Ahh, Yes... Winter...

It sure has hit us by force. Cold, sickness, and snow. This past month has been pretty busy. Fun Christmas' with all our wonderful family. Tons of new toys for the kids. But we have also been busy with other things and so things like, cleaning my house, and updating this blog have been kind of placed on the back burner. But, I am hoping to get caught up.

Unfortunately, we have had to deal with quite a bit of sickness this month. Flu and colds and we are still trying to work some of it out of our systems. It seems to be a nasty year for bugs. My work place has been filled with sick residents, and an illness is no small thing when you are elderly.

Now, except for some lingering effects of colds the kids are pretty healthy, with the normal energy (which is way more then I have), and enthusiasm. They have been doing really well in school, despite the fact that our lessons continue to get interrupted by sickness. Starting this next week we MUST do some major catch up! Pray for some diligent kids! Happy would be a bonus! :)

Nathan had his first spelling test and got an easy 100%. Yeah, no sweat off his back. He whipped out those words with no problems, even sang a tune while he was at it. I have a feeling spelling is going to be his strong point. He already spells words I haven't taught him yet. He's one of those kids I was so jealous of as a spelling-challenged kid. I am so thankful I live in a word that has electronic spell checkers. The person who first created it was a genius, and saved all those like me from looking like idiots! Haha! :) Well, at least in that area. Lol!

Alysabeth is really working hard on her reading. We have been concerned that she is a little dyslexic. She shows quite a bit of difficulty with recognizing the difference between p, b, and d and also with reading words backwards. My mom has ordered a dyslexic work book for her to help her with sorting out the things she is seeing. It is very hard for her, and the more frustrated she gets the more screwed up the letters and words look. But, she is reading at a transition level between first and second grade so we are not that far behind. With Nathan, reading comes easy, but poor Alysabeth will probably struggle for a while until we get past the dyslexia (which she may always struggle somewhat with). :(

Katie, is Katie. :) She is such a sweet lovable little girl with an indomitable spirit! She is a born leader and taking direction from Mommy and Daddy is very difficult for her. But, she knows her own mind, and what she wants, is what she wants. All a good thing if lead in the right direction! So pray for wisdom for us!! :) She is learning well too and should have no problems with kindergarten next year. I never had to teach her the alphabet or her numbers and counting. She already knows them. I am sure she has picked them up while I taught the other kids. A blessing since we will have a jump start on things! :)

Well, sending out blessings from the Gnewikow household! May everyone stay healthy and warm this cold, miserable Winter! And watch out, more snow is coming!

:)

Happenings and Christmas Cookies

 We've been quite busy here since my last post. First the kids painted Christmas ornaments for the tree. They have so much fun with paint. However, since we only have primary colors and white for paint, this mommy had some work to do to create the plethora of requested colors. "This, " I told the kids, "is where knowing what colors make what, comes in handy." See if you can guess whose ornament is whose. :)

Our next exciting event was the massive snow storm that hit the Midwest. The kids, of course, thought it was the best thing ever. And, I might not have been quite so upset about it had I not had to drive in it. It was beautiful as it fell but I have never been so thankful for a four-wheel-drive vehicle as I was this past weekend! :)

Also this week, our friends the Reinarts, got a call from Missy's family that her mother had been admitted to the hospital in Green Bay for a pulmonary embolism, a potentially life threatening condition. So, we took in the kids for a couple days hoping to give them the opportunity to be with their family during this time. It sure was a busy place around here!

One of our projects for when the Reinart children were here was to make and decorate cut out cookies. So on Thursday we spent the morning cutting them out and baking them then on Friday before they left with their Grandparents we frosted them. It was a blast and there were sprinkles everywhere! But I think they turned out alright. :)

Yummy!! Have a great week!

A Night Out

Yay! A night out! We had been planning it for a while and even though I was a little sick it was so much fun! So, Friday night Mark and I, Jamie and Gina, and Scott and Missy headed up to the Buffalo Wild Wings in LaCrosse. Unfortunately, of course, the first snow storm of the year had to hit that night, but what did we care? We needed a night out and it did not stop us! We are thankful for the snow anyway. It sure adds to the spirit of Christmas!

Well, anyway, we had all been anticipating watching Scott take the Buffalo Wing Challenge: a basket of wings in their hottest sauce in roughly 5 minutes... something like that. Well, after requesting to first taste the sauce, he changed his mind. Lol! Never request to taste first! It will wear you down. However, we did get to watch the neighbor table as they rooted on one of their own as he flung chicken here and there and covered his face in sauce. That was the best part! Lol! Sauce face! Haha!

And, another thing. I decided NEVER to have a birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings. Yeah, they bring out a microphone and make the entire building sing to you. Embarrassing!! But the birthday girl was a sweet little thing... 22-years-old. How cute is that?! Ah, to be 22 again...

After we ate we headed to Shopko - SHOE DEPARTMENT. But none of us bought any shoes.

Mostly we just had fun and enjoyed each others company. Something we don't get to do nearly so often as adults.

'Tis The Season!

Yay! The Christmas tree is up and the kids had a blast decorating their first full size tree! :) We used bits of garland and pieces of the paper chain they made last year as well as the homemade ornaments and purchased ones. The kids were allowed to decorate as they pleased and they did a wonderful job of it! :) Afterward we took them to Wal-Mart and allowed them to each pick out an ornament for the tree. You can definitely see their personalities in their choices!

First off is Alysabeth's. Not only does she love stars she loves the color green! :)

Naturally, Nathan chose an animal. :) 

And who would of guessed this last one. Lol! Yes, Katie, my shoe lover, chose - a shoe! :)

Ah, yes. I think I know my kids! Lol! The tree has brought so much excitement that Nathan thinks every day now is Christmas. Hard to explain this to him... :) Lol! Katie finds the ornaments almost irresistible and has already broken three small white balls. You know, she must examine them all! She will even bring in the step stool so she can reach more of them. And Alysabeth would like to move into the living room to sleep. I can relate. When I was a little girl I would sneak upstairs, turn on the tree lights and sleep by the tree. There is something comforting about the soft glow of those tiny bulbs.*Sigh* I love this time of year!

Happy Birthday, Awana!

This week the Awana group celebrated its 60th year! Amazing! As a result the children got to sing for church this past Sunday. They sang at all three services. I think the kids were ready to be done by the end there. Lol! I put on the video I took of my favorite song they sang. I think you will see why... :)

Pictures and Updates!

Well, I try the best I can to get good photos of my kids. :) Alysabeth is wonderful. She sits or stands, smiles, whatever I ask her. Nathan is my goofy face maker and it is very difficult for me to get a natural looking picture unless I tell him not to smile. Now Katie... haha! "Take a picture of me jumping, Mom!" She wants me to capture her in motion. Constant motion. When she does say "cheese" for the picture she gives a silly grin and raises those pointy little eyebrows. Lol! Cute! :)

Well, the kids and I wanted to play around with photos on PhotoFunia so here are some of our creations. :) And a little update on each of them.

Well, Alysabeth is doing very well in school. We are still struggling a little with reading but she is more receptive to it and we have started to rent books from the library for her to work on. We are trying to get her comfortable with reading level 2 books. In math she is doing excellent! Her next lesson starts her working with triple digit addition and subtraction. On Wednesday nights she attends Awana at church as a Spark. She goes and learns Bible stories and memorizes verses. She has lots of fun! Other small bits... Alysabeth has decided to grow her hair out again, but she brushes it and takes care of it by herself. She is also very proud because she now takes showers instead of baths. :) Haha! And she has decided on a new future career choice. She wants to work in Animal Rehabilitation.

Nathan, my little funny guy! Lol! He is also doing very well in school! I have been so pleased this year with his progress. He is reading very well. He is working on addition in math and also really enjoys it but his favorite class is "healthy class". Lol! He LOVES health! He is also in Sparks on Wednesday nights. It is a fun night! Nathan also finally has a best friend. His name is Mark. They get to play almost every Friday together. They enjoy all the same things, games, GI Joes, Batman, and they have so much fun together. Mark is a year older than him. Nathan, like Alysabeth, also wants to have longer hair and I am trying to accommodate him but I sure am missing the clipper cut. :) He also has decided something regarding his future, that should change by the pre-teen to teen years at least, is that he wants to marry me. I think it is so sweet. Daddy, not so much. Lol! Nathan informed Mark last night that as soon as he grows up Dad was going to have to give me up. Haha!

Katie is my little spit fire. Lol! I am still trying to figure her out. :) She is so sweet and cuddly and then very stubborn and trying at the same time. She has a lot of preferences and she wants to be her own boss. She informed me the other day that she will no longer be eating anything but peanut butter and jelly, and cheese. Lol! She has begun to talk up a storm and I wish I had a recorder to catch every funny thing she says. Her favorite things right now are her Jessie doll, dress up things, and littlest pet shops. Her most favorite of course is Jessie and she LOVES to dress up like her, boots, hat, and braid. She will come up to me and say, "Mom, can I have a Jessie hair style?" Too cute! Haha! She also goes to Awana, but nights are not the best time for her and it is a struggle for us to get through the night without issues. So please pray!! Also once the coloring stuff comes out during the night she does NOT want to move on to anything else!

Well, last thing, the kids will all be singing at church on Sunday with their Awana groups so I am going to do my best to remember my camera and get some pics!

Well, that's it for the updates. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Amevaco, Jamemaco.... Gnewikow!

Gnewikow has always been such a difficult name, to read and pronounce. So, tonight after discussing the cute attempts our children have made we decided to put it on video. :)