Thanksmas

 The entire Schrag family gathered for Thanksmas today.  Josh and Sara arrived last night to complete the gathering.  And, due to different schedules and available vacation time, this was the only 24 hours that we'll all be together this holiday season.  Sadly, it's been a year since we'd seen Sara and more yet since we'd seen Josh.

 Today was our Christmas!  We had a great time opening gifts.

 Levi was thrilled with his book of animal stickers (and all the other stuff he got)

 and Noah was thrilled with his football tee - although his expression in this photo doesn't show it.

 He tried it out right away and later he used it outside.

 Both boys got Chicago Bears hooded sweatshirts, John Deere jammies and socks, DVD's, a Nerf football and more.

 I walked around today taking some random photos to capture some of the other things we've been doing while we've been here.  The Wii has proven to be an excellent source of entertainment.  Noah and Levi mastered bowling and golfing and even got the rest of us in on the action.

 Sue introduced me to her homemade powder laundry detergent.  It's simple - 1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap, 1 c. Borax and 1 c. Washing Soda.  You grate the Fels-Naptha and then mix it all together.  It works great in her High Efficiency washer and she only uses 1 Tbsp. per load.  I think it sounds like a much more ecological and economical way to do laundry.

 We have eaten enormous amounts of delicious food.  We've had fabulous soup, bread, rice & beans, ham, potatoes, pie and more.  Sue outdid herself with providing us with wonderful food, hot chocolate and peppermint tea.

 Levi was so thrilled with his new jammies that he wore them all day.  He had a purple upper lip from the grape juice he drank all day and twice today I found him watching a DVD that he had gotten out and ready by himself.  How does he know how to do this?

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration with the entire family.  We completed 2 3/4 puzzles, colored pictures, played hide-and-seek and football, watched movies, took naps and laughed a lot.

Paint & Clippers

 Sue found a fantastic recipe for making finger paints online and Noah helped her whip up a batch.

 We had a great time making all sorts of gooey colorful creations on the glass kitchen table.

 And later in the day, Levi agreed to a haircut, while Ben took Noah out to a local place to get his hair cut (he continues to refuse to get his hair cut by anyone he's related to).

And after the haircut wrapped up, Levi vacuumed up all his little blond hairs from the floor.

Thanksgiving Fire

 Grandpa took the boys outside this morning to gather sticks and rake leaves.  The boys were pumped to help make a fire and getting some sticks and leaves picked up from the yard is always a good thing.

 The boys worked hard and had a great time raking, jumping into piles,

 adding leaves and poking the fire to help it keep going.

 Levi was not so helpful in picking up the leaves,

 but he made a wonderful cart driver - sound effects and all.  Happy Thanksgiving!

9 Hours Later

It took us 9 hours to drive to Illinois on Tuesday afternoon/evening and when the boys got up on Wednesday morning, they were READY TO GO!  It's exciting to be at Grandpa and Grandma Schrag's house.  There's always lots to see and do.

First things first, help grandma in the kitchen.

 They helped Sue mix up Sourdough bread.

 And then Ben and I took the boys to the Children's Museum.  As soon as we told the boys we'd be traveling to Illinois, they asked to go to the Children's Museum.  So, we put it at the top of the priority list.

 I think we spent about an hour in the farm section.  The museum has a wonderful set up of combine, grain cart, auger, bins, feeding troughs and grain elevator all connected by tubes. The grain are the little green balls you see below.  Air flows through the tubes, so when you put a green ball in, the air whisks it away to the next place grain goes.

 The boys fed the cows, made the grain go up the auger, gathered more grain in their buckets, 

 then they'd run their full buckets to the cows, 

 and run their empty buckets back to the grain auger.  

 They spent time picking corn on the combine and then they were finally ready to move on.

 We spent quality time in the painting area.  I could tell they were a year older than the last time we'd been to  the museum.  They both painted their names, rainbows and shapes instead of randomly brushing paint on and spending most of the time washing it off.

 At the pretend stage, Noah got involved by operating the curtain and lights.  He wasn't interested in putting on a costume and acting in the show the other kids were putting together.  

 Levi wasn't interested in the big stage, but did have a good time with the hand puppets.

We had a great time and thanks to the Amtrak train just outside the museum, we were able to lure our kids out so we could go eat lunch.  Without that train, I'm not sure when we would have got them to quit making pretend pizzas.

Axle

 Meet Axle.  He'll join our family in December, when we move out to the farm.  The other night we got to meet him and the wonderful family he's been living with.  They live in town and decided to give him away since they don't have the time or space to let Axle run and be the dog he wants to be.  

I think that's right....I don't know...I've never owned a dog before...so most of this is brand new to me.

They had great things to say about him, so we're hopeful that Axle will do well with us and have a good life out on the farm.

Busy

So, if you can't tell by the absence of blog posts in the past couple weeks, our life is busy.  See, we're moving.  We sold our house and now we're moving out to the farm.  We're excited to move out to farm, to adjust to country life, to be closer to church, school and Ben's work.  

 We managed to move our compost, thanks to my dad, his truck and pitch fork.

And now, I'm busy packing boxes and moving them out to the farm one carload at a time.  We have the benefit of moving at our own pace.  Maybe it's a curse...one box at a time, for weeks at a time might be the death of me.

And there's talk of a dog.  Oh my.