Merry CHRISTmas 2010

Merry Christmas 2010, and what a wonderful Christmas it was!


It was a very busy weekend from Thursday through Sunday. Thursday we all went to Jenny's Civil Air Patrol Christmas party in the evening. On Friday we had the Children's Christmas service where Olivia got to sing with the whole school for the first time. All the classes did great. For a small school they were loud and you could understand everything they were saying and singing. It was one of the best services we have seen for a long time.



After the church service we came home and opened presents from each other. Olivia was so excited about Christmas and just like last year we almost forgot to put out Santa's cookies. I had to get her out of bed again this year to set up the Santa treats and milk.


Well, Santa did show up and Olivia came running in our room at 4:30 am....yes, FOUR-THIRTY IN THE MORNING....saying "Mom! Santa came! come and look, I can't believe it!"

She was wide-eyed and ready to open presents. Her teenage brother and sister were not quite as excited. I guess they forgot that they were little kids once. Gizmo was excited about the Zhu Zhu pets running around and kept trying to grab them to carry them away.




After opening presents and all that excitement we had to get to the 9:00 am church service because I played with the handbell choir. It was a beautiful service with the singing choir and the handbell choir. Unfortunately a little girl that was up at 4:30 am could only keep herself awake for about half of the church service.



After church it was off to Aunt Nancy's house for the afternoon/night. There Olivia got more presents from Grandma and Grandpa and her Aunts and Uncles. She loves all of her presents and had so much fun with everyone again. She makes all of her relatives take their turn playing with her and doesn't leave anyone out.




She was asleep in the truck almost before we were out of the driveway and was done for the night. The next day, Sunday, we had all the Pitz side over to our house where there was more visiting, fun and more presents for Olivia. She got a V.Reader from her Aunt Cindie that had her mesmerized for a while.




She slept for 11 hours on her new sheets/bedspread from her Aunts and Grandparents on Sunday night and now it is nice to have the week off of school to relax and play with all the new toys and games.






Merry Christmas to everyone and we are looking forward to the NEW YEAR!

Christmastime and Snowmen

Christmas is almost here and having a 4 year old in the house makes it even more fun. Olivia is very excited about Christmas and everything that goes with it.

It will be so much fun to see her sing with her school in the church on Christmas Eve. She is growing up so fast. She has had a great time doing the different school projects, bringing things home for me, telling me what they learned and always singing new songs. This Christmas will be very special for all of us.





The snow was finally in the right condition today for packing and making a snowman. She put a guilt trip on me all last winter when we never got around to making a snowman so today as soon as school was finished we got the job done. We made a nice little snowman and she thought it was a great time and was very proud of her Frosty. (I have to admit I also had a pretty good time making it too!)

Now we just have to get some cookies made to put out for Santa and do some last minute preparations for Christmas. Christmas Eve is the children's choir service in the afternoon and my handbell choir is playing for the 9:00 am Christmas morning service. I'm sure Olivia will have us all up early enough to get the presents opened and get to church on time. From there we go to the Aunt Nancy's home for the afternoon/night and somehow we have to prepare for having the Pitz side over to our house on Sunday. Somehow, some way it will all get done.



From our family to yours we wish you all a very safe, blessed and Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy birthday to me. Jenny surprised me with making a birthday cake last night while I was at handbell practice. We had cake and ice cream when I got home since my actual birthday on Wednesday will be too busy to do it. Wednesday is my day to help out at pre-school and at night we are going to go see my niece, Kaitlyn, play in her high school Christmas concert.




Although I don't care to make a big deal over my birthday's anymore it was a nice little celebration.....now let's just move on and forget about how old I am getting...

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town!

Santa came to Husty today! Olivia was very excited.

We always save a stamp by writing out her Christmas list and handing directly to Santa. That way there is no way it can get lost in the mail.




She wasn't shy at all and jumped right up on his lap. I can't believe how big she looked on him this year compared to a year ago.






She sat there for a little while talking to him but from where I stood I couldn't hear what she was saying. When we asked her later what she said she couldn't remember......too much excitement I think.

Christmas cannot come soon enough for this 4 year old!



She got to make an ornament for the tree and all the kids got a complimentary photo with Santa and a goodie bag when they were done.

Catching Up

I noticed recently that I've been getting behind on updating the blog. I forgot to put Thanksgiving pictures out and then all of a sudden Jenny's birthday was here already.

We celebrated Jenny's 15th birthday on Saturday with a nice dinner and Grandma and Grandpa Manning over to share it with. We had a really nice time. Jenny got some nice things and we had a great visit. Now we have a 4 year old, and "almost" 19 year old and a 15 year old in the house. Those of you the have or have had teenagers in the house can sympathize with us and that's all we need to say about that!






We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Manning's house and had a wonderful time once again. Too much great food and an entire day of visiting. It is always a lot of fun because it seems Thanksgiving is the one holiday where the entire family is able to get together at one time. It was a fun day and Olivia has a blast with everyone.






Thanks again for a great Thanksgiving Grandma and Grandpa!

Pilgrims and Indians

Tuesday was the last day of school for Olivia before the Thanksgiving holiday. She and her class were the Pilgrims and came to school with dresses and aprons for the girls and the boys wore long socks and tucked their pants into them. Then at school they had made paper bonnets, collars and hats.








They had invited the Kindergarten and 1st grads "Indians" to join them in their classroom for a Thanksgiving "feast". They came together like the the first Thanksgiving and sang songs and re-enacted (as much as 4-5-6 years olds can) the first Thanksgiving.




They all looked so cute and had a great time while learning the meaning of Thanksgiving.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2010

Bethany in Hustisford Veterans Day 2010

Honoring all of our Veterans on this day, 2010

Thank you, oh Thank you men and women, brave and strong.
To those who serve so gallantly we sing this grateful song.....

Halloween Weekend

Halloween is almost a week past already, I'm finally getting some pictures posted from our busy weekend. First we got to celebrate Lynn's 50th birthday with a "Murder Mystery" Halloween/Birthday party on Saturday night. It was tons of fun at the party and getting all dressed up was a blast. We don't usually get that involved in Halloween celebrations but Lynn's party was a great excuse to do it and it turned out to be a great time. Happy Birthday Lynn!!







From there we had all the kid Halloween things going on after church on Sunday. Olivia was very excited to get her princess costume on and get out there to trick or treat.



We started off by walking in the parade they have to show off all the costumes. She was a little intimidated by all the costumes around her and wouldn't let go of my finger the whole time and had a pretty tight grip too.




Soon after that we met up with Joanna with Olivia's friends Emma and Cody (the princess and Cookie Monster!) They were all very cute together. It was the first time for Emma and Cody and they thought they had to eat the candy as they got it! It was funny trying to keep them moving to get more candy and trying to convince them they could eat the candy later.

Anyway, Olivia was much braver this year and marched up to every house and said "trick or treat" and "thank you". A couple times she saw a scary costume handing out candy and would try to hand off her treat bucket to me and say "here Mom, you go up there and get it". I told her if she wanted the candy she would have to do it.....and she did. Then she would preach the rest of the time about how brave she was to go up to the house "ALL BY HERSELF!" She was very good about it and had a great time.





HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY LYNN!

HOPE YOU HAD AS MUCH FUN AS WE DID

THANKS FOR THE PARTY!

Pumpkins and Parties

Happy Halloween Week!

After Olivia had been bugging me for days and days about carving pumpkins we finally got at it this week. She was very excited until she saw what was inside the pumpkin and I told her we had to scoop it all out.


She didn't want anything to do with the slimy, stringy guts inside of it. She took a spoon and very carefully scooped out about a dozen seeds.....one-at-a-time. Then she had enough of that so I got to do all the cleaning out of the two pumpkins we carved.



She decided she would rather paint the outside of the pumpkin so I set her up with her paints and apron and let her have at it while I cleaned and carved a couple pumpkins.






Then on Wednesday, since schools were closed Thursday and Friday, there was a Halloween party at school and the kids were allowed to bring their costumes. Wednesday is my day to help there so I got to see all the kids dressed up. They had a great time and a very busy morning. The 4K was invited into the 5K/1st grade room. Miss Kirchoff had the morning planned with story telling, pumpkin carving (Olivia wouldn't touch that one either) a movie and then some great Halloween snacks that were brought in by parents.




When snack time was cleaned up we went down to the gym to join the playgroup Moms and kids. There they danced to music and then played with the parachute. I think they were all pretty exhausted after all this but had a really great day.