Dan 5 minutes after the cousins left

Dan had so much fun with his cousins over the holiday weekend. This is how we found him 5 minutes after the cousins left for Indiana. The second he woke up he wanted to know when we could see the cousins again:)

Christmas Eve Fun

We went downtown this morning to see Santa and the German Christmas village. Had a nice time, and left just as the snow started to pick up.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Christmas activities are in full swing at our house. I love Christmas activities except for one. That one is making Christmas Cookies with the kids. I hate the mess with icing everywhere and ending up with ugly cookies. I always have to guess at what character they have decorated. They don't like it much when I guess wrong and think their "Jesus" is a snowman. However things have changed. This year I went to a cookie exchange with some friends from church and one lady brought the most darling cookies. She called them Cookie Carolers. She makes sugar cookie dough and cuts off several chunks of dough and tints them different colors. The kiddos use the dough like play dough to make their amazing creations and then you bake. The kids loved this activity (even my teenagers). They had so much fun that they asked if we could call that our trial run and do it again. The best part for me is that it's not as messy and they turn out so cute. Love It!!!

Dan and Tithing Settlement

Yesterday our family had tithing settlement. Before we met with the Bishop we helped Dan figure out how much he would give to the church. Dan would give 68 cents. In our meeting the Bishop asked each of the children how they felt about the money they had given. Each of the four oldest children expressed their gratitude for the blessings that has come into their lives because of tithing. We thought we were in the clear with just little Dan to go. Hopefully we would make it out of tithing settlement without our children saying something weird or our children's favorite.... not answering questions posed to them by the Bishop but instead staring off into space as if he didn't exist. Maybe this would be "the year" that we would be somewhat normal. However, when Dan was asked how he felt about the opportunity to give to the church, he said, "Well, I was going to go to college in China with that money but I guess I won't now."

A Day at the Circus

We went to the Hadi Shrine Circus in Evansville the day after Thanksgiving. Teresa remembers going to this same circus when she was young, and they had some of the same acts. The kids seemed to like it a lot-- the favorite was the bear act. Grandma Rane also came with us.

Wikipedia steps up

I was working at an international congress of allergists and immunologists a couple of weeks ago, and saw something that I didn't think I would see. I was sitting in a symposium led by a world leader in allergy and asthma research, and on the bottom of one of his more technical slides, he included the reference as just: "Wikipedia". Wikipedia has definitely made it to the big leagues! :)

A Few of My Favorite Things

1. Dan still blows me kisses as he is pulling away on the bus. He keeps blowing them until I can't see him anymore.
2. Allie is a chatter box. The second she steps into the house after school she tells me every detail of her exciting day. Allie never has a day at school that isn't exciting.
3. Ty loves to play piano. I never have to remind him to practice. He sometimes practices multiple times a day.
4. Hal spilled a huge bowl of spaghetti on the kitchen floor and proceeded to clean up the whole mess. He even mopped the whole kitchen floor. I didn't have to say a word. He just did it.
5. Court kept Dan completely occupied during Stake Conference. We even got there 1.5 hours early so the boys could help with parking. The last 15 minutes of conference Dan was completely done with the whole conference thing but Court continued to try to keep him happy.