Jacob - Politics!

Jacob has taken quite a interest in politics. He paid close attention to election night and knows more about politics then most of the teenagers in our life. Last Monday evening we went to see the State of the City address by Lansing's Mayor Virg Bernero and Jacob loved it. We were lucky enough to get his picture taken with a former Mayor, David Hollister. What a cool night! We are working now to get into the State of the State address from our Governor next week.

Wind Damage - 2008

Here is the tree that fell over in our backyard last week. Of course, as always, I was out of town again and Kristy woke up to this! I am not sure why it always happens when I am out of state, I have my own philosophy on this but it probably wouldn't do me much good with Kristy to share - wink!

Jenna's Methodology to Room Cleaning

Jenna was charged with cleaning her room the other day and as she picked up things in her room instead of putting them away she put them on - the result is what you see! She sure enjoyed it but I am not sure in the long run it was effective, but it was cute!

Christmas 2008

Wow, the stockings were hung, the cookies and milk were out for Santa and the house was quiet by 2:30AM. We had a full house, Laurie, Nathan, Samantha and Alex not to mention Kristy and I and Jared, Jacob and Jenna - Grandma Turrill and Grandma Susan showed up too! Tracy joined us for a little while but didn't feel to good so slept in the family room! It was a full day with presents and a great breakfast in the morning and wrapped up the day with a prime rib dinner in the evening. We were all exhausted by the end of the day! Thanks Santa for a great day!

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!