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.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Warning: This is a long post.

I know, I could have broken it into several smaller posts, but that's not in the cards this week.

The Epp's gathered on Thanksgiving evening. Rylee made herself at home at Doug and Vanessa's and became instant friends with all of Addison's horses.

Erica and Delaney

All the kiddos (minus Delaney) with the stars they made after dinner. Thanks aunt Pat for organizing another wonderful Thanksgiving craft!

We don't do Black Friday, we just don't. Instead, we visited Verney and Janice Voth's sheep farm!

The boys got to bottle-feed two sheep, feel how thick a ewe's wool coat is and pet a one day 0ld lamb.

So soft, jumpy and cute!

Then we were off to find our Christmas tree at Pine Creek Farm! We found a fabulous Douglas Fur and promptly chopped it down to take home with us.

Saturday evening we gathered at Ben's grandparents for a Brazilian rice and beans feast. Scot, Janet, Patrick and Emily were in town (for the first time in 3 years) so we had a great time catching up with them. Levi and Noah put on a "show" of their own complete with singing, dancing, flopping on the floor and running as fast as they could.

Then Scot showed them his famous, I-can-remove-my-thumb-and-then-put-it-back-on trick. The boys were completely confused, worried and entertained by the trick.

Sunday we ate our final Thanksgiving meal at my grandma Schmidt's house. After the boys finished eating they played dinner "music" for us. First Levi on the piano and then both of them on the organ. Let me just say, thank goodness they can't reach the volume-pedal on the organ.

All the food, music and playing wore out Levi.

While at great grandma's Noah realized that the bale elevator that he plays with over there could be even better to play with at grandma and grandpa's since they have bales and a barn!