Merry Christmas!

Hi Everyone,

What do you know, I'm posting my Christmas pictures before the start of the new year! How about that! Almost in real time for once. Maybe with the new year this trend will stick. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Our Christmas was great! Grandma came up Christmas Eve and we sat around enjoying our time together. Mom made a yummy candlelight dinner and then we ended up having a candlelight service at our own house. We thought about heading over to the church but the first of two services didn't start until my bedtime and mom and dad thought it might be a bit much for me. We're all hoping maybe next year will be the first one I get to attend. We sang some carols and Christmas hymns, then dad read the Christmas story (you know from Luke chapter 2), and then I retold the Christmas story using my book titled Jesus Is Born. Then we all lit our candles, mom prayed and then we blew our candles out. It was nice and relaxing.

Christmas morning dawned and we enjoyed a yummy breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and apple banana salad while watching the original version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I know, not very religious, but that's one of the reasons why we focused on Jesus' birth at our Christmas Eve service, that way we could make sure to focus on it without all the hoopla of gifts and such.

After our great opener, we had a leisurely time of opening gifts. Mom and dad said they love it when you can tell I have gotten something I enjoy. Everything stops and I just want to play with that toy right then and who cares about other presents! This year one of my favorites was a horse rescue truck with a trailer. I can't believe mom and dad haven't gotten a picture of me with it yet.

This was also the year that I got my first official bike! Yes, I have a trail-a-bike or tag-along (I don't think I've shown you pictures of that yet) which is my bike that rides behind dad's bike. I also had a little bike with training wheels that mom got from the consignment store but after my big wreck on that this past summer I didn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. Finding this bike was quite the chore though. Mom and dad decided this would be the first Christmas where I would receive a big gift and have to find it using clues. I'll tell you what they are and then you can see if you can guess.

Clue #1 - I am wearing pink. I am your baby. I love to ride in a stroller. Who am I? Did you guess Avigail?

Clue #2 - You come to me often in the winter. I help wipe runny noses. I am soft and white. What am I? Yeah, I had a hard time with this one too. It was the kleenex box. I finally got it after mom read the clue a couple of times.

Clue #3 - I am fast. I am blue. Sometimes you call me "bling bling". Who am I? Yep, Lightning McQueen in my car tub.

Clue #4 - I am where you check for letters, cards, and packages. I get decorated in the fall and winter. Where am I? Once I was told that letters, cards, and packages are mail I knew to go right to the front porch.

Once there, I found a very large box that I promptly opened only to find a little homemade ornament of a wooden skuut bike. With the ornament was a little note that said "Try the other porch". Well, wouldn't you know my bike was sitting right on the back porch the whole time. Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place!

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!! Oh, and our picture in front of the tree this year was a casual one on Christmas morning. No need to get dressed up to spend the day relaxing, right! It's a pj kind of day.

Until next time . . .

Birthday Boy!

Hi everyone,

It was so exciting turning 4 years old! I woke up that morning to mom and dad singing me happy birthday. Then I came out to a plate full of waffles with whipped cream and strawberries (as requested by me) complete with a candle. Do I look a bit sleepy in my picture? At breakfast I opened a few birthday cards, one from Great-Grandma and one from Grandma Jan and Grandpa Garry.

Mom ended up working that day since a good friend of hers asked her to sub a long time before, so that meant that Dad and I were off to spend the birthday money that I had gotten from Great-Grandma. I was kind of surprised because mom and dad usually like me to wait to spend my money, but I think they wanted me to pick something out so we could take a picture of me and send it with my thank you card to Great-Grandma as soon as possible. I ended up purchasing a grain trailer semi and a truck with a cow trailer and cows. I was super excited to show my purchases to mom! 

That evening we had a small family dinner of french toast and fruit salad (as requested by me) with just mom, dad, me, and grandma, then I opened presents afterward. I did get to stay up late on my birthday since I didn't get to open my presents until it was already my usual bedtime. And who wants to go to bed immediately after opening birthday gifts. No one that I know of!

And what birthday is complete without cake!! Mom asked me what I wanted on my cake. At first I just said a road and some cars, but then with further prompting I realized that I really wanted a camping trailer as well. A few days before my birthday mom had me draw on my whiteboard what I saw in my mind as to what I wanted my cake to look like. It included a road, camping loop,and a trailer that looked like ours. Imagine how surprised I was when I actually saw that exact cake come out of the kitchen on the night of my birthday! I was super excited and kept asking mom how she had managed to make it. And of course, I wanted to drive the trailers and trucks around the cake right away!

Until next time . . . 

Headin' out East

Hi everyone,

About a week before Thanksgiving we went over east of the mountains to visit my Grandpa and Nana. It was pretty exciting seeing their new place and getting a chance to hang out with them for a few days. I enjoyed sleeping on our air mattress (which was inflated using Mom's hair dryer because we didn't bring our electric pump), going out to the local farm community, and just playing around their house.

If you go back to my visit with Grandpa and Nana when I was about 18 months old (July 2008) you'll see Grandpa and I in this same store and me on this same rocking tractor!

These two photos are both my handiwork! Notice the shorter vantage point.

It was also exciting because it snowed while we were there . . . and while we were coming home . . . and while we were at home! Is that neat, or what? Mom said in all her time living in our state she has never driven all the way across from one side to the other and up to the north and had snow the entire time. I'm sure glad Dad grew up driving in the snow because we had a pretty smooth trip home considering all the spun out vehicles we passed.

Helping Grandpa shovel now off his parking area and off the sidewalk.

Our drive coming up over the pass.

Until next time . . .

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

Hi everyone,

A while ago my theme for preschool was trains. Well . . . my Aunt Lena just happens to work for the railroad, so guess what that means? Yep, I got to go ride trains for a few hours one afternoon. The engineer even let me drive the train! Can you believe that? Accelerating, decelerating, pulling the whistle . . . boy, oh boy.

Until next time . . .

December Already!

Hi everyone,

I can't believe that the last time I posted was in the middle of November! I thought for sure after I caught you up on all the stuff throughout September and October I'd be so good about posting regularly. Well, I guess you can see where that ended up. A big fat nowhere! I promise you that I will catch up you up on what has been going on with me over the past month and my birthday and everything, but for right now I think I'll hand over the reigns to mom because she is much faster at typing and it is already way past my bedtime! Goodnight. Here you go, Mom.

**Quick catch up: It seems like there are big things happening in the Betz house but nothing is set in stone at this time. I think that the next year will bring lots of changes for our family so I'm thinking we could definitely use your prayers if you want to send them this way.

Ron officially retired on September 30th and took some classes at the college (mostly online). He is currently signed up to take two classes for Winter quarter but would much rather just find his next job. He has been applying mostly for federal and state jobs and the process is extremely long and you really hear nothing for months before being told the job was cancelled or you weren't in the most highly qualified group. He has gone on a few interviews, but has not yet landed the job meant for him.

Isaac and I are enjoying this time that we have with him. It is so nice for Isaac to actually be able to spend time with him for a change. When he was working, he only spent an average of an hour with him on the weekdays because of his work and commuting schedule. We wish we could go on like this forever, and I guess you never know, it may. We plan to stay where we are living but again, you never know with the job market what it is and what God has in store for us.

I have been doing some subbing here and there. It has been fun to get back into the classroom, but when all is said and done I would much rather be at home with my guys. We are both doing a tag team approach to homeschool preschool with Isaac which has been fun.

For those of you who don't know, my grandma (Isaac's great-grandma), passed away this past week. She had a fairly short battle with pancreatic, liver, and stomach cancer. We were blessed to be able to spend time with her for her last few days here, and I was blessed to be in her room with her as she took her last breath. Such a peaceful experience and so joyous knowing that she is in heaven with Jesus standing beside my grandfather who preceded her by about 14 years. It is different to experience the death of someone close through the eyes of a child though. Isaac seems to be handling it well, and is his ever curious and questioning self. 

On the family growing side of things, we are in the process of getting our license for foster care. Our hope is to foster a child for a long-term placement with the hopes to adopt. We are waiting to see what God has in store for us as this is a bit scary but something we feel like could be the way God wants to grow our family.

I don't think there is much more right now. Those are the big things happening in our family, and it does feel like there are plenty of "big" things going on. We'll try to get on Isaac to get his birthday pictures posted sometime this weekend.

Take care, and until next time . . .

Ocean Camping

Hi everyone,

I love camping at the ocean! This year's camping trip was all that more special because we got to visit with my great-grandma for a few days. It was nice to see her and Mom's aunt and uncle and spend some time visiting and catching up with them.

I can't say the weather was very nice. It was a cold, salty mist or downpour every day we were there. It was amazing how the clouds would just hover over the water and how the rain and mist would swirl up and under the awning and every type of cover we had. There was water everyone, even inside the seams at one point! There were a few moments of dry, as you can see from the pictures below, and we definitely took advantage of those.

We also managed to snag a bit of dry time one evening to actually have a campfire. By the way, three of our four dinners were supposed to made over the campfire but we definitely had to switch gears.

We ran down on the beach and chased the waves. 

It was so much fun running so the waves wouldn't catch us!

And, when it was all said and done, everyone was tuckered out and slept well!

Until next time . . .

A Real Cattle Drive

Hi everyone,

I got to participate in a real, true cattle drive! And, just like many other cattle drives, this one didn't exactly go according to the plan. It was a herd of 20 cattle and they were supposed to come up the road about a mile and a half to the field closer to the house. But they didn't exactly cooperate! Below are a few of the pictures while we waited, and waited, and waited for them to make their appearance.

 

Finally, the first five meandered their way down the road, up and over the hill, and back down into the new field with a horseman bringing up the rear. Our job was the to block the driveways along the route so that the cows didn't decide to enter into greener pastures, if you know what I mean.

The next group of about 4 cattle decided to take a side trip into another farmers field so the horses, atv's, and cattle dogs had to round 'em up and get them out of there. Three of the four came out and along the way, but one high-tailed it back to the rest of the herd. After that fiasco, the head of the cattle drive decided to use a neighbor's field and have the cowboys drive the rest of the herd through the field and avoid the road. I'm sure the vehicle driving neighbor's were mighty appreciative because the cattle drive that was supposed to last 15 minutes took about 2 hours!

And when it was all said and done, I got to drive a tractor so who can complain about that!

Until next time . . .