Out with the old. . .

Hello again after more than a month!

In February we moved to a new house! It's a good move for us (number15!) because the kids are in the same school (which we are now closer to) and the bishop let us stay in the ward, so there was no emotional upheaval, just upheaval of all of our stuff.

This was the pond at our old home that we may miss a little (the grass and tree is how it looks here in winter--snow is the exception. Kind of ugly, but a bit more warm)Here is Eric and Marisa managing a bed up the stairs in our new (and larger) home. I'll have to send more pictures of the house at a later date.Faith lost her first tooth!Marisa is in France right now on an exchange trip. She's staying with a host family with a daughter her age there, then at the end of April we'll have the daughter of the family come and live with us for a couple of weeks. So far she's having the time of her life. In her last email she asked if she really had to come home! These are the 11 kids from Holland Hall that went on the trip (two of our teacher went too).Me and Marisa at the airport (yes she IS taller than me when she stands up staight!)Goodbye to Faith.Jared built a very cool space shuttle pinewood derby car for which he won the covetted "most creative" trophy.Damian had a birthday (cake 100% made and decorated by Faith! She loves to bake and is actually really good at it.)We were going to buy some new couches for our new home, when a kindhearted woman offered us some that she wasn't using--She's the type that you don't really say no to, and so here are our new couches. Not what I'd envisioned!Iwas able to find these great stretchy slip covers for under 100 dollars for both the loveseat and the sofa! Pretty good deal for new couches! I like how they turned out. What do you think?

Polar Regions

In January we studied the Polar Regions, even though it didn't feel very cold in Oklahoma. We had to make our own snow because there was none here. We learned about Penguins and went to the zoo to see them fed.

There are penguin statues all over the city of Tulsa, all decorated differently. It was an event to raise money for the penguin exhibit at the zoo.

Then a couple of weeks later we had an ice storm that had the schools shut down for three days! Ice covered the trees, and every individual blade of grass! It looked really "other-worldly" to me. When the sun shone, the trees looked like they were made of glass. Some snow came, though it was really hard to play in. Eric was able to work out a couple of snowmen out of this dry snow.

Faith made this one "super"

It's warm again now, and it's hard to believe that we ever had winter!

Jared's Birthday

This is my tribute to Jared who just turned 9!

The whole world celebrates on Jared's birthday, whether they know it or not! His birthday is on New Year's Eve! This year I took him on a "date". We ate lunch at Mimi's cafe,

went to the mall to try out this over priced jumping gadget,

(Sorry about the sideways video!)

and then to the music store to play every instrument in the place!

Whenever Jared plays he draws a crowd, and this was no exception. All the employees came to hear him,

then the director of education came and took him to the back where they have a concert grand for recitals and such, and invited him to come and practice whenever he can. Then the owner of the store had to come and meet him also. Jared enjoys the fame!

He asked for tap shoes for his birthday! And lo, here they are.

(another sideways one!) Testing them out.

Ever since he was born at a tough time in our life's journey, Jared has been my "joy and my song". He fills our home with music and humor and piles of Kinex! I'm so grateful to have him in our family.

!

Christmas 2008

This Christmas was such a nice one for us. I hope it was for all of you as well. We found a lot of fun things to see and do in Tulsa.

We went to the play "the Best Christmas Pageant Ever" with the Neals, and had ward and company parties to attend,

We watched a bell ringing choir that we enjoyed so much that we tried to find them again, but were unsuccessful. Our friends the Neals and the Bradley's came with us to "Christmas Around the World" where they had dances and booths from different countries. They had food and music from the different places. It was really cool! We enjoyed it.

We went to see the Christmas lights with the cub scouts. Faith danced in the Glenpool Christmas Parade.Marisa and Eric played in their orchestra's Christmas Concert and did really well.

We all made gifts for each other, family, and neighbors. Marisa did several sneaky things.

Marisa's "gag gift" to Eric.

And Santa came!

I think the strain of the holidays really got to Damian. Here he is on Christmas morning!

Germany, Switzerland, and Austria

Howdy everyone. I hope you all had a great Christmas. Since church has changed times for us, I have less time for Blogging. I'll catch up at some point. That's my personal mantra--I'll Catch up at Some Point! We had a nice restful Christmas. thank you for all of your cards and such. It was great to hear from you all again.

Here's what we were working on through December as we could work it around with projects and Holiday happenings.

Germany, Switzerland, Austria
Some of the most brilliant minds and inventions have come from Germany. Helicopters, cars (we spotted them all week as we drove around, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, etc.), highways, motorcycles, alarm clocks, pocket watches, jet engines and Johan Gutenberg’s printing press were all invented in Germany.

This was our printing press experiment.Faith doesn't look too sure about hers!Some of the most amazing minds of the 20th century were Germans: the combustion engine was invented in Germany, Einstein was German. Martin Luther was a 15th century monk who didn’t agree with the all powerful Catholic church and began the Reformation in Germany. He also translated part of the Bible into German. Brahms, Handel, Bach were all Germans. The German Brothers Grimm wrote many famous fairytales, including Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, The Pied Piper of Hamelin and others. Germany is full of beautiful castles that I hope to one day go and see! Jared built an amazing castle out of cardboard boxes, wrapping paper rolls, egg cartons, and a nut can. He spray painted it, and even built the interior for better playing.We (and this one was mostly I) built the Neuschwan castle (you've seen this one in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the Disney castles were inspired by it) out of paper. It turned out really great!
Our Birthday cake and candles tradition originated in Germany. The Christmas tree and many of our Christmas carols come from Germany. We made hand bells out of paper cups, jingle bells, and ribbon and learned the song "Kling Glocken" with our homeschool friends. We loved learning about Germany through the holidays. We went to a “Kristkindlmarkt” or Christmas market where we bought German food, watched a puppet show, saw St. Nicholas, heard plenty of people speaking German, and ate Schnitzel Sandwiches (yum!). We learned a poem called “Schnee! Schnee!” that tells how children love to play in the snow and adults don’t like to drive in it, even in Germany.
German bread is unlike any other. Very dense and hearty. Hamburgers were first made in the city of Hamburg. Frankfurters (or hot dogs) came from Frankfurt. We also tried stolen (Christmas cake), Lebkuchen (sort of gingerbread cookies), and German chocolate cake.

Switzerland is famous for its cheese, chocolate (we enjoyed a fondue night on New Year’s Eve at the Neals), and skiing. We read “Heidi”, a story that takes place in the Swiss Alps, and we did some Yodeling!

Mozart came from Austria. Vienna has been central to music. Today the Vienna Boys Choir is famous there. The Trapp family came from Austria and lived through the dark time of Hitler’s rule. They had an amazing family spirit that we hope to mirror.