HAPPY NEW YEAR

JUST SOME LAST FUN MEMORIES FROM OUR TRIP

A beautiful rendition of Away in a Manger

Lots of fun snow...although I think it was at this point Becca decided she had had enough

The kids even had their own snow shovels...only in MI

They all love helping Grandma and Aunt Sharon practice their duet.

The New Year has come and I am yet to have any big new year resolutions. Probably because I know once I voice them out loud they will never happen. We spent New Years Eve with Ron's parents and family, hard to believe we were able to all be together again and at one table, minus a couple of kids. After dinner we decided to play charades with the kids before bed, it was very cute to see how the kids would think of ideas. Andrea was the funniest as she thought she was in every play. She would run up with who ever was acting and copy what ever they were doing. It usually evolved a lot of hand waving, or crawling on the ground-very funny. We did make it to midnight, although everyone was pretty tired. With a big fire and big dinner it was just to relaxing to go too crazy.

We actually drove home the next day. The one morning we decide to get an early start the kids finally sleep through the night. I think it was the first calm night at the beach and without the wind howling the kids sleep like rocks. I guess we were one of the few families up new years day because the roads were empty until late afternoon. Then just about every other vehicle we passed had a DVD player going-families traveling home. Brayden watched movies endlessly-at one point he told us his ears hurt from his headphones. Andrea just wanted to play and would yell -YEAH!!! loudly from the back seat until we would tickle her, she can yell for a long time-pretty convincing. We decided to stop this time at the Arch in St Louis, of all the trips we have made to MI we have never stopped. It was closed but we had fun walking up to it and touching it.

Today we started the huge task of unpacking, it just seems endless and it doesn't help that the house was not clean in the first place. The kids had fun running from one toy to another. We did managed to see the sun today which was a first in about two weeks.

This is Becca enjoying some tea with her new tea set...and just about everything else!

On to 2009, we continue our journey in teaching our children about the love of Christ which is daunting enough at time. I am sure the ups and downs of parenting will continue but I know the smiles and cute little words from their mouths will also continue. On we trek into the tenth year of the Haveman Family.