A Healthy and Happy Christmas!

By God's grace, our house overcame the contagion of conjunctivitis just before Christmas.  We were back on our feet in time for the Christmas Eve service at church.  Praise the Lord!

We snapped this photo after the service.  These are our munchkins with my best friend's munchkins.  Gotta love this crew!  Six boys is a ton of fun and a ton of chaos.  We're gonna miss the Arthur boys like crazy when we head back to Kenya.

And here's us in front of our Christmas tree.  Proof that we were healthy again and dressed in our finest for Christmas Eve.  (Yes, flannel is our finest.  We spent four years in Duluth, ya know.)

Right before bed we continued our tradition of letting the boys open a present on Christmas Eve - always a new pair of jammies for them to wake up in the next day.

Eli told them to stand like superheroes.  Hence Kai's extreme face.  He's not angry - just superhero serious.  

I absolutely love waking up on Christmas morning with these boys.  So much excitement, so much energy, so much squealing!  They were the most thrilled with these additions to their Star Wars collection.  They played with this stuff the entire morning until it was time to head over Grandma and Grandpa Clark's...

...which prepared them for the lightsaber duel of the year.

And then it was off to Minnesota for Christmas: Round Two.  More presents.  More cousins.  More runaround fun to be had!  The boys wasted no time in finding all the weapon toys at Grandma and Grandpa Horn's house.  Many a monster was defeated that night.

And guess what - we found snow!  There's been next to none in Michigan so far and I promised the boys that Minnesota would have snow.  There wasn't any when we first drove into St. Paul, but when we drove another hour north to the farm, the snow came.  Our boys had a blast playing outside with their cousins.  It was a perfect play-in-the-snow kind of day.

We're so thankful for a wonderful Christmas this year.  A healthy and happy Christmas filled with family and fun!

All We Want for Christmas Is...

...health.

We've recently been reminded of the downsides of winter.  Namely, sickness followed by contagion among young children.

Our house has been sick for over two weeks.  It began with a typical cold virus, which quickly cycled through 4 of us (Eli was spared).  Just when we thought it was behind us, Caleb woke up with eye goop one morning.  It quickly got worse and it became clear our house had been hit with conjunctivitis.  It wasted little time in spreading from kid #1 to kid #2, then swiftly moved to kid #3.

So we've been in lockdown mode, quarantining our boys from all contact with the outside world and washing hands and clothes and bedsheets like it's our job (because it is).

But such is life in winter in the Midwest!

I'd like to point out what troopers our boys have been.  It's not easy getting through a day when your eyes are squirting goop like there's nothing better to do.  But I gotta say, these boys have handled their woes like champs!  This may not look like the face of a champ, but I can vouch that it is:

Throughout all the sickness, they have kept their eyes on Christmas (sometimes literally as we've let these kiddos watch a ton of TV/Christmas movies to keep them distracted from all the blech).  They know that Christmas is coming, which is strengthening their resolve to beat these viruses.  We think the worst is behind us now (fingers crossed!), so we're hoping and praying for complete health for Christmas this year.

Gingerbread Houses...and a Smooch!

Recently we gathered with my sister's crew to build gingerbread houses.  Despite the frosting not working well and some structures falling apart, the kids loved it.  Who doesn't love an excuse to play with candy (and snitch some candy)?

Kai, ever the builder, was very focused and built a strong gingerbread house.  He covered the roof with snow and built a snowman in the front yard that melted rather quickly :)

Inspired by Kai's snowman, Asa wanted a snowman also.  His also "melted" rather quickly.  I helped Asa put a face on the poor guy, but he wanted to add a piece of candy for himself.  I thought he was adding onto the smile, but then he declared to everyone that his snowman "has a nose, eyeballs, a smile, and a smooch!"  And sure enough, there was a little orange smooch on the snowman's cheek :)

The last couple years we made gingerbread houses at Tenwek with all the other MKs, but we had to make the gingerbread from scratch.  Let me tell ya, making these beauties out of pre-made gingerbread already cut to size is definitely the way to go!

Life in a Blur

So apparently November just came and went!  I shouldn't be surprised, as time has a tendency to do that, but it's amazing to realize how much faster life seems to move in America than it does in Kenya.  Life doesn't move slowly in Kenya (at least not for us Americans), but it does move slower than life here.  At least that's what I've decided after the last seven months of life in America!

Since life has been a blur, filled with wonderful and good things (but still in a blur), I'm gonna post a smattering of photos that encapsulate our life recently.  Lots of trips, lots of time spent with people, a bit of homeschooling in the middle, and lots of never-ending "life chores" as we like to call 'em.

So here's an overview of what we've been up to:

In the middle of everything, trick-or-treating did happen for these munchkins.  They had talked about it for weeks because, duh, free candy and, duh, costumes in public.  I very much prefer to be creative with Halloween costumes, but when you're not home even half the time, the creative juices are not flowing and you grab whatever costumes are hanging in the closet.  Two superheroes and a Sith lord.  Check, check, check!  We tagged along with Corrie's and Aubree's families - two of my closest friends from childhood.  Since they both have all boys as well, there were eight boys in our crew running through the neighborhood on a sugar high.  Life doesn't get much better than that!

Asa has been practicing his Maasai warrior skills...

Also, this has been happening, sort of.  Potty training just isn't a priority right now.  We haven't dived in, but are kinda sorta encouraging this.  That's all we can muster these days!

We enjoyed the first snowfall of the season!  It was a wet, sticky snow - perfect for making snowballs and throwing them against the garage door.  It was the first time Asa has ever played in the snow and it was super fun to watch our boys enjoy winter!

We went to Florida!  It was a family trip with my family to celebrate my dad's retirement.  We did a lot: Disney, Gatorland, Busch Gardens, Medieval Times, and Legoland.  The kids had a blast, and we appreciated warm weather once again.

After Florida we headed to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with Eli's grandma and extended family.  It was such a fun and refreshing time.  And we had such a feast!  Eli's family were amazing hosts and we're so grateful we had the chance to be there.  Here are 4 generations of Hallquists/Horns:

On the drive back to Michigan (did I mention that we drove to Florida and back???) we stopped at Mammoth Cave just for fun.  Our boys loved it!

After all that, we made it home and soon got a Christmas tree.  Meaning, we went to my parents' house and cut down a tree from their property because free trees are the best trees!

And now we are home again.  We're thankful for the Christmas tree and its lights that greet us every day, and for Christmas music that puts us in the holiday spirit.  We're glad to be here for Christmas this year and enjoy the typical American traditions.  We even love winter!  It's great to see snow and sleep on flannel sheets and drink hot chocolate.  It's a good time of year to be in America.

A Birthday at the Farm

We are finishing up a 12-day trip to Minnesota and back, and somewhere in the middle of it all we celebrated Kai's 5th birthday.  We had the privilege of being at the Horn family farm for the occasion, joined by Grandma and Grandpa Horn and the Horn cousins, and the Lord offered us a perfect fall day to get outside. 

I can scarcely believe this moose baby is now 5 years old!

We were coming from Duluth that day, so my mother-in-law helped a ton by getting the birthday stuff ready so all we had to do was show up.  Kai was adamant about having a construction machine party.  Of course.  I have never met a boy who loves digging in the dirt more than this kid!  He also was adamant about having a cake with a dump truck and digger on it.  That was not gonna be possible because of our travels, and it took a lot of convincing to assure him that cupcakes were totally cool but eventually he was on board.  It required getting edible construction machine toppers for the cupcakes, but that was a small sacrifice to make.  It's been really important to me that our boys have special birthdays this year, and Kai's birthday at the farm was perfect.

So we had pepperoni pizza for lunch followed by chocolate cupcakes with edible construction machine toppers.  And everyone was happy.

When Caleb turned 5 in Kenya, we gave him his first piggy bank.  He got 25 shillings every Sunday and put 10 shillings into the offering at church.  Since being in America he's continued getting an allowance and has been learning about American money, and Kai has been watching his brother put money into his piggy bank this whole time and has been so anxious to turn 5 and get a piggy bank for himself.  Well, his birthday finally arrived and he was ecstatic not only about getting a piggy bank, but about discovering that we'd found a dump truck piggy bank!  Can a dirt-loving boy be any more blessed?

After presents, the afternoon was filled with tractor rides and go-kart rides.  It was the most perfect fall day we could have hoped for.  Sometime in the middle of it all Kai summed up the whole day when he whispered in my ear, "Mama, I love this birthday!"

We were so thankful for such a wonderful celebration in the middle of this busy time of traveling and speaking.  

Kai is an adventurous kid, active and curious.  He loves to know how things work and spends time exploring everything from car doors to the dishwasher.  He can focus for a long time on things like puzzles and Legos, but he also can get a mean case of the wiggles.  He loves to snuggle with Mama and particularly enjoys "Special Mama/Kai Time" going to the store or donut shop or anywhere in between.  He's smart as a whip which is why we've put him in Kindergarten already - he's already done two years of preschool and a year of Kindergarten school work because he keeps up with big brother so well and has an academic mind.  He asks lots of questions and loves learning.  Kai will cry at the drop of a hat, but has a gentle spirit at the same time.  Last weekend, while attending the kids' class at a church where he knew no one, the teacher asked if anyone knew what it means to be baptized and our Kai guy raised his hand and said, "It's when God gives you a new heart" which shows not only that he is unafraid to speak up in a room full of strangers but also that he understands a lot about God at his young age, which makes us grateful and proud and humbled.  We love this boy more than we can say, and continually pray that he will live in God's strength as his name suggests.

Happy Birthday, Hezekiah!

We love you with a fierce love!

Oh, How I Love This Man

The reasons are many, and anyone who knows him also knows that he's easy to like and love, but right now there's a particular reason why I love this man so much.  Eli, who is introspective and introverted (which is hard to believe because of his amazing ability to extrovert), has been doing a lot of heart-sharing during this Home Assignment.  He's been willing to share stories from being a doctor in Kenya that are hard to share, and which cost him something to share, and I absolutely love his honesty and vulnerability.  I love that he's willing to relate to people on a deep level, and that he's willing to talk late into the night even though he's exhausted, that he knows these stories are important and meaningful and worth being shared. 

Oh, how I love this man.

By the way, a couple weeks ago we celebrated Eli's birthday as he entered into his "deep 30s" as he calls it.  We were able to mark the occasion with scotcheroos.  It was good to pause in the midst of a crazy month of traveling and visiting and speaking to explicitly celebrate this man we love so much.

Eli is kind and patient, humble and servant-hearted.  He is fierce in his love and he forgives easily.  He is the best listener I know, he cares deeply about people, and he has a way of drawing people in.  He is intelligent and reflective, and he excels at articulating complicated thoughts.  And as he's shown many times this year, he is honest and vulnerable and knows how to read a room and offer just what is needed in the moment.

Basically, he's the most amazing man I know, and I am beyond proud to call him my husband.

Oh, how I love this man!