I am not one of those people who can wax eloquent on the past year - I wish I was - and then seamlessly transition to the coming year. I had a terrific year, this much I know. I have loved being able to stop and watch my children grow! I know you are probably going, WHAT!! Yup, it's true! This is the first year in 11 years with NO babies!! No feeding, no diapers, no crying, no "not sleeping"! While I look at the year in a slightly melancholy way, I am so thankful that the Lord has afforded me this time with my children. I have laughed with them, at them, cried with them, at them, for them! This last week of 2012 went by just like any other week - waaaaayyyyyy too fast!! We started out, of course, celebrating Christmas! We went to our morning service at church, which was so much fun! It was a great time. We did wake up and open presents. This was the first year the children were up before us! They woke up at 7:00! YES! We got to sleep in!! I was pretty tired, too, so it was difficult to wake me up! (You can skip this part if I wrote about Christmas last week - I should go check but I'm too lazy!) And it's usually difficult to wake Mr. Handsome up! (He loves his sleep and I don't blame him - as hard as he works he deserves a good night's rest!) So we came out to the living room and Mr. Handsome read the Christmas story from Luke, then the children opened their Christmas presents! They were so sweet, saying thank you with every present!! And they were all so thrilled with what God had blessed us with! Here are the photos from Mr. Handsome's new camera that he got from me (a few weeks early, by the way, so he could use it for the holidays.):
Mr. Handsome would NOT be happy I put a photo of him on here with his glasses! But this is such a cute photo I had to do it. This is with his new camera.
New camera: Kristinie the Great and Beatrice
This is in our bedroom IN THE DARK! Beaker could not sleep so we let her go to sleep in our bed. She was shoved out (not literally) when we went to bed. The little brown dog at the bottom is her best bud, Pat-Pat or Patpee. We got him at Epcot Center in Germany.
Here is Robert playing basketball. Can you guess which one is him? Yup, the one WITHOUT the uniform. A grumpy parent harassed his coach so she had to give them his uniform. He may have a uniform this Friday - we HOPE!! We picked a league that would be fun, teach Christian values, and the kids would learn the sport. I never expected parents to harass the coach!! She is a great coach and does a great job with the boys!
Here we are watching the game. I think Maddie took this. Mr. Photogenic in the lower corner is not with us though I think his son plays on Robert's team. My mother-in-law is the one to the far left and my father-in-law is behind Beatrice. My Dad is to the left of my father-in-law. And yes, that's me in the yellow shirt with Mr. Handsome! He looks much better with contacts (so he says: I think he's just as good looking with his glasses though I would never want him to walk very far with them - he has no depth perception. It's funny but not!)
Here we are celebrating Robert's and my mother-in-law's (who from henceforth shall be called Judy) birthday party. It's a Star Wars party!
Here is our Beatrice in our Christmas pageant. She is the one on the right. She got nervous up there and would not do any of her moves! But she sang fabulous! :) We are really proud of her. Maddie had a speaking part and did that great and Robert was a robber. His job was to run noisily down the aisle of the church and grab the presents in front of the platform. He did very well. That part suited him well. Lindsay didn't want to do anything so she was in the chorus, which she did excellent. In fact, she sings a bit like my Mom, and the director kept telling her not to sing so loud. Well, truth be told, she sings like ME too!!
Christmas day.
Robert made me a stool with Wisconsin stickers on it!! Isn't it great?!
Mr. Handsome got some new sunglasses for the beach!
I am inside where it's nice and warm but everyone enjoyed roasting marshmallows.
And from this picture, it's OBVIOUS Mommy is inside!! Actually, Daddy (Mr. Handsome) is the safety cop. Beatrice was helping me make cupcakes for a friend with my stand mixer and Mr. Handsome came over and said, "You better be careful. You could get your hair caught in that thing!! Yes he did say that. Not kidding. I just looked at him like he was crazy. Even as long as my hair is, I would have to work REALLY REALLY hard to get it stuck in the stand mixer.
Maddie got a singer knitting machine for Christmas from my Mom and Dad and made two socks. It doesn't matter that they don't match, apparently that is the trend now, and my family takes full credit for starting it because between the five children, they have 8 matching pairs of socks. And that's only because of those 8 matching pairs they started out with 50 pairs of socks. Here is where I will do a short product review of the singer knitting machine: it works great when it works; it stinks when it doesn't. And it only works for a short period - like 3 days!
Again the socks.
One at a time in case you missed them the first time.
And the other one.
here is the ONE project I completed last week. It is vinyl on canvas painted with acrylic paint. I am not sure how I like it. I mean, I like the wall hanging but it looks rather blah. It went in Maddie and Kristinie the Great's room. They love it. Well, Kristine can't read (unless someone isn't telling me something).
If you are faint of heart, these pictures are not for the squeamish. The Lord knew I needed to marry someone who hunted? Because I love to see dead things? No, because I really, really like venison. A lot. In fact, it has replaced the majority of our red meat. The fella dressed to the hilt on the left is our nephew. Robert is in the chair to the right. They are in a deer stand. And if you are wondering, YES! Robert is in fact sitting in a desk chair. My father-in-law (who shall be called Bobby from here on out) is Mr. Fix-it, Mr. Make-it, Mr. Build-it! And he is also Mr. Recycle-miser! He recycles anything and can find a use for it, as you can plainly see by the chair, and the lattice turned sideways behind Robert!
Here is Robert waiting patiently for a deer. Now really, scroll quickly past these photos coming up - there are three I think - if you don't want to see dead animals. These are really for my uncle. He hunts and he will be sooooo proud of Robert!
Robert got his first deer!! And he did it all by himself. Mr. Handsome loves to hunt but has trouble aiming due to vision problems he has. He is blind in one eye. Yes, completely, or nearly so. He wears a contact because I think it keeps his eye strong and healthy but he can't see out of it. (I think the eye doctor is just making him feel good!) He's actually pretty funny when he has to read with that one eye. He has the paper or book right over his eye to see it! He also has not hunted like he would like so is out of practice.
Here he is again with his cousin. Robert, not the deer!!! Robert is with his cousin!
Here is the yucky part but Mr. Handsome wanted to get in on the action too!
I guess I never did say we went to visit Mr. Handsome's parents last Thursday through today. We got home about 12:30pm today. We went to visit but we also were attending a wedding. It was a very extravagant affair. It was Taylor's cousin who was getting married. She was also preparing for an episode of Say Yes to the Dress so there were movie cameras and stuff there, too. We were way up in the nose bleed section, er, balcony. The reception was held at a really big refurbished barn. And as you can see from Kristinie the Great, it was a Happy New Year party.
Yes, this is moi! Funny story about the feather topped Happy new year tiara. Robert thought they were Indian headdresses so he wore his as often as he could!! He looked beyond hilarious. I wish we got a photo of him.
This is Kristinie the Great dancing to Chairman of the Board. I know someone out there knows who they are - and they were there live. They are very good and VERY VERY loud! We sat on the side where the wind section was (a total of three people) and I enjoyed being able to hear them. We left the big bash about 10:30 because our little flowers were fading. They begged Mr. Handsome to stay up till midnight so four of them made it. Beaker fell asleep in the van and was happy to go straight to bed. Bobby and Judy told us they were leaving at the same time as one of Judy's cousins and her husband and they accidentally got in Bobby and Judy's van. Judy was going to tell them but Bobby wanted to see what would happen. Poor Ellis!! He was stricken!! He told Clare, his wife, "We've got a problem!" Boy did they"!! Then Bobby told them they got in their van! We had a wonderful trip visiting them. this weekend but it's always great to be home. We went to church tonight and everyone in our family but Mr. Handsome and I fell asleep. Even our little friend Manny who sits with us when the children are in the service, fell asleep!! I am looking forward to what the Lord will do in 2012. We are starting the year with art classes in our schedule so we are excited about that. Four of the children are taking the classes - Beatrice's first official "class" outside of co-op. So I will just have Kristinie the Great to keep an eye on. Our Fridays will be busy but I know they will be fun. We also start band and co-op at the end of the month. I have given the children two weeks off from practicing their instruments so hopefully it won't be too much trouble getting them back on schedule. We are attempting some new things in our schedule too so it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. Of course, I will let you know! Have a great first week in 2012! Remember, don't sit on the shelve in 2012! (I have to make it rhyme.)
Judy's beloved reindeer and sleigh! Remember: Children are here to make us laugh, and boy, do my children make me laugh!! :) Robert was attempting to "ride" the sleigh. He was cracking Mr. Handsome and I up!!
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