Christmas at the Schrag's

Our family drove out to Illinois on Christmas morning. We drove out with Mike and Mandi Brouillette's family. They even had lunch with us at Tim and Sue's house.

The entire Schrag family has gathered here this weekend. Andy came in from Boston, Sara and boyfriend Josh came in from Goshen and our family of 4 from Kansas. It makes for a full house, but it's great to be together.

A one-day sickness has been bugging us, first Ben, then me, then Sue, then Andy. Nothing too severe, just aches, stomach pain, little bit of fever and a need for lots of sleep. Thankfully, Noah and Levi have so far scraped by without any sickness.

Below, the boys and I are waiting to open presents. It looks calm, but don't be deceived...Noah was quite antsy to open presents.


A few pictures of the "after" Christmas mess.




Noah making semmel with Grandpa Schrag.


Noah learned to use a drill press.

and now he's 1

It's hard for this momma to believe, but my baby is a full year old. Levi's birth was a traumatic experience and today has been a day down memory lane for me. I have shed a few tears remembering how stressful his arrival was and how amazing it is that he came out safely.

This weekend we are in Illinois visiting Ben's parents. Levi has eaten a huge amount of food and taken lots of naps. And, this evening, he devoured his birthday cupcake. He even wanted more after his was all gone.

Happy birthday baby boy!

Night in the Barn

Noah just loved Night in the Barn. The youth group from Tabor Mennonite Church puts together this special event each year. The focus is the telling of the Christmas story by Mary in the barn with the animals. This is the second time Noah has been to it, but this year he was old enough to be aware of the animals and the cold. He enjoyed being warmed by the fire and even sang along with some of the Christmas carols we sung. He was fascinated by all the animals, especially Monty, the donkey.

Hanging out at home

Saturday was a wonderful day for us. We were home! I'm usually not the type that really enjoys being at home all that much...but, Saturday was a good day. Ben was around, the boys were happy, and we had a good time playing and just being together. The boys did haircuts in the morning, but then we were home until after supper. In the evening we took Noah to Night in the Barn, I'll post pictures of that later.

Here's a peak at our time at home.


I tried and tried to get Noah to actually smile for a picture with me. I'm rarely seen on this blog, so I thought I would show myself just this once.


Lately, we've done lots of playing with blocks. Building towers and then knocking them down! Over and over, with a few arguments in between about who's turn it is to knock the tower down.


Noah just after waking up from his nap.



Noah and Levi, at times, play together very well. More and more, Levi is laughing at (or with) Noah. It's good to see them learning to interact with each other in positive ways.

Early Birthdays and more

Any Saturday that starts with breakfast at the Breadbasket in Newton, is bound to be a good day in my books. Not to mention that the gathering of our Epp family was to celebrate the December birthdays - Levi was the main attraction, but I also got some nice cards and a gift. Levi ate, just as if he hadn't already eaten a normal breakfast at home. And then, with the help of grandma and cousins Ty and Caiden, he opened several gifts. It was fun to watch his expression as he figured out what each gift was.

After the birthday part of our gathering was complete, I handed out the cookbooks I've been working on for nearly a year. Last winter, when my grandma passed away, I asked that my mom, aunt, sister and cousins look through grandma's recipes and mark the ones they wanted copies of. Then, I typed them up and just this past week I finally finished the project. I was really excited to be able to hand them out, just before Christmas!









On Sunday, we went to my parents house after naps. Noah, Levi and Grandma played piano and sang several Christmas songs. It was just precious to see all three of them busy at the piano.

The Table

The annual ladies Christmas brunch was this past Saturday at church. This year, the planning committee asked for volunteers to decorate the tables. So, against my better judgment, my mom and I signed up for a table together. I knew that I would NEED to put a lot of energy into this table and I knew that I would take it too far, or at least I would want to take it too far. Well, then my reality set in and although I did a lot of thinking and imagining what the table would look like, it wasn't until we actually set it up the day before the brunch that we found out what the finished product would look like. It was nice - not as great as I had imagined, but mom and I had fun working on it together. The other tables were gorgeous, so much creativity and energy and such unique designs and interesting china patterns. It was a wonderful morning and finally got me in the mood for Christmas.


We used my Harlequin dishes, which set a colorful, retro theme. I apologize for some of the fuzziness on these photos...





Oh how I love, love, love these little circle mirrors! They make me smile...and now they're on my fireplace mantel.

Song Leader

Noah continues to pay special attention to all the music in church. This morning, at our Thanksgiving service, he watched grandma be the song leader. He even sang an entire hymn with me! He also watched my cousin Kyle play a piccolo trumpet. After the service, he played with Kyle's trumpet for a long time and tried so hard to make a sound. He just couldn't blow enough air through to produce sound.

Just after he finished eating lunch today, he stood up on his chair and started to sing and direct, just like the song leader in church does.

Pumpkin Spice Play Dough Pumpkins

What a cool idea! Susan, one of Noah's Sunday School teachers sent home a baggie of pumpkin spice play dough and green pasta on Sunday. Noah and I have been making pumpkins the past few days. We make a pumpkin for each person in our family. Levi is a tiny little pumpkin, Noah is medium-sized pumpkin, mom is a bigger pumpkin than Noah and daddy is the biggest pumpkin of all. Then Noah spends a couple minutes rearranging the noodles and giving some pumpkins 3 stems and others none and then he's usually ready to move on to something else. The play dough smells like pumpkin pie and I have to keep reminding Noah not to eat it!

Blue Cornmeal

On Saturday, we went to Ben's grandparent's house to celebrate his uncle's birthday. Lee and Mary Alice, grew blue corn this summer. Lee dried the corn and now can grind that corn into cornmeal. Well, this was a pretty mesmerizing activity and we all had to take a turn.







Thanks Mary Alice for the to-die-for lasagna and French bread!!

King Noah

Noah has enjoyed wearing a crown he got in Sunday School, ever since Sunday morning. It's very cute. He also has a scroll to go with it, but only the crown had to go along to Debbie's house today.

A date with Noah

On Saturday morning, I was lucky enough to steal away a couple hours with Noah to run errands and go to Pages Bookshop. Every second Saturday of the month, Pages has an in-store activity for kids. I thought Noah would really enjoy playing with clay, but he didn't last long. Soon after he got the clay he started shaping it into balls and throwing it. So, we decided to get some snacks instead. Noah got warm (not hot) chocolate, I got a mocha and we shared a chocolate chip cookie. After Noah finished his warm chocolate he played in the tent that's set up in the store for kids to play or read in. We had a great time and I hope to do this again with Noah soon!

Together randomness

I have so many photos of the boys together, that I thought it was time to post some of them. They are terrible at sharing, so don't let these photos fool you into thinking that they actually get along. It's just that every once-in-a-while they actually do get along for brief periods of time. It's refreshing to see them play together, perhaps some day it will happen more often and last longer then a minute. We'll see...

Hmmmm...breakfast!

Both boys wake up in pretty good moods. After about 20, maybe 30 minutes, they both realize they're hungry. Both of them get a waffle for breakfast and some fruit. As soon as Levi catches a glimpse of his waffle, he starts to voice his excitement and impatience to start eating it. He's also really improved at eating, still messy, but not nearly as bad as he was a couple week ago.

Ben took these pictures this morning right after we realized that while we were talking in the kitchen, both of our boys were quietly and diligently eating their waffles. They were so cute! In some ways they seemed so grown up and in others so young and innocent.

I Boated!

On Tuesday, when I told Noah I was going to vote, he thought I said I was going to boat. When I came back to Debbie's at the end of the day to pick him up he asked me if he could go boating, too. Even on Wednesday morning he was still talking about boating and asked me if I was going to go boating again. I guess the attempts I made on Tuesday to explain what voting is didn't make much of an impression.

We went to Vanessa and Doug's for an election watch party on Tuesday night. We had fabulous food and there were tons of kids to corral. To get Levi to bed, I had to leave the party pretty early, but it was still really fun to gather with friends and get some weeknight socializing in.

a Cranky Frog and a One-eyed Lion

So far, as a mother, I have yet to find Halloween to be as fun as I anticipate it will be. Each year, Noah has been much crankier about getting in and out of the car to see family then I think he will be. This year, we barely made it to my parents house before he was completely done with being dressed up. Levi didn't mind his costume or getting in and out of his car seat. When we got back home, Noah had a great time handing out candy to trick-or-treaters at our door but had not interest in going out to ring our neighbors doorbells...maybe next year....