Christmas 2006 Family Photo

Here's the whole gang! Pretty soon we are going to have to give up on having the kids stand in front of us! They have grown so much in the last year!

We leave tomorrow for East Peoria. May you all have a very blessed Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

'Twas the week after finals and what did we do?
Musical concerts, solos & home projects too!

A two hour High School Extravaganza,
A french horn "Finale",
A bathroom in scraps,
And don't forget the borrowed zoo!

As per our usual vacation plans, we have a home improvement project going on. The bathroom wallpaper is coming down this year! We haven't quite decided on a color for the paint, but we'll be sure and put a picture up when we get it done.

This week has been full of musical activities! Savannah had her first High School concert Monday night. She played in the Symphonic Band and the Full Orchestra. She is 4th chair clarinet in the Symphonic Band (quite an accomplishment for a freshman). One of the upperclassmen recruited her for the Full Orchestra position.

Duncan's french horn solo was last night. Sean was busy getting the accompianment down this weekend! Duncan did a good job. His horn hasn't been getting much of a workout this fall, the bass has been much more of a priority. We'll have to work on getting them a little more equal time this next semester. And, speaking of the bass, Duncan was named the 1st chair bass in the Northwest Iowa Honor Orchestra! We are so proud of him! They will have their concert in late January. Tomorrow is the last day of school and also the Middle School's Christmas concert, assuming of course that the weather doesn't mess things up. The kids had a 2 hour late start this morning because of icy roads.

What's up with the "borrowed zoo" you say? Well, we are pet sitting for some friends of ours over the break. Let's see, there's a dog (pictured at left), 2 hamsters, 3 fish, and a morning dove. Add all of that to our own menagerie of 2 cats and 2 hamsters and we have quite a houseful. The cats have been in hiding since the dog arrived, Jaker's occasionally ventures out only to hide under Savannah's bed once again. However, the dog is just as scared as the cats, he hasn't gotten a good enough look at either one of them to know just what is staring at him from under the bed! All he knows is that there is something very scary under there! As you can see this is a very interesting looking dog. His name is "Shadow", but we like to call him the "Pirate Dog". One of his eyes didn't really develop so it is mostly shut, while the other one is very large, so he looks like he is saying, "ARGHH!" all the time!

A Cat's Life

Oh to have the luxury of seeking out and spending all of your time basking in a winter sunbeam! The cats love catching rays in the TV room. Usually there is some controversy about who gets the best sunbeam, but today all seems peaceful. Jakers seems to be the most relaxed, but Anastasia's old bones spend more time in the sunbeams. I love that posture with the head turned nearly upside down!