Five Christmases = One Busy Weekend

We loved spending time with our families and celebrating the birth of Christ this Christmas season. Here are just a few snapshots of our Christmas gatherings this year. We left behind the camera for one of them, but here are pictures from the other four.

Rosenberger Family Christmas

Jason and I with a few of my siblings/inlaws. Don't be fooled, there are actually 20 members of this family. Four were "with" us via webcams from Colorado and Bolivia. (We missed you guys!!!)

Jason showing off his new oil changing supplies from Mark. "I am SO excited to use this!!"

Noah, are you playing with the toys or the wrappings?

Uncle Paul holding wiggly cousins Noah and Benjamin. My mom made them matching aprons with their handprints on them. Especially cute considering how much they both love to cook!

Liechty Extended Family Christmas

Leah, Addy, Ezra and Noah - second cousins.

Most of the grandchildren and great grandchildren

Noah wondering if he's going to get in trouble if he tries to break these ornaments like he does to the ones at home.

Two little toddlers admiring Finn's DS

Noah tuckered out.

Liechty Family Christmas (and video at the bottom of this post)

Gilliom Family Christmas

Mischevious little second cousins--Abraham, Noah, and Owen

Gage and Noah, second cousins one month apart in age

Noah tuckered out again.

Dutch Blitz became the game of choice of the weekend. Melody and Andrew are hooked for life, Jason just tries to finally win, and Lauren hates it but is a master!

Video: Noah opening a gift from his Liechty grandparents

Lots of good junk food, great people, and fun times! Too many to picture them all!

TV-free for January

While Jason and I have never been huge TV watchers, we decided to try going TV-free for the month of January. We decided 90% of the time we turn it on if we're bored, and it just wastes time. The idea is we could use our time better by being together, reading, exercising, playing games, or working on hobbies. Rarely is one truly edified by watching TV.

We've allowed "special exceptions" such as a planned movie on a weekend, but we will not be aimlessly turning on the TV or even watching the news. We'll see how this turns out at the end of January.

Christmastime: Decorating the Tree

These pics in this post are from early December but I am working on catching up since our hard drive crashed. (Still bummed about losing 5 months of un-backed-up pictures.)

We had lots of fun this year decorating our beautiful fake Christmas tree as a family. (I like artificial trees because they are relatively hassle free. Plus the free factor is nice...nothing to buy year after year.) Jason pulled it out from under his shirts in our bedroom closet (yes, that is where it was since January!) and set it up. We played the Christmas music and Jason sported his Santa hat. Meanwhile, I found the box of Christmas decorations. Noah was excited about helping.

Here he is playing with our plastic nativity. We only have three pieces - Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Since he couldn't really say their names, he just called them "Mama," "Dada," and "Baby." (It was a favorite toy until he threw Joseph down too hard on the kitchen floor and the head snapped off. So much for unbreakable...)

Jason decorated the tree with lights and..... pacifiers!!! If you look carefully at the top of the tree you can see two of them.

Noah decorated the tree with candy canes.

All in one spot.

Here is how it looked after Noah put on all the candy canes. :)

More of a finished product, after Mommy rearranged the candy canes. Those gold ornaments were such attractive items for Noah, and he must've broken most of them by Christmas. Time to babyproof our Christmas tree I suppose.

We're hoping to shop the after Christmas sales for some "shatterproof" ornaments and maybe some new decorations at 75% off. For now, this was our tree this year.

Noah's Day in the Snow

Noah got all dressed to play in the snow last week since his cousin Benjamin was coming over to play. He kept looking out the window pointing and saying "no!" (his word for "snow"). I told him we could go out to play for a little while so Mommy could shovel the driveway.

Not too sure what to think of the snow...

After watching me shovel some snow, Noah and Benjamin wanted to help too.

Soon it became more fun to sit on the snow shovel and be pulled around than to actually do any real shoveling with it! Noah and Benjamin both sat on the snow shovel while I pulled them up and down the driveway.

Noah tried to make a snow angel, but it was too cold for him. I tried to show the boys how to make a snowman, but they weren't very interested in that either.

We all lasted about 30 minutes before they were tired of being cold and crying to go inside. So funny!

Video: Noah Counts to Three

Noah learned how to count to three in the middle of November. It took me by surprise, because I had never worked with him on this skill. Jason says it is because he always plays with and tosses Noah onto our bed with a count of three.

Here is a little video of Noah counting (and mommy had a pretty bad cold---I don't think I always sound that bad!!)

To be continued.

Updates will be in progress soon!

It is no fun when your laptop crashes. Thankfully we had backed it up at the end of June, so we have only lost 4 1/2 months of pictures and other documents. The pictures are the most important part, of course. After one month with no working home computer, we are just now getting the new one set up and running. I have lots of pictures I'd love to share from our trip to Nicaragua as well as a baby update. In another few days we should have everything up and running completely so I can start doing updates.