We have really been feeling the winter blahs around here lately. The kids want to get out so bad, but have been sick for for the past month or so. We can't wait till spring finally comes in full force.

Mark and I don't usually find time for leisure reading, however, we recently read a book that was so intriguing that we felt we should share it with everyone. It's called "What in the World is Going On?" by Dr David Jeremiah. We highly recommend this book for everyone. It really puts things into perspective about what is going on in todays world through the lens of the Bible and prophesy. It is extremely insightful, educational, somewhat scary, yet comforting. We have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it.

Happy 1st Birthday Hope!!

Well, Hope officially turned one on Thursday the 29th. We still can't beliveve it's been a year already. Mark started calling her "Miss Hope" shortly after she was born and it stuck. We decided to play it up for her birthday. She currently has 8 teeth with two molars coming in (lots of fun!), is starting to walk, loves to take baths, and thinks her big sissy is the coolest. She is a real sweetheart!! We had a family party for her on Thursday night and she decided she liked to wash her hands and hair with the frosting as much as she liked eating it.

Who knew that Bozo the Clown used frosting to get his hair just right?

We had parties this weekend for our families and had a great time. The cake was so much fun to make. Here she is loving her new toys after the party.

Merry Christmas!

What a week! We started our Christmas break with the ice storm that put us out of power for about 4 days. After spending two nights at PaPa and Grandma Schuh's house, we were finally able to come home to tractor generated power. We had a great Christmas and Santa was good to everyone. Here's a picture of Brock with Great Grandma Hurley. She and Grandpa celebrated their 70th!!!!! wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve. What a milestone! Brock was being so sweet sitting by Grandma and holding her arm. Here's Claire and Brock ready to go out and sprinkle reindeer food on Christmas Eve. It was freezing cold and windy, but they insisted on going out anyway. The smiles were all gone as they came back in with cold hands and Brock even managed to lose a boot. Here's the crew with the gifts that Santa brought. They each received a cool bean bag with their name embroidered on it.

Dance Recital

Claire had her Dance Production on Saturday at Twin Lakes High School in Monticello. She also started "Bitty Bomber" basketball that day, so it was quite a day for us all. She was soooo excited to get all dolled up and to preform on a big stage in front of everyone. She did an excellent job and we were so proud of her. We couldn't take any photos or video of the actual performance though (I think it's just a ploy to make you buy their video). Amazingly enough, both Brock and Hope were able to sit through the whole thing. I think there was enough music and dancing to keep their attention.

Claire

Claire had her school open house/music program last Thursday. We had a great time looking around and the music program was so cute. This is Claire with her 2nd grade teacher. Mrs. Rowan is a wonderful teacher and Claire loves her. I've managed to get a picture each year with her and her teacher. I doubt she'll let me do this throughout her school years, but I'm going to try for as many as I can.

This is a humerous picture because it was supposed to be of all the grandkids on the Schuh side of the family. However, as everyone else was not cooperating Mark zoomed in on Hope and Claire and got the best picture of the whole evening. The problem is the other 3 are not accounted for.

Miss Hope

A friend from church took Hope's 9mo pictures at our house a few weeks ago. We can hardly believe that she's almost a year old. Currently she loves taking baths, playing in Sissy's room (lots of things she knows she shouldn't have), cackeling at her older siblings, and eating paper. The things she doesn't like include having her face wiped, when Momma walks away, and when Brock decides to wrestle her. She has four teeth with two more on the way, lots of hair, and pretty blue eyes like Daddy. She's such a joy to have in the family!!

Choo Choo!

Okay, I got the pictures in the wrong order. Shelly's grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary last week with a family get-together at the Whistle Stop Restaurant in Monon. Brock especially had a great time pretending to be the conductor of the train. He was on cloud nine playing on all choo-choos. Amazingly all the great-grandkids were able to make it. However, not able to look straight ahead and smile at the same time.