deck the house

I have had several requests to post a picture of our house, so here it is. I thought it would be a nice idea to take a picture of it at dusk with the Christmas lights on. (If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you will be able to see it better.) So anyway, I will plan on taking a picture in the day time. I am aware that this is not that great. This is the Moravian star our friends from our church in PA (Calvary Baptist) gave us before we left. It is a common thing to see there as the area where we lived included Bethlehem and Nazareth. Josh hung it over our door and I love it. Thanks guys! We miss you and every time I look at it, I am reminded of how we were blessed with your friendship during the 3 years we lived there.

Here is a closer look at the front door. We had fun decorating for Christmas. I love this season. I will try to post pictures of the inside of the house later.

"Pake"

Well, Nora Kate has followed in the same footsteps of her brother.... Today she was playing with her new imaginary friend, "Pake". Pake is a boy, and she has been giving him hugs and kisses, waving at him, and sharing her chair with him this afternoon. He is currently playing with his toys. Some of you may remember "Funny Guy" and "Dr. Silly", Samuel's imaginary friends. Those 2 are still around, but spend a lot of time on vacation in Mexico these days according to Samuel.

under construction

These 2 were hard at work today, at what, I'm not sure.... they're out for hire if you need anything......

Samuel's School Christmas Play 12-4-07

Samuel's 1st grade Christmas play was last night at his school. It was really cute. He had tried out for a singing part in the play, but was given the part of the 'horse' instead. The day he came home with his assigned part, it was really funny. The paper said, 'Your child, Samuel, has been assigned the part of horse in this year's Christmas play. ' I told him how awesome it was and talked it up. He said, "well, is it a singing horse?" I said "no, I think this is a quiet horse". Ever since the Christmas season has started, every time Samuel sees a nativity, he spots the donkey and says, "hey Mom, there's the horse!" Here is the whole group of first graders singing. Samuel was on the left side, third row, on the inside end. You probably won't be able to see him, but I thought a picture of the whole group was neat and would let you Grandparent's see what it was like since you couldn't be there. It was called "The Mystery of the Manger - It's the Gospel Truth". At some point the kids in the manger scene had to leave to get their costumes on and then they had a procession down the aisle to go back up to the stage. Luckily I got the inside scoop from another Mom who was helping out who told me where to sit so I could see him coming in. This is our little horse coming in during the procession.

This is the manger scene. You can see Samuel sitting to the right of Mary and the wisemen, and to the left of the camel. Very sweet.

This is at the end, all the kids and the music teacher.

Here is our little horse again. He looked really cute.


Here is the t-shirt all the kids had on for the play.

Just for the record, Nora Kate sat very nicely during most of the play. She liked listening to the kids sing and mimicked their hand motions with the songs. At the end, the principle talked to the crowd about Christmas and it's true meaning and then took a moment to honor all Grandparents that were there, talking about what a huge part they play in the lives of their Grandchildren. She had them all stand up and it was about 1/3 to 1/2 of the room. It made me a little sad, but even living far away, Samuel and Nora Kate know how much they are loved by their Grandparents. Enjoy the photos!

Nora Kate's 1st haircut 12-1-07

Yesterday we took both of the kids to get their hair cut. Samuel was long overdue and it was Nora Kate's 1st. She could have waited, but it seemed her hair was just getting increasingly stringy and it needed to be evened out so it could thicken up. Here are the two of them at home "before".
Nora Kate was very excited for her first haircut. She wanted to get hers cut the last time I took Samuel (which was obviously a while ago). We take them to this kids place called Snip-Its. It is very cute and they can watch a video or play computer games during the haircut, so it makes it less painful for everyone involved. Anyway, Nora Kate sat very still and cooperated very nicely the entire time. She really enjoyed it......

...except for the hair dryer. As you can see, she did not enjoy that portion of the haircutting experience, so the lady stopped and we let her hair air dry. No big deal.

This is her "after" picture. As you can see, she was quite proud of herself!

Here is Samuel getting his hair cut. It was quite a job. I don't have an after picture of him, but you can see he was shaping up quite nicely. He really loves playing the games. You can see he was really concentrating. (Under his cape was a mouse and mousepad).

All Grandparents, brace yourselves..... here she is at home today. This is what she really looks like now. Where did my little baby go?!