Christmas Programs

This was our week for Christmas programs -- between CBS, preschool and church we had our fill of watching our kids sing! It was fun to see them up front. They seemed to enjoy it too.

Thursday Hannah sang at Bible study (see picture at left -- here she is walking out to sing -- doesn't she look a little scared?). They sang three memory verses (this always amazes how little kids can learn scripture) and two other songs. She loosened up as the program progressed.Friday evening was Hannah's Christmas program at preschool. Jacob had fun returning to his alma mater and seeing a few boys and his teacher from last year. Hannah wore her Christmas dress and shiny new black shoes.

And this morning both Jacob and Hannah participated in the children's Christmas program. They dressed up as sheep to help create the nativity scene. Pat and I agreed that this was our favorite of the three programs. Both Jacob and Hannah worked hard this past week memorizing the verses of Away in a Manger and they also learned another tune called Bethlehem Boy. The kids sang beautifully! And they had so much joy in sharing the Christmas message with the congregation.

Winter Wonderland

Last weekend it snowed.....and the kids couldn't wait to go outside and play!
The kids -- big and small -- played hard building forts (and smashing them), sledding and skiing!

Pat got a workout while having fun in the snow.Daddy pulled them fast -- the kids liked going fast around the corners -- here's an action shot of them on the sled together.

Half-way

This week marks the half-way point -- only 20 weeks until we meet the baby!

I had my ultrasound on Tuesday. The baby is healthy and I even got to see the baby grab it's toes during the ultrasound. We are waiting to find out the sex when he/she arrives in April. Technology has changed in the past two years -- the latest update is they burn a dvd of the ultrasound -- pretty cool! I'm going to attempt to link a video here so you can meet "baby S" (Sophie or Samuel).

** It appears I'm experiencing some technical difficulties trying to link the video to the blog - hopefully I'll figure it out soon! **

A Mouse, A Bee and Batman Invade Apartment 23A!

The kids had loads of fun dressing up this year! We found Jacob and Hannah's costumes at ARC thrift store. And Luke wore the traditional bee costume which Jacob and Hannah also wore on their 2nd Halloween.

Jacob - 2003 Hannah - 2005Luke - 2007The kids trick-or-treated around our apartment complex. Luke came along for the first set of apartments and had his own bag for treats (people actually gave bigger handfuls to him than the older kids - what were they thinking?). He quickly learned where I hung the bags of candy and would point at the end of a meal and say "ca, ca" for a piece of candy. For about a week after Halloween we gave the kids a piece of candy after lunch/dinner. And then tossed the rest. This pattern of rationing out the candy would have dragged on for too long -- way beyond Christmas. So we decided it was best for them to be done. It scares us a bit how they can be controlled by candy. They will do ANYTHING for candy -- almost...

Here they are inspecting but mostly oohing and awing over their loot

They weren't thrilled with the idea of saying goodbye to their candy, but they look forward to goodies in their stockings at Christmas :-)

After we finished trick-or-treating, we stopped at the Halloween party at the Aggie Center (in our apartment complex). The kids got goody bags and these silly teeth were in the bag. The kids tried them on when we got home. As I was in the living room taking this picture of the kids, Pat was talking to Lois on the phone and she warned us not to let the kids put plastic teeth in their mouths as the plastic may be tainted with toxins -- lead, etc. But I did get this picture before we found this out....

Happy Belated Halloween from mouse, bee and Batman!

On the Mend....

Luke woke up from his nap on Friday afternoon throwing up. Saturday morning Hannah started in and then Saturday in the middle of the night both Pat and Jacob got sick. I managed to wait until Sunday morning. The bug has swept the whole family and we're still on the mend. Luke is running circles around us! He is back to his cheery self. Luckily he is great at indepedent play. This is by far the worst bug that has hit us in our family's history. Never have Pat and I both been so ill at the same time. Thank goodness for pbs kids! In general, we don't watch much tv but having pbs to entertain our kids has been a good thing the past 3 days. We're hoping for a full recovery by Thursday so we can enjoy turkey and stuffing!

Glimpses of Love

I love catching little exchanges of love between our kids. Here are two recent moments I want to remember.

Jacob helped Luke play the xylophone

Jacob reading to Hannah

Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord

Psalm 150
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.

2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,

4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,

5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.

The kids love to get out the instruments and play music together. We have an assortment -- mostly percussion instruments -- and they can get pretty noisy! I have to remember how much joy they have in playing the instruments -- and also remember that this exposure is good for them -- in order to not lose my sanity. ;-) They love to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

Apples and Leaves

Nana Haertel brought us several boxes full of apples, pumpkins, and melons. The kids have especially enjoyed the apple harvest. They love being able to pick out their own apple from the box, bring it inside to wash it and have a whole apple all to themselves. Luke was very proud to sit and eat a big apple all by himself.The bounty of fruit has stocked our freezer -- with 6 quart jars of homemade applesauce, three bags of sliced apples ready to be made into pies, several bags of cooked pumpkin to make into pumpkin bars, cookies, pies, soup and bread! Yum! I love fall foods and have a lot of fun stocking up our freezer for the months ahead. Thank you Nana for sharing with us!

Piles of leaves bring so much joy to our kids! We have several large trees in our courtyard. We've done a lot of raking and playing in the leaves the past few weeks. It's great exercise for me and hours of entertainment for the kids.

Nana and Papa's Visit

A few weeks ago my parents made a road trip out west -- stopping to see some sights in South Dakota on the way to Colorado. They spent 4 days with us in Ft. Collins. It was great to have them here -- to get a glimpse of our life. They got to walk Jacob to the bus stop, to see both Jacob and Hannah's schools, we shared our meals together and they had lots of time with the kids.

One afternoon we went on a tour of the Celestial Seasonings Factory. I had already seen the factory in operation, so Hannah and I shopped in the gift shop and sampled tea while Nana and Papa took Jacob through the tour (you have to be 5 to go on the tour). It was a fun afternoon!







We're so glad you were able to make this trip to visit us! We hope you come back again soon! We miss you!

A Fantastic Show

They were ready for a show.....we should have known something neat was going to happen.

We took our annual trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park to watch the elk bugle. I packed us a picnic for dinner. When we arrived we saw several cows (female elk) lying down in a field. There wasn't much activity. No bulls in sight to stir things up. As we sat and ate our sandwiches we kept hearing bugling in the distance. We decided to pack up and drive towards the sounds we were hearing. It turned out we were very fortunate to have moved. Right when we pulled up on the side of the road we saw a bull elk with a sizable rack trying to round up his harem as he chased off a younger bull. He succeeded in taking away five cows from a much younger bull. This was pretty exciting to see....both of the bulls displayed their power as they bugled in the midst of their fight/struggle to keep/take the bulls. We were thrilled to see this and thought about leaving to head home. When all of a sudden a huge herd of cows (25+) entered the scene from the woods as they were pushed into the same area as the small and medium sized bulls -- by an even larger bull. The smaller bull ran far away never to be seen again and the medium-sized bull and his five cows moved out of the area quickly. But the medium-sized bull with five cows wasn't convinced that this contest was over. He came back and the two bulls actually ran at each other and locked horns. Wow! We had been standing outside the car to get a better look. At this point we grabbed the kids and moved to a more comfortable and safe distance. The medium-sized bull with only five cows was able to able to gather up one more cow as a result of his bravery. But he didn't come back again. The big bull elk stood and gloated for a while -- putting on a fantastic show of bugling -- what the throngs of people come to see each year at this time, but many are not as lucky as we were this night. This was an impressionable experience for all of us -- especially the kids. They talked about it the whole way back to Ft. Collins and for the next few days.

Luke on the Go

Luke is walking! He loves to motor around and explore new areas. He took his first steps before we left for vacation -- but didn't really get going until we returned home. Since we've been back, he hardly ever resorts to crawling. It's so fun to see how having more mobility brings out more of his personality.

Belly Buttons

I was helping Hannah get dressed this morning and as she lifted up her shirt so I could put her belt on, she looked down at her belly button and asked me "Does God have a belly button?"

Hmmmmm.....

Fall Update

Jacob started kindergarten a few weeks ago. He loves riding the bus to school (which picks up right at the end of our quad). He made a new friend on the bus - Sveras (a 3rd grader from Lithuania). They ride the bus together most mornings. He had a little problem adjusting the first week of school -- he was having a hard time getting along with the girls -- but last week he did much better. He enjoys working on his homework assignments and is having fun learning Spanish.

Hannah started preschool last week. She loves it! This morning she couldn't wait to get her backpack and go to school. She is attending the same preschool that Jacob attended last year Monday and Wednesday mornings. I will be helping in her classroom about once a month throughout the year.

We started Community Bible Study last week. We're studying Mark & Ephesians this year. Hannah and Luke are both coming to Bible study with me. There is a children's ministry program for kids 2-6 years - they sing, listen to Bible stories, and do a craft that coordinates with the story they're learning. They have a staffed nursery for kids under 2. I am so glad Ft. Collins has a CBS program! I missed this community in North Dakota.

The biggest news -- is I'm expecting! The baby is due to arrive mid-April. We are excited as we anticipate the newest Haertel's arrival!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Hannah turned three on August 29th. We had a small birthday party for her on her birthday. She asked for a pink horsey birthday. And her menu request was hotdogs. So we grilled hotdogs but ended up inside for the party instead of a picnic outside because it was thundering and sprinkling. We had 11 people inside our tiny apartment -- but it was still a fun party!

I made an angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries and decorated it with horses and a pink fence which I made out of mini craft sticks. Hannah had fun opening presents and playing with her new toys -- especially the horses and tinker toys.

I can't believe our little girl is three and will start preschool in a few days!! Wow!
We love you Hannah!

Travels

We spent a month traveling this summer. Our travels included stops in South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois, and camping along the way. We like to call it our mid-west family tour.....4000 some miles later, here are some of the highlights:

On Nana's farm in South Dakota:
Helping in the garden - picking raspberries, green beans, beets and helping weedRiding Annie - Hannah had her first horseback ride
Taking walks through the fields to see the beautiful wild flowers in bloom

Discovering new things -- Luke learned how to sit down a chair just his size and started taking a few steps while we were awayCrivitz Adventures:

A trip to the ER on our second day after Pat stepped on a rusty nail

Fishing! Hannah loves to fish. After each fish she caught she would say "I want to catch another one." Jacob on the other hand was finished after catching one fish.

Exlporing a whole new world for Luke - here he is sitting in a wash basin in the cabin

Kayak rides on the river

Hannah bonded with the dogsHiking the new trail Nana cut through the woods -- we saw a flock of sandhill cranes at the end of the hike

Picking wild blueberries -- eating them on oatmeal, in cobbler, and in pancakes -- yummy! Here are Jacob, Hannah and Nana cleaning blueberries together.Swimming at Newton Lake -- Jacob loves swimming -- what a change from last year

Arcadia Days:

Visiting with cousin Katie, Amy and Chris lots of jumping! Swimming in Lake Michigan and playing in the sand (always a treat with Uncle Tom around)

Hannah's first sailboat ride with Nana

Playing the piano togetherSquare Dancing at Camp with the kids - Luke loved watching the people dance and bouncing to the music

Attended the morning program - Hannah warmed up to the Ark after a few days

Rides in the antique stroller
Jacob and Hannah loved the Arcadia parade and hope to be in Arcadia to attend the parade next summer

Watching the sunset

Ohio: (camera on the fritz....pictures hopefully to be scanned and added later)

Amish Country - for a little window shopping and a good Amish-cooked meal

A trip to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo - the Rainforest was the highlight -- especially the orangutans. Jacob also had fun sitting in Uncle Frank's police car.Celebrating Jacob's 5th birthday at Aunt Carrie and Uncle Frank's house (Jacob had a United States themed birthday party)

Here is a picture of his cake.....

Luke enjoyed the cake!

Playing with our cousins -- at Nana and Papa's house, at Amazone (an indoor playland), and at their new house Jacob, Kailyn, Aunt Kim

Illinois:
A quick visit to Uncle Tom's on the way back to Colorado

A trip we will not soon forget -- we had a lot of quality time with our family