Happy Birthday Shaylee

Shaylee is THRILLED to be 4! She has been counting down the days - and this morning when she woke up - she came down stairs and said to me - I'm 4!!!!! Heute ist meine Geburtstag!

I let Shaylee open a few of her gifts before breakfast. She was so excited! Here are a few pictures of Shaylee with her gifts - and opening them!!!!

Shaylee in her new sweater - showing off her special box - and her Hello Kitty birthday cake!

We thank God in heaven above for giving us Shaylee - she is such a blessing to our family! We love you Shaylee - Happy Birthday!!!!!

Below is an email message that Grandma Bleeker sent to Shaylee for her birthday. I read this to Shaylee this morning. It so fittingly describes Shaylee and I wanted to share it with you all. Thanks Grandma - we love you!

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Shaylee, Happy Birthday to you! Wow you are 4 years old! You have beautiful blond hair, and a smile that steals everyones heart. You have a twinkle in your eye that makes everyone wonder what you have been up to. I am so proud of all you are learning in school and at home with mommy and daddy. I love the German words and songs you can sing, and I love that you can say the 23 Psalm from the Bible! God has made you a very special little girl and I pray that you will grow to love Him more and more each year. " Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right , whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. " Philippians 4:8 May God Bless you on this your 4th birthday! Love, Grandma Bleeker

Loose Tooth Update

Tuesday, November 4 - This morning as I'm trying to get all the kids out the door - Shane says to me "mom" and I turn around and say "what" - and to my surprise he shows me his tooth! It finally fell out - right before school! While getting his shoes on he had been messing around with it - and out it came. So of course I had to take a few pictures right then and there! Whats a few more minutes when we are already running late! So here he is minus a tooth!

Operation Christmas Child

The kids are participating in Operation Christmas Child through their school this year. Operation Christmas Child is a program through the organization, Samaritan's Purse, that delivers gift boxes to children in desperate situations around the globe. Most kids who recieve these boxes are very poor and may have never recieved a gift before. The gifts boxes include mittens, socks, small toys, notepads, colors, candy, toothpaste and toothbrush, hairbows, combs or brushes and the like. I picked up a bunch of miscellaneous items over the past few weeks and tonight I let the kids pack their boxes. Shane, Sydney, and Shaylee each made a card for the child as well. It was great to see them excited as they put the gift boxes together.

Here they are showing off the contents of their gift boxes.

Here the boxes are all wrapped up and ready to go. I told the kids to act like they had never gotten a gift before and the present they were holding was for them! I can only imagine the look on the faces of the children who will recieve these boxes, when they get to open them and see what is inside!

This was such a great opportunity to teach my kids about the love of Jesus and the many blessings He has given us. We have so much -and there are so many people in the world who have so little. What a great way for us to share the love of Jesus with others.

Shane's Loose Tooth

Shane has a VERY loose tooth. He has been playing around with this tooth for over a week now. He will fiddle with it with his tongue - and it gives me the geebees! I keep telling him I'm going to put a string around it, tie the string to a door, and slam the door shut! Out will come the tooth(haven't any of you tried that before in your younger years???) - but he prefers to let it come out on its own......anyway, here is a picture of him with it twisted sideways....I sure do hope it falls out on its own soon!

Tierpark

Saturday, November 1, 2008. It has been rainy and cold all week - however today the sun was shining!!!!! To ward of the ick - I decided that we must get out of the house for awhile. So we headed to a nearby tierpark (animal park - mini zoo). The kids had a great time running around, looking at the different animals, playing at the park, and basically just letting off all that kid energy! It was great to be outside again in the fresh fall air.

Playing at the park. Silas checking out the donkeys - or vice versa. Shaylee by a little deer.

Sydney and Shaylee by the llamas. You can tell these animals are use to people, as they come right up to the fence.
Later in the afternoon the kids played outside again -riding bikes and scooters. They definately needed to get outside into a change of scenery. They can do crafts and color and watch tv inside only so long before they are all getting on eachothers nerves...and mine too!

Painting and the Puzzle

Yesterday afternoon the kids got to paint - I give them our big sheets of leftover packing paper and they can paint basically whatever they want. Since Shaylee's birthday is right around the corner - she painted some wrapping paper that will be used for her gifts.

I also finished the windmill puzzle LATE last night - at around midnight to be exact. Crazy, I know! For me, fixing puzzles is like reading a book, I get hooked, and just have to keep going. I suppose this is why I seldom read or fix puzzles that are over 25 pieces - everything (and eveyone) get ignored when I'm into a good book, or in this case - finishing up a 1000 piece puzzle. So here it is - the work of art! Now that it is finished you can see there are some clouds in the blue sky - but when you are looking at 100's of small pieces scattered on the table - they all look the same color - blue!

Everyday Happenings

Silas has started feeding himself lately. He actually does a pretty good job. I thought I'd share a few photos of him and his new skill.

Shane and Syd have this week off of school - so we have been enjoying just being together, doing crafts, playing with playdough, watching movies. One afternoon Jer took off work and we spent the afternoon fixing a puzzle next to a warm cozy fire! It feels a bit like winter already.

After the 500 piece castle puzzle we started a 1000 piece one of a windmill we got when we were in the Netherlands. It is fun to reminise about the places we've been too while fixing the puzzle....however the windmill one is still not complete....too much blue sky. When I get it finished I'll be sure to post about it!

Sydney with her playdough creation.

Felsenmeer

Sunday, October 26, 2008. After church we headed to Felsenmeer (Rock-sea). This place had been recommended to me by the mom of one of Shane's friends. There is basically this SEA of ROCKS and you can climb all over them. They go on and on. There are also hiking trails through the woods (for those of us not quite able to climb up all the rocks). The kids LOVED this place. It was another gorgeous day and we really enjoyed our time here.

At the bottom before the fun climbing begins.....up we go.....

So how many rocks do you think we climbed today???

Urach Waterfall

Our fourth and final stop of the day was the Urach Waterfall. From where we parked we had to walk 1.5 kilometers to the waterfall. The path was laden with leaves and it was very picturesque. The kids did amazing. Once we reached the base of the waterfall we could climb up (yes that's right - more STEPS) to get a closer look.

The walking path.....the waterfall in the background....

Heading up - check out the cool roots of that tree!!! The waterfall up close! It was once again a gorgeous day. We had a wonderful time being together as a family, outside in God's beautiful and amazing creation.

Nebelhohle Cave

Our third stop was Nebelhohle Cave (which means foggy cave in German). This was very cool. We went deep into the earth - more steps - and explored the 380 meters of caves and caverns. The stalactites (which hang from the ceiling) and the stalagmites (which come up from the ground) were so neat!

Going down, down, down....

Some of the limestone formations....Shaylee thought this one looked like a face.

This stalagmite was so tall. Wonder how many drips it took to make it? And yes, MORE STEPS. We needed to be so careful since it was damp, and the steps were slippery. The last picture is of light shining down into the cave from a hole way above...it was kind of reassuring to see some real sunlight when you are so far down underground.