Albuquerque Celebrations

At the end of December, our family took another road trip (our 3rd in four months!) to Albuquerque for Christmas. While there, we had a variety of reasons to celebrate.

Our first celebration was simply in the fact that we survived another 15-hour journey in the car with 2 little toddlers, through ice & blowing snowstorms. Yowza! :) We certainly thank God for His protection along the way. Cody and Jaden actually traveled quite well. At each gas station stop, Mommy would allow the boys to climb around in the car while Daddy was pumping gas.

Jaden was all smiles to be out of his carseat.

Cody loved pretending to be the driver.

We arrived in Albuquerque a few days after Kim's birthday, so the family threw a belated party for her to celebrate the wonderful gift that she is to us.

Since Kim celebrated her 35th birthday, Mom and Dad decided upon a "Halfway to Heaven" themed party, based on Psalm 90:10, "The length of our days is seventy years..."

Of course, we all pray that Kim is nowhere near her halfway point of life yet-- the theme was simply a fun, unique way to celebrate 35. Mom creatively baked half of a German chocolate cake,

while artsy, talented Sarah was in charge of all the decorations. Doesn't it look beautiful?

Following a yummy stir-fry dinner, Ian helped his Momma blow out her birthday candles.

Then, the adults moved on to some halfway-themed games. First, teams of couples took turns completing a few word games (Take Two, Boggle, and completing a crossword puzzle) half at a time. Next, the couples filled in words for a Mad Libs story on the supposed second half of Kim's life.

Jason had written a very creative Mad Libs story, and it was hilarious to read the stories aloud with the couples' bizarre words added in.

Finally, we ended the night with a Wheel of Fortune-type word game. The couples each took turns filling in letters for words that described Kim.

Once the words were correctly guessed, we shared how Kim has made an impact upon our life through the words that we chose.

What a blessing to be able to celebrate this special occasion for our special sister. You are a wonderful, creative, thoughtful & caring woman of God, Kimbo. Happy Birthday! We love you!!

A few days later, Amy's good friend Tyler joined us for lunch and some games. She was also celebrating a December birthday, so we sang to her and enjoyed some more cake!

You are such a ray of sunshine in our lives, Tyler. Happy birthday to a wonderful friend!

Another reason to celebrate our time in Albuquerque was simply having all 13 of us together under one roof. The last time the Walquist side had all been together was Thanksgiving of 2012, so we were excited for some quality family-time. Mom and Dad worked out the sleeping & eating arrangements so that our stay could be smooth and comfortable. We barely still fit around one table -- talk about some active meals! :)

As always, though, the most important reason to celebrate the Christmas season is the birth of our Savior Jesus. We loved worshiping Him together as a family at Immanuel. All the little ones dressed up in their Christmas-best for the Christmas Eve service. Grammy gave each one of her grandchildren their very own (battery-powered) candles for the special candle-light service. It was a perfect way to keep them attentive. All 5 kiddos made it through the whole evening service!

We thank God for our wonderful family -- The TX Schleichers,

The AZ Walquists,

our own MT family,

--Mom and Dad (sorry, no couple pic was taken!) and the whole clan. What a joy to be together! Merry Christmas!

Growing as Athletes and "Coaches"

One fall day, six hopefuls sat on a bench hoping their coach would choose them to show off their skills in some games.  The hopefuls were (from L to R) Cody, Mr. Frog, Jaden, Rudolph, Doggie, and Teddy Bear.

Given my choices (as acting coach), this Daddy chose the two hopefuls who seemed to have the most upside in their athletic ability.  Congratulations, Cody and Jaden, I choose you to compete in the random games!

What are the "games" these two competed in?  Jaden shows his good form in "Ring Toss Dunk".

Cody shows good range for "Two-Handed Walk and Slam".

Jaden contemplated his role as "passer" for the "Big Blue Ball Alley-oop".

Cody received the pass well and did what any alley-ooper dreams of.  Send it home, young man!

Cody was excited to be the quarterback for "Set, Hike, Handoff".

Jaden did not receive the handoff well...

...but then he did. 

Our boys certainly have grown in their "athletic" ability over the last few months.  These games are merely child's play compared to playing fantasy football with a bunch of relatives, however.  Background:  Jaden and Cody coached a fantasy football team last year that won 3 games out of 14.  Their team badly missed the playoffs.  Present:  Jaden and Cody's 2013 fantasy football team was made up only of players and defensive teams whose first names start with the letters J or C.  Their team name was "First Name Jaycees", and they posted an 8-6 regular season record and qualified for the 4-team playoffs as the #4 seed.

How did  two one-year-olds "coach" a weekly fantasy football team?  Did they pick their weekly starting lineup based on all sorts of calculations, statistics, and matchups?  No.  They did pick their own players every week, however.  This daddy creates random and different opportunities for player choices based on team colors, player names, etc. for each week of the fantasy football season.  These are their documented picks for their big semifinal playoff game against #1 seeded Papa.  They had to choose one Quarterback between Colin Kaepernick (red/yellow for the 49ers) or Cam Newton (blue for the Panthers).

Jaden chose Kaepernick.

They had to choose three Wide Receivers from Josh Gordon, Cecil Shorts, Julian Edelman, and Jordy Nelson.

The post-it notes tended to fall off the lids as they picked them, but in the end, Jaden chose to leave Jordy Nelson on the lid and, therefore, on the bench.

They had to choose two Running Backs between James Starks (#1 yellow for Packers), Joique Bell (#2 blue for Lions), and Jamaal Charles (#3 red for Chiefs).

Cody chose Charles first and then, without any prompting, pointed at his second choice.

He made it official by slamming down Joique Bell's #2 blue character.  Cody is an efficient coach.  He was done playing with the toy once he had made his selections.  There were more starting lineup positions to fill.  Time to move on.

Teddy bears come in various colors and sizes.  So do Tight Ends.  Jimmy Graham plays for the New Orleans Saints, and their team color includes a lighter shade of brown.  Jordan Cameron plays for the Cleveland Browns, and their team color is a much darker shade of brown.  Jaden seemed a bit sad as he chose Jimmy Graham.  Graham is never a sad choice, buddy.  He scores nearly every week.

How about Kicker?  Josh Brown plays for the blue-colored Giants while Justin Tucker plays for the purple-colored Ravens.  

Jaden clearly chose Tucker.

Finally, they needed to choose a defensive team.  What'll it be, Cody?  Cardinals (red shoes) or Cowboys (boots)?  Cody picked up, then appropriately licked the red shoe.  Okay, okay, Cardinals it is.

Here was their final lineup for the big playoff game. 

Our boys have come a long ways in their two years of fantasy football coaching.  They had 3 wins in year one.  They posted 8 wins in year two.  Oh, wait...I forgot to mention that Jaden and Cody's "First Name Jaycees" team not only defeated their Papa in the semifinals, but they also beat their cousins Ian and Ryan in the championship game to win the Schleicher Relatives Fantasy Football League!  We're proud of you, boys!  Congratulations!  Their reaction to being told they had won the championship?  A simple smile followed by more play time with whatever toy each was holding at the moment.  Fair enough.  May I never be the kind of dad who tries to live vicariously through my boys' sports achievements.  It was a fun fall, boys.  Keep wearing those Lions shirts boldly, even when they disappoint us terribly.  They may just make the playoffs again in your lifetime.  

Christmas with our Family of 4

There's no such thing as too much Christmas, right? Well, our family took a vote, and that's what we decided! :) Even after celebrating an early Christmas with the Schleichers in Nebraska and knowing that we were headed to Albuquerque for a Walquist Christmas, we thought it'd be fun to have a small family Christmas celebration of our own.

Prior to Thanksgiving, we decorated our home for the celebration of our Savior's birth. Jason's youth group was having a "Christmas decorating crews" fundraiser this year. Anyone from our congregation could sign up to have 2 youth help make his/her home look festive for the holidays. 

With two little ones running around, our time for big at-home projects is always at a minimum. We jumped at the chance to have helpers this year. Rachael and Nicolena were awesome workers! They were efficient and yet perfectionistic (wanting to get the fluffing of the tree just right). What a blessing to have their help! Our work was done in no time! 

Jaden and Cody, of course, supervised every step of the process. They LOVED looking at the lights on the tree.

When the time came for ornaments, however, their supervisory skills were a bit lacking... unless you call throwing ornament boxes around the room "quality control." Nicolena and Rachael were very patient with our little ones.

Daddy taught Jaden how to hang ornaments ON the tree.

Mommy and Cody put up a few decorations as well.

At one point, Jaden even hung up an ornament all by himself! Way to go, buddy! :)

Most of the time, though, he was much more interested in stuffing the ornament boxes into the tree.

Since we planned to be in Albuquerque for the week of Christmas, we decided to exchange our own family gifts on the Saturday prior to Christmas. We started off our gift-opening by sharing the story of Jesus' birth. Jaden and Cody loved the colorful pictures in this Bible we received from Grammy & Papa last Christmas.

Then, the boys excitedly pulled out their presents from under the tree.

Jaden was our expressive kid during the gift-opening. I'm not sure his pleased expressions are really in response to the gifts he received, but he sure made for some funny photos!

Generally, our boys were fairly careful with their gift opening and required quite a bit of guidance. Neither of them wanted to sit still long enough to open a whole gift.

Because we know that our boys don't quite yet understand the concept of gift giving & receiving, we stuck to just a few small gifts for them this year. They received bath markers, musical remote controls (that they wanted out of the packaging right away!)...

(They were a bit disappointed to discover that the remotes didn't actually work on our TV)

...and finally, a gift of tops.

This final gift was Daddy's idea, since he had seen the boys get a big laugh while attempting to spin their pacifiers on the ground. Right away, Daddy wanted to show the boys how the tops worked.

Daddy was right-- the boys LOVED watching the tops spin.

Daddy was probably just as excited as his little boys! 

Merry Christmas, little Cody and Jaden. What a joy it was to celebrate with you this year. You are God's BEST earthly gift to us!!