Ice Fishing

All 9 of us went ice fishing this morning. Noah caught his second fish for the week and we did just a bit of sledding on the bank of the pond. The fish did not cooperate very well, as we only caught 8 fish total. Thankfully Tim, Noah, Ben and Andy caught enough fish earlier in the week that a meal of rice & beans and fish will be on the menu tomorrow.

Snow Play

The snow in Illinois has been a huge hit with the boys. We haven't seen snow in Kansas yet this year, so to have 6 inches of white powder to play in has been a lot of fun.

Many loads of snow have been hauled up to the playhouse and then dumped inside it. Thankfully, the slotted floor of the playhouse will help to reduce the mess the snow will surely make when it melts.

Load sled, dump it out, repeat.

Thank goodness for clothing that keeps us warm while we play in the snow and the hot chocolate and cookies we can enjoy when we come back inside!

Levi turns 3

Our baby boy is 3 today. Full of energy, attitude and cuddles.

There really were 3 candles on the cupcake, it's just the angle that makes it look like 2.



Grandma Schrag let Levi pick out what we ate for dinner. He chose spaghetti, garlic bread, peas & carrots and green jello with pears in it. Plus, he picked out yellow cake (his favorite color) with chocolate frosting and sprinkles for his birthday cupcakes.



New mittens, 2 books, a fun sparkly pencil, a John Deere sweatshirt and new cuddly warm funky monkey jammies made for one cheesy-happy boy.

Christmas Joy

The boys nearly tore into their gifts before we could read the Nativity story. But rounded them up just in time!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun at our house this year. Ben and I are enjoying these years when giving gifts to the boys is relatively easy. Noah had asked for a drum for months and was overjoyed when he opened up an electric drum.

Levi got the guitar he'd been asking for, too. Look out world - the Schrag family just might start a band.

A Christmas without farm toys would hardly be a Christmas at our house. A farm set-up with grain bins that actually unload were a winner.

Fireman Levi to the rescue!

Play-doh, makes a mess in a hurry but keeps the boys content for quite a while.

It was a very merry Christmas and we have many blessings to be thankful for, indeed.

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve, a night of fun, anticipation, and a full church. Our church is full for only one service a year - Christmas Eve. It's wonderful to see the balconies full, the church bustling with little ones and you never know what the children will do!

Levi was an angel, and while he stood there with the other angels he didn't once sing one word of "Away In a Manger" even though he know's every word and action to the song.

Noah's class performed a finger play, and the normally completely stage frightened Noah actually did all the actions and I saw his mouth moving! I'm holding out hope that Levi will follow in his brother's footsteps.

"Jingle, Jingle Happy Bells"

Preschool Christmas

Today was the much anticipated Preschool Christmas program! Noah has been jabbering about this and singing his songs and showing me the finger plays for weeks. That is a huge contrast from last year when he never talked about what they were learning in preschool.

It's hard to wait for all the parents to arrive so the show can start!

He participated in each number they performed (also an improvement from last year). The funny thing is that because he has talked about this stuff at home so much, I knew some of them quite well too!

The program ended with each child giving a gift to their parents. Noah made us a star out of popsicle sticks that he colored and glued big buttons on to. Then he showed us around the room so we could see all the artwork he's created since Thanksgiving.

He spelled his name on the red part...backwards and upside down...his teachers say it's pretty normal for kids his age...but I'm ready for him to get that turned around.

Christmas Card Rejects

On Monday I snapped some photos of the boys trying to get something that would work for a Christmas card. Yes, I realize I started this project a bit late - ok, a lot late! I'd thought I'd share the rejects from our mini-photo shoot.

According to the Hallmark website, my order is "processing"...hopefully I'll get them sooner rather than later.

The Countdown is On

The countdown to Christmas that is! At supper tonight, Noah excitedly announced that, "Christmas is one day away!" So, to help him understand how much longer he was going to have to wait, we made a countdown!

This made for two nights in a row that I got the boys to color! I LOVE coloring and doing crafty type things, but so far I haven't been able to get my boys to participate. So, I'm feeling encouraged...a little bit, at least.

This is the majority of Noah's handiwork.

And Levi's

It was fun and hopefully, it'll cut down on the number of questions about how many days until Christmas.

Time's Flying

Life - for all of us - seems to fly during the holiday season and that has been especially true for us this year. The last time I uploaded photos from my camera was Nov. 28! A LOT has happened since then, but most of it was not captured in photos.

Waaaayyyy back on Dec. 4, my mom and I decorated a table for the women's Christmas brunch at church. 17 tables were decorated that day, all by different women, each with it's own story and unique holiday sparkle.

Last week, Ben and I were both gone on trips for work so the boys spent several nights with my parents. It was a long week for our family and being together again on Friday was good for all of us. Thank you mom and dad for taking care of the boys while we were away!

Sunday we hosted my family to celebrate my mom's birthday and for a mini-Christmas with Sherri and Rylee (they leave for Oregon later this week, until after Christmas).

Rylee loves horses and cats. This horse isn't made for riding, it's made for pulling but Rylee had her own plan.

Double. Trouble.