Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Mine was good, but busy. We had the Schicks (54 ppl) on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve was my family Christmas and the Saturday before all that was the Pfaffmann Christmas. On the 26th was the big Schick Christmas. Afterwards, we went to Luke & Heidi's and then spent the night. On New Years Eve, I went to Kendra's and New Years Day we had all the Pfaffmann's. I'm loving the no school thing for 2 weeks, but we start tomorrow!! :(
Here's a few pictures:



Playing the Piano @ the Mall

John's Birthday

Grandma's B-day

Christmas at the Fehrs

My Family

Me, Linds, Jamie, Jake & Blake on Christmas Day

Christmas Picture & Letter

Merry Christmas to our family and friends! It’s hard to believe a new year is almost here. Time seems to go faster every year.
As I reflect back over the past year, it seems like it was a year of adjustments and changes. Mom Pfaffmann went home to heaven, which she had longed for, on Jan. 3. She still had a good mind at 94, and was granted her desire to stay in her own home. Her calm and peaceful presence is missed so much.
In February, Heidi’s engagement to Luke Knapp was announced. It was an adjustment for us to have our first child leave the nest, but feel confident that God brought them together. They were married May 27. They are doing well, living in Morton (only about 10 min. away!). Heidi is enjoying married life, and especially likes cooking. She makes frequent calls home about recipes, pink dyed laundry, etc. She is in her junior year of nurse’s training, and Luke is an architectural engineer, working in Morton.
Adam turned 16 in June and got his license! It has been wonderful having another eager driver again. He worked for Uncle Tom a lot this summer, and helped him all through harvest driving the auger wagon. He still loves hunting and trapping, and so far this year has gotten a buck, a coyote, and several coons. I just love it when I open my freezer and there’s a coonskin lying on top of the food!
Wendi turned 15 in August and was thrilled to get her permit. She says she thinks we should be over being nervous since we’ve been through this twice before – I don’t think it ever gets easy! She really enjoyed helping my niece Jill with her 4 children for 2 weeks this summer. She likes babysitting, talking, being with friends, and playing her violin with the Central Ill Orchestra. Her biggest love, though, is the piano, and I’m her biggest fan. I simply love hearing her music throughout the day.
Luke continues to farm our entire house, and begs to have friends over because he can’t harvest everything alone. He collects untold treasures (junk) every Saturday at the shop, and hauls it all home. His 4-H project was a workbench, and he’s spent hours making and inventing things on it. He loves our new puppy, and their energy levels are about equal. At 10, he still loves snuggling and being read to, and we treasure those times, knowing how soon it will be gone.
In June we spent our usual week in Wisconsin with some of the Pfaffmann’s, and had our best fishing ever. In September we spent 5 days in Mexico with my brother Bill & Joan. We thoroughly enjoyed touring the town, eating fish tacos, and especially being with the kids at the orphanage. We would have loved to smuggle a few of them home with us. We left there and then spent 5 days in Scottsdale, AZ. We were able to go to the Grand Canyon and zoo, but mostly just relaxed by the pool.
If you’ve read the above, you can probably tell what Max and I do – just trying to keep everything together and taking time to appreciate each one of our children and treasure each day. We pray that each one of you can also take time this season to appreciate God’s gift to man. Our prayers are with many of you throughout the year!

Our love,
Max & Mary, Adam, Wendi, & Luke

Gross Me Out!

So you know the frog story, and how it dissapeared? Well, on Friday morning, my Dad found it hopping around in the kitchen. He killed it and threw it in the woods.. and thankgoodness I was alseep and I wasn't the one who found it.
Last night Adam & I babysat for the four little boys. They were pretty good... I guess. They went to bed pretty early and then we just watched a movie the rest of the time.
Tomorrow we're going to Morton for a wedding and then going to church Christmas caroling.

Here is a few pictures I've been meaning to post:



Cousins Night

Missy, Our puppy

Wes & Missy

Kate-this is for you.. I thought you'd fall in love with this picture. :) I didn't have it, so I had to take a picture of a picture, if you can't tell.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So, I haven't updated in a while. But... last weekend was good. I really like Thanksgiving, especially the 4 day weekend part(even though this year's wasn't too exciting). Thanksgiving day we went to Uncle Jack & Aunt Ruth's from noonish until almost ten! It was one long day...but watching a couple movies helped.
Friday morning Reagan came at 8:30. He was here pretty much all day. Oh yea, on Friday we put up our tree and Christmas decorations and turned on Christmas music. I love the holidays...if it wasn't for them, I would really hate winter. So anyways, our tree looks pretty bad this year cuz Heidi usually did the lights and all that stuff.
Saturday, Mom and I went to Peoria shopping. There was not a crowd at all, and we still got some deals! In the evening we went to the Festival of Lights parade. It's a family tradition: to watch the same floats every year and to freeze to death in the process! After, we went to La Gondola--not so great, except they do have Leonardo's pizza which is pretty good, I guess.
Sunday, wasn't real exciting.

Funny Story:
Yesterday(Monday) I was on the phone, and suddenly I hear this screech. I went out to the living room and Mom was freaking out. She was picking off dead leaves off of one of her plants when a frog suddenly jumped! And, it was an ugly frog! It's def. not normal! The plant was outside until like a month ago. It makes me shudder just thinking about it. So, today my Mom asked the boys if they took the frog outside because it disapeared!! But, they didn't!! Jessica says if it's a tree frog it buries itself in the dirt. So.. that's what we're hoping for...I don't really care where it is, as long as it's not in my bed tonight!

Ok, I'm talking to Jenna right now on IM, and I'm not talking too much cause I'm trying to do too many things at once... So I better go.

Have a good week!
love you all!

October Birthday's!

Happy Belated Birthday to all these people! :)


Tess- Oct. 29th

Ryan- Oct. 30th

Laura Rose- Oct. 19th

Brenna Jean- Oct. 14th

Uncle Scott- Oct. 4th

Jenna- Oct. 12th

Uncle Tom- Oct. 17th


More Birthday's to come... :)

More Pictures!

Adorable Diego

Ben w/the George Bush mask

Darling Candi

All of us @ Momo's

Katie and I with our permits

I'll post more later... have a great day!!

A Few Phoenix Pictures

The resort pool in Phoenix




At the Phoenix Zoo



My Family @ the Grand Canyon

I don't have many pictures from Phoenix, but I'll post pictures from Mexico in a few days. :)

OK...

So it's been a while since my last post. We're obiouvsly home from Mexico. After Mexico we went to Arizona and stayed at a resort there. We went to the Grand Canyon, the Phoenix zoo and that's about it. The rest of the time we mostly relaxed around the pool. :)
Anyways here's what's been happenin' lately:

-I've been practicing my violin a lot because my orchestra concert is Nov. 9th! Yay... I'm excited. :)

-I tried on my Bridesmaids dress for the first time in a while. I'm sad that the wedding is over and I won't ever get to wear it again! :(

-A couple days after we got back from Arizona, we got a new puppy. It's an Austrailian Shepherd and we named her Missy. She's getting so big... and were trying to train her. She's a ornery little thing.

-This week I've been over to Uncle Scott and Aunt Dawn's new house a couple of times to help them. I don't know how much of a help I was... but, I had fun. :)

-I hardly ever drive anymore. Pretty much just to church and maybe 1 other place a week. So, if you're willing to risk your life driving with me, let me know... cause my Mom isn't! :)


So, not much else is new. After I got home from Arizona/Mexico, life is kind of slower than it was before. No drivers ed.. no Katie. [:(]

I'll try to update more often for my faithful blog readers. Of course, they may not be as faithful anymore.

Have a good day!