Well, we hope you are all having a happy new year so far. We have been pretty busy ourselves. The kids all spent the first few weeks going through a couple rounds of illness. First it was strep throat, then some other virus that gave everyone fevers. Thankfully, we are all doing much better now and hopefully, we'll stay well for a little while.
The kids are all growing up way too fast, as always. Keith doesn't look like a newborn anymore and is quite the smiley little boy. He is always looking all around to see what is going on and loves it when people pay attention to him and talk to him. Here are a couple pictures that we took over the holidays. We'll have to get some more posted soon.
As usual, we made gingerbread houses as part of our family's Christmastime tradition. We had some friends over to share in our tradition and the kids enjoyed breaking and eating them after the new year. We also had fun making a variety of other fun holiday treats like the cupcake reindeer that Ethan is showing off in the picture below.
Mike made a really cool play kitchen for the kids this Christmas. He had intended to start working on it a couple months before Christmas, but didn't manage to start until just a couple days before. It was quite a job, but the kids love it (especially Kirsten and Alyssa). It's pretty sturdy, so it should last a while. We got the basic instructions from the internet at
ana-white.com.
Mike was especially pleased with the drain that we made from a little crumb cup. It gave it a nice finishing touch.
For our new year celebration, we had 40 people at our house (including the 10 of us that normally live here). It was a lot of fun and a bit crazy at times. We were glad for all those who were able to make it out. One of the more exciting events was when a tornado warning was issued and we all had to cram into the hallway since we don't have a basement due to a high water table. You can see most of us in the photo below. Fortunately, the storm passed us by without any significant incident and we carried on with our usual celebration.
It's amazing how much Rebecca is growing up. She loves to dance, draw, sing, read, and play the piano, and climb (as evidenced by the picture below). Since she turned 8 near the holidays, we were able to have her baptism while many of our relatives were visiting for New Year's. She was very excited to get baptized. We are very pleased with her decision to be baptized and look forward to her continued growth and progress.
Well, that's it for now. We'll try to be more regular in our blog posts again. Take care.
