Christmas Day

Christmas morning, after breakfast, stockings, and last minute packing, we headed to my in-laws in Gresham.

We had a wonderful day... lots of good food, visiting, and thoughtful presents. :)

Sally always makes the kids new pajamas for Christmas. This year she made me a "prairie girl" nightgown! I love it! She knows me so well. :)

Snow!!!

I love snow! Growing up in California, snow was few and far between. I get so giddy with excitement when the flakes begin to fall. We do have a ton of snow (around 18 inches)for Centralia, and so far, everytime the forecast calls for rain, we get more snow! As much as I love the snow, however, I still needed to finish buying a couple of Christmas gifts. Yikes! I kinda don't know what to do. Yesterday we ventured out to a sweet widow in our church to bring her cookies and then hit Wal-mart. Thank goodness for our suburban. I don't know how cold, always snowy places do it. BJ said plowing is just a part of life for them. :)

Jesse wanted to earn some money, so we hired him to shovel our pathway and our rental's pathway. I was impressed with his work!

These icicles finally fell last night. They were quite the sight from our dining room window.

It had been a while since I had blogged. One day our phone lines were not working and then we had a lot of stuff going on. So, I am finally caught up.... there are a bunch of new posts below. :)

Good Friends

Life can be so busy. It's unfortunate that scheduling time with friends can be hard to fit in. Thankfully, we planned ahead and plotted a time on our calendars. So, Saturday we had the Dahlins and Wohlds over for a time of fellowship, snacks, and pizza. Even the snow did not interfere!

Sadie and Jared were most interested in holding baby Noah. We all thought this was a cute scene.

Fritzler Family Christmas

Despite the cold and snowy weather, we made it to Aunt Lavisa and Uncle Steve's house for the party. It had been a while since we had seen some of the family, so we were really glad to be there. Aunt Visa's home is so beautiful! And, as always, everyone brings a ton of awesome food! We enjoyed visiting and eating for a while, then moved downstairs for the family band.

I thought this pic of Reaghan was cute. I believe she is telling the boys to clean up the playroom!

The family is really growing. More marriages and more kids. It is such a blessing to have such great and close relationships amongst extended family members.

The wonderful woodwinds. Shiela did a great job on her clarinet solo. :)

Gotta love those cheeks!

Jared took his instrument very seriously.

The Brass section. They are always goof-offs! First, Jordan couldn't understand why he sounded so horrible after only a year of not playing....he found his old music rolled up in the bell of his trombone. Then Nathan kept grossing out the section with his foul smelling french horn. He obviously needs to clean it. :)

By the way, Nathan is doing an awesome job with his music. He played his new Christmas song for us. It was beautiful. www.nathanarnoldmusic.com

Following, the band, with numb lips, we sang the "Hallelujah Chorus."

Our Kami is really growing up.

These four did an awesome job singing a few Christmas carols for the family.

Aunt Alison with Justin.
A happy John Russel with his Grandma.

We missed the Bratchers and the Ortmans. The snow kept the Bratchers from attending and Audrey's treatments have been really rough, keeping them away as well. Please continue to pray for Audrey Nan.

Sledding Fun.....

Thursday morning, Jesse's birthday, we took the boys sledding down Aunt Jessica and Uncle Steve's road. We had so much fun. I was surprised at how long the boys lasted in the cold. I went down the hill a few times, but I started at a lower spot than the boys. :)

Justin kept pegging me with his mini snowballs. He thought it was hilarious.
BJ always duct tapes the boys rubber boots to their pants to keep the snow out. It's one of his redneck ways. :)

Bubba-lou-hoo

My Jesse Michael Kuykendall turned six years old on Thursday. We celebrated by going sledding in the morning since BJ was supposed to have a board meeting in the evening. (The meeting ended up being moved due to the weather. Yeah!) For dinner I fixed him his favorite meal besides peanut butter sandwiches... taco salad. I really had it easy because he also requested monkey bread for his cake. The cheater one with can biscuits!!! :) Jesse is a fun kid. He started out his life extremely chunky! He was amazing at nursing...and it showed! Aunt Linda always teased that he was drinking the cream! HA! He has definitely slimmed down over the years. Bubs was our earliest walker, talker, and potty-trainer. Jesse adds such a fun and unique dimension to our family. Here are a few things that make Bubba so special:

1. He knows how to whistle really well. Every where we go he whistles non-stop. I will never lose him in Wal-mart because I can always hear him.

2. Jesse has always said things wrong... really wrong. Restruction (construction) man, this summer he called bell peppers "salt and peppers," teeter tots (tator tots), sprinklers (suspenders), famous grammar "where is em?", he never wants his cheerios to get foggy (soggy), apple spider (apple cider). And then there is the funny time he wanted us to guess his favorite restaurant, "I'll give you a hint, it starts with a G..... Ginese!"

3. I catch him checking out his muscles often.

4. He is a very generous and forgiving boy. He is so appreciative of anything given to him.

5. Jesse is a second born and has the mischievous twinkle in his eye like daddy!

6. He loves to wrestle. As a baby he was a major snuggler.

7. He is always climbing ladders, trees, etc. really high.

8. When J.R. gets hurt, you'll always hear Jesse comforting him, "Oh honey, are you okay?"

9. At the checkouts, Jesse is continually looking for money.... and he finds lots!!!

10. It is so cute to see him throwing his tomahawk. He is truly all boy.

We love you Jesse!!!

Our Weekend

This weekend was our church's "Living Christmas Pageant." It is a drive-thru presentation depicting various scenes from the life of Christ, along with a few fun American Christmas type scenes. I have been ringing in the bell choir for the past five years. We have a great time out there ding-a-linging, but this year I was so cold!!! We do three half hour shifts each night for all three nights. Each night I came home chilled and exhausted. At least I have a whole year to forget about the discomfort before we ring again!

Jared and Jesse were in a scene Saturday and Sunday. It was a little chilly for the boys but they did a good job. Justin and John spent time in the warm nursery while BJ, Jared, and Jesse sang with the Christmas carolers. This year was the 25th year of the pageant....and I gotta say, Uncle Dallas, our minister of music, does a wonderful job directing .

Tonight was Jared's piano "sharing time" at our church. He did so good playing his piece, "Away in a Manger." I was really proud of him. We celebrated with a bowl of icecream in our warm, cozy home. Kind of ironic we'd be eating icecream on one of the coldest days of the year! Thankfully, our wood stove is keeping us toasty inside. BJ has had the fire going continuously since Saturday morning. We haven't had a whole lot of snow yet, but we're hoping for more! :)

A Nativity

This morning, two very sweet ladies from our church held a Santa picture alternative from 10-2pm. BJ and I didn't know what to expect. We thought our boys would each take a turn standing next to a nativity scene, but boy were we wrong! It turned out to be a blast! J.R. didn't know what to think when we "swaddled" him in a cloth and sat him in the manger. I am so glad we were able have this picture opportunity. :)