and I had the vaccine earlier enough that we didn’t get as sick.  So, after a few days of having an upstairs sick ward and downstairs “well” ward, we were on the mend but going nowhere for Halloween. 

For Mary’s birthday, we decided to make it into a costume party.

 

 

Everyone dressed up in their costumes, went trick-or-treating in the house and played the mummy game with toilet paper.  Not bad for an impromptu party!  It was so much fun!  Mary loved her pizza and ice cream cake (she LOVES ice cream – cake not so much :)).

We love our beautiful, smart 2-year old!

Daisies, Learning about France and a big announcement…

Grace had a special group project assigned as part of a badge requirement for Daisies.  She needed to learn and give a presentation on the background of France.

 

She did a nice job on her poster and her presentation.

It was especially exciting because just a couple weeks earlier, Sara had come home for a surprise visit (remember, I said that an adventure almost always follows with those…)…

Sara came home the weekend of Mary’s birthday to announce that she and Olivier are getting married – in FRANCE!  They are getting married September 25th in France at Olivier’s dad’s villa.  The pictures on Grace’s presentation are pictures Sara took while visiting there.  And yes, the plan is that we are ALL going to go!!

First day of school

Jack is ready for 3rd grade!  He is in 3B with Mrs. Hurey and Mrs. Hein this year.

Grace is so excited to start 1st grade!  She is in 1B with Mrs. Kabella and Mrs. L (and MANY of her friends).  Mary wasn’t so happy that summer was ending (Mommy agreed with Mary).

KatHRYN started Pre-K this year (NOT nursery school).  And she informed us that she is KATHRYN not Katie.  (of course, we pretty much always forget and still call her Katie.  Luckily, she does still answer to Katie!)

I’m not getting older – why do they insist on getting bigger?!?   

Park fun

Mary loves the bumpy slide at the park.  She played on this slide almost exclusively whenever we went to the park.

Katie and Mary had a lot of time to bond while Jack and Grace were at basketball camp on the other side of the park.

Once camp was over, Jack and Grace decided to teach some of their new moves to Mary and Katie.

Going to play basketball at the park became a regular activity.  Good thing the park is so close with our driveway too steep for our own hoop!

Mommy takes them to the park nearly every day, but the best times are when Daddy can join us!

Mary loves to hold onto Goliath when we walk.  Good thing he likes going for walks so much that he doesn’t try to walk any faster than she is going!

Grace and Katie are at a stage that they love to dress alike.  I really don’t want that to change!  I love how close they are.

      

Jack is an amazing big brother to all these sisters!

Reading and more

Katie and Grace decided to see how tall they could make their Lego tower.  The ceiling was the limit!

  Mary loves to read to us.

Jack and Grace read the most books for their respective grade levels at school during the summer.

Ronald McDonald came to the closing of the summer reading program at the library.