Happy Birthday!

13 years ago we welcomed our beautiful baby girl.  She was 7 lbs 7.7 oz and absolutely perfect.  I'm so proud of the wonderful person she is becoming.  We love you, Bear, Happy Birthday!!

Christmas Cookies

Today is my daughter's birthday, but I can't get any pictures to upload so I'll have to post more about that tomorrow.  Meanwhile, here are some fun Christmas cookie pictures!

Happy UnBirthday!

The Bahlmann's sent us UnBirthday presents in our Christmas package.  We had an UnBirthday party, and opened presents.  It was a fun way to spend the evening.

Lots of stuff

St Nicholas dropped off a friend for our Elf, Buddy.  Her name is Mistletoe (Missy for short) and Carlye says that she is Buddy's long lost sister.  They've been up to a lot of mischievous things, here are a couple of pictures:

Carlye had regionals on Saturday.  I meant to call Annemarie and Julianna and tell them about it so that they could come, but I forgot to do so (I'm sorry!).  The music was beautiful - really beautiful - and as soon as the videos have been uploaded to the computer I'll post on or two.  Here's a picture of her plaque:

An old picture of Noah that we found.  I thought that it was so cute I had to post it.

I've received some really fun gifts lately.  Thank you, Bahlmann's, for my salt & pepper shakers.  Carl's mom gave me the cute mug - but dropped it and then glued it back together.  I tried to make warm milk in it, and it leaked - so so sad.  The pillowcase was a gift from one of my friends - isn't it awesome?!?

So so sad

My Cocoa Motion died on Friday.  It wasn't spinning very well, and I took the lid of to see what was going on and it stopped COMPLETELY.  I tried to unplug it, plug it in and start again, but all to no avail.  I am truly sad.  My kids and I make hot cocoa or cider or (our new favorite) hot vanilla all the time.  It's one of our favorite go to's for a quick and easy warm up on cool days.  Or sad days.  Or "I just need a cup of hot chocolate and a good book" days.

Truly a tragic day in the Pfiester household.

1st deer & St Nick

Last night Nathanael shot his very first deer.  He was SO proud.  It's a nice 8 point (4x4) white tail.  It was freezing last night, so he and his daddy had to gut a deer in the windy, freezy weather, but it was all worth it to him.  Great job, Nathanael!

Last night St Nicholas came.  Each of the kids had a book, a Christmas ornament, a Reese's Christmas tree candy, a lg Hershey kiss that looked like a Santa Hat, and 1 gift.  Noah was given a reindeer hat game, and he loved it so much he wore it to school.  Nathanael was given a camouflage ball cap with a flashlight inside the visor.  Carlye was given a female Elf on the Shelf (her name is Mistletoe, by the way, but Carlye will call her Missy for short) and she was ecstatic.  I LOVE my kids.

Happy December

The picture above is of Sam and one of his friends with us at Gatti Land - and, of course, Carl and I had to photo bomb them.

The turkeys feeling cocky after surviving Thanksgiving day.

Putting up Nani's Christmas tree

Family

Today we were so blessed to see so many family members that we love!  We were able to go to breakfast with Dalin and Sara and meet baby Molly for the first time.  Then Aunt Marianne, Uncle Frank, Annemarie, Julianna and Thomas all came to visit for the afternoon.  It was SO wonderful to have all of them here.  I love and miss them so much!

Here are some of the pictures that we got at breakfast - I can't believe that I didn't get any with my cousins!  I'm so sad about that!

Today I am thankful for family, extended family and in-law family!

Pinterest Thanksgiving

Last night we had some of Carl's family over for Thanksgiving.  Since we will all have a traditional Thanksgiving tomorrow we decided to have Mexican food for dinner.  Everything was really yummy, and I had fun trying out lots of new ideas from my Pinterest boards.  We had White Chicken Enchiladas, a really incredible banana pudding with Chessman cookies, Baked apples that I made in the crock pot (I cored out the middle and put in brown sugar, butter and chopped walnuts, then I poured apple juice around them and baked them in the crockpot for 3 hours), Queso Blanco and warm bean dip.  There wasn't a single bad recipe in the bunch - yay!

Today I am thankful for washing machines, music and school holidays.

Christmas Viola

Today I am thankful for best friends, family and school holidays.

Nathanael's solo recital

Today

Today I am thankful for twinkle lights, polar fleece jackets and snuggly slippers.

And on and on it goes

I'm so sorry that I haven't had a chance to post over the last couple of days.  It (as usual) has been nutty around here.  Carl's been in New Mexico hunting, so I've been playing single mom/taxi driver for the last week and a half.  He came home on Wednesday night, and then Jodi and I went on opening night to see Catching Fire and absolutely loved it.  Carlye left for a leadership camp on Friday, and we are also keeping 4 kiddos for other people.  

See? 

Crazy.  

I've been planning on putting up our Christmas tree for over a week, and just haven't had the time.  (Sad)  We are in the middle of an absolutely delicious cold snap, and the kids are praying for snow.  It would be fun if it did, because then we would be stuck at home and I could put up the Christmas tree.

Today I am thankful for cold weather, snuggly children and good friends.

And I'm always thankful for my husband.

Tired

I'm too tired today to post, but I will still say what I am thankful for because I think that it's good for me!

Today I am thankful for beautiful fall leaves, 4 minute eggs and memory foam pillows.

Bullying

Bullying.  I really hesitate to use the word because I feel like it's become a buzz word in today's society - and that if anybody is mean to anybody at any point in time for any reason they are considered a bully.  I also feel as though we are creating a society of wimpy kids as a result.  That being said, I think that real bullying is horrible and awful and so difficult to go through.  Nathanael is having a really hard time at school.  Several of the kids are making fun of him because he's a nerd, he reads all the time, they don't like his clothes or they say he's too smart.  Today there was another incident that involved 3 other boys and the teacher had to get involved.  I'm so thankful that he has a great teacher that he can talk to who will help him deal with these issues, but I'm SO upset that he's going through this.

We have really prayed about home schooling him - and that was actually the plan until all of this started happening.  However, he is such an introvert that Carl and I both agree that it probably wouldn't be a good idea in his situation.  I talked to my amazing brother in law, Andy, and he agreed.  He also said that he understands what Nathanael is going through, and it just felt good to talk to someone who understands.

I don't have any solutions, and neither does Carl.  But this is what we know.  Nathanael is amazing exactly the way that he is.  And we want him to know that.  We want him to feel comfortable in his own skin instead of worrying about what other's think of him. To have a confidence in who he is and was created to be. I know that he's already smarter than I am, and it makes me sad when he talks to me about his equations or inventions and I can't answer the questions he asks me.  I love to listen to him and encourage him, but I know that he needs more people in his life that understand the way that he thinks and can help him develop it.  I'm thankful that he has his "uncle" David close by, but I find myself wishing that we had other family members closer as well.  I know he'll be okay, but I'm not looking forward to this journey right now, and it's making me so sad that I can't protect him from this!  I know that it's going to help him become who he's supposed to be, and teach him how to handle difficult social situations, and build character and all that baloney, but I also know that it hurts him right now - and that hurts me too.

Today I am thankful for cell phones, egg salad sandwiches and good books.

Mule Deer

Here's a picture of Carl's New Mexico mule deer.  He's such an amazing man, and a really great hunter, too.  He worked hard for this, and I wanted to brag on him.  Plus, I think he's really cute........

Today I am thankful for my husband, email so that we can stay in touch with family, and good books.

Busy, busy, dizzy....

Noah had his certificate upside down, so he fixed it.

I'm so proud of my kids.  Nathanael and Noah worked really hard and made straight A's this six weeks.  Great job, boys!

Carlye had auditions/competition for the Middle School All Region String Orchestra this morning.  We had to wake up crazy early and drive over an hour to a middle school that I had never been to before.  I did a happy dance when we arrived because I was not sure that we would get there on time (and without getting lost).  The boys sat for 3 hours while we went through the process of registering, tuning and, finally, auditioning.  Carlye had several friends there from her old school, and a couple from HCYO.  There were about 52  violas (give or take) and 14 made it into the orchestra.  Carlye is 7th chair and I am SO proud of her.  She, however, is mad.  She had all of her audition pieces done perfectly, and she messed up on the ending of the very last excerpt that she played and so she had to re-do it.  I told her that it means she played REALLY well on the other pieces if she could mess up and STILL make it into the orchestra.

Then, at 3:00, Carlye and Nathanael had their solo recital.  I took pictures and video, but they won't upload for some reason.  Nathanael played Allegretto on his cello and it was better than he's ever done.  It's amazing to me how much he has accomplished in such a short time on his instrument.  Carlye played Bouree (Handel) and it did not go well.  She has played this song over and over for months, has it completely memorized, AND it's one of her favorites.  However, halfway through she played a wrong note and it threw her off.  She actually froze.  Completely.  She tried again.  And again.  And again.  Then, I saw her face change and I thought, "Oh no! She's gonna run!"  She told me afterwards that she really thought about it, but decided that would be even more embarrassing.  She finally hit upon some of the correct notes and then finished the song.  I was so sad for her, but I know deep down that it's a great experience for her to go through - and I know that she'll be a better musician (and person) as a result.  

I am now going to try to go to sleep.  Today I am thankful for GPS, ibuprofen and pillows.

More Pictures

I know that I'm probably the only person in the world who wants to look at this many pictures of my family, but I'm going to torture the rest of you anyway.  :)

Today I am thankful for burritos, BluRay players and family movie night!

Today

Tomorrow is a brand new day, with no mistakes in it.

Today I am thankful for my beautiful children, a clean house, and washing machines.

Bleh

Today started off as a pretty good day - I even figured out how to use Skype and talk to my little sister and her husband and 2 of her kids.  But then, the evening went horribly, horribly awry.  My husband wasn't here, so I felt like the mild coup staged by the children and their severe lack of listening skills was rather unfair.  Suffice it to say that the wonderful evening that I had planned (wassail, ham & sweet potato chowder while we cuddle and watch Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium) did not go as I had hoped.  It ended with everyone in tears and me feeling like the worst mom in the world because I expect my kiddos to do what they are supposed to do (homework, showers, getting clothes out for tomorrow) before we do what they want to do.  Bleh.  Actually, double bleh.

Today I am thankful for bowls of cereal, snuggly pajamas and warm beds........and I think that now I will fall comatose into (onto?) the latter.

Family Pictures

My little sister is a photography.  An amazing photographer.  Who lives far, far away.  However, Carlye and I love to look at her website and the beautiful pictures she takes.  Carlye saw a pose similar to this one on her Aunt Heather's photography website while she was looking at the senior picture sessions.  She loved it soooooo much that she begged Aunt Jodi to take some of us, too.  

It's nigh unto impossible to take serious pictures with my husband........

Here we go, there's one (finally!).

And then real Carl reappears......

Thank you, Aunt Jodi, for the bee-yoo-ti-ful pictures!

Today I am thankful for washing machines, warm blankets and fall leaves.