He's been waiting for this.

Anyone know what these are? These lovely-- not yet smelly-- delightfully athletic foot coverings? These represent the beginning of the ERA (perhaps it's too soon to call it an era, but in the event that it turns into one, I can look back at this and say "I called it!! I called it!!") here in our happy household.

Anyone? Anyone? Ok. I'll tell you. Those... things... are wrestling shoes. Yep. Although Jeff would probably deny it (Heck, he HAS denied it) I'm pretty close to positive he's been waiting for this moment ever since his little (!?!? See the SIZE of those shoes?) boys were born. Wrestling. Jeff's "thing". He started wrestling when he was Hunter's age. And didn't stop until he graduated from Purdue. And even now, likes to pull moves on unsuspecting children of all genders and ages.

So, the boys have started wrestling. And, my goodness, they require a Commitment (with a capital "C") out of these boys. Every Monday and Thursday from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm they practice. They also will have some meets, although we don't know a lot about them yet.

I do have to say that he didn't pressure them, although he DID make it sound like it would be really fun. And it probably IS really fun. But I'm a girl. I don't know anything about wrestling, except that the few times Jeff took me to a wrestling meet I always felt... concern. No, concern is too tame a word. Alarm is better. Alarm, as in I should call 911 because that kid is seconds away from breaking his arm/leg/spine/whatever!!

Jeff is SO going to roll his eyes at me and call me out for this entry. I say: bring it on!

Christmas Angels

Our Church is just great. One of the things that really drew me to the Church is the fantastic Children and Youth programs. They really encourage children to branch out, explore different areas, give them so many opportunities to be great and do good. Basically-the Church treats them like they are... well... God's gift. (Man, when I write things like that it feels like I am being crazy sarcastic, but it's true. I can't think of any other way to put it!)

Last Sunday was the culmination of weeks of "Angel Practice" for Avery and Skylar (That sounds more impressive than it was. They practiced for an hour and a half the three Sunday's prior to this). They were dancing angels at both services for the beginning of Advent. We have a fabulous dance instructor/choreographer who is a member. She created this adorable routine where these 5 little girls (all under 8) were mischievous little dancing angels. Here's a pic of them while they were waiting for the service to begin:

Here's another picture of all the angels, as well as the choreographer. See how good they were behaving? They had to sit in the choir room for 30 minutes in costume before it was their time to dance. One could almost say they were behaving, oh, I don't know.... angelically?

In addition to these adorable little girls, there was a gorgeous, extremely talented high school dancer keeping them all together (And also doing incredible leaps, turns, and twirls--- and looking impossibly graceful while doing so). The quality of this picture isn't the best, I had to zoom in so you could see my little angels:

I can't tell you how many people have come up to be to comment on how adorable they were. I'm never sure how to respond to that kind of comment. I've ranged from "Oh, yes! Wasn't that just so cute!" To: "Monika did such a great job with the choreography! And her student dancer was incredible!" To: "They had such a great time doing it!"

It's not like I had anything to do with their adorable-ness. Well, I guess I did give them baths and comb their hair before they went to church that morning. Does that count?

Look what happened here over Thanksgiving!

It's hard to believe it's starting already. Wah. And, as I type this, it's snowing AGAIN. (Fresh off the camera) Here's a couple shots of the bus stop in our driveway this morning:

I hope we aren't in for another winter like last one, but it's not looking very good so far! At least we might have a white Christmas!

We've been SO busy lately. November was a month that had Grandma Kaye and Grandpa Bill visiting from Florida (we had a great time!); school conferences for everyone (except Kaia! They all are doing awesomely); I participated in a concert at Drake University that required a lot of rehearsal time (It went very well, and was quite fun!); and then, of course Thanksgiving! Oh yeah, and Black Friday shopping (after which every time I go I swear I'm not doing it ever again!). All of which, naturally, left me with a WHOLE LOTTA of my favorite thing piled up:

So it all made for a pretty crazy month, but it was good!

I've got a number of specific updates to do, so I'll move on to give each of them their due. Be prepared!!