Who's Behind That Lens?

GERRIT! He got a camera for Christmas...

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2010

We made it to Michigan and jumped right into the Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve. We hung out at my brother's house for the day and in the evening we opened presents. Emmit was a bit unsure about all the people and Gerrit loved playing with his cousins again. Gerrit and Emmit did quite well on the gift end but so did Opa - he got a few new golf clubs! The evening ended for Gerrit and I in the hot tub... a nice way to end a busy day (Dad was too busy playing video games with Max to join us).

 

Christmas morning Dad woke up not feeling well so rather than push it and try to visit with his dad, we decided to lay low at my parent's house. Cara brought over wedding stuff so I helped with that, Jeff's family stopped by to open stockings and Gerrit took to Mia's new ITouch real fast, Gerrit enjoyed playing Dr. to Oma with his new kit from Aunt Erika and he looked at his new book with Opa. Emmit enjoyed his bottles with Oma and even checked out her cane the only way he knows how - via mouth!

Even though Dad wasn't feeling well, it was nice to relax a bit after a busy week!

Look What I Learned!

Today I don't have students - its staff development day! We spent the morning with imovie. I don't really see an educational need for making movies but I could see using it for personal reasons: 

We were told to do a few things with it so here it is...we didn't have too much time to edit etc. but at least I know the basics. I look spectacular today because the alarm did not go off so a baseball hat was in order! Guess I'll shower tomorrow...enjoy my little creation.

Santa Visits Z-town!

This weekend was a busy weekend for us. Sat. morning Gerrit spent 2 hours at church practicing for their Christmas program, followed by a hair cut and then we visited Santa who happened to be in town:

 

I'm glad there was not a line, nor that we spent money on capturing this experience. Gerrit didn't want to leave the stroller, when I got close to Santa, Emmit squealed so loud all I could do was laugh. We knew he'd cry the minute we put him on Santa's lap but had to just to capture the moment. Gerrit finally got close to Santa as long as I was with him. We quickly took a picture of the boys and that is the best we got! Santa didn't seem to thrilled with our children, but he was a good sport. 

We reminded Gerrit that if he was good, Santa would visit our house when he was sleeping tonight! He liked that even if he didn't want to get close to Santa in person. He left a few cookies out for him before he went to bed. (I think holidays are so much more enjoyable with children!)

This is what the boys woke up to this morning. Gerrit was pretty excited to see that Santa ate his cookies...(the camera is not broke, just really bad shadows from where I was sitting this morning).

Gerrit's favorite gift:

Gerrit received some other gifts too, but this by far was his favorite - and Santa brought it! We now have 'one of those kids' because he wore this all day - even in the car when he went to Dahlen's. He tried to get us to let him wear it to church but we had to draw the line somewhere!

The helmet even fit dad - guess with a short hair cut you can fit any kids helmet/hat on!

Emmit wanted nothing to do with the helmet

Emmit cracked me up. We came downstairs to a bunch of gifts by the tree and he went right to the push toy (top left). Even when Gerrit put a gift in front of him (top middle) he didn't know what to do with it. We tried to show him how to rip the paper but he was into Gerrit's Dairy Queen play ice creams to care. Once Gerrit helped him open his gifts, he seemed interested. He loved to try them out - in his mouth of course!

 

After our family Christmas, it was time to head to church for Gerrit's program. We were not expecting much from him but knew he knew the songs because we had been practicing them at home as well as in Sunday School. Of course he didn't want to wear 'all that stuff' - collared shirt, tie, church shoes, and when I asked if I could put a belt on him, it didn't surprise me that the answer was NO! I didn't push it, I thought getting him to wear his gingerbread tie was enough (I doubt next year I'll get away with insisting on the outfit). Before we left, Gerrit was very upset because he couldn't play basketball in that shirt!

The program was very cute and he made us proud. He held one of the teachers' hand as he entered the sanctuary but then he was fine on his own. We sat in the back but thanks to a zoom lense, we were able to get a few shots between people's heads! And Gerrit was front and center which was even better! 

Adam asked why Gerrit was in the front like that and I said I didn't know, but I liked it that we could see him. Adam responded by saying Gerrit was front and center because his dad is on council!

The program started at 10 30 and finally at 11, Emmit fell asleep for his morning nap! The program ended at 11 15! Ratz. The morning ended with a stop at Bridgett's for breakfast.

Gerrit's Conversation...

My mom is in the hospital with a blood clot. She went in today after they discovered it at PT. We decided to give her a call and say hi. Gerrit wanted to talk to her and here is what we heard from him (talking to Oma):

How are you feeling?

What's the Dr. doing for you?

Can I talk to the Dr?

It made her day to hear him ask these questions - which were not prompted by us either. He is very perceptive even if he doesn't understand everything!

Blizzard 2010

We are alive and able to get out of the house. It was a busy 24 hours around here - we added about 16" to the already 11" we gained last weekend. Snow started at 10 30 Friday night and it didn't let up until 10 30 Saturday night. I was able to run a few errands in town early in the day and Adam took Gerrit to Dahlen's for a bit in the afternoon. Other than that, we stayed home and watched the snow pile up.

Gerrit wanted to go sledding so just before dark we decided to go as a family. We walked a block to the church behind us and Gerrit sled down the hill in their parking lot. Adam and I each pulled a kid and both loved the sled. Adam helped me get over a huge mound of snow at the edge of the street and then he went back to pull Emmit over it only to have Emmit tip over - face first! He was stuck because he was strapped in and we both froze for a second looking at him trying to push up out of the snow. Once I wiped the snow off his face with my scarf, he stopped crying.

I took a few pictures then walked Emmit home. I decided to take the street because the church sidewalk wasn't cleared off. I didn't realize how much the wind had picked up and it was coming directly at us and it was cold! As I was nearing the sidewalk by our house (which was semi-cleared off), a man in a pick up pulls up next to me and offers me a ride! Only in a small town! I'm sure I looked silly walking in the street with a baby - there was no one out on the roads, let alone walking! I pointed to the house and he waved and continued on his way.

Adam decided to snow blow one more time after the boys went to bed. It looked like things were slowing down and the snow was coming to an end. He didn't want to leave it all till morning when church is at 8am. When he got outside, Gary was in the driveway as he had the same thoughts as Adam. So together they cleared East 4th St Heights at 9pm in the blowing snow.

Not a great picture, but you can see just how much we had gotten during the day (Adam had blown at 8am)

We didn't make it to church because we thought it was cancelled. I think we were the only church in the area that was still on! So we got Gerrit ready for Sunday school only to find out that was canceled. After Adam cleaned things up a bit more outside, we met Dahlen's at Bridget's for breakfast. 

After breakfast, Adam and Dave went to help Bryan shovel and checked on Matt's parents (Matt's dad had knee replacement this weekend). They then drove by Langley's and saw that their drive way had not been touched. So Dave fired up (mom and dad's Honda) and Adam checked to see if anyone was home. David was sipping coffee and reading the paper! David quickly got dressed and fired up his huge snow blower (so much for feeling bad for him) and the 3 of them finished up the driveway in no time.

I had sent Adam with the camera and asked him to take a few pictures of the area:

This is not a snow bank - the left pile of snow is in the middle of the street!

This is the same street, looking the other direction (the school is on this street).

 

We drove on this street this morning - Adam almost drove the wrong way because we didn't realize the big pile of snow was the middle of the street! Here they are snow blowing the pile into a dump truck.

  

For living in a small town, we have an amazing plow crew. The roads were great this afternoon! It is now bitterly cold so we will stay inside the next few days and play in the snow later this week when things warm up. Maybe we'll go snow shoeing seeing we have over 2 feet of snow. 

A few interesting notes about this storm:

Metrodome (where the Vikings play) roof collapsed

I90 was closed and were issuing $1,000 fine if you were caught driving on it

ZM is 2 hours late start tomorrow - I'm sure I will be on time as usual!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I love Christmas time - lights, snow, tree, decorations, you name it! And now with kids, it is even better. When we pulled out the decorations, Gerrit was very interested in what was in all the boxes. He helped hang the ornaments, found ones he wanted to use to play 'football' or cars or cyclcross with and plug the lights in every time we get up in the morning or return home. We took out his Little People nativity set and talked about the people in it and the whole story of Jesus' birthday and how this time of year is the time we remember and celebrate. So while decorating the tree, Gerrit was singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus! I could only smile and hope he continues to see Christmas time as just that - Jesus' birthday party.