Ami Funny

Just a quick Ami funny.  Yesterday in church, Ami leaned over to me and whispered, "We're all sorted out."  Huh?  Again, "We're all sorted out.  Our hair."  Sure enough, there were our two blondies sitting together, then the three browns, then the two black headed treasures.  Indeed, all sorted out.  :)

Puzzled

A Clark tradition growing up was to put together a new puzzle each Christmas break.  For the most part our family has carried on this tradition.  This year with all the extra time at home, we I ended up putting five together.  Yes, Grandpa and Grandma were here to help with one, and a few other random pieces were placed by passersby, but I enjoyed several hours bent over the table placing pieces.  I'm telling you, it was a relaxing break!

We had one old puzzle and four new ones.  We are still puzzled about the bird puzzle....and can't figure out who it is from!  None of our family has admitted to sending it to us, and we can't remember exactly how it arrived in the mail.  So, thank you to whomever will claim sending the birds to us! 

Count them, that's 4,550 pieces!

(We did find the missing piece after I took this picture!)

 

This one made me want to run to Cracker Barrel and shop in their old country store for some old-fashioned candy.  :)

Elijah vs. Iceballs

What can I say....boys will be boys, and Elijah seems to have suffered the brunt of it. 

Thanks to some new snow toys from Uncle J and Aunt Y, the kids have built even greater snow forts and have had even greater snowball wars.  With some warmer temps during the day, snow has become icy and made for some brutal battles!  

Christmas Break

We enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas break.  Chris was off work from the 17th of December and just went back to work yesterday.  We are getting back to school today.  It was so nice to have several days at home without much of a schedule at all.  I can't remember the last time Chris was home for that many days without us taking off for a trip.

So we enjoyed snow, games, puzzles, hot drinks, sleeping in, playing with Christmas toys, a little bit of shopping, a couple of dates, no school, no work, and a warm fire.  I hardly took any pictures and obviously took a bit of a break from blogging, too.  :)

We took our "adopted" grandparents out for dinner.  They are very special to us and have enriched our family greatly.

Happy New Year to all of my bloggy friends and family.  May this year bring many new memories and things to be thankful for.  

Christmas Day

The advantage of combining Clark and Wolfe traditions is that we don't have to get up super early on Christmas Day.  :)  The kids wake up and can play with the things they received on Christmas Eve, and then when everyone is awake and going we can dig into the rest of the gifts. 

Unfortunately Johanna woke up feeling rather puny and spent the whole day on the couch with only a little bit of water in her belly all day.  :(  But at least she felt well enough to be with the rest of us and didn't have to use the trash can that she kept by her side all day. 

We called it a Super Hero Pony Christmas because there was a lot of each.  Ha!

In the background is Chris' gift....a new exercise bike....that he's been using for a few days already.  It's SO much quieter than the old one.  Nice!

I have been enjoying this Christmas gift from Chris for a while now, still very special to me.

We enjoyed the day relaxing, playing games, doing puzzles, eating, and staying warm by the fire.  We have been very blessed this year.  We have had our shares of ups and downs, but the Babe in the manger makes life worth living every single day.  Happy birthday, Jesus!

Christmas Eve

We had a nice family Christmas Eve this year.  So much of the holidays is wrapped up in tradition......a photo shoot by the tree, reading of the Christmas Story, snacking on cheese, sausage and crackers, opening about half of the gifts under the tree.  It was nice to celebrate with Grandpa and Grandma W this year.

The kids of course enjoy the excitement.  It's fun to see them give their gifts to each other and watch in anticipation as they are received and opened.  They put much thought into each gift, even into the wrapping (ie. Ami likes to make the wrapping as girly as possible for the boys, ha!). 

Michaela wrapped up her driver's study guide for Benjamin.  I can't believe that he'll start training this year!

Dad printed a picture of our triage center where they removed the fly from my shoulder on our backpacking trip....then he inset the actual fly and hook in the photo.  Fun memories!

My studious husband.  :)

More Catching Up

Last week was a whirlwind of finishing up school, extra practices for the Christmas play, dental appointments, hosting our Chinese student, and more.  Here are a few more pictures that I missed posting.

We rolled out sugar cookies with Cici.  We also took her to our favorite local pizza place.

The tooth fairy came for the first time for Ami. I must say that all of a sudden this little girl looks more grown up to me.  :(

This zoomed in picture doesn't do justice to the size of the red tailed hawk that was hanging out on our driveway.  He was as big as our cats!  I made sure to take a head count of all cats and small children!

And oh, I love this season of baking cookies.  Well, actually I enjoy eating them more than baking them, but it's fun to splurge and enjoy lots of goodies. 

Snow!

We started off our Christmas break on Thursday by waking up to our first snow of the season!  The kids were very excited and couldn't wait to get out to play.  We only had about an inch, and it was very blustery, but that didn't deter them. 

Ami had a blast trying out the new snowboards.  She's starting on our "bunny slope" and I'm sure she'll progress to the steeper backyard soon.  Hmm, maybe I need to require helmets! 

Christmas Program

This morning during the Sunday School hour the kids put on a Christmas play.  They did a great job of telling the true meaning of Christmas.  Johanna played an exuberant angel (with quite the dramatic flair), Elijah was Joseph, Ami was a cute shepherdess, and Michaela accompanied the piano with her flute.  Benjamin claimed to be too old for Christmas programs....

We are thankful for our church family and the friendships that our children have with others there.  Many are also homeschooled, so they share a lot in common. 

Grandpa and Grandma W are now here, and we're looking forward to a week of relaxing, family time, games, food, and celebrating Christmas together.

One Year Ago....

...Chris and I were sitting in the surgical waiting area of a children's hospital in STL.  Our Benjamin was in the middle of having a cancerous tumor removed from the back of his knee.  We were being covered with SO much prayer.  Soon Dr. G. came to us with the best news ever.  The tumor had literally peeled right off the nerve, in one complete mass, with a very clear margin.  There was no damage to the surrounding tissue or nerve, the mass was out.  GONE! 

We had a few ups and downs after that, initially fairly confident that the mass was benign, but later we received the devastating news that it was cancerous.  It was such a rare form of cancer, that really only a couple of other cases had ever been reported.  Our one-in-a-billion kid felt a tad special, yet in many respects it's not that great to be so rare. 

This last year has been one of continued steps of faith and trusting in His care for Benjamin.  We have rejoiced after each of his 3-month check-ups that have showed clear results.  We are so very thankful for the wonderful care that has been available to us, for the many prayers that have been offered on our family's behalf, and for the "normal" lifestyle that Benjamin has been able to lead.  He is beating cancer and we are hopeful that this cancer will never return.

It's easy to forget what we faced a year ago, but I never want to forget and take for granted a single day.  Each day is a blessing, and for that we are forever grateful!