Merry Christmas!!

From Our Plain Life to yours, we truly hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven and nature sing!

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love!

A future Reformer?

If you went to the same grade school as I did, you would have learned all about a certain man named Martin Luther. Now, this isn't Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights leader from the 1960s. No, this Martin Luther lived in the late 1400s and early 1500s. And as you would in any good Christian Reformed school, we learned all about him and the start of the Reformation against the Catholic Church.

On October 31, 1517 (Reformation Day, not Halloween!) Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. These were essentially grievances that Luther had against the Catholic Church (many of them having to do with the selling of indulgences). With these Theses, Martin Luther is known for starting the "Protestant Reformation."

Alright, crazy history major, enough of the history lesson, what in heavens name does this have to do with Our Plain Life?!

Well, it seems as though we have a Reformer in our midst. In our house, Sunday afternoons are made for Sunday afternoon naps. Regardless of age, gender, or creed you will be in your room for at least an hour (or two) on Sunday afternoon. It's ingrained in Dan and I, and dog gone it you will take a nap on Sunday afternoons! Dan often says that even if he was in a coma for like 8 years and woke up from this coma on a Saturday, he would still take a nap on Sunday afternoon. It's just what we do.

Anyway, back to our Reformer. So last Sunday afternoon, Landon had fallen asleep for his nap, but a mere 30 minutes after he fell asleep he woke up with a stinky # 2 diaper (AUGH!). After changing the diaper, there was no going back to nap time. So Landon and I went down into the basement to play. Annika came down at one point and said "Why is Landon up?" I told her what happened, but since her quiet time wasn't up yet she had to go back up to her room until her time was up. After a bit of arguing she went back upstairs and, apparently, she wasn't happy with the decision. For this is what we found posted to her door later on that day...her grievances so to speak, her one Theses (or is it thesis?) taped to her bedroom door:

Since, it's a bit hard to see, Annika's proclamation says:

"No More nap time for me

I am 6 years old

and Landon is

2 years old."

Perhaps we should start calling her "Annika the Protestant?"

I just don't get her

After picking Taryn up from childcare at church, or whatever event, I often hear "She's so quiet." Dan and I are usually shocked when we hear this. At home, she is the FARTHEST thing from being quiet...even at dinner, she makes noise (yep, still humming loud and strong!). Here's a clear example of the difference that Taryn is at home and when she is out.

A few days ago at my MOPs meeting, the 3 and 4 year old "Moppets" sang a few Christmas songs for the moms. I thought Taryn would do fabulous because she loves to sing. Life is a musical for her. But, I was very wrong. She walked in, saw the crowd of moms and I think she wanted to crawl into a hole. I could tell she was trying very hard not to cry. She didn't want to line up with the rest of the kids. I think she thought that if she sat away from the kids then no one would notice her:

What a sad pathetic face!!

I do have to give her credit, she stayed on the stage the whole time. When I asked her later why she didn't want to sing, she said to me "All the mommies were smiling and I didn't want them to laugh at me!" Maybe next time I should stand in front and give an announcement..."Ladies, will you please look sad and angry so my child will sing for you?"

You can understand my confusion after watching the video below. I took it the day before the MOPs performance. Doesn't look like she has much stage fright, does it?

Taryn and Landon Singing 121310 from Rebekah Eekhoff on Vimeo.

Oh, Taryn, you drive me crazy but how I love you!!

Merry Christmas to me!!

And an early Happy New Year too!!!

You have no idea how happy this makes me (considering the next closest store is 166 miles away)!! I did a little jig in the car when I saw this sign ...

Definition

Here is a definition of disappointment for you.

Coming home to a package on your front step from here:

Getting super excited and then realizing it was delivered to the wrong address. Actually, I don't think disappointment is even the right word to describe the feeling!

Do you think the neighbors would notice if the box was opened and resealed? I really should sample the contents to make sure they are o.k. After all, I wouldn't want them to be disappointed.

Thanksgiving Tidings

Hope you all had a very Thankful Thanksgiving! From our crazy family to yours...

Trim

Dear Grandma (also known as Mom E),

Since you are the trained beautician in the family, we were really hoping to wait until you came out for Thanksgiving to give the girls haircuts. But, I am sorry to write that one of the girls (I'll let you guess which one) will be going to the salon before you get here. Let's just hope she looks good with bangs.

Much love and see you soon,

Rebekah

Can you blame her?

She said she wasn't tired and wanted to get up from rest time. But, I guess she couldn't beat the wonderful combination of cozy p.j.s (yes, they are still on at 2:30 in the afternoon) and the warm sun!

You know if you could, you would too!

Just gimme the candy!

Since we still have a good amount of candy left, I figure it's not too late to post a few pics of Halloween. Dan and I went to a Costume Party dressed as a famous duo. Who did we go as? Fred and Wilma? Ken and Barbie? Fred and Ginger? NO!! We went as one of the best duos ever...a mug of Hot Chocolate and a nice puffy Marshmallow! It was a fun night and a lot of the couples were pretty creative. The couple that won for best costume went as the farmer and farmer's wife from Grant Wood's American Gothic painting. Excellent!

We went trick or treating with the kiddos on Sunday night. We went around the neighborhood with some friends. Actually, let me clarify, Dan and Matt went around the neighborhood with the kids while Emily and I sat on the driveway by the fire pit handing out candy. I thought it was a pretty fair trade-off. Except, next year, Emily and I will be walking around and the guys will be "keeping watch" over the candy. I don't think I totally thought this out when I made the deal because next year we will have one extra kid, hmm... Anyway, it was fun watching the kids get excited and run from house to house. Landon wasn't too sure about a few houses, but I think the lure of candy helped him overcome his fears.

Here's a picture of our little candy grabbers:

Speaking of candy and trick or treating, this bit from Jerry Seinfeld is one of Dan and my favorites...HILARIOUS!!! Definitely good for a laugh on this Monday afternoon!

Hope you are all enjoying some incredible fall weather and beautiful colors!! Or for my SoCal readers, hope you are enjoying fire season!

Overheard

Taryn: Landon! Don't eat the play-doh!!

Annika: Yeah, Landon. It's called play-doh, not eat-doh!!!

Brillance.

Pumpkins and tragedy

On Saturday morning, Dan and the kids carved pumpkins. Every year it's quite interesting to see what ideas the kids will come up with as to how they want their pumpkins carved.

This year was a big year for Annika. She carved her Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin all by herself. Dan had traced the pattern and she followed it with her little carving knife. She was pretty proud of herself.

Taryn requested Tinkerbell. Here are the finished products:

And, here is Landon's Pluto pumpkin.

I am very annoyed about this for two reasons:

1) The darn kids that threw the pumpkin in the street really need to be taught a lesson!! Wonder if I could find out who did it and wait 20 years until they have kids of their own. Then I will hunt them down, take the pumpkins they carved with their kids and chuck them into the street. See how they feel when they have to explain to their kids why someone threw their pumpkins into the street. For some reason Tinkerbell and the Jack-o-lantern survived. Maybe they weren't huge Pluto fans? Now when Landon looks at the pumpkins on the porch he says "What happened Pludo? Broke in da street?" Grrr!!!

2) I didn't take a picture right away. I thought I would just take a picture when they are lit up "tomorrow night"...little did I know there wouldn't be a "tomorrow night!" Plus, Pluto was the hardest for Dan to do and it came out looking pretty darn great! Oh well, mental note for next year.

In the meantime, to all your pumpkin chunkers out there, watch out, I will find you!!

Caught in the act

This is why we moved Landon to a "big boy bed" last night.

Landon the Monkey from Rebekah Eekhoff on Vimeo.

Now, we just have to get him to stay in the big bed!! At least it's not an acrobatic feat when he gets out of that bed.

Countrytime

A few weekends ago, we spent some time up north with Dan's family. It was a nice and cool weekend with some rain, but we were able to take advantage of a beautiful night and have a hot dog roast at Dan's sister's place. Sometimes its nights like these that make me yearn to live in the country. Then I was reminded why I don't when Annika said on the way there "It's smells like poop."

One of my favorite things about going up to visit Dan's family are these two:

Annika and Stella are pretty much attached at the hip the whole time.

That weekend the grade school that Dan went to was having a little school carnival. So, we thought we would stop by. We walked out with faces painted, hair colored, cookies, candy and balloons. All in all a pretty good afternoon for the kids.

How come I am praying that this isn't a foreshadow of our sweet little T in about 16 years? Just as long as the hair color comes out and the ink isn't permanent!!

Belly pic

Just a quick post...I finally remembered to have Dan take a picture of me and this prego belly while my hair was actually done and I had makeup on. I should really take a picture of how I "normally" look because that's how this little one will remember me. So, this is a documentation of my tummy and for the kids to see that mommy actually did dress up once and awhile!

About 26ish weeks along:

TBones and Chocolate Milk

Hey there friends! I have been informed that I haven't posted in awhile. Thanks for the "reminder" Anna!

One of the best things parents can have is free babysitting! We are blessed to know another couple who also appreciates a free night away. So we co-op! We watch their kids and they watch ours. It's a great arrangement. At the end of the night we aren't adding up the cost of dinner, a movie plus the hourly rate of the babysitter on top of it all. Makes it a little more tempting to order dessert with dinner. :)

Anyway, a few weeks ago we were able to go out and enjoy late afternoon baseball game while our kiddos were with our friends. We watched the local independent team called the T-Bones play. It was a perfect night for a ball game. It wasn't crowded at all and Dan and I had a great time.

Since we don't take pictures of ourselves, we are thankful that Dan knows the photographer for the team who took at few candids of us...

Here we are thoroughly engrossed in the game. You will note if you look around us, the number of senior citizens also enjoying the game. It seemed to be a hot spot on a Saturday night! Forget the early bird specials!

Let me interrupt for a sec...while Dan and I were watching the game we were having a conversation about Dan's eating habits while he was deployed overseas. He said that while he was over there he missed a good glass of ice cold milk. In the milk they had over there, they would put flavorings like Banana and Strawberry to mask the flavor. Even chocolate couldn't make the milk taste good. Since Dan calls himself a chocolate milk connoisseur I could appreciate how he missed his chocolate milk.

Back to the baseball game...A few minutes after the above conversation, the Dairy Farmers of America (or something like that) threw out t-shirts. Of course, I can't refuse free clothing, so I stood up, prego belly and all, (what a sight to behold, I am sure!) and got myself a T-shirt.

Here's a candid of us reading the t-shirt:

And, here's a picture of our reaction:

What was so funny? Well, here's the t-shirt. It was just meant to be I tell ya!

10 years of dancing

While Dan was gone, we celebrated our 10th anniversary on August 5th. Two friends had the link below on their Facebook pages and think it's a pretty cool song. How often do we hear songs of love as a fairy tale, rather than love that takes work? When we get married it's not two perfect people that live life together to make a perfect little life, it's two sinners choosing to work together and only by God's grace can we "make it work."

Happy Belated Anniversary Dan, thanks for choosing to "Dance in the Minefield" with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gs3fg_WsEg

(Sorry that I can't embed the video...click on link for youtube video).

All he needed was the white horse

But, I will take my knight in shining armor coming home in a black SUV (thanks Matt H!) any day!! Tonight, Dan came home and he surprised us by showing up 2 days early! We were expecting to go pick up him up from the airport on Thursday night. But, low and behold, just as the kids and I sat down to a gourmet meal of hot dogs and green beans, the doorbell rang. And who was at the door?! After 51 very LONG days, my baby is back. The kids were SO excited to see him.

However, Taryn was a bit confused. We had a countdown chain and obviously there were still chains to be taken off. So one of the first things she asked Dan was "Why are you home before the chain is gone?" Apparently, the chain was the law and Dan broke some sort of law in her book. She got over it pretty quickly though. Especially after a rousing round of "roar."

And it's kinda like he never left...

Who needs indoor plumbing?!

Apparently, we don't.

Mommy: T, do you have to go potty before we go to the playground?

Taryn (as she does her version of the pee-pee dance): No.

Mommy: Are you sure? It really looks like you have to go.

Taryn: No, mom, I'll just wait until I get to the playground and go in the trees.

Bright and cheery

Annika's room was boring and beige, and I wanted to brighten it up a little. Well, it's definitely brighter!

Before:

After (despite it being bright, I am very happy with the outcome):

Since this is also our guest room, we'll have to supply sunglasses to our guests for they wake up in the morning. But as Dan said, "Annika's room is just like her bright and cheery!"

Envelope Please

Last night, I watched the Primetime Emmys. I DVR'd it so I could fast forward through the speeches of people I have never heard of, the lifetime achievement award, commercials, etc. I really think that's the way to watch the Emmys and the Oscars. I love when the nominees have been announced and the presenters are opening that little envelope ready to reveal who will get the coveted award. You can almost see the nominees holding their collective breaths just waiting. I wonder what it would feel like to have your name read out loud, being acknowledged for something that you put your heart and soul into.

When I was younger, I would watch the Oscars and then practice my own little acceptance speech. "I would like to thank my mom and dad who always knew I could do it, my brother and sisters, my husband (Kirk Cameron), my orthodontist..." Guess that my 4 years of high school drama didn't bring me to any award shows, oh well. A girl can dream.

But since we are speaking of envelopes, I have a white, unassuming little envelope sitting right in front of me. The envelope is sealed AND stapled shut. This envelope will not be opened for at least another 20 weeks. What is in this envelope? A little glimpse of our future is in this envelope. This envelope contains an ultrasound picture that will tell us whether we will be having a boy or a girl. Eeeh! The suspense!!

All we know right now is that this little bambino or bambina is growing on target (21 weeks on Wednesday) and is nice and healthy.

In the meantime, well, we'll just have to hold our collective breaths until this little baby presents itself in January.

To answer some of your questions-the envelope will remain sealed until after the baby is born. We have a picture because we hadn't decided whether or not we were going to find out-plus Dan wasn't there, so if we did find out I would want to find out together. The technician had me turn my head while she checked "it" out. She printed out the picture and double sealed the envelope so we could find out if we wanted to. I was tempted to just shred the envelope, but I know that I would want the picture for the scrapbook that I will never do someday.

I think there's a garden in there somewhere

This is what happens when you leave a garden untended for 5 weeks...

Then after about 1 1/2 hours later on a sunny KS morning...

It's still a pathetic little garden, but now at least you can see it. I knew there were tomatoes in there somewhere!

A "hug" from daddy

This morning Landon woke up on the wrong side of the bed, er, I mean, crib. He wasn't what you would call a happy camper. It seemed that everything was wrong from his shorts to his cereal. All through breakfast, bringing Annika to school and back he was just being a stinker. He was crying and wailing for "daddy" the whole time. Of course, the one thing I can't give him, he wants. He was continuing his fit while I was starting the laundry. Even the appeal of helping with the laundry couldn't appease his little soul. And since one of his favorite things is helping with the laundry I knew he was truly upset. While sorting we came across one of Dan's t-shirts that I had slept in the night before...my T's aren't fitting too well these days. Anyway, once he saw that shirt, he stopped mid-wail and said, "Daddy's shirt?"

Light bulb above head moment! "Yes," I said. "Do you want to wear it?"

I think if he could have said "Heck YEAH!" He would have.

The tears stopped and Landon got a little hug from daddy by the way of a t-shirt.

(Note the red eyes from crying)

Here's my happy guy

Big day for a big girl!

Today Annika is turning six and it's the first day of school! Right now, she is loving it. But, I can foresee in the future, like around junior high, it won't be as exciting to have your birthday the same day that school starts. We made cupcakes and brought them for her treat. It's also a way we like to make friends...bribe them with sugar. ;)

The big 6 year old!!

Special surprise lunch at Applebee's. The other day she was telling me how much she missed Applebee's (even though we have only been there once in her life). I thought it would be a fun lunch for her birthday and the first day of school...99cent kids meals on Mondays are an added bonus! (Even though she is going full-day, it's half days for the first week).

Happy Birthday sweetie! We love your sweet spirit and kind heart. You are a big girl who loves to read, color pictures, and make lists (we can thank your daddy for that). We pray that you will love Jesus even more and seek to glorify Him always.

Happy Birthday and Happy Back to School!!