Here is a quick start to showing you the house building process. We are a lot further than this now but need to get out and take some pictures again. This first picture is in October.

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Now we move on to November.

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This was our favorite activity when we visited before the snow started falling. Sliding down the huge mountains of dirt was great fun!!!

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We'll get some more pictures soon. The house is now covered w/ Tyvek (plastic), the windows are in, plumbing, electrical and framing of extras (like the fireplace) are happening now. We are also finalizing the cabinet designs for kitchen and baths, getting the well dug and trying to decide on interior and exterior doors (so we can seal the place off). It is a great layout!

Christmas at the Cabin 12/25/2008

This cheerful Mrs. Claus met us at the door when we arrived. I was so proud of Ronda, she wore her Bingo Gift from our Christmas celebration at Thanksgiving! I told her that she is what I aspire to be at her age. I don't think she believed me, but I am sure my sisters will.

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Here is Alyse in her Christmas nightie.

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We rarely get the oportunity to get pictures with the girls 5th cousin. Alyse loved Bella, but was wild enough to make Bella a bit nervous.

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Ellie was a bit excited about opening the "big" gift from Grandma and Grandpa Schiebout. The Plasma car was a hit! I think I will probably use it quite often as well!

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Lana dressed up for gift opening. These are costume items collected by Dave and Ronda for cabin toys. They are some of the most used items in the cabin!

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The girls went sledding each day at the cabin as well and had a great time! This is Ellie's favorite cabin hat.

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We took this video sideways, but you still get the idea. Grandma was out sledding with the girls all afternoon!

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Family Christmas at Home

We actually set up our Christmas tree this year and had our own family gift opening! We didn't do a gift exchange btwn the Schiebout siblings this year for adults or kids. We did go to the cabin later for Grandma and Grandpa Schiebout's gifts though.

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First we need to show off Evan's Christmas socks, a long time holiday tradition in our family since 2007 when he wore mine as a joke and stretched them out! The kids ask for daddy's fun socks now at Christmas time.

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We opened lots of gifts but did not find the infamous "Two Front Teeth".

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We had some very well loved gifts from Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Brady. I heard Lindsey had a hard time giving this one up!

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Aaaaaaaaand this one wins the prize for most appropriately named gift of Christmas 2008

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The girls sleep with their new Nemo and Squirt ( who they call Little Dude) stuffed animals. They love that movie! Thanks Aunt Carrie!

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Evan and I decided not to exchange gifts this year. I already gave him a garage and he gave me a huge closet and a laundry chute! That stinker went and got me snowboard boots anyway though! I got him a stocking cap, woohoo!

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Merry Christmas to you all! We love you!

Christmas Program at church.

Lana's class was first in the Christmas Program at church this year. They sang quite a few songs and each had a line in a Christmas poem. Lana's line was "and sang a song of joy". She did great! She is getting so tall!

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She also gave us a present after the show. They had made a DVD in the preschool class of all the children dressed up as people from the manger scene. A photographer from our church then shot black and white photos of them in various poses and scenes from the nativity story. Lana was an angel in several of them. It was very neat and professional (and they kept the secret for several weeks!!!).

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Next came our little show person Ellie. The Kindergarten class and up did a whole Christmas musical called "A Star is Born". Ellie was an angel. There were four of them who got to dress different to "decorate the choir".

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It was really fun to watch for us parents!!!

Lana's 4th Birthday Party

Lana turned 4 on Dec. 14 and we had all the local family as well as our friends the Warnekes over to celebrate. We had a pizza dinner, then opened presents (thank you everyone!). Lana stained her mouth with sauce before any pictures were taken, oops! Then we moved on to cupcakes from Costco, which are enormous!

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Pizza and cupcakes sounds simple....

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There were 11 children under the age of 5, all were well behaved and had fun. Then Lana had an idea..........

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And Ellie was soon to follow! Notice what is missing in Ellie's smile. Can anyone guess what Ellie wants for Christmas?

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More soon!

Crazy Week 11-14-08

This has been a crazy week! It started when Ellie lost her tooth. The other top one is loose too so more pictures will be coming soon no doubt.

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Next Lana broke her arm. With all of the stunts she has pulled that should have damaged her before now, this one takes the cake. She stuck her arm out at the last second as Evan was sitting down.............and he sat on it. Here she is. It doesn't seem to be bothering her anymore.

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I took Lana to a last minute orthopaedic appt. on Monday. After we checked in, the fire alarms went off and we were sent outside to stand in the parking lot for 20 minutes (a lifetime while holding a squirming Alyse in the freezing cold). It was a false alarm so we went back in to get Lana x-rayed and casted. She did not sleep well at all the next 2 nights.

On Wednesday, I skipped BSF and decided to stay home for the day to rest. At 8:30 the nurse at Ellie's school called and said that Ellie had a "unique" problem. Apparently she had found something on the carpet in her classroom at circle time (reading time on the carpet) and stuck it in her nose "just a little bit to get the boogies out of my nose". When she tried to get it out, it went up farther and farther until it was out of sight. Her eyes and nose were watering like faucets. The nurse had her blow a lot, but it did not come out, so I was advised to take her to the doctor for an emergency nasal extraction. I tried to get her to blow again but she only gave a few wimpy ones and said it hurt too bad. Off to the doctor we went! No fire alarms this time, but Ellie sounded like the alarm after taking one look at the nasal extraction instruments. The doctor said OK lets try blowing one more time first. This time Ellie put some power to it and out flew a soggy blob of something, we still don't know what. Yes, we paid a doctor a lot of $ to hold a tissue for us. Lovely.

Here she is with her sucker from her traumatic appt. Isn't she just an Angel? ...

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See Y'all later!

New Activities for Alyse

Alyse has decided that she must try (and climb on) everything. She is very smiley and has some very goofy grins as well. She likes noise, piano, pots 'n' pans, banging cupboards, etc.

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Look familiar anyone? ...

One of Alyse's favorite new activities (she thinks it is a great joke) is to hit herself repeatedly in the head and say "owee" then laugh a lot. Ellie and Lana think that copying her is a great game as well and think it is just as funny as Alyse does! Alyse also thinks she needs to feed herself (with her hands of course). Here we have a combination of the two activities. Sweet potatoes make great mousse! Who knew?!

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Here are some of her new dance moves!

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