No more training wheels!!

Merry Christmas to all!! The Stutelberg's had a fantastic Christmas. We went to church on Christmas Eve. It was an early 5:00pm service for children. Unfortunately there was a really small turn out. The electricity went out in the middle of the service so it ended up being a candle light service. Matt spotted Santa on the way home! We quickly wrote a note and put out cookies for Santa before bed. Sure enough Santa came!! Matt came into our bed at 5:30am asking me if Santa had come and I told him I wasn't sure because it was still the middle of the night! :) He went back to bed until 6:30!
We had a special morning opening gifts, skyping with family and eating a yummy breakfast. In the afternoon we met the Fitch's at my parents house for more gifts, dinner and family time. We had a special day. We are now gearing up for our trip to CO. We are leaving in a few days. We will spend a few days with Karl's mom on our way to and from CO. The boys are looking forward to skiing!
Our goal for this Christmas break was to teach the boys to ride their bikes without training wheels...mission accomplished!! We started teaching them on our street and Matt was proficient on Christmas day! Micah got the hang of it today when we took the bikes to the high-school parking lot to ride. Karl and I are so proud of the boys!! We have incredible kids!! Melea also achieved some milestones...she is rolling and prop sitting! The Amazing Stutelberg kids! The boys also ran in their first race on Christmas Eve day. Karl and I ran in a 5K (thanks to Bill for watching all the kids) and the boys ran in a 1K! They had fun and are so proud of their participation ribbons. Both boys say they can't wait to run it again next year.

Notice at the end of the clip Micah says "Let me go Dad!" Oh Sweetie, if you only knew how hard that is for us Mommys and Daddys!

Our 3 Wise Men

The boys participated in the Christmas play at church today. They did great! They were very sceptical at first but with Karl's gentle encouragement they agreed to participate. Matt was the leader and Micah and Luke followed him up and down the isles on their journey. The boys ended up having a good time and LOVED their "king costumes." "Joseph" was a little boy Matt goes to Kindergarten with and they had fun during rehearsal goofing around. The wise men last year were in high-school so the costumes didn't fit. I had to run out to the fabric store on Saturday afternoon and find material. I think they look great! I think everyone in the congregation liked the play and numerous people said it was the best one in years!


Micah kept dropping his gift! During rehearsal Micah kept picking at the wrapping on the box. I think he was curious to what was inside! I was feeding Melea so I had another mom run up to the front and tell Micah there was nothing in the box!! Problem solved!

Lydia turned ONE on Dec 8th. It is so hard to believe a year has passed since she was born. Louise and Jon had a little "family party" this weekend. Lyd performed well with her cake. Of course the cake was frosted with purple icing! I'm not sure I want to know how my sister created purple frosting! She even took her first real walking steps at her party!
Our Christmas tree is up! Matt has one more week of school before the long break...Christmas is coming fast!

Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all! We spent a wonderful afternoon at my parents home. My grandma and uncle were visiting from out of state and it was wonderful to see them.

This was taken a few days before Thanksgiving at our house. I made a fire while the boys watched a movie and Melea took a little nap. Doesn't that look like the perfect spot to nap? So cozy!
Grandma made crepes on Sunday morning. This was Lydia's first crepe! An epic moment! Everybody loves crepes. I think Matt and Micah ate 4 before I cut them off! Our favorites are filled with lemon juice and sugar. YUMMY
Uncle Ray helped Micah paint an airplane. Micah was so proud of it and decided to give it to Ray before he left! It was Micah's idea to give his project away. I am proud of him for being so selfless. He knows Ray is a pilot and loves planes.

Micah and my dad- good hugs!
The family- minus Karl who was taking the picture. My sister hosted Thanksgiving at her house for Jon's family.

4 generations of girls!!

Other news in our house:

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  Matt got "lunch on a tray" for the first time this week. He felt really proud of himself! Of course the crap they serve at school tastes better than the lunch I pack him so he keeps asking to buy lunch again. Karl and I are still deciding how often we should allow him to buy...hummm!


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  We are in full "advent mode" in our home! This means we do a different activity relating to advent each night. It will be a challage to add something else to our evening activities, but this is important so we will make it happen


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  Hans, our elf Santa sent from the North Pole, arrived this morning. He came with a note telling the boys he would be watching the boys during the day then returing to the North Pole at night to report to Santa the boys behavior! Last year the boys would find Hans doing silly things in the morning! They found him on the piano or in the pantry or playing with their toys! Fun stuff!!