Merry Christmas 2012

If you haven't received my Christmas card....check your mail again.
Now if you still haven't received it....check below. :)

Here's a copy of my Christmas Letter!

Warmest greetings to one and all!

Here’s our 2012 highlights!

January- The year started out with a family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells.  One of our top spots to visit again and again.  

February, we took in a 3 year old foster boy, who ended up staying until November.  He felt and still feels like part of the family.  We still get to visit him time and again.  In fact he is spending the weekend with us as I write this letter and we are overjoyed to see him again.  

March was big news for Bear as he lost his first tooth, 2 in a row in fact!  March was also big news for Stephanie as she turned the corner into 30 this year. 

April- Monkey turned 8 years old. My how they change!

May- Bear started soccer for the first time, he was excited to play, but it was chilly for most of the games. TJ an I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on May 25th.

June- We visited the zoo with some wonderful friends, and spent lots of time outdoors!

July was action packed.  We had a great annual trip to family camp over the 4th of July.  A week at Grandma Shirley’s to attend her churches VBS.  Friends from Wisconsin came to visit. And a family reunion in northeastern Iowa. Plus lots of great weather for us to swim in our pool.

August- Monkey started 3rd grade, and Bear started 1st grade.  We took our first field trip, to the Iowa State Fair, and the Omaha Zoo.  Great time away for a long weekend.  We attended many nights at the Steele County Fair.

September always starts with our Friesen family campout.  This year was very beautiful weather.  The boys and I got to take a neat field trip to the Fire Station.  TJ and I went to the GVB concert in Des Moines.  Somewhere around our 18th or more concert?  We tried counting but can’t quite remember them all.

October- My little Shaniac turned 6 years old!  We went on another field trip to the Reptile Zoo in town.  We love our field trips! 

November- We saw the GVB in Rochester, this time going with TJ’s folks, and Aunt and Uncle.  Always an uplifting time of music.  We spent Thanksgiving in Iowa, and the weather was gorgeous.  The kids went to the park to play.  Before heading home we spent an evening with the “quartet” at the Vance residence in Ames.  It was great to be all together again, and to see all the additions to the families since we last were all together.

December- We went on vacation with Brian & Lois Niehoff.  We went on a Cruise to celebrate both of our anniversaries.  Some unfortunate circumstances came our way, but with sunshine and great friends to spend the time, we made the most of it and had a relaxing time away anyway.  This year for Christmas instead of giving gifts we are making memories with all of the Wolf gang at the Wisconsin Dells.  Like I said our favorite vacation spot.  We are all looking forward to those great memories to be made.  They will last longer than any gift we could give each other.  I hope you have made some great memories this year, and may many more come your way next year!

 

Christmas Tree Craft

It's a Christmas Tree! :)

Check out the variation from 4 different children.

This was done by Monkey....I love how he put baby Jesus on the top of the tree instead of a star.

This one was done by bear.  He put baby Jesus on the tree too. :)  Love it.

 These two were made by foster kids....I find it interesting that my children did not put presents under their trees, as these ones did.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Well, have you heard the saying before?
Absence makes the heart grow fonder?
Well I wasn't really testing you all.  It just seems that way. :)  Life's been pretty hectic.

We've had an awesome foster boy almost all year.  He's 3....goes to preschool, is busy, loud, funny, and comes with other schedules and meetings during the day.  So that adds to the daily schedule.
We homeschool, and this year is two different lesson plans for 1st and 3rd grade.  I originally thought it would be the hardest year of all so far.  Maybe isn't the hardest year, but takes much more time, and a different schedule than we are used to.  On top of a busy 3 year old foster boy who was full time, with a schedule of his own.  In otherwords, life's been pretty hectic.
And when the schedule gets hectic the thing that has to fall out is the blog.  As much as I love to write on here.....I don't really get many comments from you all.  I mean, all the blogs I check have oodles of comments tagged to each and every post.  Don't get me wrong, I do it because I love sharing my things, not because I need comments.  But, hey comments are nice.  It's nice to know someone is actually looking at your blog, enjoying, reading it, learning something from it, using some resources from it, or something.  So after awhile I didn't feel bad about not posting for long periods of time.
But in the last month, people have verbally been asking me about the blog.  Super nice to hear from you!  Thanks for letting me know you read it, and that you are looking forward to me posting more frequently again.  It's does a heart good. :)

Look for some Christmas posts, my Christmas card and letter, details on our trips and much more coming your way soon!