Another new family member!

This weekend my little brother Ben got engaged! Laura is a wonderful person, and we're so excited to have her as a sister and aunt. No wedding date scheduled yet, but we are looking forward to welcoming Laura into our family. Don't they make a cute couple?

Here is Eli, sipping on a strawberry smoothie from our favorite drive-thru coffee and smoothie place, the Human Bean. I always order a skinny mexican mocha, no whip, with a candy-covered coffee bean. Eli and Silas always split a strawberry smoothie with lots of whipped cream, and they each get a bean, too!

Silas, collapsed with exhaustion on the living room floor. We had a very busy weekend--Eli's Christmas program at school, mom practicing several hours for singing at church, doing some last-minute shopping, church, birthday party, and family Christmas night at church. On Sunday we were gone from 7:30am-10:00pm!

Here's Eli in his Christmas performance at school. There were a few hundred people there, and somehow we lucked out and got front row seats. It just so happened that Eli was at the opposite end of a long row, and we could see just the top of his head the whole time! This was the best photo I got. They sang several cute songs and told the story of Jesus' birth. Eli was a little lamb.

Bryan took the day off to be one of the parent-helpers at Eli's Christmas party at school today. Eli loved having his daddy there, and Bryan enjoyed helping the kids make several crafts.

A new cousin!

Eli and Silas have a new cousin! Jacob Duane Martin was born early this morning to Amy's sister Jessa and her husband Nate. It's their first child and our first cousin on the Van Guilder side! Baby "Jack" is 8 lbs., 5 oz., and 19 inches long. I guess he has long toes (must get that from Nate), medium brown hair, a good set of lungs, a strong body, and is doing well so far at nursing. Welcome, Jack, to the family! We can't wait to meet you! I'll try to post a photo or two when I get them!

For your viewing pleasure, you can check out something we did for fun:

The Dik elf family:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1395071879

Amy the scrooge:
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1396457820

What we've been up to the past two weeks...

We've had a lot of sickness over here. Eli got the worst of it--high fevers, throwing up, bad cough, aching all over--he was pretty miserable for about a week. We were at the doctor's twice, had an x-ray and lots of bloodwork, but the conclusion was a viral infection. I was also pretty sick for a few days, and Bryan had to work some extra hours, so I felt like a zombie trying to recover and take care of the boys and the housework. Silas has been pretty tired this week and has a bad cough...I really hope he's not coming down with something now, too!

Here is a more recent photo of the boys watching a cartoon together. Why sit on a comfy couch or chair when you can sit on a cold hard slate table?

While Eli was sick, Silas was his usual energetic self. Here he is bouncing on a ball he calls, "bouncy bouncy."

In this photo, Silas got behind our curtains and said in a loud voice, "Where did Silas go?"

Then he pulled them open and shouted, "ta-da!"

Then he did his little crazy dance--kinda like a horse galloping in place.

Then he came over to the camera and gave me a face--I have no idea what it means.

Poor Eli, he spent a lot of time being feverish and sleeping in this brown chair.

Silas was tired and climbed into my lap--and, seriously, about 5 seconds later...
...out like a light!


Eli went back to school this week and made reindeer antlers out of his handprints. He says he's not Rudolph, he's Comet (one of the lesser-known of Santa's reindeer--he probably chose to be this one because of the outer space association).


Eli's gingerbread house he made at school. He told me he ate a lot of the candy. The other day I discovered Silas trying to eat the candy off the house.

Eli's drawing of houses on all four sides (north, south, east, west) of the earth. After I took this photo, he added cars going from house to house. We really have no clue where he came up with this idea.

Eli's drawing of a boat on water with a sad shark and two happy fish....and lots of smiley faces.

Today Eli's class had a field trip to the Fort Collins Nursery. He got to decorate this fir bough. He learned a lot about evergreen trees and even asked a great question, "Mommy, do trees need oxygen?" Hmmm...I remember something about them needing carbon dioxide and sunlight... and then there's photosynthesis....I think I'd better refresh my memory on that topic. Despite my inability to explain plant science(Mr. Gowell would be so disappointed!), we had a nice, COLD, time together!