1 Timothy 4:12

"Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity."

I have to thank my Aunt Miriam and Uncle Keith for truly living out 1 Timothy.  While I was still in high school they gave me the opportunity to set an example for their first daughter.  I am honored to be Sharon's godmother.  I was excited to be a part of her faith journey.  And Sunday I got to stand beside Sharon as she confirmed her faith in Jesus.  

(I wore my heels, so Sharon wasn't towering over me...much different from our first picture together.)

 Sharon got to share this special part of any young person's faith journey with her brother, Todd, who also confirmed his faith on Sunday.

What a great family!  I will always be thankful to be a special part of it.

  

Train up a child....

 Just had to share this story.

We got to play outside today which we take very seriously after the snow-filled winter we've had.  Amongst the digging and climbing and pretending the boys decided to sit down to a "meal" on their fort's steps.  Sitting next to each other with their back to me I hear,

Ben - "Ok, now we pray before we eat."
In unison - "Thank you Jesus, for our food. Amen."
Luke - "Now the other one!"
In unison - "Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these blest to us be blest.  Amen."

I'm not sure the "food" was delicious because they immediately were up and chasing each other around the yard but I love seeing them live their faith, even when they are pretending.

"Good night and thank you for coming to my party"

Ben's birthday weekend started on Friday when Grandma and Grandpa J got to our house.

First we ate pizza and watched Clone Wars...which meant an appearance by Pirate Vader.

A good guy cake and bad guy cake plates.

"Happy Birthday to you, God's blessings to you"

Luke helped blow out 2/3 of the candles.

 Ben had plenty of gifts to open.  Star Wars toys.

 And remote control fire truck among other great gifts.

Saturday Ben and Luke had more pizza and watched movies with Aunt Lydia while Scott and I went out.

His actual birthday was today, Sunday.  He started celebrating by attending Sunday School for the first time.

Then McDonald's for lunch and climbing in the play place.  A quick trip to the fish store with Uncle Josh followed by an afternoon nap.  Then Ben got to help Scott make pigs in a blanket for dinner.

 Love that Star Wars apron!

It was then time for the birthday "campout".  We ate a very specific menu, watched...what else...Clone Wars, opened presents, ate cake, took a bath, and the boys are currently tucked into their sleeping bags watching more Clone Wars episodes and eating "chocolate lightsabers" (aka chocolate covered pretzel rods).

All in all Ben has throughly enjoyed turning 3.

Winter time is here....

We closed 2010 with a quiet family New Year's party where Ben ate his weight in chocolate.

We start 2011 with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa J and Uncle Kurt who came for a turkey dinner on New Years day and to watch the boys for us the following night while Scott and I headed downtown for Wicked.  

Uncle Kurt tried out Scott's new Madden game.

We've spent the cold evenings inside playing with Star Wars toys.  One night the boys decided to set up an epic battle....Good vs. Evil.

Good guys

Bad guys

Tough guys

Uncle Josh came to visit on another Tupperware tour and helped the boys set up the new fish tank.

We've added quite a few new pets to the tank (we've lost about half).  The boys love watching their fish swim around the dinosaur rocks in the big tank.

Since we've had a busy winter at work Grandma and Grandpa H decided to come to us to celebrate Christmas in January and the whole clan followed.  Uncle Jeff, Aunt Sally and Lydia stayed at our house and Uncle Matt, Aunt Jennifer, Cole and Mya stayed at a hotel with Grandma and Grandpa.  But they all hung out at our house for a big turkey dinner and some present opening.  We were so glad they could spend an evening with us.  It was great to see everyone.

Luke LOVED seeing his littlest cousin, Lydia.  She's getting so big and has such a personality.

All the cousins!  Lydia seems a little concerned...

The rest of January has been filled with dress up, battles, trucks, cars, Star Wars and snow.

ARRRGGGG!

Yes, Blizzard 2011 was a big deal in Chicago.  We had 12 straight hours of heavy snow.  Plenty of wind gusts to move everything around.  And spent 4 hours digging out our driveway.  We didn't even get to our sidewalks until a week and a half later.

Our car

The boys were SOOOOO excited to see all that snow.

No swinging today!

The gusts made a perfect circle around our magnolia tree

No getting out the back door

Our plow guy was exhausted

So was his supervisor

But the neighbor's new tree looked beautiful.

As we moved into February Luke had to make the treats for his school Valentine party so of course we had to break out the new Star Wars cookie cutters (thanks G&G H!)

Ben was so excited to try out each of the characters.  "Look it's Yoda!"

Luke made Millennium Falcons for the boys and heart shaped cookies for the girls.  He had a blast with the new cookie cutters.

I'm sure many of you saw the Darth Vader commercial during the Super Bowl.  What you have to understand  is that it was a very good representation of everyday life at our house.

 Pirate Vader!

Using the force

Needless to say there's never a dull moment around this house.

Christmas Time....

December has come and gone and it was great.

We got all the Christmas decorations up the day we got back from Thanksgiving.  Luke insisted he put the star on top.  (Daddy helped of course)

 The boys have spent a lot of time playing with their little people Nativity set.  Luke really enjoys making up his own stories including the wise men taking the front lines to protect Baby Jesus from the "bad guys".

The Sunday before Christmas was the Sunday school service.  It was wonderful.  All the kids did a great job.  Only one or two sound problems which were simple fixes so I could handle them.  :)

Again, Luke sang his heart out with his fellow preschoolers.  It doesn't seem to matter how many times I hear him practice, I get teary watching him stand in front of the congregation and praise his Savior. 

After the service the boys wanted pictures with the real Star of the show.

The new addition to our Christmas decorations this year is a "sock with Ben's name on it!".  Thank you, Lea, for whipping up this creation so Ben didn't have to worry that Luke was the only getting "sock" gifts.

We headed for Wisconsin after an afternoon in urgent care with Scott.  He's on the mend, but the doctor told him no alcohol or fatty foods for Christmas...lame, right?  He was very good all break and has set himself up for a healthy new year.

Once in Wisconsin the boys enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa J's house.

Reading books with Uncle Josh...

Playing in Uncle Chad's gym with Uncle Kurt and cousins Maddie and Emma...

Watching countless Christmas movies with cousin Lilly...

Cuddling with Grandpa...

and Uncle Chad...

and Grandma.

And there was the traditional decorating of the Christmas cookies.  Most years I can get the kids to decorate about 4 cookies before they either lose interest or give up cause they can't eat them.  This year Luke, Maddie, Emma, and Ben blew through 3 dozen cookies in about 10 minutes.

I actually had to set aside 4 cookies so I could decorate too.  Lilly wandering into the room after the other kids left so I let her help me with the last few.

She was so patient and didn't try to scoop the sprinkles right into her mouth.  The only fussing she did was when I told her there were no more to decorate.

Ben wasn't as excited about cuddling as Luke.  

To clarify, Ben wasn't excited about sharing Grandpa's lap with Uncle Chad.

Christmas Eve the WHOLE family went to church and we had the opportunity to sing during the offering.  Scott even joined the family "choir" this year.  After church we took advantage of the large space to get our family pictures taken.

Chad, Erin, Maddie, Emma, and Lilly

Ben and Christina Janetzke's first Christmas 

(try to ignore the 4 year old attached to Uncle Ben's leg)

 Grandma and Grandpa and the Grandkids

The whole clan. We've officially outgrown pictures in the living room.

The Grandkids, hard to believe they're all big kids we can just line up for a picture.

 Chad was taking pictures with all his girls so I got in line too.  This was the 30th anniversary of our first Christmas together.  Back then we were the only kids in the house.

Ben and Aunt Christina working on a puzzle Christmas morning.

After gift opening on Christmas Eve, the boys had no idea the pile that would be waiting for them the next morning.  They both got lots of fun toys, games, and movies.  The only bummer is we don't let them play with everything till we get back to our house.  

Luke's big gift was a little tikes grill which Grandpa put together so he could cook us hot dogs for Christmas dinner.

Ben's big gift, an At At Walker from Empire Strikes Back.  He spent all day playing quietly in the corner.

Kurt's big gift was Wii Resort.  He tried all the games.  

He also discovered he doesn't like playing with mom, she kept beating him.  

Dad tried the wake boarding but was having a hard time figuring it out, so Josh offered to help...

It was a short but restful trip to Wisconsin and we had a wonderful Christmas.