Andrew & Jonathan

Jonathan (and Anna) loove their new cousins in Kansas. More photos to come in the next post, but I thought these scenes of adoration were sweet enough to stand alone.

Such a soft little head...

 ...and those eyes open!

!

Let's just see if there's anything in that little mouth...

No. Well, at least there's always a little something special in the nose.

Are you sick?

Anna was recently sick (as everyone else in Minnesota was/is) with the flu, or maybe just molar-teething. In any case, she was pretty limpy and on the couch for a good two minutes or so. Jonathan could hardly take it...

 Are you really sick? [thump, thump]

Shucks, you are. Well, I'll just snuggle right in.

And really, it's not so bad being sick.

Down under and out

We live in quite possibly the best house ever. One of my favorite parts of it is the basement. It's rather "unfinished" in the popular sense of the term, but oh how nice it is for our use. A few reasons why:

First: Ramont hung some laundry drying lines from the ceiling, so that we never have to use the dryer in winter. This is rather remarkable, given the piles of diapers I wash every other day.

Second: it's a sweet playground for the kids each morning while I either fold or hang up laundry, listen to Morning Edition, and daydream about all the things I won't accomplish during the rest of the day.

Third, it's an exercise room for Ramont. And the kids. Sometimes I come across questions from moms to the tune of "should my children exercise?" Life is one big exercise for Jonathan and Anna, especially down here where there are three rooms connected by a circular tricycle track.

Fourth: There's a manly shower and toilet down there, meaning the upstairs bathroom could theoretically be ready for guests at a moment's notice.

Fifth:There's a gas stove for canning, a food dehydrator, a giant cast-iron tub with fire space underneath it, a produce pantry, work counters, etc etc.

And sixth: Water draining from the washer is pure entertainment to both kids.

Moving back upstairs and outside:

Ramont blew snow on our yard for the first time last week. If water draining from the washer used to be exciting, this was a whole new level of wonder to behold.

Seriously, who needs TV?

Anna fell on a sharp corner of the stove drawer (trying to join Jonathan inside of it) and ended up with a mouth full of blood. Luckily no broken teeth - just some puffy upper lip.

This winter has been quite beautiful here in Minnesota: cold, crisp, and white. It takes some doing to go outside to play, but on rare occasions we do. Here we went to get the mail on a new Christmas sled one beautiful afternoon.

It's sooo nice to be home again.

Traveling mercies

Last week we drove east for the Schrock Christmas gathering. Ramont's parents and all his siblings and their families got together for a few days at sister Ravonn's home in Bluffton, Ohio. It was so good to be altogether again, and to see the six cousins (ages 1 to 10) playing together at all their different levels. I did not take a single photo while there (which just about drives me mad!), but hope to get some yet from the others (which I also forgot to do and also drives me mad).

You see, we were a bit preoccupied with vomit. This sweet little boy had thrown up several times before the picture was taken, and would at least 21 more times (or so it seemed) in the next two days. At first we thought it was car sickness, which he's had before, and then realized (with some relief!) that it must be some kind of sickness, which lasted two days. Anna then got it a few hours before we left for the return trip and also had it for two days. Now we're all done. Hallelujah. (Our car and house carpet still reminds us of what was).

But even with all the puke flying in the car, our kids were Amazing travelers! Jonathan especially is content to sit for hours, just humming, reading books, looking out the window, playing with Anna. Even Anna surprised us with her capacity to sit contentedly (dejectedly?) and look out the window until her little eyelids drooped into sleep. (Don't be too amazed; she definitely had her moments of "enough of this already").

We made the trip out in two days, and were kind of planning to do the same on the way home. But it went so well that we ended up driving all 15 hours in one stretch - even got to the point of taking Anna out of her car seat, mopping up the puke in the seat, changing her clothes and her diaper, and letting her play a bit with Jonathan while the car was still traveling. It really was not a bad trip!

I hope to post more about the actual time there once I can get ahold of some photos.

A first Christmas

In some ways this has felt to me like the first Christmas with our little family. Partly it's because this is the first year "at home," close to family (at least on one side). Partly it's the first time in years that it's been cold and snowy as it "should" be! And partly it's because our kids are now both old enough to get excited about things.

Here you can see that it doesn't take much for Anna. Jonathan, too, gets excited every time he hears the name "baby Jesus." We've been singing carols for bedtime songs, and when he hears them on the radio, he happily says, "do you recognize that song, mommy?" The little chocolates behind the windows on the Advent calendar was a major highlight of each day for the last month. We cheerfully went to church services three days in a row ("you played organ so nicely, mommy!"). And then there were the presents. All of a sudden his tractor inventory has gotten about nine times bigger! And the books! And Anna's toys! (especially Anna's toys)

After the Christmas eve service in church, my folks came to our house to eat, read the Christmas story (in LG), and open gifts.

The appeal of tractor toys is truly multi-generational in our family.

The battery slowly winds down for the evening...

One last inventory check of the "machine shed" before bed.

And this is what Anna did while the rest of us opened gifts.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of you a joyful Christmas and a happy new year!

[This one is just for fun; our kids are smarter than this photo would suggest.]

And that's about all from our wildly (un)successful in-house photo shoot this morning.

Crazy faith

Jonathan is hitting the age of inquiry. "What does [insert word] mean?" is asked at least 19 times an hour. The other frequent thing he says is "please read/sing it in [Low] German." We used to be able to read books or sing songs in any language we pleased, but now he wants - needs - to know what all the words mean. That's ok, I think, and marvel at what a smart boy he is.

But then we get to the prayers. A few nights ago I said the usual High German one and, per request, translated it into Low German. In English it would be, roughly: I am small, my heart is clean, never should anyone enter but Jesus alone.

Sidenote: where do these crazy poems and ideas come from? And why do we say them??

Last night, after he made sure he knew what heart meant, he asked what it meant that Jesus lived in his heart. Seminary did not prepare me to answer this question. Seriously, stop and think about it from a 2-year old's perspective.

So I mumbled something not very meaningful. And after a moment's pause he said, "Jesus wants to get out."


Ramont and I are now a bit daunted (again) by this whole task of passing on the faith.

Newbies!

I can't hold it back any more (though it's probably not cool to post this before Rachel does)...Two beautiful little - actually, quite robust - twinkies were born yesterday to my brother David and his wife Rachel in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Here is Andrew William,

and this is Annalise Marie.

What joy, just in time for Christmas!

Winter and friends

We experienced our first snow storm this past week. It was quite lovely, especially from the comfort of our warm and cozy home. Our kids had seen a few snowflakes a few weeks earlier, but this was the first "real" snow. Hard to tell if it was what they expected (sometimes I'm pretty sure Jonathan learns everything from books, and so isn't too shook up by real life events).

The snow pants were Exciting! (check out that waistline). Bundling up the first time was, as a whole, pretty exciting. The next many times, not so much.

Anna tested the new walking surface...












and found it to her liking.

Thinking about (pining for) Bolivia?

Anna, the red-nosed munchkin.

Going for the mail.

Looking a little bleak.

Cabin fever this week led to a rare treat at about 5pm one long afternoon: a 10-minute Tractor Tom video in Hungarian. The seats were their idea.

Two of our favorite people from MCC Bolivia came up from Oklahoma to spend some days with us this week. Andy and Cassie Herringshaw also worked on rural water projects during our time there, though in a very different context than ours (read more about it on their blog from those days). They also traveled back home on the same flights as us, we went to re-entry retreat together, and they are pretty awesome with our kids (and loom quite large in Jonathan's good memories of Bolivia). We count ourselves lucky to have friends like these.



Our first family Christmas tree.

Crawling is so passé

 I mentioned before that Anna has begun to walk (at 13 months, almost on the dot). This means no more crawling. Just lots and lots of steps all over the place, often carrying things, funny stand-up positions, and even an hilarious "old man walk." Her horizons have really expanded, as we've always thought (hoped) they would.

 Ramont bought some sweet toys for a few dollars at an auction this week. One is the coasting bike shown above, another was a scooter, and by far the biggest hit: the plastic mower modeled by Jonathan here. He could hardly sleep the first night, asked for it first thing the next morning, and still logs miles onto it each day (mostly inside). What gets him up in the morning now, though, is the Advent calendar. Not so much the spiritual significance as the chocolate inside each little window. Now he wakes up exclaiming "5!", or whatever day it happens to be.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have some friends visit us from Freeman/North Carolina/Goshen/Ohio/Brazil/Bolivia...Lisa Kauffman and "baby Eli" spent a few hours here, catching up on life since we got to know each other in Santa Cruz at the beginning of this year. What an extraordinary year they've had, which you can read more about on their blog.

I didn't get any nice photos of all of us, but then this photo nicely shows the chaos that three little kiddies under 3 might tend towards.