Stuffing the Stocking - or not

Does anyone else struggle with Christmas gifts? My newest challenge is what the poll on the right mentions- how many gifts should I give my children? I know a number might not be exactly what I need but I'm having a hard time figuring out how do you teach thankfulness in the midst of 20 gifts that all have their name on it? How do you emphasize the importance of giving when all they are experiencing is getting on Christmas day? We have never done a lot of gifts (usually about 2 or 3 each or one large one) but I'm toying with the idea of a bunch of tiny gifts just for the fun of opening gifts! Things like a toothbrush and goldfish crackers- and then have one "bigger" gift. This is also hard for me because I LOVE buying gifts!! But as I am thinking about it I'm not sure I want to feed the gimme monster that is already quite prevelant in my four year old! So- I need some mom advice. Anyone? =)

Coming Home

There are lots of Home comings here in PA this week. Today Shai is officially being released and coming home! (yeah!), Sunni and Cale are going to be at least going to Bellefonte this weekend to be with their other Grandma (they still can't go home because they are sick) and my gang is about ready to pack it up too. *whew*. This week has been ok. My croupy boys made nights a bit long at times but with the window wide open and the cool mist blowing directly on them they are starting to get better. Sunni and Cale are fighting colds but thankfully have not had the croup - maybe they have stronger bronchial whatever ;) And today my mom is quite sick- OYE.
We spent a day with my extended family (Jaedon only has about another foot to go before he's as tall as my Grandma! ;) I have cousins that we spent time with- ages 16 to 5. The 5 year old (Cavid) and Jaedon are about the same size and had a LOT of fun wrestling! And I informed my Grandma that GREAT grandbaby number 17 (!) is on it's way ;)
Yesterday we had blues clues day- the older 3 had notebooks and found the pawprints that I hid on things. Sunni is such a great artist at her age that she LOVED drawing the items in her book. Jaedon and Cale just had fun finding them =) We also made paper binoculars and cameras to go on a safari adventure with PopPop in the evening. After supper we went to Gander Mountain - they have lots of mounted animals so the kids had lots of fun going on safari.
Oh hey- Here are some things I've heard recently that have made me smile - some Pennsylvanianise:
Once = Wanst
Day = Dee "Tuesdee"
You all = yous
Not = as in the end of a question "ya turn left here not?"
Jerry = Jury
Pulley = Pooley
and my last name is pronouced Howse (yes even by my parents!)

I'm thankful that I am not sick (yet?!) and things really are going well. It's not the number of kids that is challenging- it's the number of sick and HOMESICK kids! Jodi (my sis in law) has not seen these two for over a week and over the past 6 weeks she has only seen them a handful of times. They are really homesick for their kids too- but the end is near!
Sunni is such a sweetheart. She's the most thoughtful 4 year old I have EVER met. For example the other night my mom was awake a lot with Cale in the middle of the night and was telling me about it at breakfast. Well, that afternoon (when my mom usually naps with the kids) my mom had to go somewhere instead of taking a nap and Sunni was very concerned and said "but Aunt Amber, Grandma should take a nap because she didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Ok seriously- what 4 year old thinks like that?! Anyway, it's been fun to spent time with them and it's been fun doing ponytails!!! ;)
Ok- well, this is a long post. I actually decided to go to a coffee shop today (where I am now) during naptime so that I could get an internet connection - plus it's turning out to be a nice getaway. But I need to get back and make sure all is well. Thank you all for your continued prayers - now for a safe and uneventful trip home!
A

Week One

Well, me and my two boys have been in Pennsylvania for a week now. There really are fewer things more beautiful than PA in the fall - as the picture above attests. For those who may not know, I came out here with Jaedon and Seth because my brother and sister in law had twin baby boys and my mom has been watching their older two kids for about 5 weeks now. So I brought my troops in tow for some change of pace and distraction. Little did I know that I was also bringing the CROUP with me but that's another post all together! We've had a good week. It's busy with 4 - My niece Sunni is 4 1/2, Jaedon is 4, Cale is 2 1/2 and Seth is 1 1/2. We have done a lot of parks already- yeah to nice weather!!! My mom made monkey bread with all four (Seth enjoyed eating it), my dad and brother took the older three hunting. They found "John Deere tracks" ;) and yes, we actually took all four grocery shopping. They got to ride in those silly carts so it was an adventure for them. (and us! ;) It's been a fun week overall. As I mentioned, Seth came down with the croup on Thursday night and I actually spent the entire day Friday with him in the ER. Not exactly part of the plan. He is doing okay- but not over it yet and, of course, decided to share with his big brother. I'm just waiting for Sunni and Cale to start barking too. Unfortunately, because my niece and nephew have been around the croup, they are not able to go home for at least another two week- if you can imagine that the croup is not ideal for premies! I feel really bad about this but I know there isn't a lot I can do about it either.

the little Rice's

These are some pictures of me, my niece Sunni and brother Myron holding Tristen (in the blue clothes) and Shai - my sweet premie nephews that are 3 weeks old already! Tristin is home with but Shai has a bit of growing to do before he can come home. I just thought I'd post some pics for you.

Marching Band Days

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since I last marched in a competition. I still have memories of it like it was yesterday (well, at least like last month). Today since Amber and the boys are in PA, I took the opportunity to go and see the Jenison Band Competition. There were 44 bands from 8:30 am to 11:00 pm and I saw 36 of them... Phew!!! What a blast it was amazing to see literally thousands of kids, and tens of thousands fans/parents doing the marching band thing! The bands I went to see particularly were Wyoming Park (earned 4th in class B), Edwardsburg (6th in flight IV), and Hudsonville (2nd in flight II). The whole day was worth just seeing the last 6 or so bands. Amazing show concepts, props, tech-gizmos... you name it, some band probably did it. It was very cool to see something like 10 of my former students in various bands performing today, even though I only saw one current student come to watch the performance, and that was because her big sister was performing! It's pretty amazing that I can have an impact on students that will affect their lives forever, even with something as small as marching band. I know what a change it had on me!! :) The next coolest thing about the day was getting to see a few old friends from high school. Beth-used-to-be-Otto-but-I-don't-know-her-new-last-name was there, as well as Mary and Marty and Annie-used-to-be-Otto-but-I-don't-know-her-new-last-name-either. I got to talk briefly with Ryan and Karina (Machado) White. What a blast. ***Sigh*** Well, I got home at 11:45 and have been doing computer stuff and it's almost 12:30 am. I better scoot so I can get up and be off to church in the morning. If you read this, comment or something so I have something to do.... Oh wait... I'm already so busy I don't know if I need anything more to do... So long.

Can you read me?

ps. scroll to the very bottom of the page ;)

Spring Grove

Here's a collage of 4 years worth of family photos taken at Spring Grove. Bottom left-2003, Missing-2004, Bottom Right-2005, Top Left-2006, Top Right-2007 (BPH)

5 second rule

I had a first happen to me today. Jaedon and I were taking a meal to a family and as I was getting the Chicken and Biscuits pan out of the car, the it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time disposable pan it was in, folded in half and dumped the contents onto their front yard!!!! I never met this family before and was SO embarassed!! Thankfully, I decided to laugh about it instead of bursting into tears! I humbly walked the remainder of the meal inside the house and apologized for being such a klutz! (They saw it happen from their front window). I told them I would run over to Little Ceasars and pick them up a pizza. So I got back in the car and realized- hmm...I don't have any money! AHHHHH!! I decided to stop at Jill Westra's house (practically next door) and told her my whole story and begged her for $5.30! (Which, between fits of laughter she gave to me- THANK YOU JILL!!!!). The funniest part of the story is as this vegetable, gravy and biscuits concoction lie spewed across their yard Jaedon looked at me and said "It's okay, Mama! Just blow it off!!"

Strike a pose

Every year our family goes to this ultimate picturesque park in Jamestown called Spring Grove. We awkwardly tote around a (don't laugh at us) music stand (to set our camera on) and our little camera with an automatic timer to set up and take some family pictures. And every year we come home with oddles of pictures that we get to sift through and one of them usually ends up being a Christmas card picture (after some cropping and editing of course!). We also have discovered that every year we go to this park with expectations of our time together as a family being jubilant and fun- much like our pictures appear to be. Pictures, however are not telling the truth behind all the hub-bub of what goes into getting the pictures actually taken! Getting kids to look at a blinking light, sitting still, smiling on cue, not pushing each other, be careful for the mud, don't fall in the stream, no, you may not feed Seth a leaf... you get the point. Well, this year, to add to our joyful frustration, our camera batteries died after taking about 4 pictures. And our backup pair was equally dead. Brad decided to go pick up some AA batteries- and they didn't even let us take a picture before they died. Sooo...needless to say, we did NOT get any Christmas card pictures taken today! =) This is the one picture that actually turned out. Maybe we'll try again after my PA trip- and after we have a truckload supply of batteries!!

One Short Day...

Becky and I spent the day in Chicago on Wednesday- shopping the Michigan Mile (altho we found it funny that we went into stores that are in Grandville!), getting the mandatory Starbucks, eating at the Rainforest Cafe (and getting a little birthday treat) going to see WICKED (again-ahhh), riding the CTA, going to IKEA and only getting a little lost! What a wonderful memory with a wonderful friend!

Happy 30th Birthday, Rebecca!

Ode to a Dog

Our neighbor likes dogs. He has had at least 3 dogs of his own (BIG dogs) and usually dogsits for friends of his- in his tiny little yard I have seen up to 6 dogs roaming around. Out of the goodness of his heart, our neighbor decided to let his friends dog become a permanent daytime fixture- a doggie daycare as it were. The presumed idea behind this was that the dogs would play together in their huge outdoor pen all day, then his friend could pick up her sweet dog that he would be worn out from playing all day and not be as frisky at night. The greatness of their plan is that they both are GONE from his house all day. Not so with me. Oh yes- I get to see their "great idea" in action - or rather... I HEAR it ...all....day....long. These dogs do NOT play all day. They bark. Actually, to be fair, just the visting dog is the barker-
I was so...uh...inspired by him that I wrote a Hiaku- *ahem*

Nothing I can see
But I'm barking constantly
Oh, to have a brain.

Betchya didn't know Brad and I were poets eh? ;-)

Neverland, MI

I found both of these Disney store costumes at various garage sales. Peter Pan's outfit was first (complete with some hilarious boots). I think Jaedon wore that for a week straight. Then I spotted Captain Hook's garb and couldn't resist. I found the enormous hat at the actual Disney store- too cute to pass up.
Jaedon insists that I refer to him as ... whatever character's costume he currently is in. "I'm not Zaedon, Mama! I'm Captain Hook." Silly me.

Fall Love Poem for Amber

I feel at long last,
no foolishness at lovers' laughs,
nor fear about longing looks.
For all life's left,
is freedom allowing lingering lips
as fleeting air lifts leaves.

BPH

Variations on a Theme

We love to go on walks in our family. However, we do them often and they are loosing their charm. So, instead of going on a "walk", this past Wednesday we went on a 45 minute "treasure hunt" (picture with the kids and their baggies). They found all sorts of various treasures -(including a cigarette butt that I didn't let them keep ;) And this morning Jaedon, Seth and I went on a "Safari" (hence the hat and "spyglass"). Jaedon found a baby bear, I found a zebra and Seth found a giraffe- AND - according to a certain 4 year old-they are all suppose to fly over to our house today to play when Daddy comes home. I was just glad I got my walk in! =D