"Wii" Had Fun

For those of you who don't know, Wii (say 'we') is a gaming console that comes with handheld controllers equipped with motion detectors that allows you to play a wide variety of games making the movements to make it happen instead of (just) pushing buttons. For example, you can use it to play tennis (hit the ball by swinging the controller), baseball (same idea), bowling, golf, baseball and then other games-- you get the idea. Anyhow, Alex and Deanna have one and brought it and the kids and Alex and Derek had a good time playing. Deanna got some great pictures of (mostly) Jack while he played. He was pretty good and got pretty into it.

The Last Christmas Post

We rounded out our Christmas Festivities with Derek's Mom, Mark and Alex and Deanna. Thanks to Deanna's amazing camera and polished photo-taking skills, we have a lot of shots from that night that turned out really good so I put them in a slideshow.

Christmas Happenings Pt. 3

We had a quiet Christmas Eve with some favorite snack foods, opened a present and went to bed. On Christmas morning we opened our family gifts to eachother, enjoyed cinnamon french toast for breakfast and then played with the new toys until early afternoon.

Christmas Happenings Pt. 2

On Friday morning we left for California and some fun times with the cousins and my sisters and their husbands. We celebrated our annual Christmas Eve (even though it was a few nights early). We came home on Christmas Eve and tried to get unpacked and settled for the next day. Here are some pictures from California, with a poem that my nephew (who is 8) wrote for Christmas first.

Christmas
By Caleb J. Waymeyer

Christmas, Christmas,
Christmas time is here,
Christmas, Christmas,
Christmas time of the year.
Christmas, Christmas,
Buy a Christmas Tree,
Christmas, Christmas,
One for you and me.
Christmas, Christmas,
The time of Jesus’ birth,
Christmas, Christmas,
It’s when Jesus came to earth.
Christmas, Christmas,
Jesus came to earth below,
Christmas, Christmas,
So his father’s love he could show.
Christmas, Christmas,
How could he show that love?
Christmas, Christmas,
Of his father up above?
Christmas, Christmas,
I will tell you how,
Christmas, Christmas,
I will tell you now:
Christmas, Christmas,
Jesus was crucified,
Christmas, Christmas,
For us he bled and died.
Christmas, Christmas,
He was raised,
Christmas, Christmas,
Now we can be saved.
Christmas, Christmas,
He died to make us free,
Christmas, Christmas,
He died for you and me.
Christmas, Christmas,
Is a time in December,
Christmas, Christmas,
Is a time to remember,
Christmas, Christmas,
About Jesus’ birth.
And so here my poem ends,
But I should say one more thing…MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All of the sisters (Laura is on the phone and she said she was smiling)!

Jack and Jake
The guys... with the TV, of course! :)
Cowgirl Jess playing some holiday tunes.
Everyone with their gift.

Ultimate fun... cousin play-time!

The 'babies' in the bath.
The Spread... and some hungry kids!
The sisters and Suzi and the lil' boys.

Christmas Happenings

We started out our Christmas celebrations with a school Christmas Party that we held on Wednesday, the 19th with the Pati family. There was a Christmas-themed menu, cookie decorating, a game, some piano and guitar performances, some singing, a gift exchange and other fun things. The kids had a great time! Here are some pictures from that night:

Everyone with their gift.

The Spread.

Anna playing the card toss game.

Jack playing the card toss game.

Listening to the story.

Decorating cookies.

More cookie decorating.

Luke can't decorate, but he managed to get up on the chair when we were done to do some taste testing for us.

School Christmas Party with the Pati Family

We had a wonderful time tonight with the dear Pati family for our school Christmas party. This slideshow is for Ernie, who couldn't make it because of the unexpected passing away of his mother in the Phillipines. These are mostly the Pati kids and the activities we enjoyed tonight... I'll post a more detailed one later. Thanks for partying with us, Melody, Michael, Elise and Emma!

Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas!

We'll be busy here with different Christmas events and a trip to California and visitors for a couple of weeks. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and will be back to posting more as soon as we can. It is finally cool here (highs in the low 60's) so things are feeling more like Christmas. After a dozen years away from a white Christmas, this has actually started to feel normal!

Wierd and Cute

I am actually not sure what they were doing here... something about strong muscles that culminated in stuffing socks and pillows in their clothing.




Luke being adorable. He dances sometimes and this is one of his moves in dancing, too, but here he is just being excited.