Christmas has come and gone

Well, we have survived another Christmas season. At least, from the gift standpoint. Isn't it amazing thought that we put so much time, effort and concern into the Christmas Season that we have to "survive"? I mean, after all, that is not the real reason for the season. We spent Christmas Eve at home with just the four of us, and that was real special. We read the Christmas Story from Jackson's special Bible, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and then of course, tore open the wrapping paper to reveal all the "goods".

Here is a picture of Jody and the kids getting into the fun. As you can see, both boys are very interested in what is happening. The boys got their very own nativity set from grandpa and grandma, and now Mommy is explaining who the different people are and their significance in the whole realm of things. JT and Jefferson both thought it was very cool, although for completely different reasons. It is also a little finger puppet set, so JT was able to act out the different individuals, and the finger puppets are soft, so Jefferson was able to chew on them (something he does to many, many things). It was definitely a great gift to give them, because it helped JT to understand a little better about Jesus' birth.

Here is another picture of the boys, just because I think it is cute. Mommy took this one of the boys for me. I bought the boys the t-shirts and footballs from the ESPNZone restaurant during my last business trip to New York City in August of 2005. There are two ironic things about this picture: 1) we no longer have cable tv, so we can't even watch ESPN, and 2) anyone that knows the boys knows that they don't sit still long enough to watch tv. There are very few things that you can get them to sit long enough for when it comes to the tv. They are both very "busy", which is just fine with us.

On Christmas Day we celebrate Christmas with Jody's parents. Also, her brother Alan's birthday is December 25, so we celebrate that too. He flew back from Kentucky for the week, so the boys got to do all sorts of fun things with him. Here is a picture of the boys with their grandparents. This year the boys got a very cool gift - their very own first sled: as you can see from the picture (if you click on it) that JT absolutely LOVES the sled. Jefferson wasn't quite so sure, but give him time and he will want to be doing whatever JT is doing, just like everything else. Here is JT on one of his first "solo" rides:

Finally, we celebrated Alan's birthday in the evening. By that time, after all the excitement, playing outside in the nice weather and everything else, some people just couldn't keep up anymore:

White Christmas (maybe?)

You would think that here in Minnesota by now we would be under several feet of snow, be freezing certain parts of our anatomy off, and in general just be living the "stereotypical" life of a Minnesota resident. Well, not really. In fact, we finally got our first sizeable (and that is kind of a stretch) snowfall last night, and by sizeable, I mean it appeared to be about a quarter inch by the time all was said and done. But, why not? Earlier in the week our temps were near 40 and San Diego, New Mexico and several other places down there got snow.

Regardless, Christmas is now upon us, and pretty soon we will enter into 2007. As you look back over the past year, remember those that are special, your loved ones, and ask yourself what can you do this year to strenghten those relationships.

Have a wonderful Christmas.

--Brian

The basketball team

I just wanted to take a quick second to say how proud I am of my boys. I am not talking this time about Jackson and Jefferson (although I am extremely proud of them - like any father should be!), but my basketball boys.

For those that don't know, I have been involved with the Varsity boys basketball program here at Woodcrest for 7 years now, with this being my fourth year as head coach. This has been an incredible year so far. We are going into the Christmas break with a 3-1 record, including wins of 64-32, 74-39 and 61-26. These were exciting, but I am actually more encouraged by our loss last night, which we lost to the North Metro team (a home school organization) 102 - 110. Yes, you read that correctly, both teams scored over 100 points. They are a running type of team, and we actually beat them for the most part at their own game, including being in the lead for a good portion of the game. There were 212 points scored in the game, which averages out to roughly 1 point every 10 seconds. That is moving! The guys worked hard and played better than I could have ever hoped for.

I also want to thank Dave Martens for all his hard work this year as my assistant on the Varsity team as well as being in charge of the JV program as well. He has been a valuable asset and addition this year.

Ok, that is my little promotion for my team. You can follow the school's activities at www.woodcrestbaptistacademy.org for all calendars, scores, sports, etc.

-Brian

Well, yesterday was the annual Christmas program at our church. In the morning all the Sunday School classes put on a little thing. Jackson's class (the Toddlers), is always the cutest and most fun to watch. Unfortunately, JT did not make it this year. He was doing well most of the morning, and then we don't know if he started to get excited/nervous or what, but about 10 minutes or so before he was supposed to go up there he threw up on himself, so we just cleaned him up and took him home. Here are a couple of pictures from last year's program so you can at least get the idea.


































In the evening was the church choir cantata. Jody sang in it. From what I understand it went quite well. I wasn't able to be in the cantata this year, so that was probably a huge benefit for the rest of choir!

Ok, I can't believe I am actually going to do this, but I have decided to create a blog. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would do this. I figured that there just was not enough interesting things about our family that others would really want to know, but after seeing other people's blogs, I realize that our family can provide plenty of information and probably even more laughs for others, so here is our first attempt.

A little about us.

Brian is an Accountant for a large software company here in Minnesota. Ironic considering that he basically told anyone he ever knew growing up that this was the one profession he would never do. He also coaches the boys basketball team here at Woodcrest, is involved with the youth group, and tries desperately to keep up with his two little boys.

Jody is a stay-at-home mommy for the above mentioned 3 boys (ok, two little ones and one very big one). She had the opportunity to live out a childhood dream and teach for a couple of years at the school she attended. Now she gets to stay at home and keep track of the boys, the house, and everything else that goes with that territory.

Jackson (JT) is almost 3.5 years old, and is definitely ALL BOY. He loves to play any sport, has quite an interest in music, and can go through a set of watercolors faster than anyone I have ever met!

Jefferson just turned one October 14, and he is going to be the one to keep mom and dad on their toes. We jokingly call him the "Anti-Jackson" in much of his demeanor. Where JT is up front and out in the open with almost everything he does, Jefferson is the schemer. You can see the wheels in his little mind just turning all the time.

As any parent, we deeply love our boys, especially with the circumstances of their lives. For starters, we were told flat out by doctors that it was pretty much impossible for us to have children. In fact, the day we were supposed to start testing to prove that, they came into the room to tell us that, instead of running tests, they cancelled the tests, since we were expecting. Just goes to show you that even the "experts" don't control everything.

Also about the boys, they both were born prematurely. JT was born just over 5 weeks early, which isn't too bad. He was only in the hospital for 2 days and got to go home. Jefferson was born just over 7 weeks early and, long story short, stayed in the Level 2 Nursery for two weeks before we got to bring him home. Looking at either boy now though, you wouldn't know.

Well, I will do my best to keep things updated, but we will just have to wait and see how that goes. I am posting a couple of pictures so you can see 75% of our family (I tend to be EXTREMELY camera shy!). Oh, and the two pictures of Jackson and Morgan Martens are just to get on Dave's good side! :)