Christmas in the Haertel Fashion

Christmas wouldn't be complete without these following elements in the Haertel household....

Playing with the Nativity Set

Counting down the days until Christmas on the Advent Calendar

Lighting the Advent wreath together on Sunday evenings

(picture to come)

Playing in the snow

Decorating the Christmas tree -- no matter how small

Adorning the outside of our house with lights and greenery

(a new tradition this year)

Making cookies

 Decorating cookies

Enjoying Choral Christmas performances (especially those in which the little Haertel's participate and this year watching Mommy sing in the Community Chorus)

Slurping candycanes

Taking a carriage ride at the Christmas in the Hills Craft Fair

(another new tradition)

A Snowy Christmas

We came to visit Nana's farm for Christmas and we got snowed in and will be here through Christmas and a few days beyond that until we can get out of the driveway.

Doing an owl quiz on Nana's computer - a favorite activity with Nana

Yesterday all the kids ventured out in the snow and had their own sorts of fun.  Jacob discovered the fun of diving head and hands first in the snow;

 Sophia tasted the snow;

 Luke went off to the hill to explore and

Hannah did a bit of each thing -- tasting, exploring and diving.

It was fun to watch them enjoy the snow.  I made a snow angel and Sophia cried watching me flap in the snow.  I tried to help her make her own angel but she wasn't a willing participant.

Luke tried to start a snowball fight with Sophia -- she wasn't interested in that either.....

 Luke, Hannah and Sophia got a wooden train set from Uncle Mike

We had an early celebration with Uncle Tom

before he headed back to Michigan on Tuesday evening.  I admire this man's patience with the kids.  The three youngest spent a lot of time on his lap.

The kids in their New Zealand long underwear ;-)

 The kids got New Zealand gifts from Lois this year as she had just spent 3 weeks hiking through New Zealand this fall.

Jacob was excited to get a remote control car from Uncle Mike

 Santa Claus made an early visit to the farm to fill the stockings.  We'll have to send him a letter to ask him to pay a trip to Hot Springs when we get back home. 

Helping Sophia open her stocking

With the snow's arrival we were unable to get to a Christmas Eve service last night -- probably the first Christmas Eve service I've ever missed.  We had a quiet evening here and the kids each had one more present from Nana to open.  Today we've relaxed and stayed inside most of the day to stay warm.  Jacob, Hannah, and I ventured out to the compost pile to check the snow depths for Pat (He traveled back to Hot Springs early because he was having trouble with allergies at the farm).

Silly Sophia with her first set of braided pigtails

So we are apart on Christmas and it is not the sort of Christmas I expected this year.  But the kids are enjoying one another and have found interesting games and things to play with at Nana's.   And I am enjoying the beauty of the snow falling outside and watching the kids play and enjoy their family.

Merry Christmas!

First Day of School

Ready to start their first day of school.....

At the end of August, Hannah started Kindergarten and Jacob started second grade.  They are attending Bethesda Lutheran School again this year and they are in the same classroom (K-2) with Mrs. Allen.  Which is probably why Hannah's first day of Kindergarten was pretty uneventful.  I didn't worry about her making it to school safely like I did for Jacob (he rode the bus his first day to Kindergarten and I was tempted to follow the bus to school to make sure he made it there safely).  It's nice to be able to walk the kids to school.  Hannah was familiar with the school having attended preschool there for the last 3 months of school.  And it was nice for her to be in the same classroom as Jacob.  Both Jacob and Hannah were happy to start school and they have enjoyed their friends and learning experience this year.  There are 4 students in the second grade and 5 Kindergarteners in Hannah's class.   

Here they are at their desks....

Luke has been attending the preschool at Bethesda two mornings a week.  He has enjoyed time with friends and a chance to go to school.  He also really loves music time with Mrs. Pucket (the school music teacher).  He may stay home with me for the spring semester as he seems to be picking up some bad behaviors from school.

Here he is on his first day of preschool....

Cowboy Day

The kids had different dress-up days for Homecoming week at school.  Their favorite dress up day was Cowboy Day. 

Here are our two adorable cowboys and our cute cowgirl ready for the rodeo -- I mean -- school.  (Hats courtesy of Salvation Army in Rapid!)

4th of July Celebration

Pat and I started the 4th with the Firecracker 5K.  We hadn't run a road race since Jacob was a baby.  We both had a good race -- Pat met his goal of finishing under 30 minutes and I finished second in my age bracket.

After the race we came back and made patriotic waffles - blueberries, strawberries and cream! Yummy!

We walked to the end of the street for the parade.  The kids got a big bag full of candy that lasted until Halloween!

The night before we walked down to the fire station.  Becky, my Locks of Love hair dresser, (who is also a volunteer firefighter) invited us to come see the firetrucks while they were washing them for the parade.  Hannah and Jacob sat in several of the trucks and went inside the fire station and tried on their helmets.  But Luke was terrified so he stayed out in the parking lot with Daddy and Sophie.  It's funny because he wanted to be a firefighter for Halloween and also loves to play with his toy fire trucks.  And next year he wants a firetruck birthday!  The loud sirens are what does it for him because during the parade he backs up a half a block when the fire trucks and marching bands go by.

Becky and Jenny (sisters and volunteer firefighters) gave them all a plastic fire hat, coloring book, crayons, beads, smokey bear bandanna.

After lunch we watched the annual ducky race down the Fall River.  They dropped over 700 ducks from a bridge up north.  It was fun to watch them bob down the river from the footbridge down the street from us.  It was one of the largest crowds I have ever seen at a public event since moving here.  The crowds walked alongside the river following the ducks to the finish line.  The kids had so much fun after the race going in the river to retrieve the ducks.  Sophie and Luke helped on shore with the ducks that were thrown up to shore - gathering them for next year's race.  The gave away several fancy prizes (jeep, flat screen tv, etc).  The ducks were $5/piece.  We didn't buy a duck this year but we may next year as it would be fun to cheer our duck on as it bobbed down the river to the finish line.  I wish I would have brought my camera!! 

We spent the evening with friends -- we had a picnic complete with s'mores and then watched the fireworks from their backyard.

Happy Birthday, America!

Locks of Love

July 1st marks the date of the big chop -- I had a 10" long pony tail cut off to donate to Locks of Love (an organization that makes wigs for kids).

Before....

 After.....

When I came home I went around to the backyard where the kids were playing in the sandbox. Luke told me to "put my ponytail back on" and when I told him I couldn't put it back on, he said "go inside". Evidently he was pretty upset that Mommy cut her hair. But they eventually got used to it and now they think pictures of me with longer hair don't look like Mommy. Funny how that works....

More than 4 months have passed and my cute, angled hair cut is in need of a refresher. Time to find a stylist to work her magic (the gal who cut my hair closed her salon as she took a job as a dispatcher).

Jacob's 7th Birthday

This was the first year Jacob had a friend birthday party. Most years we are traveling and we celebrate with family. This year we were home from our vacation and Jacob thought it would be fun to have friends join him to celebrate. We thought if he invited 8-10 friends maybe half would come and we'd have a nice small group of kids to celebrate Jacob's birthday. Well it turned out that he invited 15 kids and most of them were able to attend and several came with their families and younger siblings. So we had over 30 people at his party!!

Our sports fanatic wanted a football party. Daddy planned the games (a football toss and football kick, etc) and I planned the foods, prizes, cake, etc. We found a football shaped pinata at Target and sports prizes (ball-shaped whistles, little squishy footballs, soccer balls, basketballs and baseballs).
The day of the party there was a big storm brewing. We hosted Jacob's party at the public park to accommodate all the guests he wanted to invite. As we arrived at the pavilion, dark clouds were forming to the west. The wind was picking up and the storm was heading right towards our party. We started some games as the guests arrived. But soon we had to take cover as it was thundering and lightening and things were blowing everywhere. We rode out the storm in our cars for a 1/2 hour and then resumed the party. Several of Jacob's friends had to leave in the midst of the storm. But there was still a good bunch of kids left after the storm passed. Pat started grilling and we were still able to do the pinata and the water balloons in the rain under the shelter of the pavilion.The kids got muddy and wet but everyone had a good time!
Especially Sophia - who found a mud puddle to stomp in and sit down in...
I made a football field cake. It turned out pretty cute! It was so windy that we couldn't keep the candles lit. As soon as the candles were lit, Jacob blew them out. So I didn't get a picture of him blowing his candles out.
Jacob received 5 footballs! He loves playing with all of them! He also got a lot of football/sports cards. He has so much fun memorizing the facts on all the players! Maybe someday he'll be a quarterback or a sports statistician?!

I was so glad to have the help of friends to keep things from blowing away, help serve food and clean up! I never would have managed a party of this size on my own. Next year we'll scale things down a bit....

Happy Birthday, Jacob!
We love you!!