Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

We are grateful for each of our family and friends, near and far. May you all have a peaceful and joy filled Christmas season! Blessings to each of you!

Now for a little catch up: Anya is almost 4 months old and doing very well. She is a sweet little lady. She loves her brothers and enjoys watching what they are doing. Their rough love doesn't daunt her in the least, which is a good thing! She is still waking up to eat at night and Jeremiah and I are hoping her Christmas present will be to sleep 6 or 8 hours straight on a regular basis!

Hans is 2 and a full blown 2 year old at that, with all the tantrums and sweet smiles and wiles to go with it! He is forever getting into mischief. Last week he ate a lady bug. This past Sunday, when we were to light the Advent Candle at church, he made a bee-line for the guitars on stage and I had to pin him to the stage because I was holding Anya and Jeremiah was reading the scripture passage. Fortunately we have an understanding church and they laughed along with us as we dealt with children being children. Everyone was secure by candle lighting time and that went off uneventfully:)

Ethan is 4 1/2 and doing very well with preschool. He is learning a lot and will definitely be ready for kindergarten next fall. He loves coloring and making up stories and games. He really enjoys building things and imagining a world to go along with what he has made.

Jeremiah continues to work as IT director and thoroughly enjoys it. He can't wait for Monday to come:) This is a blessing to us all. He does house projects on the side, as he has time, but this fall has pretty well been focused on adjusting to having 3 children.

I am busy keeping up with the house and kids. I do a side project now and than, but for the most part I chase children and keep the house in order and rest when I get a chance:) I know this season won't last forever, so I am savoring the special moments along the way. I sometimes have to remind myself more than once a day that there are things to be cherished here:)

We will be spending Christmas Day at home and traveling to my parents house for the weekend. It will be good to spend time with them again. The children love them. Hans has been asking for Grandpa Phil almost daily for the last couple of weeks. Ethan hopes someone will have moved into our house while we are gone so we will just have to stay near Grandma Martin's house!!

Blessings to you all and Happy New Years!!

kids

Anya and Ethan playing dress up: Ethan put the handkerchief on Anya. She just loves the boys and wants to be right in the middle of the action when she is up.

Ethan and Hans getting ready to play in the snow

December

We are doing well. The tree is up and the house is decorated and we are bustling our way towards Christmas. The boys were super excited about putting up the tree. They were wound sooo tight. It was amazing! Last Saturday when we went out to cut our tree we drove past the bank it the thermometer said 25 !! yikes! We had fun though:) There was free hot chocolate:)

Anya is 3 months old now and keeping us all entertained. She has such special smiles. That is the latest. I will do a full update . . . sometime:)

looking for a tree

Anya bundled up and cozy

Our crew!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We will be going to visit my parents and we are all looking forward to it:) We are counting down the days:)

Otherwise life is going well, although it passes by rather quickly. The boys are growing and happy. Hans is a definite 2 year old with all the curiosity and will fullness that goes with it. Ethan is 4 1/2 and really enjoys preschool. He is learning a lot and is starting to sounds out words and letter sounds. Anya continues to be happy baby. She is thirteen weeks old now and starting to show interest in sitting up and standing and seeing what is going on around her.

Jeremiah and I are doing well. We are looking forward to the time when we will once again get a full nights sleep every night:) But we are blessed, Anya is healthy and only really wakes up once during the night. I am keeping myself busy at home, I really am not involved in anything outside the home right now. Jeremiah still really enjoys his job and involvements there and at church. He just recently started a choir to lead worship at the chapels at work. He is really enjoying that.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, especially those we will not get to see in our travels. We are grateful for all of our friends and family. Love you!

Ethan drinking hot chocolate

Hans peeking

Anya in her bumbo

hi

We are still around. I haven't posted in a while because we were all sick at once! Not fun!! But we have all recovered and life is good:) We certainly keep busy. Here are a few photos of what we are up to.

Hans in his new winter coat and snow pants.

Anya hanging out with us outside

Becky and Ethan baking cookies. Ethan scooped them all himself!

Anya at 11 1/2 weeks old. She is growing so much.

Anya is not so sure about this picture taking thing anymore:)

Hans is 2!

Hans turned 2 yesterday. We had a little party in the evening. It was fun. He thoroughly enjoyed his "happy birthday to you!" As he kept calling his cake.

Now I am working on recovering from a cold or something that has made me tired and given me a fever and headache and such. I hope to be able to thoroughly enjoy my "happy birthday to you!" tomorrow!!

The birthday man and his new tricycle!

Ethan had to try it out too.

of course you can always put two people on the trike!

Becky and Anya and the golden blur.

Jeremiah and Hans

The balloon cake

Hans very focused on what was happening to his cake

Opening presents

Wrestling! Our neighbor's daughter joined right into the fray.

the latest

Just a few photos to show you what we are up to and how everyone is doing.

Hans and Ethan playing in and raking all of the leaves that dumped off our black walnut tree in a couple of hours one morning.

Hans and I had coffee and a muffin the other morning while we were waiting to pick up Ethan from preschool. Hans makes a great model for the "moody" coffee shop style, doesn't he?:)

Anya Joy, who is 8 weeks old!! How time flies!

Oaks

A day at the races!

Yesterday we went to the Hunt Races. It was a cool, cloudy day to start. Kind of chilly for wandering around on a hillside. However, it cleared up and we had a great time. The boys got to go for pony rides and a wagon ride. We brought our picnic lunch along, which we ate in the van. In the afternoon we got to watch two races. It was lots of fun to watch the races. It does mama's heart proud to introduce my boys to the equestrian world:)

Ethan riding his pony

Hans hamming it up and smiling at everything. He wanted to try out ALL of the ponies and ALL of the helmets:)

Anya's thoughts on the day

Lunch in the van

A beautiful sight!

clearing the fences!!