The Dress

Aunt Karen must've had fun doing froofy-girly things with me when they were here this fall because she went home and proceeded to sew a dress for Shaylen. It truly was a labor of love and you can tell with every little stitch. The jacket is reversible (so it doesn't have to be worn just at Christmas) and Karen's new sewing machine even did these tiny snowflake stitches all along the hem of the dress (I'm so sorry that I didn't get that part in the photo! You're going to have to trust me on that one.). The details are amazing.

Shaylen wore the dress tonight to sing her class' part of the Christmas program. She looked like a million bucks and we're so thankful for the beautiful dress. (NOTE: Yes, the dress is wrinkly...that's not Karen's fault nor my neglect. Unfortunately the kids are still in a 5-point harness carseat so the seat belt comes up through the middle of the legs. No matter how much they look pressed, neat and ready for church, the seat belt destroys all my work. Sorry!)

If You Give A Kid A Gift Card

Uncle Kyle, Eli and Quinten gave the kids gift cards to Target this year and boy did the kids have fun spending it. We went down every toy aisle! Shaylen had picked out a stuffed animal and an Easy Bake Oven and was content with her choice until Marshall and I rounded the corner and spotted a huge stuffed dog. It was love at first sight and Marshall wanted to spend his gift card on that. Shaylen immediately asked him, "Marshall, will you share that with me?"

I was examining Shaylen's stuffed zebra and I noticed a small tear in its neck. Taigen told her that they needed to go and trade it for another one. They took off again for the toy department while Marshall and I looked in another section. Apparently she had contemplated her choice in gifts and changed her mind considerably because when she and Taigen rounded the corner to where Marshall and I were, she also had a huge stuffed dog, just like Marshall's. It was hilarious. They were so elated over their dogs and just about as elated to purchase it by themselves! They have been playing with them ever since. Shaylen's dog is named "Ruff" and Marshall's is named Cadillac (after Dad's dog in CO). The dogs are just about as big as they are, but not too big that they can't sleep with them. Thanks Uncle Kyle, Eli and Quinten!

Christmas Day Fun

We had such a relaxing and wonderful Christmas. The day got off to a good note with Cinnamon Sticky Buns! Yum. This is a tradition in our house and we enjoyed every morsel. Another tradition in our house is reading the Christmas story. Marshall and Shaylen have a beautiful book quoting the Luke 2 passage with beautiful illustrations in it. Taigen read this and then we sang. It's so nice to have our kids join us.

We leisurely opened up gifts (one at a time), inserted batteries, assembled, oohed and aahed over every gift. We got really spoiled this year (but then, we do every year!).

Christmas day was a beautiful day so we pulled on our snow gear and went outside to play. Sunday's snowstorm brought wet snow that was perfect for a snowman. It also made great snowballs. Yes, we had a snowball fight, but I must've packed one a bit too big because when I pegged Shaylen with it, she cried! Ooops. We packed down the snow slide again and shoved Marshall off to see if the wet snow helped him go any further. It did and even though he wasn't zooming, he did finally make it to the end of the slide!


Later on we had a yummy dinner, enjoyed a few phone calls to family and even got in a video call to Zambia. It was a full and wonderful day.

Early Christmas Program

A while back Taigen suggested us going as a family to a local assisted living place to put on a Christmas program. We have a dear couple that comes to our church that just moved to one a couple of months back and we thought it would be neat to go and sing for them there. The programs director thought it would be wonderful so we started rehearsing with the kids. We also thought it would be really neat if we could get one of our families from church to come with us. The family we asked is very musical and they've done this kind of thing in the past. Could we combine and do our musical programs together this year? Thankfully and eagerly they agreed! The wife plays piano (and helps me at church quite a bit), the husband plays trombone and teaches music at a local school, and the kids play strings: violin, cello and viola. They are amazing to listen to, but what makes them even more amazing is their incredibly sweet spirit and willingness to help. Marshall and Shaylen LOVE their teenage daughter and are frequently begging to have her come and babysit.

We pulled together about an hour's worth of music for last night. We traded off and on and even got the residents to sing some of their favorites with us. At one point, a dear lady shouted out, "I think the little girl wants to sing Away in a Manger!" Taigen said, "In fact she does and will do so a little bit later in our program!" As promised, Shaylen and I sang all three verses of Away in a Manger (I don't think she would have done it by herself). I picked her up and put her right by the microphone so all could hear her sweet, grovelly voice. (Those of you who've heard her know that when she talks and sings she tends to always sound like she's just getting over a cold. It's so cute!) She did a tremendous job of singing out and remembering every word. Taigen and I were practically bursting with joy! Marshall did his part safely behind a pole where he could avoid the strangers' eyes. Poor fearful Marshall. No worries, his day will come, we know.

It was a huge beautiful room (the dining area) and it had a beautiful Yamaha Clavinova digital baby grand piano to play on (is it too late to put that on my Christmas list?). We were so honored to be able to go and do this and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Hopefully it can become a wonderful Christmas tradition with our kids.

Better Late Than Never

Look who decided that gym class wasn't scary after all? Of course, it did have to occur during one of the very last sessions of gym class, and well after the class was full for the next session (and I didn't sign them up) but at least we took a very tiny baby step closer to full-blown participation in first grade, right?

Sunday's Storm Pics

After all was said and done, we got about 14-15 inches. It was so beautiful to wake up and see a fresh, new blanket of white on the world.

In With a Bang!

Winter is officially here and it has come in with a bang! The snow started in lightly this morning, but by the time we left church this morning, the snow was accumulating quite a bit. Taigen announced this morning that we were going to cancel the evening service. Travel home was slow.

All the weather stations had put out a severe storm watch starting at 6 pm tonight. That's hilarious because we've already gotten about 5-6 inches already. The worst part is still to come. We could get up to 14 inches of snow!

I've been enjoying it all afternoon from the comforts of my heated home. To my surprise the birds have been at the feeder all day! They are all fluffed up and cute. We've seen a woodpecker, the tufted titmice, chickadees and juncos.

Our deck is covered again. You'd never know I shoveled it yesterday. I found it funny that the snow is so wet and sticky that it is clinging to the decorative, spinning "thingy" Dad and Cathy gave us to hang up in our yard (what would you call this?).

The Christmas program is tentatively rescheduled for next Sunday evening depending on who all is still in town that is in the program and what the weather is like. There is another (smaller) storm scheduled for Christmas eve! I'm hoping to be able to do it this year, but in the meantime, I get in an extra week's worth of practice. Whew!

Snow Much Fun

Our choir was supposed to go to the Kittery Trading Post last night in order to do a brief program for the shoppers. Only problem is, we had a terrific storm blow in and dump about 6+ inches of snow on us starting in the late afternoon. It was beautiful to watch, but terrible to drive in. It normally takes Taigen about 20 minutes to get home. Last night it took him 55! I'm thankful we decided to cancel and stay inside last night.

When we got up this morning and looked outside, it was picture perfect! Taigen was up early this morning and was camped out in the guest room studying. I'm thankful he didn't go out driving in winter's wake.

After lunch we got on all of our snow stuff and went outside. Taigen's ensemble (parka and hat) makes him look like a logger from the North Pole, but his Maine friends would be proud. It's his "snow-blowin' outfit." I chuckle every time he pulls on that hat! At least it keeps his head warm. (Thanks, Steve Gauthier...I think.)

He pulled out the snow-blower and the kids and I grabbed our shovels. There was a lot of snow to move around, but thankfully it was light and fluffy. After all the work was done, we worked on the sled run. The snow had to be shifted around and packed down, but eventually we got one going. Taigen was a gem and piled up a huge mound of it in the middle of the yard in order to make the run longer and to get the kids going a bit faster. For some reason, Marshall never really got going, but Shaylen took off like a pro. Maybe it's because she doesn't weigh as much and just skims on the top?


This afternoon's activities were so much fun, but I had to pull myself away and go in and practice for the Christmas program. Marshall and Shaylen told me about a snowball fight they had with Daddy. I gave them big mugs of hot cocoa (Shaylen thinks the word "cocoa" is funny!) to defrost them after their frolic in the snow.

We're looking forward to tomorrow. Our calendar says we will have a Christmas program in the evening service, but a huge Nor'easter is blowing in and supposed to dump another 6-12" of snow starting at about 6 o'clock. This snow will be wet and heavy. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I'll keep you posted.

First Snow

We finally got our first snowfall. Yesterday morning it was snowing when I woke up and proceeded to snow most of the morning. It looked so pretty during the school day. Fortunately, I didn't have to concentrate on school as much as Marshall and Shaylen so I was able to watch it.

When Taigen came home we bundled the kids up and allowed them to go outside and help shovel. They love their new shovels that they got from the Bowmans for their birthday. I don't know how much help they were to Taigen, but they sure had fun.

After Taigen was done snowblowing the driveway, they pulled out their snow disks (more birthday presents) and tried them out. It was hard pulling them back indoors after that. It was the highlight of their day. They had to find out the best way to do both disks (soft and hard). Once they figured out the best methods, they flew along their path splendidly!

A friend from church told me about a sledding park in downtown Dover that is free. We'll have to take the kids there after more snow falls. According to the weather reports, that should be soon since the weather forecasters are predicting that we should get a dumping on Friday evening, again on Sunday and then more on Christmas eve! You've got to love winter in New England.

Bye Bye Bar

There has been an eyesore in our basement. The former owners of our house were heavy drinkers. You can tell by the stories our neighbors tell, the bottle nooks in our cupboards upstairs, the unused portable wine racks left for us in the basement storage room, the cocktail tables by the horseshoe pits outside and the gigantic bar in the basement. Since we don't drink, the bar didn't do anything but collect dust, odds and ends and spiders. It had to go.

Thankfully, today it said good-bye with the help of Taigen's hammer, drill and sheer determination. It's amazing how much room that behemoth took up in the middle of our (very rough) family room, but once it was gone, we cleaned up the area and put down a few more carpet remnants (to match the rest of the basement carpet theme, hee hee) and it made it a more roomy space for us and less of a hotel for spiders!

It's not going to win any decorating awards (yet), but I have my eye set on stripping off the glorious "inspirational" wallpaper and border soon, painting it a brighter color and one day getting matching carpet for the entire downstairs, but at least this frees up some space until our we're able to save our pennies to get the bigger project done.

The Unusual Weekend

As many of you have seen in the national news, New England really got pounded in this recent storm. We've had many, if not most, of our congregation without power. The church was also without power for a couple of days. Taigen was keeping tabs on the building and also studying here at home.

On Saturday, we went in to church to meet the Sneedens. The Sneedens were going to be presenting their church planting ministry to us on Sunday night. They had just come from Dublin and had been roughing it there with the help of many blankets and the occasional generator. Taigen and I were thankful our power was back on so that they didn't have to rough it at our place.

We enjoyed our time with them immensely! Unfortunately, our church was still without power on Sunday morning, so we planned on the Sneedens sharing their ministry with us in our living room. Our friends, the Perdues were still without power so we told them they could come as they were, meet the Sneedens and then stay for a hot lunch with us.

Whether it was the coziness of the living room, or the size of the group, we really had a wonderful time getting to know the Sneedens on a more personal level than we would have if they had been in the auditorium.

After a leisurely lunch with the Perdues, we headed up to Scarborough, ME to see their annual Christmas program. The Sneedens and Gicks went with us. About 3/4 of the way there, we got a phone call from a lady in our church saying she had just driven by the church and noticed that the power was back on! We were so thankful.

Cornerstone's program was superb! It was called Ring Out the Joyful News. It was so very nice to see "old" friends (young AND old) and all the kiddies! My! how they have grown! I have to be honest and say that my favorite part was the children's choir ("Why Do Bells") and then the hand chimes ringing at the very end.

We came back home and had munchies with the Sneedens before turning in. Even though the weekend was not as we had planned, we enjoyed the extended time getting to know them.

A Huge Welcome to Winter

On Thursday evening, Toni Hafler arrived from Concord to speak for our ladies' Treasures meeting. We were a bit concerned about the roads, but she assured me that she thought things would be okay. I told her that if she got here and couldn't return the guest room was ready for her.

The meeting was at our house this month and we were going to do our annual cookie and ornament swap. A huge storm blew through New England covering everything with rain and then ice. Ladies were calling me left and right to let me know that they weren't coming, but we still had a good turnout. What a blessing to have Toni speak! I was so thankful to hear what the Lord laid on her heart regarding Patience/Longsuffering. Little did we know we'd be applying that challenge to our hearts within a matter of hours.

As the ladies left, I encouraged them to drive carefully. Most cars were encased with ice and Toni's 15 passenger van was no exception. Toni pulled out and didn't get 15 feet before her van did a 360! She pulled back into our driveway and said, "I guess I'm staying the night!" I'm so thankful she took me up on the offer. It afforded me the opportunity to talk with her at length and it kept her safe and off the roads.

On Friday morning, our power went out at about 9 o'clock. Thankfully, both Toni and I had just gotten done with our showers and the house had gotten a head start in heating up. We ate breakfast by candlelight.

Looking outside, the world around us was frozen in time! Everything was coated in ice, and trees were bending toward the ground. Usually this is what causes the power outages. Our cell phones were affected by the storm as well so we had no coverage.

Toni took off for Concord as soon as she could since Steve was at home taking care of six children (home from school!) and recovering from having his tonsils taken out. Poor guy!

Electricity was off at the church in Dover, so Taigen came home and studied in the guest room. It was not a difficult day other than not being able to connect to anyone via phone or email.

We had a cold dinner instead of the ham feast we had planned with all of the deacons and their families. In order to make the experience fun for the kids we said we were camping in Africa and came up with horrendous names for our meal: like roasted rhinocerous sandwiches with smeared snails (turkey salad and cheese), toasted elephant ears (crackers), pickled eel (carrots), and giraffe milk! We even had marshmallows leftover from when I made fudge and we attempted to roast them over our candles (just didn't taste the same). We made up stories while snuggling in the living room and then went to bed.

I dozed, but didn't ever fall into a deep sleep. I wanted to be sure to hear the kids if they called in the night. I did hear the utility truck working its way down the road and saw their yellow lights flashing. I must've fallen asleep shortly after that because the next thing I knew, the kids' bathroom light and fan was on as well as all the Christmas lights. It was 1:10 am. I got up and turned everything off, powered up my phone, got my messages, pulled off the pile of blankets off our bed and then crawled in. Taigen never stirred.

The house feels so good this morning and my hot coffee is delicious. The world outside is dripping and defrosting, but still so beautiful.

Tracks

On Tuesday in school the kids learned about animals and the different tracks they make (that's why Mrs. Lawson's dog, Maggie was brought into the classroom). During the entire morning, snow was falling outside and all the kids could think about was going out and making tracks.

After gym class, I allowed them to go outside and walk in the snow. Then, they got out their brand new shovels that they got from Mr. and Mrs. Bowman and attempted to shovel the driveway and sidewalk for Daddy. It was so cute!

It's All In the Details

It never ceases to amaze me how different the twins are. The pediatrician forewarned me of the differences in personality between a boy and girl and we've enjoyed seeing that he was so right. Now that the twins are in school, we're seeing those differences more and more. The fundamental difference? It's all in the details...

Here is Marshall's entry into his Memory Book at school today. He'll explain what took place in Mrs. Lawson's classroom:

Footprints
We found a print on Mrs. Lawson's rug. The doorbell rang. Mrs. Lawson discovered that nobody was there. It was her dog, Maggie. Mrs. Lawson made her footprint. It matched the footprint on her rug.
(short sweet and to the point)

And here is Shaylen's:

Animal Footprints
Mrs. Lawson spied an animal print. The animal print was on the green rug. She heard the doorbell ring. She discovered that nobody was there. But then, she looked down. Her dog Maggie was there. She had found her dog! She opened the door and brought Maggie in. She picked her up and put her on her desk. She got out her play clay and put Maggie's foot down on it. It matched perfectly like the one on the green rug. Then she put Maggie outside the door again.

Too funny! It was hard not to laugh out loud as the kids dictated their stories to me this morning.

The 11th Annual Joos Psychedelic Cookie Decorating Marathon

"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

We look forward to decorating our Sour Cream Cookies every year. Can you believe that Taigen and I have done this for 11 years?!?!?! It's a highlight of the season and now that Marshall and Shaylen can help, it's even more memorable. We did two batches to start off with. Taigen punched them all out and baked them. I edged them in white frosting after they had cooled. While those sat, Taigen made Chocolate Crinkle cookies (which I have never had. I can't wait to try one). Before dinner I was also able to make one batch of Grandma Rutledge's fudge and three batches of my grandmother's recipe of banana bread. Boy does the house smell wonderful.

After dinner, we cleared off the table and prepared for The Main Event! Taigen decided on several bright colors, but my favorite ones this year were "Aztec Blue" & "Lime Green!" Don't gasp...it's what makes them our fun Psychedelic Christmas cookies.

While the Christmas music played, we drizzled out the frosting, dumped on the sprinkles and made a glorious mess of the dining room. It was so much fun!

Post-Birthday Bummer!

Poor Marshall fought a headache all day on Saturday. He started complaining about it around late morning. By the afternoon he had developed a fever and was looking pale. Poor guy. In the middle of the night, his fever had spiked. I gave him medicine hoping it would help. It was not to be. He cried out at 4:45am and I went in to feel him. He was very hot. After I gave him more Advil, he went back to sleep and I went in to inform Taigen that Marshall and I would not be able to go to church. It's a rare thing indeed for one of us to miss church, but I didn't want Marshall to share whatever it was he had with the rest of our congregation.

He had a very laid-back day filled with lots of snuggles, books, listening to Anne of Green Gables, working on a craft, taking a long bath and even watching Lady and the Tramp. He was looking much better by bedtime. Praise the Lord.

Merry Birthday Party

The Pileggis, Bowmans, Janelle and our family have a tradition of getting together in early December to exchange our gifts. This year has only one exception: Janelle. We were so sad that she couldn't be with us this year, but the great thing was I managed to borrow of a wonderful piece of technology. A webcam. On Saturday we were able to call her in Zambia and talk with her "face to face." I don't know how much sense she made of the chaos here, but it was good to see her and allow the kids to wave, show her their gifts and blow kisses. Electricity and internet service are moody over there, so we eventually lost sound, but the video came through very clear.

We were able to exchange gifts for Christmas in the morning and celebrate Marshall and Shaylen's birthday in the afternoon. We had two special guests arrive for the birthday party: Papa Mac and his neighbor and our friend Norm Dyer. It was so good to see both of them. What a treat to have them travel all the way down here. That meant a lot to us.

And what celebration between all of us would be complete without Mike Bowman coaxing Enzo into divulging what his gift is? Enzo was a good helper all morning in picking up trash and helping people unwrap their presents. Mike found his opportunity and asked. Enzo blurted out, "It's an apron!" Sure enough. It was. We got a good laugh out of it because he had done the same thing last year with Mike's set of grill tools. We all know that Mike has that little guy wrapped around his little finger.

It was a memorable Birthday/Early Christmas celebration and we were so thankful for our friends near and far.