Snow!

We had quite the surprise with winter storm Jonas last weekend--30 inches of snow! The kids loved it, and they missed 3.5 days of school because even in PA, that's still a lot of snow. During this storm, we also managed to put an offer on a house we liked and it was accepted. Don't ask me how it all came together, but it involved a dedicated Realtor who happened to live just down the street from our rental and was willing to hand deliver papers. So we're on our way to becoming homeowners again! We also met a couple with kids the same age as ours in our current neighborhood. They graduated from our alma mater, so we had lots in common with them. Funny how things like a snowstorm that disrupts your life can also bring some wonderful surprises. Hope everyone is weathering the winter ok and staying warm!

We're ba-ack...!

Bet you thought the blog was never coming back! Well, here we are. We've moved to PA and we are enjoying and adjusting to life here. So much has happened but here are a few highlights: did I mention we moved? We sold our house the day we put it on the market in AR. Truly a blessing. The moving truck came on the last day of school for Micah. Jacob turned 4 in May and is a preschooler at the university's early learning center where Dan works as a assoc professor of theatre arts--Messiah College. He is into treasure and maps. Micah turned 8 and is now in 2nd grade at the local elementary school He get to take the bus now, enjoy reading and collecting rocks and coins. We are living in a rented townhome and looking for a place of our own to move into this spring. Our rental is right next to a park so we have been spending lots of time there. Since we had all summer together--neither Dan nor I were working--we had lots of time to process our move and enjoy spending time together. It was truly wonderful. I now work for the PA School Boards Assoc as an editor and publication manager. Since I get off at 4m we have more time together in the evenings, which we love. Dan's first show--Anatomy of Gray--went really well and Gramma Lynn and Papa Roger came all the way to PA from WI to see it (and us!) We all had Thanksgiving together, with my parents as well--a first for us all to celebrate together. We have found a church community and are making some friends there, and the boys are also making friends at school. Anyway, here are a few photos from the summer and fall. I will try to post some videos, but they are giving me trouble right now. Thanks to all who have prayed and sent us good wishes for this move and transition. We have been blessed in many ways. We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and I promise to post more soon!

Those silly boys

cutie patooty

playing in the park nextdoor

Weekend before Halloween in DE

Trick or Treat!

Celebrating Micah's birthday at Indian Echo Caverns

carving the pumpkins

at the gemstone wash with Pop Pop and Grammy

Happy Birthday, sweetie :-)

Micah loves digging for rocks in his birthday mining kit

At the U.S. Army Heritage Center with Gramma Lynn and Papa Rorger

Cute photo of Jacob from last Christmas--just because!

New Beginnings

Most of you have heard that we are making a big move this summer! Dan accepted a position teaching theater at Messiah College outside of Harrisburg, Pa., and we'll be moving there in June. We have "all the feels" about this move. We're excited to be near family--something we've hoped and prayed for over that last 7 years--but we've been in Arkansas a long time and we're sad to leave the friends we have here. So far so good. Our house is under contract (whew!) and we hope that everything continues to go well with that sale. I am applying for positions in the area where we will be living and hoping to stay in higher education, too. The boys seem pretty excited about the move and are starting to ask questions about what it will be like. I hope they continue to have a positive attitude about it, especially when we start packing up the boxes. Dan plans to go out in May and look for a place for us to live, so we don't have a new address just yet. We've had a busy and fun spring celebrating Dan's 37th birthday, Easter, and preparing for the move. We even squeezed in a trip to the circus during Spring Break. Dan's last show at OBU, Shrek, the Musical, was great! I know he was sad to see it close though, because it means that he won't be in this community of students very much longer. But hopefully it won't take long for him to feel at home in his new position. So, please send us your thoughts and prayer over these next few weeks as we get ready to go. We'll give updates as we can. Hope you all are enjoying this season of new beginnings, too.

In our front yard--it's getting real around here!

Micah makes his own version of the Jungle Book

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny visited our house

And he hid some eggs at the church playground, too!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

The circus came to town, tigers included

springtime!

Snow Daze!

The results of experiential learning

You can't keep a good man down.

Ice storn

Snow!

Saturday selfie

 

Well this has been a topsy-turvy upside-down month! We have missed a total of 7, yes, 7 days of school due to a combination of ice and snow! I woke up one morning to the sound of large branches falling from the pines trees in our backyard due to the coating of ice on everything. Luckily only our rearview car window was smashed, and not our roof. Mama had to get creative with two busy boys around the house, but we got by with some help from Just Dance Disney for the XBox, tent forts, and sprinkles/pre-made sugar cookie mix. Being in Arkansas, we weren't prepared for the snowy weather, so in these photos you can see the boys wearing a strange mish-mosh of winter gear including my rain boots (Micah) and my fleece phone touch gloves (Jacob)! We made it work and the boys had a great time doing what kids do in the snow. On round 3 of the weather we even made snow cream--a syrupy concoction of sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and real snow. Judging from the looks on their faces (above)I think they liked it! Mid-month Jacob had a run-in with a hot stove top and got some pretty bad burns on his right hand. For those of you wondering, yes, this is the hand he usually sticks in his mouth for comfort. So, that was pretty traumatic for all of us. But he is now fully recovered. They second photos down is from his Valentine's Day party at school. He loves a party!Dan was busy dodging the icy weather to attend several professional conferences and meeting for work. We were all glad when those responsibilities were over and we didn't have to worry about him driving across the state in the snow. That might not be a big deal up north,but there are very few plows/salt machines in this state which make for dangerous conditions. We are glad the spring is coming. I know many of our family members are thankful for the same thing!

A few leftovers

We've had a few hiccups in the behavior department this week. January's always a hard month. We're hoping that February helps everyone even out a little more. Here are a few photos that I forgot to post last time from our trip to Wisconsin. Jacob loved playing with the dress-up outfits he got: construction worker, train engineer, and fire chief! He loves pretend play and these props are perfect for doing that. I don't know how many times I've had my ticket to the North Pole punched this month :-) Papa Roger taught Jacob a song about David and Goliath while we were up there and we need to get a video of him singing it because Jacob keeps wanting us to sing it with him and we don't know the words! The photo below is the part where he picks up five stones, hence the hands held up. This weekend Micah had a playmate over on Saturday and the two of them had a great time building with Legos, playing at the park and seeing a movie with Daddy (so Jacob could get his afternoon nap). This month we are looking forward to Valentine's parties at school, the first grade spelling bee and lots of other things in the pipeline.

All aboard!

Papa teaching Jacob the David song

Best buds

Christmas Greetings

Well we had a great time in Wisconsin, but it's hard to come home again! The kids got to play in the snow, have fun with their cousins, decorate gingerbread and do all sorts of things in addition to the usual Christmas excitement. It was a full couple of weeks. Jacob had a few tummy issues, one of which struck on Christmas morning (he was ok by 11 so we went ahead with out plans) and the other the last night in the hotel on our way home (we made it home without more trouble) and has since battle and conquered the flu (the rest of us were saved by Tamiflu). Those parts were not so fun, but we made it and it didn't seem to have any ill effects on his view of the holiday! The drive went smoothly, albeit long, and we are very glad for that.We hope you had a wonderful holiday too and are having a hopeful January.

"Maybe we should ship this one"

Christmas Eve

The whirling dervishes on Christmas Day

Christmas cheer for daddy

The brothers Inouye

The finishing touches

The hit toy this year--remote controlled-car!

Gramma teaches Micah and Jacob a few notes.

The cousins take turns reading funny poems to each other

Weekend festivities

So Santa came to Perritt Elementary this weekend to have breakfast with all of the kids. We went to have our photo taken and make some crafts. Since we had just seen Santa earlier in the week at the craft store, he asked how the boys ornament project had turned out. This is one of the advantages of living in a small town :-) Micah told him he would like Legos for Christmas and Jacob told him he would like a train. We'll just have to see if those Christmas wishes come true! We spent some of yesterday afternoon bagging leaves in the yard. Micah was a big help and we got 13 bags done in about an hour. I keep telling him that I'm going to record him when he says "Mom, can we please rake leaves?" and play it back for him in about 5 years :-) I have a pretty cute video from their leaf adventures that I'll post on Facebook. For some reason I still can't figure out how to send videos from my phone to the blog without downloading them first, so I'll just post it there. Micah made letters for both of his Grammas yesterday and sent them in the mail, so those should be on their way! Micah asked for a calendar this week and I gave him an extra one we had. I asked what he was going to do with it. He said, "Jacob keeps saying its time to open presents every day when he wakes up so I'm showing him on the calendar how many days we have left." He's been putting an "X" over each day until Christmas for little brother to see before going to school :-) We've been baking and wrapping and cutting and gluing and doing all of those sorts of things around here this week.

Ho HO HO!

Couldn't keep them out of the leaves!

This is the cutest picture :-)