Happy Birthday Henry!!

We now have three Christmas' down and only one to go! Daryl was getting so used to opening presents that he kept asking us every morning if he could open more.

Had to tell him that Christmas is not normally a two week affair but I don't think it sunk in!!
We celebrated the 25th with my brother and his family, Santa did find Daryl at his cousin's house but for some reason left Daryl's presents in the car. ;-) Dad had to go retrieve them before we started opening.

He got more track and another Thomas the Train and he played with that along with a battery powered drill for most of the weekend.

Daryl also learned how to wrestle with his cousin Henry. Its pretty funny because D is over a year older than Henry but Henry is as big as him and loves to just fall on Daryl.
It was funny at there house but last night while I was watching TV D kept body slamming me! That was not fun!

Day after Christmas it was Henry's first birthday! He got to open a whole new pile of presents while his cousins looked on with awe, I'm sure they were wondering how he got two piles of presents!!! Too bad Henry was not fazed and after opening a couple he was DONE! He just wanted to play with his Chicken Dance Elmo and Electric Book.
He had a yummy Elmo cake that his Grandma Becker made for him. It was white cake for the Elmo and Chocolate cake for the sheet cake part. It was SOOOO Good. Henry just liked to lick it! Silly Boy!!

Merry Christmas Eve

Hanging out with the Stiles' this Christmas Eve. Daryl has had a lot of fun playing with his cousin Henry and Henry's toys!

Uncle Asa had to work today so we got to babysit Henry and he was a great baby. He napped twice and the first time everyone took a nap!

We keep telling Daryl Santa is coming tomorrow but he is still not getting it. That's OK because when we went and looked at the Christmas tree today he said, "Wow, that's REALLY nice!"

If we could all get so excited about just the lights it would probably be a lot less stressful of a holiday!

The surprise project I mentioned in my earlier post was 13 felted pouches for the women in my office! They took me two months to complete and were totally worth it. Everyone loved them! Sometimes when you knit a gift you don't know if the person you are giving it to will realize that not only are you giving them yarn transformed, you are giving them hours and hours of your time. These ladies totally got that! I'm already thinking about what I might make for them next year :)

Peace to everyone tonight and if you are blessed like Meerpohl Manor is make sure to say a prayer for someone else who might be needing it!

Merry Christmas!!

Tis the Season

Daryl has had his first Christmas of the season. It was a great time with family and Daryl got some special toys he is really excited about. He got some great books, some big boy underwear, a tent and some tools! He was so excited about the tools he slept with his hammer last night.

He has also been fixing EVERYTHING in our house. A little tap with his hammer and whatever he is working on is fixed :)

I made Daryl, Dominic and Carter Christmas shirts and they were very well received. Those boys crack me up! I do think Ashtin was a bit jealous so I will be on the look out for the perfect pattern for him next year! or not...he's kinda big! LOL

Right now I am still working on one more big project for Christmas and if I get my blog all taken care of I should finish it tonight. Can't post any pictures of the special project tonight but later this week for sure!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday! I know we are!!

Pride Cometh Before The Fall

I have been making great progress towards Christmas. I've only missed one advent service (an improvement over last year). All our presents are bought and wrapped, minus just a few that I'm making. Even the homemade gifts are on track to sail to the finish line.

Kelly and I have kept to our December budget and have not overspent a penny. We have been doing our monthly budget for two years now, spending every dollar on paper before the month begins. We were getting pretty high on the hog about it.

Well the way only fate can, it slapped us upside the head today. Our car (the upgraded one) has been giving us fits with the steering. Being our handy selves, Kelly tried to fix the power steering instead of paying the shop $300 to do it.

Hindsight we probably should have just paid it. More precisely we are going to pay it because whatever is wrong, we couldn't figure out with the help of friends and google.

Anywho the budget will probably be up in smoke even after all the careful planning, this is life. That is the conclusion.

And next month we will do the budget again, because that is our plan forever!

On a happier note Kelly turned 32 on Saturday. I had to work in the morning but then we went to his parents house for a feast of epic proportions. It was YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY. Kelly also had his cake with pudding in it that he says he only ever got on his birthday! It made him very happy. Today after Church Daryl and I took him to Coldstone for some Ice Cream.

Happy Birthday Honey! This house and life would not be possible without you. You are my personal handyman, mechanic, accountant, life coach, and dreamboat! Love You!

Away From Home Camp

Hello, I hope you all enjoyed the guest blogger last week. I think he did a fine job. Sometimes when I'm a little stressed Kel likes to ask what he can help with, he always tries to wiggle out of helping with the blog but if I'm really tired he will do it. He is good to me like that. awwww :)

This week I got to step foot on 4-H campgrounds for the very first time. I was in 4-H when I was a kid but my parents always "forgot" to let me know they had a summer camp! I was by no means mistreated as a child, I'm sure that with Church camp, basketball camp and Girl Scout camp I would survive my summer. Turns out they were right!

I do think 4-H camp would have been one of the top camps because the campground is amazing. The history of the land it is on and all of the fun places make it truly unique. Not every camp can boast that its pool is filled with water from a natural spring. Yeah its cool like that...

So I had a two day conference for work there this week and Kelly held down the fort while I stayed up to late watching a card game and then slept in a bunk bed. I ate in a cafeteria and was in small group workshops, this may sound awful to some but it was actually pretty cool. It reminded me why I wanted to work with 4-H and that's because every once in awhile we get to act like kids again. And that's pretty fun!

Wanted to post the newest song in D's repertoire. Its Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I'll let you know when he know more than the first verse!

Christmas Preparation

Daddy here. Mommy's taking a bath to try to recharge her Christmas spirit after working her part time job today. She had plenty of spirit after church this morning, but it faded with the cranky shoppers.

Daryl has been loving everything Christmas. Since the lights went up on the house and the tree up, he wants to "see Christmas" all the time now. When we drive down the road and he see lights on somebody's house he says "Christmas" then sees one without lights and says "no Christmas". He was a big help putting up the tree, and really likes to see the lights turn on. So far, he's been real good about not messing with the tree.

Of course Daryl has been his silly self, as always. The other day he kept wanting his pants around his ankles. He was running around the living room and kept falling down and could only take three inch steps!

The one adult part of Christmas that Daryl hasn't been able to help with is getting Christmas cards ready. We're part way done, and should have them in the mail before long. If being married and being parents didn't already make us adults, sending out Christmas cards sure does! It had to happen sometime.

We're staying busy trying to get everything ready for the Christmas celebrations. They'll be here before we know it!