Just Watch Out For The Yellow Snow!

We've been getting a lot of snow lately. Last week we did have a sunny day and I took Henry and Roo outside to play around in it. We filled up some spray bottles with colored water and went around spraying the snow.

Only one bottle worked well so once it ran out we filled it with the green water from the other bottle. I think we may need to get some different bottles for next time.

Henry decided he had to dig his car out of the snow. Then he saw a corner of his gas tank sticking out and he had to dig that out too.

Lots of snow on the swings and slide. They had fun clearing the snow off the slide by sliding down it repeatedly.

And a Happy New Year...

A picture of Roo on her Christmas party day at school. Yes, she is wearing sparkly red shoes.

On Henry's Christmas party, his class sang songs and dressed as characters from the nativity scene. He was a king. Unfortunately, Gavin and I were really sick that day so Mark took Henry to school and took a lot of pictures for me.

Henry is the cutie in red. Red is his favorite color.

Why does he always give me funny faces in pictures?!

Finally! A smile!

After the performance the class had a birthday party for Jesus. I think they even sang "Happy Birthday" for him. That's Henry in the moose sweater.

This year for Christmas we were all alone. Last year my dad came up Christmas Eve and was here for present openings and breakfast. This year he decided to come up on Christmas Day with my brother Peter and his wife. I was under the impression they were all going to stay the night here in order to have some time with us. Peter and Ashley drove up the 23rd and stayed at my brother Matt's house. They came here and brought my dad on Christmas day, but they did not stay the night. I was upset because I felt like we were just an after thought and when I voiced my opinion I got a not very nice text message about being uncaring. After they left our house they went back to my brother's and stayed the night again. Hmmm...yeah.

I was trying to make the best of our holiday with my family. I went to my mom's house and got the Christmas dishes that we used to use. I set my little table with them and I was very pleased and a bit emotional when I was done. Henry made a cute center piece at school and that was in the center of our table.

I set a small table for Henry and Irene to eat at next to the big table. I made sure they had a special table cloth and they had a candle (not lit!) and salt and pepper shakers in the shape of ornaments.

The picture above is of our small tree and the gifts. At first I wasn't going to put a tree. With all the heartache and stress of the last four months I wasn't in the mood. It finally dawned on me that I needed to make this holiday special for my kids so we got a small tree at Wal-mart for a ridiculously low price. We put special ornaments on it and beneath it were holiday items that I got from my mom's.

Christmas morning the kids were so sweet. They were thrilled that Santa had come and were amazed at the amount of gifts. I was amazed too since we were only going to be able to get the each two gifts and one small stocking stuffer. However, right before Thanksgiving, Mrs.Wagner, the children's teacher at school told Mark that her church had decided we were going to be one of their families. Her husband is a pastor at a church in a small town about 20 minutes from our town. Each year the "adopt" several families in the area and try to give them their Christmas wishes. I was speechless. Talk about a loving, kind, generous gesture! I felt bad too though. I felt like there had to be a family that needed it more than we did. I did fill out the sheet though. I filled out two gifts per child plus a pair of pajamas and one gift for them to share. I did not put anything down for Mark or me.

The Monday before Christmas we were given the gifts. Holy cow! There were so many! I was overwhelmed my the generousness of the people of this church. There were even gift cards for us to local grocery stores, gas stations, Kmart. Extremely useful and needed!

Irene holding a prettily wrapped gift. I believe it was jammies :)

Henry getting ready to open a gift.

Gavin checking out his gift. It was a vacuum. He is vacuum obsessed!

Henry and Irene opening one of their joint gifts. They got a Crayola color dome and the glow in the dark color sheet thingy. Those have been fun gifts and we've been having a blast using them!

Daddy helping Gavin open his Little People farm.

More gifts!

Gavin with the vacuum. He loves it! He loves the real vacuum too and tries to use it :-)

It was a beautiful and fun morning. Mark went out and got us donuts for breakfast. Since my dad and brother and sis-in-law were coming up and we were planning a meal with them we didn't want a large breakfast.

Peter, Ashley, and my dad got here around 11am. They brought gifts and brought gifts from my brother Matt too. More opening of gifts and I put Pete to work putting all the toys together. Usually my mom put together the toys but Peter did an excellent job!

In the above picture the gingerbread house is actually made from plastic canvas. My mom made it many moons ago and I brought it over to use as part of our decorations.

Roo playing with the dollhouse she got from Uncle Matt and Aunt Kaye. After putting together toys and playing we had our meal. My dad brought up a spiral cut ham which was delicious. We also had potatoes delight, cranberries, turkey polish sausage (Henry loved it!), corn, and crescent rolls. It was a great meal and a very good visit.

Mark's parents were going to come up the next day but then they asked us to come down. They sent us money for gas and they got us a hotel room to stay in. They wanted Henry and Irene to stay the week at their house so I packed up clothes for them. We drove down and all three kids stayed the night with grandma and grandpa while Mark and I stayed at the hotel alone! We had a nice night and the next day Mark had another appointment at a Lenscrafters in Grand Rapids. The glasses he got in October needed to be adjusted. His eyesight has come back almost 100% since being on diabetes medication. He just needs them for reading. Luckily, the glasses were adjusted for free!

Henry with his cousin Shelby in the basement family room at grandma's and grandpa's.

Opening the mountain of gifts that grandma and grandpa got them.

Pillow Pets! Irene is in love with Pillow Pets!

Grandma Pat holding Gavin while Roo opens another gift. Henry and Irene stayed the week with their grandparents and Mark, Gavin and I came home.

It was a beautiful holiday. I missed my mom but we had some good laughs talking about Christmases past. The kids had a wonderful time which was the most important thing. Through some generous, kind people we were able to have an abundant Christmas. We received a lot of cards and gifts from some super friends. We were, and are, truly blessed!

Santa Train 2010

Santa Train 2010! In the above picture, Mark is standing with Henry and Irene. You can hardly see them! Right now we are getting a ton of snow. It started about 45 minutes before the train made it into town. The weather channel was calling for a blizzard warning from 7pm tonight until 7 Monday. The crowd this year was smaller but I'm sure the snow is what kept a lot of people away. We went with the kids bundled in snow pants and coats. Poor Gavin could not move in all his gear!

The snow was very wet and kept covering the lens of the camera, hence the crazy marks on the pictures. You can barely make out the Marquette name on the train. This company is one of the last train companies that is still majority held by the workers. Each year they do the Santa train. It starts off around 9am and makes it way up from the Grand Rapids area and arrives in our town around 7:45pm. They stop at quite a few towns along the way.

In the car after the engine is a Christmas tree. This picture didn't come out very well because of the snow.

Santa makes sure to talk to each child. Henry asked for a remote controlled monster truck. Irene asked for a flashlight. Santa said he'd try. Mommy would like to get the remote controlled monster truck but doesn't have the money to spend that much on one gift. It is one item he asks for frequently. Santa and I are trying to find an alternative.

Mrs. Claus posed for a picture too. Unfortunately, only Henry's head is in the picture. I didn't take these...Mark did ;-)

In this picture the shiny thing is the flash of the camera shining off a reflector on the caboose. The conductor was reading off names of three families that were being given free Christmas trees. Unfortunately, none of the families were there. They offered them up to anyone that was in need of a tree in the crowd.

The caboose and its shiny reflectors. The train is decorated beautifully.

Poor Gavin! He is wearing several layers and cannot move. Kinda like the kid in The Christmas Story. By the time we left the top of the stroller was covered in snow.

Henry and Irene got free hot chocolate and a chocolate chip cookie. An insurance agency is right by the tracks and they provide free beverages and cookies.

Elves handed out candy canes. We ended up with six. I think they had planned on having a larger crowd. Even Mark and I got one.

The caboose, an elf, snow, and cold people! As for me, I am going to cover up and try to warm up. I keep getting text messages from the weather channel to inform me of the blizzard warning.

I have lots of knitting to catch up on tomorrow. You can check out my latest finished projects at my knitting blog. Hardly anyone ever takes a look, so I think you should!! Click HERE!!!

Victorian Sleighbell Weekend

Gavin and me at the parade.

This weekend, December 3, 4 & 5, was the Victorian Sleighbell Weekend in our town. Our town started off as a huge logging town with a happy little Victorian history. We have many activities through out the weekend including a Victorian parade. Along the sidewalks of downtown people in Victorian dress roast chestnuts and give out warmed cider. Each entry into the parade is pulled by horses or manpower. Pere Marquette and his Indian guide, Victorian ladies and gentlemen. Children and adults, from our kids' school, dressed as angels and shepards. The parade ends with a huge tree pulled by horses, then Santa, and finally another tree, this one much larger than the first. At the end of the street the trees are displayed for the rest of the holiday season. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died just as the parade started. Now that I've replaced them I will get a picture of the trees.

Henry and Irene. It was very cold and they were not happy to be sitting for so long.

Mark's mom came up Saturday morning. She brought Mark's nephew, Shelby with her. Once they got here we went to the craft show that was going on at the high school. There were a lot of entries and a lot of very nice things. Some of the crafts made me laugh though. There were several things that I can and have made, like knit shawls, felted bags, etc. Overall, it was a nice craft show. After the show we had lunch and let the kids play. We decided to leave for the parade over an hour early but it was so busy that we ended up parking quite a long way away. We had to sit for so long that the kids got cold and cranky. Once the parade started Henry cheered up but ended up having to potty really badly. We left just as the last tree was coming towards us.

Mark and Gavin

After the parade we had a quick dinner and then went to the hotel. We went swimming which helped to warm us all up. Henry and Irene stayed the night with Grandma and Shelby. Sunday morning brought us snow so Grandma and Shelby left early. We had planned to go to the Festival of Trees which is a lot of trees decorated by area businesses and groups. I had a few other things for us to do but with Michigan snow you never know how much you'll get.

Dog Sled team that went racing down the street. They were fast! In the background you can see some of the crowd.

This is a not very good picture of the crowd.

My dad told me that he saw an advertisement for the Sleighbell Weekend in the Chicago Tribune. I think there were more people for this parade than for the 4th of July parade! I'm suddenly drawing a blank about what else I was going to write. Hmm...If I remember I'll add it later.

These two pictures I just wanted to share because Irene is such a darn cutie!

Road Trip

For Thanksgiving we drove to my older brother's house. We had lunch on the road and got there around 3pm. We had a later then planned start because I woke up not feeling well again. Other than my illness we had an uneventful trip.

On Thanksgiving Day we had around 25 people over. It was a little crowded but the food was good and the company great. We stayed until 3:30 and then we drove to Grand Rapids to Mark's parents' house. They were having a lot of people over for Thanksgiving as well. Still, even with all those people, it was a relaxing time. I was still not feeling that great and was very tired but I enjoyed it. Of course, Henry and Irene ran around with their cousins, Zach and Shelby. Once everyone left and things calmed down a bit Mark and I went to Meijer. We walked around for a while. No kids complaining and asking for things. Instead we marvelled at the lower food prices and grumped about how much more we pay in Northern Michigan. I was thrilled to find PG Tips tea in the international food aisle. I really enjoy that tea and usually if I want it I have to order it online.

That night we didn't sleep very well. The air mattress Gavin and I were sleeping on had a slow leak and we woke up in the middle of the night on the floor. After that it was difficult to get back to sleep since I was sitting upright in the chair holding Gav. Breakfast helped cheer us all up though. Mark's mom made Belgium waffles in her waffle maker.

After lunch, Mark and I went to the Grand Rapids Art Museum. We went to the Princess Diana exhibit. I wish my mother had been with us. She would have loved to be able to go through the exhibit. I enjoyed getting some of the history of the ladies of the Spencer family. Some things I had some mixed feelings about. Seeing the wedding dress was a treat. It was much less puffy on the mannequin than on the wedding day. Overall I enjoyed the exhibit. It was very busy and at times difficult to get through the crowd but I recommend it. You can find out more about the exhibition by clicking here.

We came home Friday night. Saturday and Sunday Irene and I were sick with the stomach bug again but we had a very good Thanksgiving with family we like and love.