Sunday, January 31, 2010

Happy 9th Birthday, Zachary!

The Birthday BoyTrying to get all the candles to stay lit at the same time. :)Zach invited his friends over for the afternoon. The three of them have earned the nickname "Three Musketeers".

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Lisa's Project

Lisa did one of her Christmas gifts/science projects today - a crystal tree!

The tree was there at the beginning, but all of the colorful crystals grew in a matter of a couple hours!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Oh, did I mention that we left Zachary out at Jared&Becca's?  No, we didn't forget him in the midst of all that was going on - it was quite intentional.  We haven't set the date nor time for his returning, but that's why you haven't seen him (in person or pictures) since we've gotten back.  I expect he'll have a wonderful time.  He's been looking forward to his turn to be out there by himself again for quite a while now.  He could hardly wait for us to leave!  :-)

Decoration Swap-Out & Lots of Laundry

The title of this post is the simplest description of Monday's activities from my perspective.

For Julie and Daddy, it was the day they needed to get back to work.  For the rest of us...well, our work was a bit different.  :-)

Mom woke us up with the instructions that we were to get unpacked and get the laundry started as soon as possible and that we were going to take down all of the Christmas decorations.  I'm sure that many of you can imagine the amount of laundry we might have had between simply the number of individuals and the fact that we were gone for five days.  Of course, it might as well have been six, 'cause Sunday's laundry got included as well.

As far as the decorations go, I think the switch from Christmas to only winter stuff is one of the hardest swaps to do.  How does one decide whether this decoration is specifically for the Christmas season or if it's fine to stay out all winter?  :-/  Some things are simple - like manger scenes and Christmas trees - but what about the rest?  Oh well, it's all done.

A couple of pictures - to please those who like them as often as possible.

Here's how one corner of the house started it's day.
Pretty, isn't it?!







It went to this...

And finished by removing all of this stuff and putting the table that's normally there back in its place.  This is in the corner between the stairs up and the stairs down, for those who are trying to picture it in their minds.

The tree also came down.

Mid-process


Noelle is very trusting, resting beneath the tree as we disassemble it.

Project at the Barta's

While Jared was off work for New Year's day and Saturday, he, Dad, and Mr. Barta worked on the downstairs bathroom at Becca and Jared's house.  They didn't finish it before we had to head home, but they made a lot of good progress.  It is seeing some extremely significant improvement.

The pictures are already seeing improvement.  They have already taken down the wallpaper that was in there. 

Here they are beginning to put up new "tiling" for the shower.







The shower looks oh so much better now!




While the men worked, others enjoy playing Settlers of Catan - a game we got for Christmas.





Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year's Celebrations

We all went over to the Sueppel's house (friends from Becca & Jared's church) for a party with several others from the church as well.  It was quite fun!  We played a bunch of games and simply enjoyed the food, fun, and fellowship as the new year rolled in.

I'm sorry, but we don't seem to have gotten any pictures whatsoever of this occasion.  :-(

Ice Skating on New Year's Eve

We enjoyed ice skating with a number of the folks from Becca's church in Iowa for a few hours.  Lots of fun!

I don't, however, recommend that you get too close to the ice.  There were a few of us who tried it (not on purpose, of course) and are still getting over the bumps and bruises it left upon us.  Thankfully nobody was severely injured.

Most of the pictures turned out really blurry, but this one is fairly clear (Sorry about the subject, folks.  That was really, totally not what made it the best picture!).  If you look closely, you can see HollyBeth and Zachary in the background.


Not a very clear picture, but a fun one.  Joe and Becca did some duo skating.


Chillin' out and chattin'