Jenna's Christmas Program

This past week was Jenna's final Christmas program with her daycare. Next year she is off to Kindergarten, she is ready to blow this "popsicle" stand. Although she will miss Payton, pictured above if they don't go to the same school. They have become best of friends this year, infact baking cookies together at his house, you should have seen that kitchen! Hilarouis!

The program was great they did 9 songs, although no guitar, that was sort of weird. The kids did an incredible job between waving to parents in the crowd!

It was certainly seeming like Christmas, hearing the children sing great carols and then walking outside to huge snow flakes made for Santa's sleigh!

THE GREAT FLOOD

No, this isn't another biblical reference! This is our house last summer. Kristy makes reference to this in our Christmas letter. But a faucet was left on our second floor and ran for 8 hours actually flooding our entire first floor, which ended up being stripped to the studs and rebuilt. The picture on top is the same view but Kristy eliminated part of a wall so you can see into the formal living room.

Our friends Mike and Jeremy Kienitz did all of the work, they do a GREAT job, PRO Contractors is the name of the company. We appreciate all they did for us!

We were in a hotel for 93 days which may sound like fun, but with kids and dogs, believe me I was so happy to be home!

The Christmas Journey

The church we have been attending, Trinity, here in Lansing puts on what is called "The Christmas Journey" and it is a walk on a path in the middle of the woods that walks you through the life of Jesus, it is incredible. Last weekend we had about 2000 attendees and 180 people accepted Christ during the walk!

Jacob and I volunteered to be 'townspeople' in Bethlehem last night and it was a great experience. Jacob pretended to be a 'homeless' person sleeping on the streets so when the Innkeeper said there was, "No room in the Inn" for Mary and Joseph he pointed at Jacob and Austin (cousin). Jacob did a GREAT job and really enjoyed themselves.

Thank you Jacob for doing this with me!

Jared's Natural State

This is Jared, our 14 teen year old superstar! He is such a good young man, kind to his brother and sister. Being nice to a younger brother isn't always easy, ask my younger brother Jimmy. His love of Jenna is as pure as fresh snow, he is a great big brother, we are very proud of him! I just thought this was a great picture of Jared and thought you may enjoy it, although I am sure he will not!

Annual Trip to Peacock Tree Farm

What great weather we had this year, last year was bitter cold! This year we had Jared, Jenna, Jacob, cousins Nathan and Alex along with Kristy and I. This was the first year in years that Grandpa Butz was not here, we missed him! As you can see Jared and Nathan didn't see the need to use the tractor to bring in the tree, young strapping lads!

JACOB - SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENTS

As you know Jacob is in 4th grade and he has a job of doing school announcements with a partner ever morning. I stopped at his school today and watched him in action! He is GREAT - nice job Jacob! I see you behind the microphone someday on a national news telecast on FOX network of course (fair and balanced). As you can tell this was the first time I had used this camera, sorry about the quality of my video - I clearly won't be working for any major news network.

HALLOWEEN 08

What fun! It was 60 degrees, the kids were pumped and the bell rang at 6pm! Check out Jenna in her Hannah Montana costume! The other picture has Jenna, her best friend Jayden is the clown, Alex her cousin is the angel, Eliana is the cat! They all had a blast!

NEW FAMILY MEMBER

Well, we have another family member that is making our house hold more interesting then ever! His name is ICE or as the kids call him ICEMAN - he is a mix between a yellow lab and a German Shepard. He is actually Laurie's, Kristy's sister, but he is a treat -very well behaved dog. Isn't he CUTE! As you can see, him and Doc get along just fine!

Tom's Bow Season Victory

Well the Lord blessed the hunt last evening, 11/01/08. It was a beautiful evening in the woods. A buck and a doe came out about 4:30 in the evening and laid down about 75 yards from me. I had never had a deer lay down in front of me, it was great to watch! They got up after a while and I didn't see them for the next couple of hours. But at 6:15 they resurfaced and were headed away from me, I used the deer grunt and brought them right to me,very cool to watch. I took my shot at 34 yards. One of my best friends, Mike Kientz, helped me track up until about 8:30PM and we were unable to find him. Mike went out and hunted this morning and after a sleepless night I went to the woods mid-morning and Mike already had him. He is a nice 8pt., dressed out about 190 we guess - what a great 24 hours in the woods!