The Newest Wise-guy!

Welcome little Wise-guy!  He was born today around noon, weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz., and 20 inches long.  No name yet, but let's face it, we're all going to call him Ozzie B. (or O. B. Wise) so it doesn't really matter what his name is!

Isn't he perfect? 

Mariann is doing well so far.  Recovering from a c-section isn't easy, but she has lots of friends to help!

He's a big boy, just look at these feet!

Yep, he's definitely Jimmy's son! 

Sledding Fun!

GET READY!

GET SET!

GO!!!

We took the kids up to Hyak at Snoqualmie for some sledding yesterday.  To quote Brooke, "All you need is some sand or some snow and the kids will play all day!"  So true.  Nate invited Emma, so even he had a great time.  

This double (or triple) tube was a huge hit! 

Brooke brought along her own personal heater. 

Torah was so snuggly and warm, she slept almost the entire day!

Some of the gang, the ones I could catch at the same time, anyway. 

They didn't stand still for longer than it took to take this picture. 

Emma yelling to Nate to "keep your arms up!"  He'd try to sneak either his arms or feet down to slow them down.  I'm with him!  It freaks me out to go so fast.

Ben had a blast!  He wasn't afraid to go on his own, but really enjoyed going with Brad, too.

Testing to see if Nathan Russell's military snow gear is really snow proof!

After lunch, the kids took a break from sledding to play in the snow and build some snow forts.

Brad and I went for a walk in the woods where the snow was so deep that I stepped into some spots up to my hip!  We found a nice spot by a little river and took a picture of ourselves. 

The river is below us, I couldn't figure out how to get it in the picture with us.

Ben, Cash, and Adana built a snowman together.  After playing in the snow, they hit the slopes for another hour or so.  Everyone had a great time and got thoroughly soaked! 

After a long day of sledding, we stopped at XXX Root Beer in Issaquah for some yummy burgers!

It might not have been good for us, but it sure tasted good!

The decor inside was reminiscent of "Fat Smitty's" in Port Townsend.  I didn't get a picture, but the people next to us ordered XXX burgers...HUGE is the only word for it, dinner plate size burgers.  It gave me a stomach ache just looking at them! We all stuck with more normal sized burgers.  Their home-brewed root beer was delicious! 

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Van Aken's...our traditional "Chinese Christmas."  Don't ask why they call it that, I have no idea and I don't really want to know.  It's one of those things that's been passed down from Brad's childhood. To be more politically correct, I try to call it the "Gift Exchange Game," but it might take a few more generations before a new name catches on!  Anyway, it's lots of fun, especially when we have Ashley, Brandon & Jane, Alicia, Brad's cousins the Willliams family, and our friends the Wises with us.  

Brad opened one of the early gifts...this stunning neon violin clock!  Needless to say, it was not one of the highly traded gifts.  He did manage to bribe his cousin's son to take it at the end of the night by giving him $10. 

Since Pat and Sarah weren't here this year, there wasn't a stand-out "must have" gift.  The most popular ones that got traded every round were $15 cash, a $15 i-Tunes card, two movie tickets, a set of pocket knives, and a Nerf shotgun.  Izaac Wise had his heart set on the Nerf gun and held on to it for a good part of the game.  He lost it near the end, but thanks to some sweet dealing by Alicia, was able to get it back in the final round.  We all know Alicia really wanted that Zhu-zhu pet! 

The kids woke up around 6:00 Christmas morning with strict orders that they could open their stockings, but had to wait until 7:00 to wake us up.  Why did we pick 7:00?  Next year it will be 8:00, at least!  With our attempts to have a simpler Christmas this year, the gifts were all open by 7:30.  I was able to capture some smiles while they were opening their presents. Even though they're not little anymore, and didn't have piles of toys to open, they still enjoyed their gifts and were grateful for what they received.

No, we did not give Nate oven bags!  All he wanted for Christmas this year was a guitar strap, headphones, and cash.  I wrapped the cash in different sized boxes so he would have something to open.

What was Santa thinking, bringing Ben a pocket knife?  We've had to remind him several times that a pocket knife isn't an inside tool!

Christmas afternoon, we headed over to my parents' for dinner and more presents.  

Grandma got the kids these awesome sleds, just in time for our sledding trip Monday! 

Tif posing in the headband/neck warmer I made for her.

Jonah and Brad really hit it off this year.  Jonah was fascinated with cracking nuts!

Christmas dinner!  Grandpa got to sit at the "boy's table" with the younger grandsons. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

32 years

Last night we celebrated Brad's parent's 32nd wedding anniversary with a wonderful dinner party that Ashley, Brandon, and Alicia planned.  Brandon put together a slide show of pictures from their wedding and early marriage.  Brad was 8 when his parents got married, so it was fun to see pictures of him as a little boy.  Ashley planned a few games, first a "Newlywed" game with questions to Morgan about Vikki and vice versa.  Vikki won, and Brad answered almost as many questions correctly about them as they did about each other.  The next game was trivia questions about both of them and events from 1978.  Somehow I won that one!  

Then we each gave a toast to Morgan and Vikki.  I loved hearing what everyone had to say about them.  Alicia talked about how supportive her parents have always been to her, how they've emphasized the importance of education (she's in graduate school getting her Master's in education), and how they have taught her to work hard.  Ashley thanked them for always being there for her and helping her in any situation she needed help with.  Brad quoted a poem his dad wrote when Brad was a kid:

"O little worm, you work so hard
to burrow in the ground.
You work all day, in the heat
without the slightest sound.
Watching you work so earnestly,
I'm glad that you can't talk.
For then I'd have to tell you,
You're digging on a rock."

And he talked about his dad's sense of humor.  Kylie echoed that and told the "chihuahua joke", her favorite joke that Grandpa has told her.  Brandon talked about how when he wanted to ask Ashley to marry him he wanted to get permission from Morgan first.  He called around the Stake to find Morgan's phone number and everyone he talked to had so many good things to say about the Van Aken family.  Nate and Jillian both commented on how they enjoy spending time at Grandma and Grandpas because they get to eat lots of junk and watch TV late into the night. And I thanked them for their love and their great ability to be non-judgemental and accepting. 

I'm so thankful we live close to Brad's family and have the opportunity to spend time with them. 

Jane fell asleep during dessert.  Never leave your sleeping two year old unattended around Brad's family!

Jillian's Band Concert

In the midst of all our evening events, Jillian had a band concert during the day on Wednesday.  I am so impressed with the progress she's made on the clarinet.  She started playing the trombone at the beginning of 5th grade last year and decided at the end of the year that she wanted to switch to clarinet.  (Yay!)  Over the summer she took a few private lessons, and now, four months into the 6th grade school year, she's totally caught up to the kids who started playing in 5th grade.  Way to go, Jillian!  Here's a sample from their fun holiday concert:

More Christmas Fun!

Three more nights of activities down, three more to go!  I'll probably be sad when we finally have a night when we get to stay home with nothing to do. 

Thursday night was Ben's Cub Scout pack meeting, where he earned his First Aid segment.  His scout leader showed him the patch and asked him what it was for.  He said, "CPR, no, wait, that doctor thing...First Aid!" 

Friday night Mariann and I took Jillian and another friend's daughter to see Annie at BPA.  It was fabulous!  I loved the orphans singing "It's a Hard-knock Life" and "You're Never Fully Dressed without a Smile."  Annie was the first Broadway play I ever saw.  My parent's took me when I was about 8 or 9.  Then a  year or so later, our Stake performed the play and I played the part of Molly.  I had the opening lines, "Mommy, Mommy!  I want my mommy!"  For some reason my acting career never took off...hmmm, I wonder why?

Last night we had a Christmas cookie exchange.  Our house was packed with people.  Our kids and our friends' kids are all getting bigger and seem to take up more room than they used to!  But it was so much fun to visit and eat lots of yummy cookies. 

Gretchen and her daughter made these adorable Santa cookies and "coconut balls" which the kids giggled about, saying they looked like Santa droppings.  Ewww!!!  They were tasty, though

I wanted to get a a picture of all the goodies, but I think this was taken before everyone got there. 

I didn't get many pictures of people visiting, but we had a very nice time together.  I wish we had room to invite everyone we love.  It's so hard to plan something like this and know we are leaving people out.  Our ward is growing like crazy and I really want to get to know more of the new people, too. 

Guy talk, I guess!

Carlyn fell in love with Torah!  

Can you believe she's going to have a baby in ten days?  She looks so great! 

Oh Calm, All Ye Stressful

Someone told me they heard that farsical title for "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful", and I thought it was very fitting for the week we've had!   We've had one event after the other every single night since last Saturday, and it will continue that way until this coming Monday.  They are all good, fun, Christmas-y (for the most part) activities, and all things I want to do (for the most part!), but for a home-body like me, it gets a little stressful being away from home every night. 

Last Friday, Kylie invited a few friends over to make gingerbread houses.  None of the boys in the group she usually hangs out with were able to come, so the dynamics were a little different than I was used to with four teenage girls.  They were very nice to include Jillian and Ben.  Nate stayed as far away as he could, for good reason!  Silliness prevailed.

One of Kylie's friends made the house in the middle.  I'm pretty sure she was just kidding around, but you never know with teenage girls!

Jillian, Kylie, and Ben's creations.

Saturday night was our ward Christmas party, a Whobilation Celebration of historic proportions!  Our ward has grown so much over the past year that I think we've outgrown sit-down dinners.  The entire cultural hall was packed with tables, 10 to 12 to a table, and still people had to stand or sit out in the hall.  The activities committee outdid themselves; maybe as a final hurrah since the word from church headquarters is that the activities committees should no longer exist.  They planned a production of "The Grinch who Stole Christmas" and invited everyone to dress up as Whos.  Ben and Jillian really got into it.  They had more fun dressing up for this than they did for Halloween.

Chloe, Jillian, and two of the Grinch's great-grandaughters, and Cindy-Lou Who (the cutie on the right with  the most amazing hair!  Her mom said it took two hours to put up.  Neither of my girls would have ever sat still that long, and I never would have wanted to spend that much time on hair!)

Best friends! 

Sorry this one's a little blurry, I must have been laughing while I took the picture!

 

More Whos....

and more Whos...

and more...

and more,

and more Whos!  (They reproduce like crazy, you know!)

This is the only decent picture from the play portion of the evening.  I haven't figured out if there's a better low light setting on my camera.

At the end, the Grinch was available for pictures.  Poor Timmy wasn't too sure about him! 

Sunday night was the Stake Choir Celebration.  Jillian has been part of our ward choir for the past six months or so, and it has been wonderful to see her interacting with so many people she normally wouldn't get a chance to associate with otherwise.  Each of the ten ward choirs performed a piece, then at the end they all sang "Joy to the World".  The choirs were seated on the sides of the chapel and into the cultural hall, so the audience was surrounded by music when they sang together.  It felt like we were in the midst of a chorus of angels.  I wish they would have done more combined songs!

Monday evening we went to our ward's Nativity exhibit.  More than 100 nativities from all over the world were on display.  I really wish my camera did better in low light.  I didn't take any pictures because I knew they wouldn't turn out, but there were so many beautiful nativities.  It made me wish I had thought of buying a nativity in the Philippines when Kylie and I were there last summer.  I would love to have a collection of nativities from the different countries I visit.  Yes, right now it would be a very small collection, since I've only been to the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Canada! 

Tuesday was a double event, first Kylie's Holiday Band Concert, then the Relief Society Christmas Party.  No pictures from either event, but both were very nice.  Kylie is in the Symphonic Band and they played selections from the Nutcracker.  After she was finished playing I rushed over to the church to catch the end of the Relief Society party.  I turned over most of the planning to my trusty assistants, so it was a little more relaxing for me this year.  They did a fabulous job putting everything together.  There were several musical numbers and a sister who just returned from Israel spoke about her experience hiking the Jesus Trail. 

Technically Wednesday night I didn't have to be anywhere, but my kids had their activities at church.  We did a little family activity before we dropped them off.  The youth had a nice dinner for the grandmas and grandpas in the ward.  Each "elder" sat with six of seven "youngers" to eat and visit.  Both Kylie and Nate said it was a very fun evening.  Jillian and her group had a babysitting night, which she really enjoyed.  She loves little kids. 

The next five nights are filled with activities as well.  I'm really ready for Christmas break to get here so at least I can sleep in a little in the morning!