It's spring and it's snowing

It's Spring, but IT'S SNOWING!!!! :o(
Joseph and Katharine didn't like the cold, so they came in right away.

Katharine's Birthday

It was Katharine's birthday - hooray!
The weather was sunny and warm - Hooray!
John was here! - HOORAY!

We went to the zoo for the afternoon...

Then we opened presents....

and ate chocolate cake... (promptly followed by a bath for the birthday girl.)

A perfect birthday!

Jury Duty - over at last

For the past four months, I have been summoned to jury duty in Junction City, KS, only to have it be canceled and rescheduled. They would not even consider the fact that we homeschool and that I am the sole caretaker of three active children. So anyway, the last time in early December John was out in the field for training, so I couldn't go to jury duty with three active kids in tow! I sent them a letter, but they refused it because it wasn't notarized! And of course, it wasn't canceled, so I was now a lawbreaker! I've had nightmares about orange prison jumpsuits for months!

Well, the JC court rescheduled me for today. And then the Manhattan court (about 15 miles from Fort Riley) also summoned me for next Tuesday! And when I called them, they said because I live on post it is technically part of both counties and I have to respond to both summons! Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!! Fortunately, the Manhattan court was much more gracious and they said since I had been scheduled for two services in the same week they would call me back at a later date. And I finally got my service out of the way for Junction City today. I was not seated into the jury and was sent home at 10:30 a.m. Apparently JC is so rinky-dink (compared to Orange County) that they only have one trial going on. But the best part is that I can't be called back there for at least one year. It's finally over and I am not going to be arrested :o)

January

It's back to school, time to play with toys from Christmas, and keep warm until spring comes!

We're going to the Ball!

On Thursday night we attended the Distinguished Members of the Regiment (DMOR) Banquet, otherwise known as the Regimental Ball! Here are the pictures from before we left. I made the ballgown myself! Yes, really! And John is always handsome in his Class A's (or pickle suit as we call it). It was very nice and we really enjoyed the talk from the DMORs.
Pictures:

30 Day Gun Nation

I just watched this great video on Hulu.com. A liberal anti-gun activist from Boston relocated to a redneck, gun-loving family in Ohio and gets a job in a gun store for 30 days. In the end, she softens her anti-gun stand once she experiences reality.




Click here to see a full-screen version of the video from www.hulu.com.

Vacation wrap up

What did we do on vacation:
- Grace sang in a children's choir for Christmas Even mass
- We read "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" by Beverly Cleary (very cute!)
- two virtual fieldtrips! The dinosaur sites were so cool for Joseph to see!
- watched lots of movies (Love the new Scooby Doo!)
- library trips - lots of books were read!
- Grace learned all about Webkinz and has been playing online every day. She now has two fully decorated online rooms and a garden for her two pets and has learned about 25 new games and answered lots of trivia questions.
- Joseph and Grace have been learning all about gun safety and playing a gun game (play gun and plastic targets) in our upstairs hallway.
- baked lots of bread and cookies
- went shopping in Kansas City
- played outdoors and in with new toys
- John fixed the statue of St. Francis and started making the drawers for the sideboard.
- Several musical shows and plays were performed in our living room.
And we had such a great time.

Next week is the formal military ball -- look for pictures coming soon!

Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!

It was mayhem, madness, and paper flying everywhere!
The kids are all now playing with their new toys all over the house and are as happy as can be, except when Katharine tries to play with Joseph's toys and Joseph tries to play with Katharine's toys.

Merry Christmas everyone! Here are some pictures....

The Snowman

Isn't it a great snowman? Us kids made it ourselves! We did this today. We made the snowman because it was a lot of fun. It was Daddy's idea to make a snowman. We used carrots for the eyes, mouth, and nose. For the arms, we used Christmas tree branches from the Christmas tree that were cut off so we could fit it in the stand. Daddy helped us by shoveling snow for us. Joseph got snow for Grace, too with his small green shovel. After we built the snowman, we had a great big snowball fight. Mommy even came out to play! And, Katharine came out to play in the snow too! After we played in the snow, we had hot cocoa and cookies. After we ate and drank, we played with playdoh.

Love,

The whole family

Us kids & a snowman

This is a very cool piture of Joseph.
He is sitting still!

Rocking around the Christmas Tree!

We got our tree today and even got it decorated. Only 2 strands of lights (sorry Mom!). The kids put on all of the decorations. Katharine got the "hang" of it very quickly -- now to keep her from undoing it all!

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures:

Grace's Birthday

It was so great! I'll let the pictures tell it...

Preparations for Grace's birthday

Preparations are underway! Grace's birthday is tomorrow! Hooray!

Grace is :
eating Cinnamon Crumb Muffins for breakfast and opening her presents!

joining the Children's choir rehearsal at church. She'll be singing in the mass on Christmas Eve!

attending mass, then we'll be going out to lunch, to the library, and other errands in town.

For dinner Grace requested fried shrimp and corn on the cob.

And her birthday cake is Chocolate-Peanut Butter!

I'll post pictures next week of the festivities :o)

Thanksgiving and Christmas

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at home. John had 4 days off!! And even a little sprinkling of snow the next morning.

And now it's on to Advent and Christmas. We've put our Advent wreath out, but we decided not to put out our china Nativity set (Katharine!). So Grace and I made pictures of the Nativity and taped it onto the wall. Creativity!!

Our 2008 Christmas greetings are being written and mailed this week. Our letter goes like this:
2008 was a year of memories for the Densons. Our favorite memories are John's re-deployment from Iraq in April,

and our trip to Disney World in May!!

Since then we've been busy and quiet. John is very close to finishing his Master's degree in Business. (Could Dr. Denson be next? We'll see :o) We'll be staying at Fort Riley for another 1-2 years. It's very likely that John will deploy again, but we don't know where or when.

Grace is turning 7 this weekend. She loves home schooling! And she'll be receiving her First Communion next April.

Joseph is 4 and loves trucks, trains, and tractors. He'll be starting home school kindergarten next fall. (Already?!)

Katharine is 21 months, growing fast and into everything. I am managing home school lessons and our household, along with whatever the Army throws our way.

Love and wishes for a beautiful Christmas and a joyous New Year!

Cyndi, John, Grace, Joseph, and Katharine Denson

Grace's Artwork and Katharine

The first artwork is called "The Swan in the Sunset".  I painted it with a stamping paint brush.  The paint is washable tempura on poster board.  I used some very pretty colors.  I put a swan stamp on the paper to make it look like a swan.  Katharine did not help me in any way.

The next picture is my Daddy being very, very funny.  Can't you see that Daddy is pretending to be a moose?  Isn't he very, very silly? He does rea

lly look like a moose to me.

This next picture is the "Starry Night" by Joseph.  Doesn't it look by the real "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh?  Didn't Joseph use very good lines?  I think he did a very good job.

Fall and Winter

The weather has turned from fall to winter. We have had a week of low temps in the 20s and 30s, day highs have been 40s and 50s. Our noses are sniffling and it takes half an hour to get everyone into coats, mittens, hats, and shoes. But somehow the kids still manage to have fun....


I'm working through my Christmas shopping list. I look forward to the year when I can do "Black Friday" shopping, but not yet. Thankfully, I bought all of the kids presents when we were at Walt Disney World in May. And now, it's all about internet shopping! I love eBay and Amazon!! But if you're reading this post -- send me your wishlist!!!

Cyndi :o)

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun!

Grace is Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)
Joseph - Tow Mater from the Cars movie
It even has rearview mirrors and a tow hook!



Katharine - the not-too-fierce dragon with purple polka dots!