Charlie is OBSESSED with this plain red t-shirt he has. He wears it all the time and it has tons of stains and is getting too small. He and Ben both received some new shirts. We call them their Papa shirts because my dad wears plain t-shirts daily :)
Daniel opening up one of his gifts
Ben thanking Aunt Katy for his present
Love how excited he gets!
So Dave took the boys out the day before to the dollar store to pick out presents for everyone. This is the present they presented to grandpops...a green star balloon.
Grandpops being a star. But it was then that they realized that Charlie, specifically, had purchased something else for Grandpops and that the balloon was really Uncle Daniel's. So he handed the balloon over to uncle Daniel.
Grandpops was then given another package. He opened it up and it was glasses. A couple of months ago Grandpops lens popped out of his glasses and Charlie wanted to get him a new pair of glasses. Dave said that usually when they go in to get presents the kids will walk the aisles and pick something once they see it for the person. However, I guess when Dave asked about what Grandpops wants Charlie immediately said he needed glasses. I'm so proud of him for remembering and being so aware of others. It really made Grandpops happy too.
Another great Benny face with a new Cat in the Hat book.
Charlie opened another Papa shirt and True is loving his laptop - score!
True and Grandmops
Charlie opened a new lego set from Aunt Katy and Uncle Daniel. He's pretty excited because that happened to be one he saw that he liked when we were looking at things for him to ask Santa for.
Uncle Daniel also got toe nail clippers from the boys for Christmas from the dollar store. That my friends is the beauty of kids picking out gifts :)
Charlie got a new book that he's been wanting. Star Wars Rebels Face to Face
Ben got some legos from Dave and I so he can create anything he wants.
Charlie asked Dave and I for a shiny, gold trombone...
He seems pretty pleased
...he can hardly wait to open it up
The white gloves might be my favorite part :)
Taking his first turn!
Sounds great!
I love seeing those dimples when he plays.
Truman enjoyed the box.
True got a ball
Teddy woke up and he had his Christmas
Charlie wanted to take a picture of Grandpops in his new glasses :)
Grandpops building legos with Ben
For Christmas breakfast we had scrambled eggs, fruit and monkey bread!
For lunch we headed over to Uncle Stan and Aunt Ivy's house for some more family time.
Here's the backside of Charlie, Jack, True, Daniel and Ben waiting for presents
After Stan and Ivy's house we came back to my parent's house so the kids could sleep. Then I made Christmas dinner. Home made pasta fagioli soup and a home made loaf of french bread. We brought it to Poppy's house and had Christmas dinner with him. It was such a special night and possibly one of my favorite Christmas dinners to date (eating my dad's bear meat last year is a close second :) ).
We had planned to just stay in our jammies and relax all day friday then drive home Saturday. But at 10:30am on Friday Dave asked if we should just go home? I was all for it. So I quickly got beds washed and made and packed up our family. Since my parent's were gone we had to get their house ready for vacancy (clean out food, turn off lights and a/c and heat,...). We pulled out of their driveway at 1:30pm...pretty good. About two hours in I asked Dave if he grabbed the big box of food on the dining room table? Nope. It had fresh fruit in it...like 10 lbs of oranges, a pound of grapes, a pound of strawberries. YIKES! So at our dinner and gas stop I called up Poppy and asked him to go by and take the fruit home or trash it. He was a lifesaver! He went over the next day and took care of it for me. Love that guy! It wasn't until the following week that I realized I forgot our clipchart (behavior chart) on the fridge and ALL the kids "just in case" meds in the pantry. Well, we remembered all the kids and that has to count for something, right? :) Good thing mom is retired and they're planning to come out in February!
Sunday Pops had the day off still from preaching, so he and Mops worshiped with us. Mops, Pops and Ed, Kris and kids all came over for lunch and for the afternoon. Mops and Pops surprised all of us with a snowball fight. She had purchased like 200 snowballs and shields. The kids had a blast!
Let the snowball fight begin!
Amazingly enough nothing was broken and no one got hurt. Fun was really had by all! Such a fun memory! The best part is we get to do it again next year :)
Aunt Kris and True playing outside.
Drew watching True and then both of them watching the kids jump on the trampoline. Having older cousins is pretty awesome!
That night Ed and Kris took Charlie and Ben home for the night. Woohoo! They had a blast and slept great!
Here's these 3 snuggle-bugs again.
Our friends Seth, Jen and their cute boys Tate and Phin came by for a visit.
Here's all the kids.
Charlie, Ben, True, Tate and Phin
The boys could barely pry their eyes off of the ipod True had.
Being silly with Uncle Seth.
It was so great seeing them and having them to our house. We look forward to the next time we get to see them!
On New Years we got to have my niece and nephews over for a slumber party! On our way to bible class Dave started singing made up new year's carols (basically christmas carols with the words changed to new years eve). Our favorite one was "We Wish You A Happy New Year" It goes like this: "We wish you a happy new year, we wish you a happy new year, we wish you a happy new year and a happy new year." Pretty catchy, huh? :)
Here's the kids singing the song with the noise makers. We recorded it and sent it to Ed and Kris :)
Then we turned on New York's New Year's Broadcast. We celebrated!
Happy New Year!!
ha!
Sparkling cider for all...that's True's little hand trying to get a hold of the bubbly prematurely :)
Dave turned on a short show to wind down. Then we sent Charlie, Ben and Chase off to bed at 9:30. They didn't fall asleep until after 10:30. Drew, Quincy, Cole, Dave and I all stayed up. From Quincy's birthday I wanted to watch Anne of Green Gables with her. So we popped it in and guess what. Dave and the other boys watched it too! I told Dave he could take the other boys to our room to watch a show, but they stayed. I'm pretty sure they all laughed at some point. At 11 Dave went to bed, at 11:30 Cole said he was ready for bed, but Quincy and I convinced him to stay up. Drew, Quincy, Cole and I made it to 12. We were all in our beds at 12:03.
The next morning I told them they could have a scoop of ice cream for breakfast because it was Chase's birthday the day before and it was too late to have ice cream the night before and too much sweet stuff with the sparkling cider. Then Dave took Drew out shooting for his birthday present. I was at the house with the 6 kids and they had a ball. The kids jumped on the trampoline, played house, ran around. I played Go-Fish with them. It was so much fun. Love those kiddos! Such fun memories!
Here is our holiday letter we sent out (sorry about the random boxes, they were snowflakes, but they won't show up on here):
Dearest Family and
Friends,
Happy holidays!!
We hope this letter finds you in good health, with your loved ones, and
with a joyful heart. Here’s what we’ve
been up to this year:
To start 2014 out Dave and I sat the boys down and as a family we came up with some
goals. We asked the boys what they thought were important t
hings
we should work on this year and as a family came up with these big sections:
helping others, spiritual goals, responsibilities, loving. Then we individually went through each
section and asked them what we could do. When we asked them what we should do
to make us closer to God, Without a second to lose Charlie, very seriously,
says, "Well, we definitely shouldn't make any idols,....that's a good
one" Dave and I we're trying so hard not to laugh. I LOVE
THIS BOY!!! And after further reflection it is really quite profound when
you think about it. It's not just Old Testament idols it's tv, games,
facebook, pinterest, working,… We also
decided to read the bible before bedtime out loud 5 nights a week (excludes
Sundays and Wednesdays). We started in Matthew and we have been pretty good
about reading a chapter or two 5 nights a week all year and we’re starting in 2nd
Peter tomorrow. So now that it’s the
end of the year I can honestly say we all have done pretty well with our
goals. We exceeded the sunshine basket
minimum for helping others and the boys have been responsible this year with
recycling and helping around the house and generally having a good attitude
about it and being loving to others. As
far as no idols, I think we did well, and we’re hoping to be even better this
next year about not focusing too much on electronics and time killers. I’m so thankful for my family and all we’ve
done this year!
In
February we hosted a 40th surprise birthday party for Dave’s
brother, Ed. He was surprised! It was great seeing extended family and
celebrating together. Hard to believe
this is going to be Dave in 2 years!
In
March we celebrated True’s 1st birthday! He had a moustache party and it was full of
family, moustaches and fun! Like
clockwork that silly boy started sleeping through the night and boy was I ready
for some sleep! True continues to be a
sweet, snuggly little guy, but boy is he mischief…seriously, that’s his
nickname. He has been seen walking down
the middle of the dining room table, he figured out how to climb up to the top
bunk with no ladder shortly after turning one, and if there’s an electronic
device around it is not safe! Despite
his mischievous nature he loves reading books and singing songs, playing with
his brothers and wrestling with Daddy.
In April we took the boys
mini golfing for the first time. It was
hilarious! Some of the holes were more
like hockey than golf, but the kids had a blast and it was very entertaining for
Dave and I. Charlie also started
T-ball. Dave helped out the coach at
most practices and games and Ben, Truman and I were there to always cheer him
on. It was a fun season and we’re looking
forward to opening day this next year.
Ben also started some speech therapy this month. As I writ
e this
now, Ben has made incredible progress and there is much talk of getting him
released. Dave and I are so proud of
him! Picture on the left is us on
Easter.
In May, Charlie finished his kindergarten year
with flying colors. He had such a great
teacher and learned A LOT! On the last
day of school I asked him what he wanted to be and he said “the flash and a
judge.” Judge by day, flash by night. Love this boy!
In June I turned 30 and my sister, Jenny, and
my sister-in-law Kristen threw me such a fun birthday party. It was so nice! I felt very loved and walked out at midnight
feeling overwhelmingly blessed with such good friends and family. 30 is going
to be great! Well, in June it happened…3
years late, but Dave took his sabbatical!
8 glorious work-free weeks! We
started out with a big trip back to visit my sister, Lauren, and her family in
Kentucky for 4 days followed by a 4 day visit to Dave’s sister, Katy, in
Tennessee. We had a blast! We celebrated birthdays, visit
ed the
Corvette Museum, attended a minor league baseball game, experienced Dinosaur
World, went to the American Picker’s store in Nashville, visited the Nashville
Parthenon, and got lots of good cousin and family time in. After our return home my Dascenzi family went
up to our camping spot with all the kids.
It was a so fun. The kids played
and played and played. Charlie caught
his first fish, it was Ben and True’s first time camping and Dave and I
survived it all. Our nights were hard in
our tent because it was so cold and we rarely all sleep together in the same
room, but it was an adventure and I knew that going into it. In fact, I told my mom I can do just about
anything for a few days J It was worth it, we
made some really great memories and it makes you appreciate God’s amazing
creation, makes you realize how little you need to be content, the food ALWAYS
tastes amazing up there and a shower never feels as good as it does after a
long day being in the dirt J
In
July, after camping, we celebrated Charlie and Ben’s sixth and fourth
birthday. Crazy how fast these years are
going by. These two are such wonderful
brothers and share such a special bond.
So proud of the boys they are turning in to and so blessed to call them
our sons.
The latter part of July we drove down to
southern California to drop ALL THREE of the boys off at my parent’s house for
two nights. It was the first time we’ve
been away from True and Ben that long.
Dave and I had a fantastic time in Carlsbad at the Beach Terrace Inn (We
highly recommend) and the boys were spoiled rotten at my parent’s house. It was a win-w
in for
all! Dave surfed and I sat in a chair
with an umbrella all day long. The only
thing I did was open the umbrella when I got hot and closed it when I got
cold. It was so nice!
August came fast and summer came to a close. Charlie went back to school as a FIRST
GRADER. On the first day of school he
said he wanted to be an engineer when he grows up because that was an easy
job…ha! Dave had a good laugh when he
heard that J. I also started giving
Charlie, Delaney and Joe (my niece and nephew) piano lessons. It has been so fun (at least for me J). I took 6 years of lessons growing up so I can
definitely get them started. They are
all doing so well and I’m so proud of them for all the hard work they put in
learning their pieces every week. It’s
funny because they still make the piano books I was taught from and I’m using
those Alfred books as well as another book geared toward pre-reading students
(Faber). So far they have the concepts
and it’s so great seeing them learn and improve their skills.
Once Charlie started school Dave got started
on a BIG project for me. He built me a
14 foot dining room table for our front dining/sitting room, now just dining
room. It is AMAZING! It took him two straight weeks working ALL
day until 10 at night in really hot weather, but he did it and I couldn’t be
happier with the table and benches. With
all the cutting, sanding, re-sanding, staining, sanding, got me thinking our
last name serves us well…surely he’s a good sander because somewhere in our
ancestry someone was the sander’s son J
Dave returned
to work
the first week in September. The boys
and I missed him being around all day, but boy was it a really great sabbatical
– we can’t wait for the next one!
In October we had the opportunity to go spend the weekend on a
ranch in Reno, Nevada. It was a
blast! The owners are members of the
church and were so hospitable. The boys
helped feed and brush horses, we all rode horses, I got private cast-iron
cooking lessons, the guys got lasso lessons, it was relaxing and yet busy – the
perfect combination. I also got a
sourdough starter to take home that is over 130 years old! Isn’t that incredible! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in the past but
I LOVE making bread! I make all of our
bread homemade. It tastes so good, I
control the ingredients and where they come from, and did I mention it tastes
so good. This year for Christmas I asked
Dave for a tortilla press because it is the one “bread” item I haven’t tried
making homemade…I’m not saying I got it, but a smallish box arrived last week
and it was heavy! To finish out the
month of October the boys were all super-heroes for Halloween this year. Charlie was the Hulk, Ben was Batman, and
True was Superman. It was a “super” day
and the boys had a great time trick-or-treating…by the end of the evening
Truman was thinking this was a pretty sweet deal to knock on doors and get
candy and if he said bye-bye the neighbor would melt like butter. Also, at one point when we were walking to
the next house Ben yelled out “I love Halloween.”
Once November hits the rest of the year goes
so fast! Unfortunately we all fought
colds right up until Thanksgiving. It
slowly made its way through us all, then Dave caught it again! Poor guy, he and Charlie ended up needing
meds to get totally over it. I took
advantage of the cold when Truman caught it and I took the pacifier away. It worked perfectly he was so mad that he
couldn’t suck on his pacy and breathe through his nose. He never even noticed it was gone. Hooray for one less thing to keep track of!
We sadly lost Dave’s uncle to brain cancer, so
we made a quick trip down to southern California for his service. He was such a good man of God and will be
truly missed. The boys and I had been
praying for him for 5 months in our morning home bible studies.
They were silent when I told them he went to
Heaven and explained to them that we can be sad that we don’t get too see him
any more when we go down to so. Cal, but we can be so happy he’s in Heaven and
if we do what the bible says we’ll get to see him again someday. What’s amazing is that they understood. Kids are amazing and God is so good all the
time.
Thanksgiving
has been at our house the last several years and I LOVE IT! I love everything that Thanksgiving stands
for: obviously thankfulness, but the addition of
family, and food and togetherness – it’s such a great holiday. One of the best parts this year was we all
could sit at the same table and there was still room for more…what a
blessing!
So here we are in December. We’re healthy and happy and feeling awfully
blessed for this past year of memories, family, good health, and friends. As always we wish you a very merry Christmas
and a happy new year!
Love,
Dave, Michelle, Charlie, Ben, and True
P.S. If you want to see what we’re up to all
year long you can check out our family blog at
www.dmsanderson.blogspot.com I update it
about every 2-3 months.
