The 2021 Christmas post

(As in years past, we do not send out traditional Christmas cards.  Since I have the blog, it's easier to share countless photos and stories for anyone who wishes to read it, postage free!  Plus, my hope is that someday the kids will enjoy the running record of our family antics...if you regularly read the blog or look thru my facebook feed, some of this may seem familiar.  Either way, enjoy!) 

Merry Christmas!!!  What's that you say?  It's about to be Easter?  Yeah.....about that.  I've had this mostly done for a while (since around February-ish) but hesitated to post because I wasn't sure if it would work or be a good idea.  True to form, I second guessed myself into making it even later and later but I'm finally putting out the Christmas card/blog post!  Not the first time I'm late and probably won't be the last.  I also just realized I hadn't posted anything for the entirety of 2021, save for the late 2020 Christmas post....some things never change!  I challenged myself to do something new this year...sort of a digital scrapbook slideshow.  I miss scrapbooking but realized this was a way to do it w/o all the cutting and printing of photos!  This labor of love is one of the ways I celebrate the good stuff in our lives =)  Here's the link! After reading each slide, click the forward arrow (>).  Come back to read a little bit more here when you are done... 

2021 Christmas slideshow

Alright, this is the part where I usually deliver some schtick about Christmas and the new year, but it's a little late for all that I think!  So how about this - I want you to consider something for a minute.  Around Christmas time we like to say that Jesus is the reason for the season.  It helps remind us to not get so frantic over shopping and overdoing it.  And He is!  It's a great way to focus our attention on the reason we have Christmas.  But what about Easter?  I would like to point out that not very many people use that phrase around Easter time, when in reality, Easter is even more about Jesus in my opinion.  Yes, Jesus first coming to the Earth in human form is amazing and I'm not trying to downplay that at all.  But for me, Easter is so much better because I feel like it renews my faith...knowing the pain and sacrifice Jesus made for ME specifically (but also for everyone) is an even greater gift.  On that note....

Happy Easter!  The Lord is Risen!  Hallelujah!!  

Merry Christmas 2020/Happy New Year 2021

(As in years past, we do not send out traditional Christmas cards.  Since I have the blog, it's easier to share countless photos and stories for anyone who wishes to read it, postage free!  Plus, my hope is that someday the kids will enjoy the running record of our family antics...if you regularly read the blog or look thru my facebook feed, some of this may seem familiar.  Either way, enjoy!) 

I sat down to write this Christmas letter so many times.  Every time I came up w/a new theme or gimmick!  I hated them all.  I really wasn't a fan of 2020 (who was?) but I felt determined to write a letter before the end of the year.  One thing I know - there were many things that looked different this year.  I got to thinking how they looked the same though...I mean, the kids keep growing, Dave keeps working...some things don't stop for a pandemic, right?!  In my quest to compare and contrast life before the pandemic hit w/life after, I made a venn diagram.  Yep, I'm a teacher and a nerd.  I'm guessing you've all seen one of these.  Maybe you'll even make one for yourself now!  The words are small, but I think you can click on it to make it bigger.

After all my brainstorming of cool ways to recap our year, I settled on the storytelling method.  *shrugs*  If you've met me, you know I do a lot of that!  Can't make a long story medium!  So here is a recap of 2020 as I tell it...The first two and a half months of the year were busy!!  Three kids were in DI (Destination Imagination), gearing up for the competition.  Moses was in basketball, then he and Franklin started wrestling.  We had a lovely late Christmas in January w/our family on the other side of the state.  We celebrated my dad's birthday and the one year anniversary of his passing by tubing with that side of the family. 

As practices for DI were added, I started to seriously stress out over who was going where/when...I even made a cheat sheet!  The DI competition was the same day as the Solo/Ensemble music competition, both in different cities w/one kid possibly needing to be shuttled between the two...I'm not gonna lie, I lost sleep over the pending storm of scrambling!   My momma heart wanted to be everywhere and the weather forecast wasn't looking favorable, not too surprising for mid March in WI.  (Cue the 'something big and scary is about to happen' music!)  Then there were rumbles about a virus.  It got serious...and both events were canceled.  At first I felt relieved, but I was sad the kids didn't get to show off their hard work!  The school did organize a way for us to see 2 out of the 3 DI teams.  I remember standing around after and talking w/other parents who had spring break travel plans like us.  All of us felt concerned but still felt our families could safely travel and enjoy the week before the rumored lockdown.  Less than a week later, school shut down.  I quickly helped the kids clean out their lockers and cubbies, telling them to treat this like the last day of school before summer.  "Is there food in here?  Get your gym clothes too!  Why do you have 3 sweatshirts in here - nevermind, just put it all in the bag!"  Later, teachers met us at the door at our appointed times and handed us laptops and supplies from kids' desks.  It was sort of eerie.  Some teachers had masks and gloves, others just stood outside, chatting.  At that point no one really knew what was going on or how long the 'lockdown' would last.  On a trip to the box store, we saw a special new robotic cleaning machine roving the aisles.  The kids got a kick out of it since someone had propped up a stuffed sloth in the drivers' seat!  Just like in years past, we packed up our shorts and swim stuff for a spring break road trip.  Unlike years past, we also packed sanitizer, antibacterial wipes and toilet paper.  We had a long list of things to see on the way (Huntsville Space and Rocket Center, Civil Rights Memorial, Sloss Furnaces, etc) but really only got to do the outdoor stuff and drive by most of them.  We walked the U of Alabama campus (so pretty!!!) and headed to the gulfshore house rented by some friends.  We missed the Mississippi Sandhill Crane Refuge, the Ohr/O'Keefe Museum of Art and a few things while in the area, but shared a lot of laughs, games, time on the beach and in the pool w/our good friends.  It was so relaxing, just what my busy and anxious self needed!!  We jokingly took a family photo 6 ft apart!  We took the 'baby' born during Hurricane Katrina to see the memorial, 

swung through Kiln MS, saw a few lighthouses and such on the way home.  We drove through New Orleans (must go back!) but didn't get out of the car.  There was a lot more evidence of the severity of the virus there at that time.  More than we had seen that far on the trip...The ride home was pretty sobering.  I'm so grateful we were able to go, and I know we made the right decision.  It felt odd going home, not sure of what we would find.  The media talked a lot about no TP to be found, people hoarding food and how we should not set foot out of our house.  Being on the road gave us a chance to discuss all of this w/the kids.  As a family, we needed the rest the vacation afforded us and we also needed the time to process together what was going on.  It's weird to say we were blessed in that way - we were bummed to miss out on so many parts of the trip, but we were blessed to have that vacation time together.  

Once home, virtual school started.  We set up desks and camp tables, the living room became school central for 4 students and 1 teacher.  Every day we sat there and every day we saw lots of animals out the windows in our woods!  The coolest thing was seeing this crane pass by on the regular, twice a day.  It was like he was going off to work and coming back each afternoon.  We named him Kevin, like the bird in the movie Up.  We're pretty sure he and his partner had a nest just west of our property line.  I literally thanked God for Kevin more than once, b/c as the momma who was losing her marbles over all the random virtual school/tech issues, I needed one thing in life to be constant and not changing.  I have always loved cranes and I think God knew I needed Kevin.  Yes, I'm sitting here typing about a bird in our Christmas letter.  This is how random and hard 2020 was!  Find the sparkle in the dirt!  Just be grateful for the little things!  It just so happens the sparkle for me was Kevin =)  About this time we started playing a lot of board games.  I kept a list of what we played (it's long) and started to hunt for inexpensive new games.  A friend saw that we played Monopoly and he shares my hatred for it.  He sent a big box of new to us games!!  Another sanity saver.  We started doing a lot of things differently around this time, like celebrating first birthdays over zoom. In the midst of all the 'new normal' (hate that word, none of it was normal!), there were plenty of things that were like in years past.  I bugged Dave to shore up my garden boxes, which turned into this grand plan to give me a bigger and better garden!  It always makes me laugh b/c I just want him to fix up what I have and suddenly it turns into a big ordeal!  No complaints - I love this version of my garden!!  And why not right?  On trips to the home box stores, it appeared we weren't the only ones doing big projects due to extra time at home!  We also got new outdoor kitties - there's a whole saga of getting multiple cats and them running away...the latest one is Felix.  I actually googled tips on how to keep an outdoor cat around.  So far the wet cat food is doing the trick!  

Some of the best and biggest news to come out of this year - in June Moses graduated 8th grade!!!  The school put together a video/slideshow and I cried!  After subbing in the school, seeing so many of those kids' faces and getting to know them, I couldn't believe how grown they looked after not seeing them for 3 months!  There was a teacher parade and they even came down our long and hard to find driveway.  We ordered a yard sign and celebrated w/family.  I marveled at how resilient all my kids were/are and how well they handled virtual school (after a few tweaks needed for our family to survive).   At some point in the summer we ordered an everything cake.  It said Happy Graduation, Anniversary, Father's Day, Birthday and there was the word covid slashed out!  We didn't know if we'd be able to celebrate other things together in the future so we wanted to cover the bases!  Summer in 2020 included travel and camping, just like in year's past.  We spent a lot of time outside!  We tubed down a river w/auntie and cousin, we hiked the IAT, we went up to northern MI, and over to Waupaca.  On the Crystal River, it was decided that someone had to wait for Dad to bike back from where he parked the car.  We took a vote and I was elected....which meant that all 4 kids got in kayaks and took off w/no adult.  I stood there, watching them help each other, talking about how they were going to sing some song and probably beat me and Dad to the finish...they floated away and I had this moment.  How did they get to be so big?  "Stick together!"  I hollered after they pushed off.  I meant as a general rule in life, but they thought I was referring to the kayak trip.  We did catch up to them and they told us of all the things they saw, the rocks they helped each other avoid and how one person needed to be turned around to get going the right way.  I was proud of them and we had a lot of fun!  They remembered the other times we had been, commented on how glad they were that no one had to share a kayak this time, asked for ice cream after.  The familiar tradition lives on! 

At the end of the summer, our church finally was ready to celebrate Easter.  We had been meeting in person for a while but wanted to make a way to open up the service so a larger crowd would feel more comfortable attending.  We held an outdoor service w/a spaced out picnic lunch afterwards.  I joked about making this a new tradition!  Another late August entry into the 'new things' column for 2020 was our participation in a black community outreach event.  We linked arms w/police officers, community members of various races and city leaders to walk through the nearby city.  I do not include this in our letter to 'virtue signal' or pat ourselves on the back, but I do mention it b/c of the civil and racial unrest in our nation this year.  The pandemic/extra meals at home together gave us a chance to talk a lot more about these issues and I think the emotional drain we were all feeling meant that this issue really moved us.  Being a transracial family, we are continually learning and working toward a better version of ourselves, our local and global community.  I must admit that I don't think I would have felt compelled to join such an event or movement in years past, but given the future I wish to create for all children, it seemed fitting to participate.  Going forward, we look for other opportunities to learn and grow.

As we headed into fall, the kids prepared to go back to school, wearing masks.  Dave's district/school landed on the hybrid model for a return to in person learning.  I was over the moon to return to my babysitting gig - nothing like an ever growing and developing toddler to take your mind off everything!  We explored more than last year and she talked a lot more too.  It's always nice when I hear more than my own voice all day!  Speaking of new sounds, Moses had gotten a loop machine for making music for his birthday and started talking about sharing his creations, like hosting a live virtual concert.  It took a few tries but we got him set up w/a youtube channel and I think about 20 people tuned in!  I look forward to him hosting again!  If it wasn't for the pandemic, I don't know if he'd have ever gotten a solo show =)  Now he has his sights set on the bandshell in the park and a possible career in music.  I love it!  

As fall moved on, Dave's school/district went virtual while the kids continued in person.  He did comment that his school lasted in person longer than he had predicted, so that was a pleasant surprise.  Both of us are impressed, though, w/the way our tiny town has handled school and been able to stay open this whole academic year so far.    Dave's school is going back to the hybrid model in less than two weeks so we are hopeful to settle into that new routine.  As you can see, there were lots of new things this year, like writing snail mail, and crazy things too, like the world's largest flag ripping in half during a storm.  At least it didn't fall down!!  We laughed about stupid stuff, like the boat sinking, saying it was a metaphor for 2020...but despite all the changes and disappointments, this year has shown us that we can count on a few things to get us through anything: God, relationships w/family and friends, time in nature and hope for the future!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!

From beginning to end, we hope you were able to find some sparkle in 2020!

Merry Christmas 2019 - emoji style!

(Once again, we are not sending Christmas cards out in the traditional way - see the end of this post for more on that...We hope you enjoy this online version! If you regularly read my blog or see my Facebook posts, some of these stories will sound familiar...buckle up - it's a long one!)
When I thought of writing this year's Christmas post, I really wanted to do something out of the box and special.  I kept trying to think of something polished and fancy to present the big emotions I experienced this year.  I finally quit lying to myself and decided that emotions are not scary and hey, you probably have them too, so why not just use emojis for our Christmas letter?!  They can be annoying, I know, but hopefully you'll smile at the ones I've used and it will connect w/you in a different way.  I didn't want to write 'that was bittersweet' after everything, even though it's pretty much true.  When you miss someone who has passed, grief is like the shadow that is there for a while.  "Weren't you happy, wasn't that fun?"  Yes, we were, yes it was, but remember that something can be both happy and sad at the same time.  🎭  You've seen the masks, right?  Now that I've set the stage😉, please enjoy our year in review.
🌳📸 2019 got off to a rough start, as I mentioned in the (late) 2018 Christmas post.  My Dad passed away in February...the silver lining in things like funerals is that you get to be with a lot of family and friends to celebrate someone who meant a lot to you.  I selected the tree emoji to represent my roots/family tree/heritage, but also for the branches that remind me how so many others support us and lift us up, especially as we continue to grieve.   Another one of the silver linings for me was going through photos from my childhood - y'all know how I love photos!!  (Again, see last year's Christmas post part 1...)
🤼‍♂️Spring of 2019 saw us busy w/various activities.  Moses and Franklin had lots of gymnastics meets, Colleen participated in Destination Imagination, all 3 boys were involved in wrestling and Moses did Forensics again!  Ask me how many pounds of snacks I packed, how many bleachers we sat on, how many photos I took....it's a big number!!  I'm a happy and proud momma when I see my kids having fun, cheering their teammates on and trying new things.
🏰 Speaking of spring...this was a special year so we splurged on a special spring break vacation!  TO A CASTLE!!!  No one cried or had a bad day b/c it is THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!  It was a lot of fun and we have my aunt and uncle to thank for helping us pull it off.  I still can't believe we did it...it always seemed like a really big ask, financially and emotionally for our crew.  I'm so glad we did it - it reminded me of when my parents took us kids.  We rode my Dad's favorite ride and I sang "Yo Ho Yo Ho, a Pirate's life for me!" at the top of my lungs, just for him.

 And then...
-------SOMETHING BIG HAPPENED HERE-----
            ------BUT I AM SAVING IT FOR LAST------so...movin' right along...
🌱In May, some friends of my parents organized a tree planting at a park they enjoyed in honor of my Dad.  All the grandkids were so excited to help, pulling burlap off the root balls of these trees and scooping dirt in the hole!  I haven't been back yet, but I can't wait to camp in that park and visit Dad's trees!

⚾🤸🏿‍♂️ Late spring brought baseball and more gymnastics into our lives.  Three boys in baseball plus an unusually rainy season meant a lot of makeup games jammed in between the regularly scheduled ones...which led to me purchasing a new lawn chair!  If I have to sit in it, my fanny should fit in it!  🤪  We really enjoyed getting to know a lot of families through baseball and Moses' team was quite successful, playing in the post season.
🎡♎ (closest thing to an arch I could find!)  Over Memorial Day weekend we took a road trip to St. Louis.  We had 2 specific things in mind - the arch and The City Museum.  There really needs to be more emojis for The City Museum!  If you have been, you know what I mean.  If you have not, GET YOURSELF TO ST. LOUIS and check it out!!  Start by visiting their website and then go.  Seriously.  We have been there multiple times and every time I struggle w/the cost but I always see the fun my family has and I never regret it.  This time I was confident enough that Moses remembered the tunnels and such that I just let him go.  He was able to show the other kids a lot of cool things!  I am not much for the climbing these days but Dave's sense of adventure means he might get stuck in a tube while I take photos for posterity!

🏅🏕️ In June, Franklin and Moses participated in the YMCA gymnastics Nationals!!  They were held in Wisconsin Dells this year, making it cost effective for us to attend.  We picked a camping spot and played tourist in the off times.  We took a Dells boat ride, watched the teams march in before the Tommy Bartlett Show, made s'mores and rested up for the tournament.  It was a neat experience to see teams from all over the country enjoying the Dells and all it has to offer.  Then in July Colleen attended her first sleep away camp...It's called Camp Daniel and it's a very special camp for people with disabilities.  Her friend from school invited her.  She actually wrote me a letter to invite Colleen, which made me happy cry for all sorts of reasons!  It was a blessing to know that her friend would be there the same week.  After the week was over, Colleen commented on how their were other kids who had some of the same struggles as her participating in the camp.  I think it made her feel more confident!  You can imagine all the emotions I had tumbling about w/one of my children out of my reach for a week, but then seeing how this camp made her feel emotionally sort of made me put mine in check.  It was worth it, though, and that's what matters.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦⛰️🥾🏇🏾🚞 We kicked off August with a huge family reunion weekend - how many cousins and 2nd cousins can fit in a hammock? 

There were games, good foods, photos shared by one of my aunties and hugs and tears and so much laughter!!  By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted!  Since there's no tired like on the road tired, we followed the weekend up w/a trip to Colorado!  Once again we stayed at the YMCA of the Rockies.  We did lots of activities there like horseback riding, playing sports, fishing and hiking.  (The rain did not stop us!  Everyone made fun of me since I bought dollar store ponchos to wear while on Disney's water rides.  I was the only one who wore one on those rides.  On this trip everyone suddenly wanted my ponchos!!  Lucky for them, Mom doesn't unpack little things like ponchos!🤣)  We also hiked up Mt Evans and rode the Royal Gorge breakfast train through the mountains - I got the tastiest quinoa pancakes!

🚼🍼🏈As the summer came to a close, the talk of the house was about 2 things - me babysitting a friend's baby part time during the school year and flag football.  I get the pleasure of baby Mercedes' company (not her real name!) three days a week.  Do you know how cool babies are?  I could talk your ear off about that, you already know....the best part of this deal is seeing this family develop and cheering them on.  Knowing Mercedes' parents means we see how they are invested in her and what character traits they are modeling.  It's different than foster care for a lot of reasons, obviously, but the same in that you can never go wrong in encouraging a family!
🛠️🚽🤝 Fall - a perfect time to remodel the bathroom we never really intended to remodel...🤷🏻 We discovered the main sink we use in the bathroom had a leak, which led to a wet cabinet underneath.  Not just wet, soaked, moldy and disintegrating!!!  It was bad.  It needed immediate attention.  Dave is handy but he felt it was a bit above his paygrade and he didn't have time to dedicate to the project to get it done quickly enough.  Lucky for us, a friend from church was available!  He put in new counter, new pipes, new cabinets...and then Dave decided we needed a new toilet.  It seemed like a coincidence that some friends were trying to sell theirs on FB marketplace!  So we bought that and our friend from church installed that too.  We feel like grownups now, having our first major interior house project done.  We also bought a new piece of furniture to store our board/card game collection and dipped our toes into some interior decorating.  Starting to look a little better around here!  Some day - we'll tackle that kitchen!!
🦡🏈 You guys!!!  They have a Badger emoji!  He's so cute!  This was the first year we took all of the kids to a major sporting event.  Dave and I had our first date to a Badger game almost exactly 20 years earlier, the opponent was the same and history was made both nights.  (1999 - when the Jump Around tradition started and 2019 - longest field goal.)  We were excited to share the experience w/Dave's mom, who is an alumni!  Many times we have taken the kids to see the band as they pump everyone up before a game and then we would leave campus.  The kids were always sad that everyone else got to go in to the stadium and we only saw the band.  Not this time!  We made a pit stop to add more layers and were in our seats before kickoff.  😊  We had fun jumping around, seeing Moses on the jumbotron (his teachers even saw him from somewhere in the stadium!), and shaking hands w/players afterward.  I call this a huge win for our family - the kids are maturing, finding ways to regulate themselves in these situations and communicating w/us so much better.  (When you're wearing a million layers and there's a line to go pee, you need to give the grown ups a little lead time on bathroom breaks, you know what I mean?)  This was another event that left my heart feeling a mess of emotions - happy memories of life before kids, happy new memories made, a few tears for not being able to tell my Dad about the great day, a little anxiety over how it would turn out, etc.  It was definitely another one of those times I just hung on for the ride!
🏀🧠As we close out 2019, the kids have begun 2 new activities.  Moses joined the 8th grade basketball team.  The other night he made his first shot ever!  So fun to see the kids try new things.  Colleen, Franklin and Ezra are all in Destination Imagination this year.  It is Colleen's second year and the boys' first.  DI is really neat in that it's like teams competing, using their brains on instant challenges and are judged on skits they present, showing how they solve a specific problem.  I'm learning a lot as a helper for Franklin's team.  I can't wait to see what all the kids' teams are cooking up for the tournament in spring!

Now, I cannot finish this letter w/o mentioning possibly the most emotional event of the year...
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(Don't ya just hate cliffhangers?)
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♾️📜💕🎉🥂🎂🥳🎊 I had to resist putting ALLLLLLLL the emojis for this one!!  There was another HUGE event in spring...OUR ADOPTION BECAME FINAL!!!  We are now FOREVER family (to infinity and beyond!), with papers to prove it...We were so blessed to share the day w/family and party w/family and friends the day after.  Our hearts were so full and I felt like my face was going to crack from smiling so big!!  From now on, Bert and Ernie shall be known as their true names, Franklin and Ezra!

Ezra in white and Franklin in blue

These dapper dudes bring us such joy...they have waited so long to be part of a forever family.  There were many stutter steps along the way.  People promised them things and did not deliver.  Their trust was broken more than once.  People left their lives at an alarming rate.  It was not ok.  They were not ok.  They are still recovering from all of that junk and then some.  Make no mistake, finalizing adoption does not mean they suddenly live the happiest of lives.  Every day we all work together as a family to build bonds that LORD WILLING will some day be viewed as unbreakable, unchanging, and unshakeable.  But to be able to go into a court house and have someone validate what we are working towards is priceless.  A gavel banged and no one can tell us we do not belong together.  We are family!

❤️❤️From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!❤️❤️

❤️Here's to building strong relationships, friendships, and families in 2020!!❤️

We hope you enjoyed this green version of our Christmas card! (If you still wish to receive a paper copy, leave a comment.) There are lots of reasons we decided to do things differently this year (again!)...here's a few:

1) Save postage. We love you, but we're cheap!

2) Save paper. You just recycle those cards after you read them...you do recycle them eventually, don't you??

3) Save printing costs. See reason #1!

4) Save stress. Nothing to print, sign, stuff, address...

5) Expand our options! Now you can see a practically limitless amount of photos.

6) Our greeting to you is saved in cyber-space for posterity! 

7) It went so well the past years...we heard a lot of positive responses, and even some people who said they'd try it themselves. Welcome to the dark (green) side! (Sorry that was a goofy Star Wars joke...)

Merry Christmas 2018 (part 2)/New Year (Ready or not, here it comes!)

The year 2018 was full one!  I feel like it was more than one year shoved into one.  We made some treasured memories and certainly had our share of emotional ups and downs.  I think I've been avoiding writing about it...which is probably why I wrote part 1 of our Christmas post a little differently than in past years.  This part is nothing fancy though - just a simple year in review!

January - we added a member to our family!  I'm a sucker for dogs and for years would show Dave puppies or dogs on rescue sites and he'd say, "Get it."  I was the one who listed the reasons why we shouldn't get a dog.  Finally I found one that was PERFECT for us, I actually applied and we were approved, they drove her up here from Memphis and ta-da!  We're dog owners!
February - Gymnastics was in full swing for Moses and Bert but Moses also tried something new this month.  Forensics!  For those of you not familiar w/it, it's basically a public speaking competition.  Most of my 7 readers probably knew me and already knew that though - I was in Forensics growing up.  Moses did a group category and joined some girls in putting on a short skit.  They traveled to other schools for competition and at the end of the season, performed for friends and family.
March - this month brought another first for Moses.  He joined the wrestling team!  And - get this - my loud mouth cheering style wasn't out of place in the stands!!  I have always been the girl who enjoyed football, hockey, basketball...now we're all learning about wrestling.  It was a tough season, being his first, but his face when he won his first match was PRICELESS.  He knows that winning isn't what makes us proud, but the fact that he exhibited signs of progress and persevered at something he found difficult.  We also were very proud of him for cheering on his teammates and being encouraging to all.  In fact, one of the other parents commented on how much they thought highly of our son for that.  Considering that we are still relatively new here, that's a pretty good impression to be making!
April - the weather started to turn this month and we began again towards Dave's goal of hiking all segments of the Ice Age Trail.  This time w/a dog!  She is a great hiker and explorer, super friendly to anyone we meet on the trail and LOVES sniffing every darn thing.  We are making progress and hope to continue this year.
May - as I'm typing this, I realize there were a lot of firsts this past year.  For the first time since I can remember, this was the first year we didn't really plan a big summer road trip.  Why am I mentioning that in May, you are thinking...?  Because May is when baseball started.  I have 3 boys.  All on different teams.  Which means 3 diff. practice schedules, 3 diff. game schedules, 3 diff. uniforms to wash...but also 3 super excited boys!!  It rained a lot in the beginning, so a number of things were canceled.  After a particularly wet week, we got the notice that the fields were finally dry and games were ON.  I relayed the message to my boys and they huddled up, dancing, singing, cheering!!  I caught it on camera and they love watching that video!!  Another first in May was that my sweet girl Colleen had her middle school intro night.  We checked out her classes, practiced opening a locker and tested out band instruments.  She tried a euphonium/tuba, a trombone and a trumpet, choosing the trumpet!!
June - we had a visit from Nana and Dave's sister's family.  It's such a joy to see how the cousins are best buddies - it reminds me of growing up w/my cousins.  It's a real blessing when your family is made up of some people you would choose as friends anyway =)  June brought more baseball, of course, but all 3 boys gained more confidence and understanding of the game too.  We also met up w/some special family at Titletown for some fun and games!  WOWEE ZOWEE is that a neat place!!
July -  We finally got to some good camping and boating in our great state and the boys competed in my hometown's Dirty Ninja Mud Run again.  It officially felt like summer and we did our best to enjoy every minute of it!
August - Back in the day...Dave and I used to rent little cottages on a lake and vacation that way...before campers, before kids...it was nice to have a kitchen and nothing to set up.  He suggested that kind of vacation again, since the camper floor was needing repair and 4 kids - need we say more?  I worried about the price but he found a little lake house nearby.  It was an excellent choice!!  The kids loved the paddle boat, kayak, stand up paddle boards, etc...We spent a lot of time on the water!!  My fishergirl sat on a paddle board while her brothers paddled her around...the dog hung out on the deck (she's still scared of water!) and even got rides on the kayak once in a while.  We boated out to swim and played games on the deck while watching the sun set.  As we were there, I stumbled on someone w/barn cats (we were in the market since Peyton cat had disappeared months after moving in w/us) and it turned out the woman lived near the lake house!!  We packed up and picked up a kitten on the way home.  (I think we are the only goofballs who do stuff like this, maybe I'm wrong, but oh the stories my kids can tell!)  After much discussion, the new kitty was named Bucky due to the stripes on his head and our loyalty to the state in which we live.  Homer cat didn't quite take to Bucky at first but the two are fun playmates now!  And the best part is that Bucky and the dog are growing up together, so they are definitely buddies too!  A second trip to Titletown was made in August as we attended family night hosted by THE BEST FOOTBALL TEAM IN THE WORLD.  If you live here, there's a line in your baby book that says '1st visit to Lambeau Field'.  Now all my children have that line filled in =)
September - I stood up in my cousin's wedding.  She is one of my best friends and I have never seen this girl so happy!! It was a beautiful day and a the location was gorgeous.  There were lots of fancy good looking people getting their photos taken at sunset and lots of laughs later w/family and friends.  Speaking of photos - we had family photos taken by a friend!  I haven't shared them yet - we're waiting on another big event to do so, but there's one w/a chicken, cat and dog in it!  That's how we roll!
October - another great month to go hiking on the IAT.  Not too cold, not too hot...lots of leaves to admire.  We started talking about spring break and the possibility of a big trip.  Usually by the end of summer, we start getting the itch to plan future travel, so this was a little late for us.  I found tickets for $102 to our destination of choice but hesitated to but them.  I wanted to sleep on it and be SURE that was a commitment we were ready to make.  I'm guessing you know the end of this story - they were much higher next time!  So we had lots of alternate plans we cooked up...which meant some late nights talking about vacations =)  Our favorite topic!
November - One of the best parts of November is of course Thanksgiving but also participating in the Christmas parade w/church!  This year the kids got to ride on the trailer!  They took their job pretty seriously.  Last year Bert was not a fan of the dark but this year he knew what to expect and enjoyed it a lot more.
December - This is always a chaotic month but this year the weather was very unusual.  It was warmer and there was barely any snow!  For a snow lover like me, that's unfortunate.  We did get a chance to go west to visit family who had but it wasn't the same.  Still, we made gingerbread houses, painted a Christmas village, ate good food and watched various Christmas programs.  The dog got a bath!  First bath ever!  She has been dumped in the lake and what not in the past, but never officially washed.  She did pretty good, considering she hates water!  We had to wait until Jan 1 to go on our annual Christmas walk in the woods, but it was worth it.  We started the new year in the best way...

Now we're two months into 2019 and it's been a heavy year already.  When I started writing this post, my Dad was suffering from the effects of amyloidosis.  His heart was struggling and mine was breaking.  I tried to write some of this post while visiting him in hospice, but when I went back and read it, I realized my brain was on auto pilot.  He has since passed, and I have returned to edit this post.  To be honest, right now I feel a strong dislike for this year - I can't even imagine writing the next Christmas post...I love my Dad and I've always been Daddy's girl.  None of this is easy.  And to be honest, I wasn't sure I was even going to put anything in the Christmas posts about this b/c I thought it would drag everyone down.  I don't like that.  I like throwing humor around and getting people to lighten up.  But this is our real life, and not every Christmas letter is 100% cheer-filled with rainbows and anecdotes about our perfect family.   On the flip side, the joy of being with my kids and the hope of things to come keep me afloat.  We've recently celebrated another wedding, there's 2 babies on the way, spring break is a̶l̶l̶  *mostly* planned and we have 1 step left before adoption day!  The fact that I have all these good things from the past year to reflect on and then some tough stuff too is an accurate depiction of our world right now. Friends, I pray this next year includes hope and joy for you!  I am sure your life is not w/o struggles but please know that you are not on this road alone.  Let me know if you want to chat - we can share our joys and struggles!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
PS - I'm sorry that this year's post didn't include many photos.  I don't feel like chasing them down...I had every intention of tossing in a couple, but w/my Dad's passing, I don't think that will happen for a while.  I have some modest goals for my blog this year...beginning w/posting more often!  I already have 3 posts this year which means I have tied the number of times I posted last year - winning!  It's  only the end of Feb and I've already made great progress on achieving my goal! 

Merry Christmas 2018 (part 1)

(Once again, we are not sending Christmas cards out in the traditional way - see the end of this post for more on that...We hope you enjoy this online version! If you know the story of Dave and Mel, some of this might sound familiar.  Either way - buckle up - it's a long one!)
To our children - Since your Dad and I have spent half of our lives together building our own family (apart from the wonderful ones we came from) and since I'm a sentimental sap!, this year's Christmas post is going to be a little different.  We are about to make Bert and Ernie's adoption official (FINALLY!!!)...I feel like every time something large like this happens in our family, it causes me to look back at how we arrived at this point.  Consider this a personal history of how your family began and changed over the years!

Our First Christmas (Dating)

The first Christmas photo of your mom and Dad!  All fresh faced and carefree!  We had been dating about 3 months but that didn't stop us from joining each other's family Christmas celebrations.  We spent time in Madison too, where your Uncle Carl lived.  We took some goofy photos in the state capitol building but this is a pretty nice shot.  Would you believe that we already had a conversation about marriage at this point?  If you knew us then, you would have believed it!!  Once, I told Dad that I wanted 13 kids and he didn't get scared off.  That was when I knew he was perfect for me!! 

Our Second Christmas Together (Newlyweds)

If you're thinking, geez louise, that was fast - YEP!  Just after Christmas of '98 we got engaged and then married in the following summer!  It just so happened that we were both in school, needing to do some credits in a Spanish speaking country.  Right after Christmas we hopped on a plane and moved in w/our host mom.  Someone else stole the camera and snuck this pic of us - ay yi yi!!  Look at that hair!!!  It's hard to believe that was us...but I actually appreciated finding this photo - I take a lot of pics but I'm only IN a few of them. 

Our Third Christmas Together

Christmas that year felt like a double celebration!  I got a job right out of school too, that was icing on the cake!  It was one of my favorite times - lots of memories that are precious to me.  It was also a time of change - thinking of moving again, finding a place to put down some roots.  It was easy to think about moving during this stage of life since it was just us two!  

Our Fourth Christmas Together 

HA!  Yes I did just put those side by side - see the theme?  Another double celebration!  And more hair!!  At this point we had moved for my job and Dad's student teaching, so the future was a little less open ended.  

Our Fifth Christmas Together (First as homeowners)

This was a sweet Christmas - IN A HOUSE!!!  THAT WE BOUGHT!!!  W/help, of course...oh man, I'm telling you, Christmas in a house was a learning curve!  We brought the real tree inside while it was wrapped, so when we went to remove it, it didn't fit through the door!  I never laughed so hard...I have photos of your Dad using a saw to cut branches off inside the living room!!  

Our Sixth Christmas Together

By this point, we had found a great group of friends at church and one sneaky little lady asked us if we would be in a Christmas musical with the kids.  She told each of us couples that the others had already said yes and pressured us into doing it too!  (I'm telling it like it is, the others can testify to this!)  When we each heard the others had said yes (they hadn't yet), we said yes ourselves and lo and behold, she had all the adult parts filled!  We had to dress up and dance (I still can't Charleston!), practice our parts, and perform in front of the whole church!!  It was fantastic fun and we miss that group TERRIBLY and FIERCELY.  No regrets.  Grateful for the memories and so glad that woman conned us all!! 

Our Seventh Christmas

Well, I couldn't find a photo for 2004, please forgive me! In fact, I couldn't find many from that year at all??  Odd.  But I think it was that weird phase where we stopped printing from film cameras and started using digital cameras (or maybe our first cell phone camera?).  At any rate, they didn't print up so well and I have no idea if they are saved somewhere...*shrugs* - I plan to investigate further but in the interests of getting this post up sooner - let's just move on!

 Our Eighth Christmas Together For the first time - we shared our Christmas w/someone new!!  There is no joy quite like baby's first Christmas, am I right?  Mo, you're wearing the Santa suit Dad wore when he was a month old!  It was a lot of fun taking you to the mall and getting your photo done!  Little did we know how much our joy would increase each Christmas to come w/kids.

Our Ninth Christmas Together

I'm also lacking a photo from the next year - our 9th Christmas.  I found one pic of 'the baby' drooling while wearing a Rudolf hat, but it was clear he was teething and not a great shot.  On to the next!

Our Tenth Christmas Together

I absolutely love this pic.  We fixed up 2 rooms in preparation for foster children to join our family.  Auntie Becky's parents had some extra furniture and bedding and blessed us by passing it on.  We needed to put together a book showing potential future kids what our house looked like, what we looked like, and what we like to do.  We were so excited!!!  Mo, you kept asking when your brothers were going to come (didn't really ask for sisters, I wonder why?) and we just waited for the phone to ring.

Our Eleventh Christmas Together (First as Foster Parents)

Ta-da!  And just like that we were a family of 4!  Having 2 boys pretty close in age was fun.  There were times I'd dress you in matching motorcycle shirts or let you use drumsticks on coffee cans...then we'd be out in the yard playing w/all kinds of balls and Mo would pull the little guy in the sled.  You both loved dancing around during music time at church and testing out the piano keys.  There were twice as many presents under the tree that year and our hearts were definitely full!

Our Twelfth Christmas Together

Oh my word.  You guys!!  When I stumbled onto these pictures I nearly cried...happy tears!!  In the August before this year, we met our sweet girl.  You were so small!!  I think in part due to your tube/medical need, I didn't really have it all together that year.  Fancy Christmas pics were not a priority!  This one is from a trip to a museum where we all crammed in a large human powered fan or something.  Baby girl, you didn't get the point of selfies, but look at those cheeks!  I remember how you would toddle after Mo, calling his name in your baby talk, trying to keep up in your foot braces.  It seems so far away and yet so easy to remember, how can that be?

Our Thirteenth Christmas Together

These special photos bring back memories!  We took them after the kids' Christmas program at church.  I'll never forget it b/c at one point Mo discovered they were projecting the program on the big screen behind the kids, so he got excited and started clowning around to see himself!  Colleen, you just talked, laughed and were pretty oblivious to everything else.  I'm sure you sang a little but it was so cute to see you up there w/your peers!  Shortly after this Christmas our adoption became final and we officially/legally became parents to you 2 kids forever!

Our Fourteenth Christmas Together

Two sweet kids joined our family for this Christmas - the girl is almost the exact same age as Colleen and suddenly I needed to learn how to do girl hair!  We had experienced 4 kids in the house before, but it was the first time one of them wasn't a teen.  So....yeah....we fumbled around a bit, trying to contain 4 little people and the drama that comes w/it, but I remember the baby gasping every time he saw presents, or Santa, or anything 'pretty' like the Christmas tree display at Shopko!  I also remember taking you kids to the Dollar Store and letting you pick out presents for each other...so sweet.  To see and hear what you thought your siblings would like and why really helped change my perspective.

Our Fifteenth Christmas Together

This picture may look similar to the last.  Our family held steady and didn't change much over the year.  The baby learned some new words, the girls started sharing a room, and Mo, you happily looked out for your sisters at school.  You reveled in the fact that the girls treated you like a celebrity - waving and pointing you out to their friends every time they saw you =)  

Our Sixteenth Christmas Together

Hmmm...I found no photo again.  I know that we decided to take a break from foster care and re-apply to adopt.  We filled out another fat packet and requested another home study.  And the waiting began all over again...

Our Seventeenth Christmas Together

We moved!  Literally, over Christmas break.  I don't recommend it.  BUT - we were sooooo excited to be in the new house that we didn't want to wait!  We had another home study done on the new house - before we left the old one, we had been 'matched' w/some kids who were waiting to be adopted.  We did a lot of praying and none of the cases they presented to us worked out for various reasons, some on the kids' part and some on ours.  Some we felt relief about, for others, we were disappointed.  Either way, we were happy to keep in touch w/the social worker and grateful they were considering us for some more children.  

Our Eighteenth Christmas Together

Before Christmas, we met a pair of brothers who we thought might be a good fit for our family!  We visited w/them over Christmas break and got to know them better.  It turns out it was our last Christmas as a family of 4.  We continued our (1 year old) tradition of hiking in the woods on Christmas Day and that's where we took this goofy photo.  

Our Eighteenth Christmas Together (part 2)

I could not let the last photo stand alone!  As I said, we visited the boys over Christmas break and guess what?  We took our first family (of 6!) photo!!  When I got home and looked at the pics, I cried b/c I couldn't believe how good it felt to see us together.  It felt like a good match - they are active and silly just like the rest of us!  I felt like we were ready, at the time.  One of the first weeks they lived w/us, one of the boys got mad that there were no pics on the wall of him.  This was one of the first photos I put up, making sure to have as many of Bert and Ernie as the other kids.

Our Nineteenth Christmas Together

I'm not gonna lie, the first year w/the boys was a blur.  The one family shot I have from Christmas is blurry - ironic, no? - and I remember it being very chaotic.  It's hard to grasp how something as fun as Christmas can be so stress-inducing for people w/trauma in their background.  I think it caught me off guard since none of our other placements had experienced such deep trauma.  What I remember most about that Christmas was the way our extended family was there for us.  They supported us, encouraged us, treated us no different than they had any other Christmas even though we were fumbling to figure it all out.  We have the best family!

Our Twentieth Christmas Together

By this time, Nana had moved to LaCrosse, near Auntie Liz and family, so we went over there early to check out the new house.  I decided that her stairwell was the perfect place to take a family photo! Kids, remember how many takes this took?....or did you erase that disaster from your memory?....I'm not a great photographer and I'm hyper-critical of myself, so I realize now that the angle is weird (you're looking up at us!) but I was still proud of me for getting a family pic where no one seemed too washed out or too much in the shadows.  Kinda hard for trans-racial families!!  

Our Twenty-first Christmas Together

Back in late 2016, a dramatic, funny, about-a-family-but-not-necessarily-for-your-whole-family type of show premiered.  The series follows the lives and families of two parents, and their three children, in several different time frames.  (It also includes grandkids and grandparents along the way.)  There's themes of transracial adoption, anxiety/stress, relationships, struggles w/weight and infertility, parenting, grief and loss, etc.  A lot of big emotions woven throughout some powerful scenes...but basically, it's the story of a family.  So many people can find something to identify with and something that touches them - it's become very popular in the past 2 years!  In fact, when they killed off one of the characters, the whole crock pot industry took a hit.  I'm not really sure if the makers of Instant Pots paid the writers to put that in the show, but some conspiracy theorists are probably out there!  (Sorry, if you didn't watch the show, spoiler alert!  Chances are you could probably ask someone w/in 5 feet of you though and get caught up if you wanted.  It was the hot topic of many conversations for a while!!)  The reason I bring up the show, though, is that I feel like this post is an attempt to say 'This is us'.  You will not find a perfect family in our Christmas post.  You will not find a straight line to how we got here.  You will not find only joy, but a reality that includes the gamut of other emotions.  This family may not yet be complete, but here we are.  Kids, after spending half our lives together, your Dad and I are blessed, proud and happy that our family includes you!  Merry Christmas to you and the others that have made it to the end of this post!  Here's to many more!!

We hope you enjoyed this green version of our Christmas card! (If you still wish to receive a paper copy, leave a comment.) There are lots of reasons we decided to do things differently this year (again!)...here's a few:

1) Save postage. We love you, but we're cheap!

2) Save paper. You just recycle those cards after you read them...you do recycle them eventually, don't you??

3) Save printing costs. See reason #1!

4) Save stress. Nothing to print, sign, stuff, address...

5) Expand our options! Now you can see a practically limitless amount of photos.

6) Our greeting to you is saved in cyber-space for posterity! 

7) It went so well the past years...we heard a lot of positive responses, and even some people who said they'd try it themselves. Welcome to the dark (green) side! (Sorry that was a goofy Star Wars joke...)