Happy Christmas Eve 2010

Six months here in our home in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Merry Christmas to you!

A little hot chocolate after playing out in the snow. It will be a white Christmas! We just received about one inch last night.

Merry Christmas!

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:13-14

This is the season that the whole world is hearing about the birth of Jesus. What a joy that there is peace available in Jesus. We are so thankful for His goodwill toward men.

Kaitlyn is now 2 years old and Matthew will soon be 4 1/2 years. We've had a tremendous year. God has greatly blessed us in so many ways, and continues to. He keeps us happy, healthy, safe and surrounded in love.

We've lived in the Omaha area now for 9 months. Two months in an apartment in the city and now seven months in our new home in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Its population is 7200 and is about a 20 minute commute for Adam.

We are looking forward to our first Christmas here. We are planning on spending it with friends from Omaha. Scott, Anita and their two kids, Callista and Zachary are going to bring their gifts to our place and we'll open them all together. We are So Thankful for all of the friends God has brought into our lives! We've been on our own more or less for the last five years and it is such a Good Change.

And at the same time, we want to thank all of our family and friends who have stuck with us through all of the changes. Relationships have strengthened over the miles & moves and we are thoroughly forever grateful for that! It simply keeps getting better and better.

We are also really enjoying the gentle winter here. We've heard countless stories about the unusual snowfall last year. Tons! This year we've had two little skiffs and some cool temperatures. Just right!

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see a line of little photos called "Followers." You can be a "public follower" or a "private" one, where your photo wouldn't show. We really hope you can become one. I don't write letters or emails as much as I'd like to and this site has become my ongoing letter, so to speak. So I've been depending on it more and more as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends.

If you would like to be a 'follower,' simply click on the white button, "Follow" close to the bottom of this page. A new screen will pop up. If you already have an account with Google, twitter or Yahoo, you can sign in with them. If you don't have any one of these, at the bottom of that screen you can create one in Google for free.

Wanted to mention this, just in case!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kaitlyn Grace!

December 6, 2010; monday

Not feeling the best, so simply waited for Daddy to come home after work and celebrate. A very nice day to stay in pajamas.

A package came from Malta just today and was sitting on the porch. So nice!

Kaitlyn was all about the little sunglasses.

Matthew even received a gift from Pappa, Mema, Aunt Debbie and Blake. So thoughtful! It sure made everything more fun for everyone.

Kaitlyn is really growing up. She just turned the knob and opened a door for the first time. She is very interested in writing notes and shopping lists like Mommy. She holds the pen just right and makes little lines of squiggles just like a sentence. She is practicing at jumping from standing, as well as climbing as much as possible as Matthew does. Kaitlyn has 12 teeth now, 4 of them premolars. She doesn't have any eye teeth yet, but looks like two of them may be coming soon.

We are so proud of her. She is such a little dear and is always ready to snuggle. The other night she kissed her 'baby,' then her stuffed dog on their heads, and continued to expertly cover them up over and over again with a blanket.

Home Sweet Home

We live on a hill here in Plattsmouth. With all of the leaves down now, it has been such a great view! We can see more neighbors and parts of the downtown.

Mixing up some of Adam's creole seasoning.

Who needs colored sand art when you can do the real thing?

The final product. Very tasty. Adam had a Mining Division Christmas potluck, December 1st. He mixed some of this in with the veggie dip and it turned out great.

Matthew's first home buzz cut.

He sat so still and was so patient!




Adam buzzed his own hair all the time back when he worked on the Schutter farm. But this is his first time cutting for someone else. It's a lot different!

Adam had just come home from the barber himself.

Funny pose!

Like father like son.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were fortunate to spend Thanksgiving with Mike & Jean and most of their family. We really enjoyed the day and getting to know the family better.

Quieting down for a good read.

Their grandson, Danny.

Little Markus, son-in-law Gavin, and their cousins, Danny & Jenni. What a fun day!

It was chilly! But Matthew and Kaitlyn quickly played a little while in the huge pile of leaves before going shopping with me. Even Kaitlyn's little baby got in on the action.

Beautiful Fall

Winter has arrived up north! We spent two nights in Gillette on the way home from Montana. Adam had some business there and it sure was a nice break on the trek back. Business trip #10 in the seven months that we've lived in the Omaha area...and we got to go with him!

I was so glad to see Gillette! Seems like we were just there a week ago. Felt right at home. We even had the chance to walk through our old house. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful family renting it. It looked so good and we were definitely nostalgic.

Wyoming was blanketed in snow as we started for Nebraska.

Wall Drug was a great stopping point in South Dakota.

Back home to our beautiful fall. Leaves everywhere!

We have one especially large tree by our driveway. It had just Dumped its leaves. They were like snowdrifts.

Always a big welcome home for Daddy!

Kaitlyn especially likes tracing her hand lately.

She is so good at talking. Saying more and more. She really enunciates the last part of words. "Ho-T, oran-GE, pin-K, coa-T..." Matthew and I will try to guess what she is saying sometimes. She is very patient with us. She learns so much and it is fun to watch her imitate different things she's learning.

Kaitlyn was So happy and content upon arriving home! It was wonderful to see. She had so much quality time and attention from so many loved ones while in Montana. It will definitely last a while.

Matthew is working on his letters.

He is starting to sing! He has a lower voice and we are so quiet as we all listen to him. He doesn't notice and sings right along. He knows quite a few words to a number of different songs. So great.

Matthew received some great clothes from Blake. He especially likes these pajamas. Very comfy and cozy!

One day Matthew said how, "I had to wear that stupid old shirt yesterday!" I was surprised. He has never said anything like that before. And then I realized how he's been wearing all new clothes from Blake since we left Malta. That 'old shirt' yesterday was one of his that he has worn before. It's been such a treat to always talk about Blake and feel extra special in his clothes!

Out jumping in the piles of leaves and helping bag them up.

Adam raked these leaves from over the fence that were on the driveway. Now to add the backyard leaves to the pile! It was big when he finished!

He finished at dusk, with all of us planning on playing and jumping in it the next day. But the temperature really dropped and that never happened.