Sometimes I put lots of pictures together and call it a blog post...

February already! How did that happen?

Even if no one else noticed our quiet start to 2014, I know all the grandparents would like see some new pictures up here. I can't exactly count these as "new," but here are a bunch of photos that I have meant to be more timely in posting...

This is Rebekah at the end of her Pee Wee Bible Quiz season. I remember when Alyssa was in Pee Wee and I would chase little toddler Rebekah around at the quiz meets trying to keep her quiet in the hallways while the quizzing was going on. It doesn't even seem possible that Rebekah has now completed three years of her own quizzing! I am so thankful for their teachers and all the time the girls have spent learning the Bible in their years of Bible Quiz, it's a wonderful program!

Super Hero dress up day at gymnastics. Can you guess who her favorite super hero is?

Winter weather in all of it's cold glory has pretty much been the story of our lives here since mid-December. We have not had a shortage of the white stuff this year.

At the annual Trim the Tree party at the Rep.

Family picture night at A Christmas Carol. All the great pictures Dave took this evening really deserve a post of their own. I hope to get to it soon. Alyssa is so completely in her element when she's performing at the Rep, she absolutely loves it.

A few pictures of our house under construction, these were all taken back in early December...

The area that used to be a small kitchenette and bathroom.

The framing for Alyssa's new room.

Future bathroom and the pipes in the floor underneath it.

Now that the upstairs is pretty well put together again, I hardly remember the days when this is what it looked like :-)

Dave working hard. He had just finished putting in a bunch of insulation, that's why he has the mask on. If you've never worked with fiberglass insulation before, it's pretty nasty stuff that you would not want to breathe in.


This is probably one of the last photos taken with that door in place. We closed up the exit since we rarely used it anyway.

About a week after the photos above were taken, and after a lot of hard work hanging drywall by my Uncle Ray and Uncle Ted this is what the same area looked like:

The top left is a sitting room area and there will be a desk that runs along the length of the back wall. The top right and bottom left are views of Alyssa's room, the middle is right at the top of the steps. The bottom right is the area I just mentioned above where there used to be a door. Uncle Ted and Uncle Ray also did an awesome job of painting this whole space seen above. I can't wait to share those photos next!

Christmas craft day, or basteltag, in Rebekah's classroom. She was so proud of this little skier she made. She gave it to Dave for Christmas telling him that it was him on some blue glitter skis.

Emma's classroom Christmas party was the same day and was less about crafts and more about filling the kids with a crazy amount of sweets and singing silly songs in front of the class.

The Kingdom Kid's Choir Christmas Musical, We Three Spies...

Rebekah loved all the songs and dance moves for this musical! She had a little cameo two-line speaking part as "Kid #1." So proud of this once very quiet little munchkin.

Emma played the role of Ms. King. Ms. King was a fun, sassy and excessively fancy character, that honestly was a bit of a stretch for Emma to pull off. To quote Ms. King, "I feel a song coming on..."

I was very happy and excited for her. Emma has tried out for a drama role in Kingdom Kid's Choir for every musical from 1st grade to 5th, and she has often ended up with a singing solo, but she had never been cast in drama before this play. In the end, she put her own little Emma twist on the character and I thought she did it perfectly.

Getting to ride across the stage on a bike that she is much too big for may very well have been her favorite part.

Post show, celebratory photos with friends.

For the first time ever, we didn't put up a Christmas tree this year. There just wasn't any space for one with all the remodeling. I think I took photos of the girls in front of any public Christmas tree we could find to make up for the lack of one in our home.



I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and a sweet start to 2014! I hope to be back with a January photo re-cap later this week!

In the meantime, please allow Emma to recommend a fun site. Start with episode 1, if you like. Emma showed me this website last night {as things usually go, we may be the very last people to know about it, and it may not be anything new to you}. She had fun following the directions and seeing what would happen next and she thought her cousins might like it too :-)

Christkindl Market Chicago

I recently chaperoned a field trip with Alyssa's German class to the Christkindl Market in Chicago. It's not as big as I remember it being when I went there as a kid, but such a fun place filled with all sorts of unique hand crafted gifts. It made me feel in the Christmas spirit to walk around there. Especially since we don't have many Christmas decorations of our own up this year, because of limited space with the construction, I really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful ornaments and other decorative things.

Chaperoning a middle school field trip is much like trying to keep a watchful eye on potentially naughty sheep from a distance that is far enough that those sheep can retain their cool factor, but not so far that they might actually make a run for it and join a new flock.

I realize that the fact that I just used the words "cool factor" to attempt to describe characteristics they would like attributed to them is probably why they don't want to hang out with me more. Alyssa doesn't mind me being around at all, in fact each time I walked away to take a few pictures I ran into her classmates who told me she was looking for me. They said it in a way that insinuated that even my absence was a burden to them. Ugh, so teenagery.

Verry pretty Lebkuchen hearts.

Amazing ornaments:



Delicious pretzels!!

These were larger than the faces of the kids who were eating them ~ HUGE!

Alyssa and one of her best besties.

These hand painted pewter art pieces were absolutely beautiful! I wanted the Noah's Ark one, then I saw how much it costs and I didn't want it as much anymore.

These nesting dolls were precious too, every single little delicate detail was attended to!

Alyssa bought one of these for her new room.

I opted for a souvenir mug full of what I think was hot apple cider.

Such a huge collection of steins!

The group of mostly good, sweet, potentially naughty sheep that Alyssa has gone to school with since kindergarten. It's been amazing to watch these kids grow up and it's at least a little sad that many of them will be going in various directions next year for high school...only about six more months together with their crazy and wonderful group!

Christmas Books

The day after Thanksgiving I usually take out all our Christmas stories and we try to read a couple of them each night between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is one of my favorite traditions, and we have come to love so many great Christmas books!


A wonderful new book we discovered last year is The Paper Bag Christmas. I bought it simply because it was on the sale shelf at the book store, and it is definitely going back into the line up of Christmas books to read this season and every season after for as long as my girls will listen to it ~ it's so good!

The books shown here are: Have You Seen Christmas?, A Gift From St. Nicholas, The Legend of the Candy Cane, The King's Christmas List, The Christmas List, A Special Place for Santa, The Three Gifts of Christmas, and The Christmas Bell. These are some of our favorites and I believe all are available on amazon.

Our girls are old enough now to read the story of Jesus' birth right from the Bible and understand, but when they were younger they loved reading the story from nativity books like these. The girls still enjoy the nativity adventure What God Wants for Christmas that is pictured in the middle.

I am sure the girls could remind me of several other good books that I have missed here, but if you are looking for any good Christmas read alouds that kids are sure to enjoy, we recommend any of these!!

Cleaning Up After Christmas

Photo 5 of 365, taken January 5th.

We spent all day today cleaning up Christmas decorations. I always have so much anxiety doing this, no matter how careful we are, stuff tends to get broken and I just feel so much stress looking at my living room full of half-full bins of breakables and other things that hold special memories.

We managed to escape the task without breaking a single thing {for possibly the first time ever} but still had a casualty...the angel above is the first tree topper that Dave and I ever bought, the first year we had a Christmas tree of our own. She hasn't worked for probably at least three years and we have since bought a new topper. We hung onto the angel because the girls loved her so much. When she worked, her dress would light up and switch colors from gold, to pink, purple, blue etc. Anyway, we seem to accumulate new items every year that need to get packed up, and this year, the broken angel didn't make it back to her year long home in the rubbermaid bin.

At the end of a long day of trying to be a better organizer and cleaner upper than I really am, I can gladly say that I don't have to do this again...until next year!

A Christmas Carol ~ Photos in Costume

Thank you very much to Aunt Laura {my mom's sister} and Unlce Ted {my dad's brother} who came up to Milwaukee a couple Sundays ago with my parents to see A Christmas Carol. It was so nice to see you, and Alyssa was very happy you could see the show!

Below are some of my favorite pictures of Alyssa in her costumes for A Christmas Carol. The first several photos show her in her "Want" costume, and in the bottom few she is wearing the costume that she wears in almost every scene of the play other than the Fezziwig scene and the Want scene. The only costume we didn't get her pictured in is her Fezziwig scene costume. It blesses me so much to have these pictures because our experience in the past is that it is extremely difficult to get photographs of the kids in costume ~ wonderful memories I am thankful to have!!

Tiny Tim and Want.

With Martha Cratchit.

With Remembrance and Forgiveness.

With Fan.

With Catherine {possibly Alyssa's favorite actress in the play}.

Collecting for La Causa after the performance.


“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Don't Miss The Manger

The Kingdom Kid's Choir Christmas musical this year was called, Camel Lot, Don't Miss The Manger! and it was as cute as ever! Growing too old for kid's choir at church is one of the saddest things that has ever happened to Alyssa, but Miss Gina told her she can help behind the scenes from now on ~ so that made Alyssa very happy! Kid's Choir is one our girls' most favorite things ever and it's always so wonderful to get that cd of Christmas music in September and get an early start singing Christmas songs as we shuffle back and forth from school.

There's quite a few photos from the musical here, but they are all my favorites and I couldn't decided which ones to include, so I included just about all of them. You can click the collages for a better view.

Rebekah was a lot less reserved than I thought she would be. I had to talk her into staying for the first few rehearsals, she wanted nothing to do with singing with all the big kids. But she seemed pretty comfortable on stage by the time the performance came around. It definitely helped that Emma was right near her. Some of Rebekah's expressions {yawns included} were funny. She only pulled up/adjusted her skirt about 327 times, so that's something we'll have to work on for next year.






Emma during her solo...she was her typical, consistent, laid back self. Her complete calm under pressure astounds me sometimes.

Rebekah had a small solo too, again, something she would not have even wanted to try a year ago. Their teacher asked me if it would make Rebekah a nervous wreck if she gave her a solo and went on to explain how Rebekah was very timid to volunteer during solo try outs, but as soon as the music went on, her voice filled up the room. I'm so thankful she is coming out of her shell a little. I love how the bottom pic shows that she is barely tall enough to reach the microphone, she's on her tippiest toes in the top picture.

Their similar expressions in this photo cracked me up, two peas in a pod they are.

I love how it looks like Rebekah is checking on Emma in this picture, just making sure her big sister is there, doing what she's supposed to be doing :-)


Do you think Rebekah knows where we are in the audience and that I am taking pictures of her?

Yeah, I think she knows exactly where we are!!

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger. -Luke 2:9-12

A Little Shepherd Girl

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. -Luke 2:15-20

Last Saturday was Rebekah's German Dance Christmas party. At the practice before the party as they were handing out costumes for the nativity scene, they didn't have enough costumes for all the little girls in the dance group to be angels. The group is larger than it has ever been and the teacher makes all the costumes, so they were limited in how they could cast the little ones. Rebekah was handed a shepherd costume and she brought it to me with a tiny smile, only half happy about the situation and said, "Can you find me a staff? I'll be a shepherd if you can get me a staff."

I told her how important the shepherds were, how they were the very first to find out about Jesus' birth. I also reminded her how in the Bible Jesus is referred to as "The Good Shepherd." I wanted her to be excited about her role, and I am not sure that she understood everything I was telling her, but she definitely perked up as we talked about it. And the fact that I found her a candy cane yard ornament to use as a staff helped her not to feel sad as she watched many of the other little girls putting on their cute angel outfits.

Such a precious sight ~ all the kids re-enacting the nativity scene and singing.

Her staff doubled as a crutch nearly all night, more than one person asked Rebekah how she hurt herself. I tell you, the child does nothing half way, she was very convincing.

Our sweet shepherd girl.

Getting ready to sing Christmas Carols.

This is something that I am so, so proud of...Rebekah read a German Christmas poem to the audience during the party. Her voice was as tiny as a mouse and we could hardly hear her, but no matter!! During the song that preceeded her poem, as she realized it was almost time for her to go on, she started to tear up, and I could tell she was suddenly feeling remorseful for having volunteered her poetry services. But she mustered up the courage and did it, I was so happy for her especially beacuse I know she could not have managed a similar feat at this same time last year. She's growing up!

On to the dancing portion of the program...this picture is so blurry but I thought it showed how happy and active all the kids are once the music plays.

Having a very serious conversation with her friend Brittany in between dances. I love how kids have absolutely no filter about when it is appropriate to break from a performance and do your own thing.

Such a happy little German dancer.

Trim the Tree

Every December, the Rep hosts a Christmas Tree Trimming Party and the girls looked forward to it for days. It's a Rep tradition to invite all the families of the cast members for tons of food and fun ~ and at least a little decorating.

However, the day before the party Rebekah came down with an ear infection and later had an allergic reaction to her antibiotic. I felt so sorry for her. She itched everywhere, had two unexpected doctor appointments {which are always stressful for her, even when she feels well} and the red hives just spread all over her entire body. After a few doses of benedryl, a new antibiotic, and missing a day of school to sleep, she is completely fine. And there was no way she wanted to miss the party, even though she was still getting over the reaction.

They started with this bare, white lighted tree and tons of boxes and bins of decorations later, it was anything but plain!

Emma jumped right in with the kid's cast to decorate.

Alyssa and Rebekah worked very carefully on this side table. They decorated with a gold theme and it turned out so cute.

This is as close to a final product photo that I got, with the food there it became way too crowded to get a good picture. They added a mini Christmas tree and all the gold accessories they could find.

Busy, busy tree trimmers.

When it was time to eat, Rebekah ate like a champ...I was relieved that she was feeling better!

The older girls enjoyed a great meal by the tree too.

A quick photo of many of the tree trimmers and cast mates. I have been so thankful for the many ways that the Rep has invited the families of the cast into the whole process and season of A Christmas Carol. Alyssa continues to enjoy the experience and performances each and every day!

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Der Nikolaus Kommt

Every 6th of December St. Nick comes and leaves goodies for the girls.

An early morning investigation of the treats left in their boots.

Does St. Nick visit your house, and if so, what does he bring? At home he left the girls clementines, ice cream cone shaped marshmallows, chocolates and advent calendars {yes, we were late getting started on our chocolate filled ones this year}. At school he brings games to each class and other things their teachers would like for them to have in the classroom. He also reads a special poem to each classroom telling them what good children and students they have been this year.

Rebekah taking a big stretch after their Nikolaus assembly. It must have been exhausting watching all those presents being handed out :-)

Emma and her friend Willow on the other hand, were fascinated by it, or at least by something on the ceiling...with these two who knows what it was that caught their eye.

I know I recommend this book about St. Nicholas just about every year around this same time, but it's still one our family's favorite books. It's feeling a little more like Christmas everyday and I love it!