Winter Snow

Last night and early this morning, we got a dusting of snow. Our hope is that with cold weather, it will stick around and we can say that we actually got a "white Christmas." There's nothing else in the forecast, so we'll take what little we can get!

Grammie's & Grampie's Place

Every year now for four years we've been heading over to an assisted living place to do a Christmas concert for them. The first year year we did it with one other church family, the second year we added another family. We joined with them our third year and did it again. Our fourth year we were able to rope in another musical couple to put together an hour-long program for the residents. It's a great conglomeration of piano, brass, strings, vocal and Scripture reading. The residents love it. In fact, I had a lady come up to me and say that she's looked forward to our coming every year since the first year. She mentioned how she remembered me holding Shaylen and singing a duet the first year because Marshall was too scared to get up and sing. Now that's a memory! I was so impressed by her recall of such detail. It's such a blessing to be able to bring some joy to these dear people and in return, I think, receive the greater blessing.

M&S in front of the fireplace at the assisted living residence.

Christmas Duds

I just had to post pictures of the kids from this Sunday morning. They put on their new Christmas duds from Grandma Sherry and just looked so nice. Tonight was the Christmas program entitled From the Cradle to the Cross. Almost everyone is involved in the program including the 2's & 3's Sunday School class, the 4's & 5's children's choir, the 1st-6th grade children's choir, the teen girls, ladies' ensemble, brass group, string trio, flutes, piano & organ, and several readers. It's a wonderful program and we were delighted to have many visitors in the service including our sweet neighbors across the street! What a special treat to have them there!

Marshall and Shaylen's group sang three songs. I was so proud of them. I would've snapped up pictures throughout the whole thing, but I'm the children's choir director and also in the choir, so I was running to and fro and couldn't. You'll just have to take my word when I say that they did a great job and their voices were so sweet and clear.

This is my favorite one! I took it just before church.

I could just gobble them up!

 

This one shows just how tall they are getting! It's amazing! Tall and wonderful inside and out.

This one was taken at church at the front of our auditorium.

Homeschool Cookie Baking Day

Each year our homeschoolers all get together one afternoon to bake and decorate Christmas cookies for some of our more mature and wiser generation at church. (Like how I worded that?) It seems that every year goes smoother and the kids get more and more creative with their cookies. The end product is so unique and each bag is packed with love. On Sunday each child then takes a bag to a designated person or couple as a special gift for Christmas. It always brings a smile!

The Invasion of Playmobil

There are several things that the kids own that I thoroughly enjoy. When parents sometimes email me and ask for ideas for gifts I always list off these things: books, audiobooks, Playmobil and Legos. Between all four of these, my kids never get bored. (Well, I guess I've trained them to never tell me that they are "bored." They know I have a whole slew of chores for them should they happen to mention it...)

The past few years the kids have been accumulating quite a collection of all. Two years ago seemed to be the year for audiobooks. Last year the kids got a ton of Legos and also acquired Taigen's old collection. This year has definitely been a Playmobil year. And as you can see, they have taken over my living room! I just wish many of you could come sneak in my house and listen to the dialogue between the Playmobil figures. They all have names and personalities and Marshall & Shaylen remember them all. It's hilarious to listen to.

I promise you...this is not posed. They were carrying on quite the conversation of what they would like to get for Christmas!

Birthday Celebration Pictures

All of our family lives hither and yon so they cannot be here to see the kids get their presents. I thought I would post a few pictures from the day so that you could experience the kids' eighth birthday with us.

We started off the kids' day with just a few presents. They were so excited to open some of the things that were already under the tree. I planned on doing a truncated day of school with them and let them even have a jammie day (I know, I know...I'm a softie...but it WAS their birthday and we ARE ahead), so these first few pictures are in their pj's. Grandma Sherry's gifts were a HUGE hit for these royal children!



I think Shaylen is excited about her new crown, don't you think?

Marshall and Shaylen quickly went upstairs and got their royal capes on that I had made for them a long time ago and posed in their new crowns from Grandma Sherry. It's awesome to be able to upgrade from construction paper crowns that rip constantly. These crowns will last forever!

After school & lunch, we let them open up another gift. These were all the way from Alaska! The kids were super thrilled to get "real" shields that wouldn't bend like their cardboard ones.

The kids had requested chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Isn't that funny? They scarfed up dinner and quickly went into the living room to conquer the remaining cards and presents.

The kids got these really neat van organizers from Dad & Cathy. She took an idea from online and ran with it. Now our trips in the van will never be boring. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to get the kids OUT of the van now. Too funny!

See how nicely these fit on the backs of the driver's and passenger's seat? Dad & Cathy even took pains to see that the organizer was already stocked with stuff for our trips. 

 The kids and I also love these new lunchboxes! I cannot tell you how handy these will be on our weekly trip to piano lessons and back (about a 45 minute drive each way). They can get their lunches all by themselves and I can stay safe by keeping both hands on the wheel and both eyes on the road. Thank you!

There were so many other gifts and I could not possibly post pictures of everything, but hopefully you got a taste of the kids' wonderful day.  Thank you for loving them!

After gifts, we celebrated by eating cake that was leftover from Friday. Marshall, Shaylen and I sat down to eat. Unfortunately, Taigen had to grab his Gatorade, say goodnight to us, and go camp out upstairs. Call it raunchy timing, but he had to go and "prepare" for his colonoscopy the next day. What fun, eh? The kids absolutely love this picture of Taigen. Every time they see it scroll through on our screen saver they say, "Oh! Poor Daddy!" I love how he struck the most pitiful pose he could muster. Ha ha! More news on Taigen's health in the next post.

All in all, it was a wonderful birthday and the kids are STILL enjoying all of their gifts.



Eight Years Old? Impossible!!!

Today is Marshall and Shaylen's eighth birthday! I cannot believe that I have two kids who are eight. I think I say it every year, but time sure is flying...and we're sure having fun!

We celebrated on the 2nd when Jason, Joni & Co. came up for a visit. Shaylen had requested a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, and Marshall had requested a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. I was able to make them both happy by making a ginormous cake with both. They got to pick out the ice cream too: Marshall requested Neopolitan and Shaylen requested Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Yes, the kids are getting so big. This point struck home when all of the Pileggi kids had on former Marshall and Shaylen outfits! I love seeing those hand-me-downs all over again. It almost brings a tear to the eye to realize that they don't slow down. In less than 10 years we'll be looking at two college tuition bills. Eeek!

I probably sound like a broken record, but Marshall and Shaylen are such a blessing to me. I am so blessed to get to spend my whole day with them day in and day out. I can't imagine anything else!

Happy Birthday to the Best Kids in the WORLD!

Happy 8th Birthday! (Look at those cute little faces on the right!)

Fun With Friends

I love spending time with friends. Jason and Joni are dear friends that we met almost at the beginning of our ministry in ME. We were young, just married (just over two years) and had no children. They were young, just married and without children as well.  Taigen and I desired to get to know them so we had them over for dinner one night. We hit it off and the rest is history. Jason and Joni helped us with the youth group and when Marshall and Shaylen were born, they became adopted aunt and uncle. Eleven years and six kids later we have a lot of wonderful memories under our belt and we enjoy our times together immensely. I just had to post some pictures of our last visit with them over the birthday celebration weekend. Aren't their kids SO cute?

14th Annual Joos Psychedelic Christmas Cookie Decorating Fest

If you have read this blog for any amount of time, you know that the Joos Psychedelic Christmas Cookie Decorating Fest is one of our favorite things to do every year. Believe it or not, it is the Joos family tradition that everyone mentions. I had a dear friend from church who emailed me this story recently:

We are decorating some cookies with the kiddos tomorrow, and I was searching for the frosting recipe from your cookies to bring.  I could not find the document from when you shared it last year, and was about to write to ask you to send it again.  [My husband] said I needed to use a better search term than "cookie", so I said "Try Psychedelic!"

Confused, he said "Why, is that in there?" which was followed by "Yup, here it is!" 

We made the full recipe as a family to give out last year, and I guess I never shared the "name" - now he knows!

Isn't that hilarous? I had a friend tag me in Facebook photos of their family doing the Psychedelic Cookies last year. We're so glad to share the joy! If you haven't read about the history behind our cookies, you need to go to last year's post and read it. In that post are also links to previous decorating fests.

Do you make the Psychedelic Cookies? Let me know! I'd love to see how yours turn out.

Without furthur ado...here are the pics from this year. I'm still having trouble discerning the difference between the kids' and Taigen's, but that's half the fun, right?

Creativity on Display

What do you get if you take one boy, two couch cushions, one cardboard shield, a blanket, a piano bench, Horatio the duck, a paper towel tube, yarn, and a pillow? Marshall's fort of course! Lately, Marshall and Shaylen have been very much into building forts in the living room in their spare time. The couches are naked in the afternoons but the kids' minds are full of ideas.