Christmas Day

For those of you who don't know, Hans and I come from different family traditions when it comes to opening presents.  My family opened presents on Christmas morning and Hans' family opened them on Christmas Eve.  Neither one of us was willing to part with tradition, so we decided to compromise by alternating years.  I'm not sure either one of us is happy with the compromise, but such is life.

This year was a Christmas morning year.  I don't even know if Christmas Eve would have worked since we had Church services at 5pm and 10:30pm.  Since we didn't get home until almost midnight the boys actually slept in until about 7.  They were very excited to go downstairs and open presents.

 They had a TON of presents.  The boys are very spoiled.  Actually, we all are.  

 I'm not sure who was more excited about the Hoosiers sweatshirt, Gus or Hans.

 After we opened presents we went to church.

 I love my crazy boys.

 After church Debbie, Pam, and Sophie came over and we opened more presents.  It was a little chaotic with 4 kids grabbing and opening presents.  But it was fun.

 The boys got a bunch of Lego sets for Christmas and wanted to build all of them right away.  Sophie was so patient with them.  She would help Gus and Anders read the directions and PATIENTLY watch as they put it together.  Anders always felt his direction were better than the written ones.  Seriously, she had a ton of patience.

The kids had a great time playing with all of their new toys.  Meanwhile Debbie and Hans were sick as dogs laying on the couch.  Pam and I just tried to stay far away from them.

It was a wonderfully chaotic Christmas.  Just the way I like it.

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas from the Fienes!

Christmas Time

I am unbelievably behind in blogging.  I have a ton of pictures to go through and not enough hours in the day.  It has gotten to the point where I wince every time I take out the camera because I know I'm only adding to the hundreds of pictures I haven't even looked at yet.  For now you all get to act like it is only December and not actually the last day of January.

Hans and I grew up with completely different traditions when it comes to opening Christmas presents.  My family has always opened on Christmas morning and his family has always opened on Christmas Eve.  This is a major source of contention.  Seriously.  This should be a topic discussed in pre-marital counseling.  For now, we open on Christmas Morning one year and Christmas Eve the next.  I'm not sure how long this will last.  I would just like to go on record and state that I know he is a pastor and thus works hard Christmas Eve and if he wants to open presents when he comes, home he should be able to.  BUT, and this is a big one, while he is preaching, I am wrangling 3 children.  At an evening service.  By myself.  And most of the time I come home exhausted and not really in a giving mood.  That should count for something.

This year was a Christmas Eve year.  After church the kids opened their presents.  It was a bit chaotic what with the gigantic tree, 3 eager kids and one very excited dog.  I didn't manage to get any pictures of them opening presents.  But I was able to grab a few of the boys and Hans...and me too.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Picture Outtakes

The boys always manage to make picture taking a long, painful and sometimes funny process.  They were full of beans Christmas Eve.  At least 2 out of the 3 were good in church.

 Gus looks like he just woke up, Anders is passive and John looks like he needs to go to the bathroom.  Just a normal day in the Fiene house.

 I take my previous comment back.  THIS is a normal day in the Fiene house.

Gus was just absurd.  He is not a quiet kid but he is usually my calm kid.  I think the excitement of everything was just too much.

Merry Christmas

I'm horrible about sending Christmas cards.  Sorry.  I probably always will be.  I do enjoy getting Christmas cards, so keep sending them my way.  I'll try to get better about making my own.  To be fair, I thought I'd put our "card" on my blog, along with a letter that sums up our year.

It's been a year since we left Denver.  We pulled away from the Rocky Mountains on December 5th and rolled up to our final destination on December 17th.  Hans was installed as the pastor of River of Life Lutheran Church on December 18th, 2010 and we have had a very blessed and wonderful year here.  I know Hans is very thankful for the members of River of Life and I am too.  We couldn't ask for a better congregation.  We are both looking forward to many, many, many, many more years here.

Aside from his full-time gig at River of Life, Hans started Lutheran Satire, a collection of animated videos meant to teach using satire.  Now the whole world gets a small taste of the man I deal with everyday.  Hans also has a blog, The High Mid Life.  I feel he needs to write actual posts more often, but I can be a little demanding.  I'm also a bit biased, but I believe my husband has a way with words.  He is a wonderful pastor and I enjoy reading the things he writes.  Even if they are controversial.

John started Kindergarten this year and he absolutely loves his teacher, Mrs. Dernulc.  As if we weren't already thankful for our church and where we live, John managed to get a teacher that is a wonderful match in every way.  I get a little sad thinking about the fact that there are only 5 months left in school. We all might be going through a little Mrs. Dernulc withdraw.  John loves everything about school and is still excited to get on the bus everyday.  He is a stickler for the rules, even if he doesn't always follow them himself.  He loves math and reading and pretty much everything else about school.  In a recent email from his teacher, she stated that she was sure she could show John a paper bag and have him exclaim "WOW!"  I hope his enthusiasm for learning sticks around for awhile.

Gus is two.  Enough said.  He loves his brothers and cried every day the first week John went to school.  Now he is over that and enjoys some quiet, or not so quiet time, with Anders, but he is always anxious to look for the bus about the time John comes home.  Gus likes everything John likes.  In fact, if you give John a toy, it is guaranteed to end up in Gus's hands.  He can be a bit of a bully, but thankfully only to his brothers.  He is a cutie though and often times very sweet.  So I guess we will keep him around for awhile.

Anders turned one this year.  It is crazy to think that he was only 2 months old when we left Denver and  now he is a babbling, walking one year old.  Anders loves people, especially those who give him candy.  He went through a mommy stage but now he just wants to walk around and visit everyone.  He, like his brothers, is also a daddy's boy.  So, if you aren't watching closely enough he will wiggle his way into the center aisle at church and try to make his way up to his dad on Sunday morning.  He also gets a little competitive with his dad and tries to talk louder than Hans during the sermon.  I think the score is Hans-1, Anders-26.

In 2010 we purchased our first house.  I think we put offers on 11 other houses before finally landing this one.  We kept telling ourselves at the time that our offers weren't being accepted because there was something else out there, but I was having a hard time believing that after 6 long months.  But, alas, we found the perfect home.  We love our house and the proximity to church.  We love our neighbors and the fact that the whole neighborhood is busting at the seems with kids.  All in all it, was worth the wait.

We also got a dog this year.  I've been telling Hans for 5 years that, after we got settled and bought a house, we could get a dog.  He took me at my word and got a dog about 2 weeks after we moved in.  It was a little hectic trying to paint the place, unpack, settle in and house train a dog but we made it.  I can't say I will ever get a puppy again, but Fritz is a good dog and a wonderful addition.  The boys just love him and he loves the boys.

Well, as usual, I was supposed to summarize our year and I think I wrote a novel.  Summations were not my strong suit in school.  I don't think they will be John's either.  So, here it is more to the point: We've had a wonderfully busy, fantastically blessed year.  We are all happy.  The end.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Indiana

The day after Christmas we traveled to Indiana to spend some time with Hans' parents.  They were watching our nieces, Eva and Machara, so we got to spend a few days with them as well.  The four kids play so well together.

 The first thing we did when we got there was open presents.  The girls were given princess outfits.  They LOVE being princesses.

 Gus wanted in on the fun too.  If the earring fell off he would find someone to help him put it on again.  (*Editor's Note: Hans is not happy about the world having access to this picture.)

 John and Eva had a good time playing prince and princesses.  John is just fine playing the prince as long as his princesses doesn't ask for a kiss.  Or for him to dance while touching the princesses.

 It didn't take long before the family room became the play room.  There were toys everywhere.

Machara loves babies.  She really wanted to hold Anders.  She held him for a long time before deciding he was too heavy.

 Not to be outdone by his cousin...and a girl, Gus wanted to hold Anders too.  Gus decided a lot sooner that Anders was too heavy to hold.

 Here is my big boy.  We've got the double chin and now are working hard on a triple chin.

 Kids who don't listen get put in the dog cage.  Too bad Gus liked being in there.  Sophie, the dog, didn't like her space being invaded.  This made my punk of a kid enjoy his time in the cage all the more.

Machara just loves her grandpa and wants to be near him all the time.

   Five kids under one roof is a lot of fun, a lot of work and requires a lot of energy.  Nap times are heavenly.

We couldn't spend 2 days with Eva without watching a princess movie.  John picked Sleeping Beauty...and he was the sleeping beauty until seconds before I snapped the picture.

The Hotel Christmas

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures of our hotel Christmas because I was just enjoying the moment.  Hans asked the staff at the Wyngate if we could open our presents under the tree in the lobby.  I have to say the staff at the hotel were absolutely wonderful.  The boys had a great time opening up their presents and it didn't seem to phase them that they were in a hotel lobby.  John just couldn't believe that Santa knew where he was staying.

I'm sure the boys can't wait to actually play with their presents.  It will be like Christmas all over again when we finally get in a house.

Christmas in Texas

We had three Christmases this year.  We moved on December 6th and headed to Texas for a week.  Before leaving Texas we spent an evening having a great meal, opening presents and playing with all of the boxes and wrapping paper.

 This is William the hippo.  This is actually a backpack but Gus thought it would make a great riding toy.

 John got a camera and he was taking pictures of everything.  And I mean, EVERYTHING.

Every year my Grandmother makes mittens for the boys.  She used to make Mark and I mittens when we were little too.  The boys love their mittens and they always color coordinate with their coats.

Gus' big present from my parents this year was a basketball goal.  I still can't believe we got this thing disassembled and in the car.  You'd be surprised too if you saw our cars.  There wasn't room for even one more thing.

The box for the basketball goal was also a big hit.  There goes John taking more pictures.

 The boys got Toy Story 1 and 2 from Uncle Mark.  You can't really tell from the photo, but they really liked them.

 Of course it wouldn't be a gift giving occasion without some trains.

Here is my little boy with his little bow.  I love that his skin and hair are so light that the flash looks blinding.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas y'all!

This is as good as it gets.

Christmas

Hans and I have been in a constant battle over when the best time is to open presents.  He comes from a Christmas Eve family and I come from a Christmas Day family.  After 4 years you would have thought this discussion would be over, but it isn't.  For now, we rotate years and this year was a Christmas Day opening year.  Maybe someday one of us will give in...but I don't think so.

This was after the Christmas Eve service, so I had two tired boys.

We let John open one present on Christmas Eve...his Great Grandma Jamas.  He just loves these pajamas.

This year John got into the Santa thing.  He was excited to put out milk and cookies.  He actually remembered the next morning to look and see if Santa ate them.

Our stockings...can you guess which two people just happen to have the biggest ones?  Grandma says they are made from the same pattern...

This thing right here is like a little PDA, so your kid can learn how to text.  John doesn't know that feature yet, but he loves hearing the sounds of all the letters and playing the games with Scout the Dog.  Thanks, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Greg, Harrison and Allie.

What a mess.  At this point we have already taken out a couple bags of trash and we still have presents to open.

Whew!  That was a lot of presents.  Time for a nap!

My parents came the day after Christmas.  They were supposed to get here in the afternoon, but ran into some bad weather in Texas so they didn't arrive until around 8:30 in the evening.  This didn't deter Hans from wanting to having our Christmas with them right then.

Grandpa and Gus

Everything goes in Gus' mouth.

Pausing for a moment to play with wrapping supplies and read a book.

Another Thomas toy.  We have a huge track set up in our family room now. Poor John has to try to play with everything as quickly as he can before August takes it apart.

Hans got lots of things but the best way to his heart is through gadgets that cook neat food.  This is an ebelskiver and Hans made these great creations for the next 3 or 4 days.

As long as this post is, I still have more...but that is for another post.