The Plattners are heading off in the morning, so we hung out for a little bit this evening to say our goodbye's. Cori had a little fun with my camera. She took quite a few shots, but it's a bit late to go through them all. I figured I'd post a small sampling.
Grandpa is never without at least 3 kids climbing all over him.
Oh, bokeh...how I love thee!
One tired and shy Jubilee!
Look at the intense expressions on those faces!
The girls were probably surprised to discover that we have dolls and a dollhouse. (Thanks to my niece, Weslea!)
After Jon's engagement, I started thinking about how at their wedding, we will probably meet Kathy's side of the family for the first time. It always seems so strange to me how there is a whole other family for any married couple that seem so far apart from the other side of the family. Sure, we have some knowledge of each other from the blogs, but we could spend our whole life seeing "the other side" only a few times. Amidst these thoughts, I had the opportunity to see the two sides come together in a very indirect way. You see, about a year (or two...or three) ago, my brother-in-law, Pat, gave Mark his generator after giving up complete hope in it. He was told by someone knowledgeable that the entire engine needed rebuilt. The cost of that would have made it so that Pat would do better just getting a new generator. Mark took it to another "expert" who also predicted a dim future for that generator. So the generator sat and sat....and sat in our garage, waiting for a rainy day when Mark could work on it. Well, today was that day. Mark called our resident engineer, our brother-in-law, Chad, to have a look at it. This is the same Chad who took the turkey pop-up do-hicky thing out of the turkey during our first Thanksgiving together, disassembled it and achieved peace of mind when he discovered just exactly how the popper knew when to pop up. I didn't give the generator much thought. I too figured that the generator must be a lost cause. I'm happy to say...it wasn't. There was no rebuilding of the engine...no tearing apart or ordering pieces. Nope! Chad did a small adjustment on it and...voila!...the generator is back to working. So, Pat, when Mark brings the now working generator back to you after this loooong wait, you know who to thank!
I guess having curiosity enough to tear apart turkey poppers does sometimes pay off in the end.
The cousins from Illinois are out to visit. We don't get to see them too often, so it's always a treat for our kids to get to know them better.
...and guess what? Number 7 will arrive in August. (Which actually means late September if things go as usual for Laura!)
Congratulations!
"Santa" brought the boys a train set for Christmas. The only problem was, we had to be to the Riley's by 7:30 in the morning. This didn't allow much time at all for the boys to play with their gift. After that, we celebrated Christmas with Grandma Doris at the nursing home. The boys enjoyed themselves, but they were very anxious to get home to their trains! They stayed up for awhile even though it was already pretty late when we got home. I got them in bed with a promise that I would set up the track...all the while knowing that it would last...oh, 3 minutes before Ben or Jordyn would destroy it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't destroyed until halfway through the following day. Just in case, though, I took a pictures of my work. Appearances can be deceiving. It doesn't look that hard, but it was quite a challenge!
It has become a yearly tradition for teachers at (or originally from) our school to go out to eat and exchange gifts. This year we went to Olive Garden. (Shhh! Don't tell Nathan.) From left to right: Pam, Brenda, Kim, Jayne, Lil and Cathy. Jayne now teaches at Norwayne, and Cathy is at North Royalton.
The ladies weren't too thrilled to see the camera make an appearance...especially since I wouldn't let them take pictures of me! :) I figure the lady with the camera gets to make the rules.
I tried to go without using flash, but for some reason, the camera kept focusing on people in the background. I gave up since my "subjects" weren't very willing. 
The food was so good. I stepped out of my comfort zone and ordered a steak alfredo dish instead of my usual. It was awesome! Even better was having a relaxing night out with friends.
Oh, Angie. Are you there? Guess what I'm the proud new owner of?
Despite many objections from the Scrooge, "we" finally got the tree up! I love the coziness the tree adds to the house. What I don't love is the constant fight to keep Jordyn and Ben away from it! 
Nathan was very into helping me this year. He very kindly made a garland for the tree made out of twisty ties from the new lights we put on. I suggested that he put it on the tree for his room, but, as you can see, I lost that battle of the wills!
Notice the lack of ornaments at the bottom of the tree. There were....but there ain't no more!
My tree is a hodgepodge of different ornaments. This particular one was from a student I had a few years ago. Every year I get one to two students that stand out from the rest. This particular student I'll never forget. He had a unique kind of autism that came from being raised as a baby in a short-staffed Romanian orphanage and rarely getting held. He had an incredible memory for names. He memorized yearbooks and had an obsession with cheerleaders. Now that I think about it, he's graduated now. Ornaments like this are so special because they instantly bring back memories.
I can't remember where this ornament came from, but who doesn't need a Santa that's doing the splits?
My multi-cultural angels (above and below) come from when I collected angels while in college. I've quit collecting, but my tree tends to have quite a few angels.
I'm starting to get a collection of kid ornaments. I have a feeling they will be my most treasured.
Oops! My eye got diverted away from the tree. Here's a handy decorating tip. Use a Christmas decoration to cover the newly acquired hole in the wall from the installation of a new humidifier. Lovely, eh?
Back to the tree...Every year, I buy an ornament for each of the kids to remember that stage of their life....(We've acquired quite a few trains in the past couple years.)
I also have quite a few snowmen. Every year, Shari gets us a snowman ornament and writes the year on it.
I also tend to throw in "non-ornaments". This one happens to be a snowman box which helps cover the sparse areas on the tree.
Here's another favorite. Aunt Sharon got each of the kids an ornament with Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Norm's house painted on it. How I miss those days!
Yesterday I was on the phone with my friend, Tina. She let me know that our Pastor's daughter, Bekah, got engaged. Immediately, I grilled Mark. (Did you know she was engaged? Did you forget to tell me?) Usually Mark finds these things out and fails to pass the information along. Mark swore that he didn't know. He then jokingly said, "Who to?" I didn't catch his sarcasm even though Bekah has been dating the guy forever! But, for the life of me, I couldn't think of "the guy's" name. My response was, "You know the guy......wrekdiver03!" (That's his xanga name.) I can just see Pastor saying at the wedding, "I now pronouce WrekDiver03 and Bekah11, man and wife!" Anyway, congratulations TRAVIS and Bekah!
We have an "ice" day today which basically means Christmas vacation has begun! I went to convert a DVD (with my new-found extra time) only to discover that I have managed to use up all 220 GB on my hard drive! So now I'm backing everything up on an external hard drive and deleting stuff off my computer. To make the job pass a little more quickly, I started playing a radio station online. Mark walked into the room and noticed Nathan over by the wall boogy-woogying his Thomas-clad bootie to the music. Best of all...he had a dancing partner...the shadow on the wall! Mark teasingly said, "Quit dancing with your shadow!" Nathan protested with, "I can't help it! It comes with me everywhere!"
For well over a month, I've had some weird little pains. I finally went to the doctor. He wasn't able to find anything so he set me up for an abdominal ultrasound. Nothing there, so today I had a pelvic ultrasound. Oh, the best is yet to come. At the ripe old age of 33... I also get to have a colonscopy. WAAAA!!!!
For those of you who live far away, I thought you'd like to see a video of how much our little Jordyn has changed. At her doctor's appointment last Thursday, we found out she is 75% for weight and off the charts for height. Mark now refers to her as a Sasquatch. You may notice the drool a-flowin' in the video. We think Jordyn's getting pretty close to sprouting her top teeth. Time is going by so fast!
My now famous sister Angie has just featured her town on her blog. Honestly, who cares about the Amish in comparison to what you can find in Creston? I started thinking about what I would show if I could feature my town. Then I started to chuckle. You know those people who you see at the fair? (or late at night at Wooster Wal-Mart?) The ones that make you ask, "Where do they come from?" Well, I know where they come from. I hereby submit Exhibit A of my new series titled "You Know You're in Creston When..."
Jordyn is hitting milestones left and right! I noticed the other day that Jordyn was trying to pull herself up with the bottom rung of a chair. I cleaned up the play table that we have in the garage thinking she might have an interest in it in the coming months. We were all hanging out in the living room tonight. I looked over to check on Jordyn and then did a double take. Our go-getter was standing there holding herself up with the play table.
She must have pulled herself up quickly because I totally missed it!
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