Merry Christmas from Our Family!

2009 has been a great year! In February we travelled to Philadelphia for Mystery Man’s Grandmother’s 90th birthday party! She is doing great and still lives on her own. The trip was extra exciting because MM was together with ALL 5 of his siblings (Glummie, Ossian, Gesualdo, Thurston, Cosimo) for the first time in many years. We also enjoyed seeing MM’s aunt, Mary Lou, and her daughters Shannon & Lindsay. Our kids enjoyed playing with their cousins Bronwyn, Tristan, Wayra, & Indra, as well as their second cousin Connor.

In May Jen’s brother, Jeff, was married to Tiffany. Jen was a bridesmaid and Ephraim was the ring bearer. We had a great time visiting with everyone in Iowa throughout all the wedding festivities. Tiffany is a fantastic sister-in-law and we are so glad she’s in the family! We traveled again to Iowa in late June and enjoyed canoeing down the Raccoon River and visiting with Jen’s family. In August our kids convinced us to take another trip to the Wisconsin Dells, which was the highlight of their summer (simple pleasures, right?)

In September the kids went back to school. Azael is in 3rd grade, Ephraim is in 1st grade, and Silas is in preschool. What do they do for fun when not in school? Azael finally convinced us to let him and Ephraim play Club Penguin on the computer. Silas prefers pbskids.org or lego.com. Lorelai, age 2 ½, just learned how to play Teletubbies on the computer. We start them young. J All our kids enjoy playing outside, playing with friends, going to Chucky Cheese or various parks around town, and doing the other things kids do.

On November our daughter, Jane, was born. She weighed 9 lbs, 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She is a sweet baby and she has helped add a special calmness to our home. All our kids love her and have been enlisted to bounce her bouncy seat when Mom needs to cook or get something done. I refuse to purchase a swing because we have no space. In fact, we have so little space that we may try to move to a bigger house in 2010. Mystery Man would like a house located next to a park (just like this one) or an acreage. We’ll see what we can find…

MM continues to love his job. Jen still enjoys running a web business and is happy to report increased profits this year. Life is going well.

Well, time to close this letter… until 2010! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Mystery Man, Jen, Azael, Ephraim, Silas, Lorelai, & Jane

Azael's Prayer

Today Azael prayed the following:

Please bless me to have a GREAT day
and everyone else to have a normal day.

It's great to be 8, huh?

9-1-1-, the Concoction, and Snow

This morning, while MM was making lunches for school, the answering machine picked up and he heard the following:

Good morning. One of the younger members of the family called 9-1-1- and said something along the lines of "this is awesome" etc. I'm obligated to send the police. They're on their way. If you could kindly call us back and let us know there are not any problems, then we could avoid having the police come over there. Thank you.

Needless to say, MM called them back to cancel the police visit. And he interrogated the kids, finding out that Ephraim was the culprit. We didn't even have to punish him, because when we told him the police were on the way, he was FREAKED OUT! LOL! Lucky for him Daddy was able to call the police in time and rescue Ephraim from jail... :)

Later this evening, more fun occurred... MM went into the kitchen to find Lorelai "cooking." This is a photo of her concoction, which consisted of cinnamon sugar, chocolate chips, strawberry jam, and peanut butter. Yum yum!

And finally, here's a photo of last week's blizzard... MM didn't have to go to work, so he and the boys built a monstrous snow fort with all the snow from the driveway (the pile to the right).

Video of Jane

Enjoy cute baby Jane's video!

What Matters Most

When Jane was born, I took 2 weeks off to "hang" with Jane (read about it here).

Thankfully, I've been able to maintain that calm and relaxed mentality.

In fact, my new motto is this:

Do less.

Do less of the unimportant things.

You probably won't be surprised when I tell you

this has made my life much better.

And happier.

Everyone in our family is a bit more calm

and things are just... peaceful.

Do less of the unimportant things,

so you can do more of what matters most.

Like family time. And Enjoying the

TRUE meaning of Christmas.

I love this video clip about what matters most.

And here are some random photos of our calm, relaxing, and fun week...

and these are the things that matter most to me.

MM with Jane

Ephraim and Azael on crazy hair day at school.
Silas giving us his Princess Diana expression.Lorelai enjoying the snow.
Another shot of MM
Me. Sitting. And doing less. So I can do more of what matters most.

Azael's Shopping List

I have a whiteboard where we write down the items we need to buy on our next shopping trip. Apparently Azael felt the need to add some things to it. I guess we'll be eating the "good stuff" around here...