2015 Year In Review

It's that time of year again when my blog gets the most visits for the year! Christmas cards have gone out and it's time for those of you who check in with us to see what this year held for the Wendzel Family. I'll start out by saying that this year was not as crazy as last year with a new baby, selling a house, moving into my in-laws for 9 months while building a house, etc....but it did have some big events for us. Keep reading to find out more

January: We took a trip to Florida for a week. Survived the drive down and back (and on the way back a trip to an urgent care for Leyton who had a respiratory infection) and enjoyed Disney World. We had a great time, and it was nice to have a week as a family without the everyday distractions. The boys loved meeting some of their favorite characters (like Buzz Lightyear) and swimming in the kiddie pools at the condo. A huge thanks to my in-laws for inviting us to spend a week with them on their vacation from Michigan.

February: Justin stayed busy working on the house and the boys played outside in the snow a lot!

March: LOTS of big milestones this month. Brekan turned 3, Leyton turned 1, and we moved in to our new home!

April: We enjoyed our new backyard a lot - the park! We love that we can walk to the park anytime we want, the boys love riding their bikes at the park and spending time outside in our yard.

May: We had some new family pictures taken at the farm. Continued to enjoy the outdoors. One of the boys favorite things to do outside is catch frogs (mommy is not a big fan of frogs so the joy on their faces when they come show me is priceless). Justin was busy at the farm this month with the greenhouses being open as well as working on projects around the house.

June: This was a big month for us. Coleman and Brekan went fishing for the first time. Justin went on a trip to Texas, called Quest, with an organization called Fellowship of the Sword. He was gone for a week, came back, and hasn't been the same since - in the best way. God did some powerful things on his Quest for him and our family. We also celebrated our 7 year anniversary and Father's Day!

July: Coleman turned 5! WOW! We took a vacation to Delaware with my moms side of the family. Survived another long road trip and had a great time at the ocean. It was the boys first time ever playing in the ocean and they enjoyed every minute of it (sand castles, jumping in the waves, catching sand crabs, and so much more). I left for my Heartquest (similar to Justin's Quest, but for women) at the end of the month and came back renewed, refreshed, and changed! Praise God for the Fellowship of the Sword ministry and for his calling both Justin and I to go on our Quest and Heartquest. If you want to hear more about our experience, please ask us, it was life-changing!

August: We enjoyed many sunsets together off the front porch after the boys went to bed. Played outside a lot and started gearing up for the busy season and school for 2/3 boys! Enjoyed some time at Holland State Park too!

September: Coleman started Kindergarten (he's doing awesome), Brekan started 3-school (he's doing awesome), and the busy season began at the farm. Justin fulfilled a bucket list item for me of a Hot Air Balloon Ride (over the farm too because we had a balloon festival at the farm this year) and it was incredible!

October: The boys get to see their daddy this time of year by watching him on the news...haha. We got to enjoy our first cozy fire in the new house when the temps dropped too and LOVE our new fireplace! We had fun carving pumpkins and our 3 little superheros had a blast trick-or-treating in the rain (yet again).

November: The busy season came to an end (and we geared up for Christmas Trees). We enjoyed 2 beautiful rainbows this month too (one being a double rainbow which was something I had never experienced before). We also had our first snow of the year and Leyton kept yellow "know know (snow snow)" pointing out the window. That was short lived as we've have an incredibly warm November and December this year.

December: It's been unseasonably warm this month. We've played outside without coats on in the middle of December! We picked out our tree and enjoyed decorating our home for Christmas. The boys look forward to our tradition of opening a book each day leading up to Christmas starting on December 1st (I recently did a blog post about it). We are looking forward to Christmas and the new year.

We are thankful for the many blessings that 2015 brought and we can't wait to see what 2016 holds for our family. Thanks for reading our Year In Review!

Traditions Part 2

I already did a post similar to this on a tradition that Justin and I do together each Christmas. See that post HERE for the background. Since it's been a few years, I wanted to update with our current year ornaments because I think it's awesome that we have 9 now as well as share the ones that the boys have in their boxes for when they move into their own home someday. I think soon I'll string the ornaments along a wall to see the progression verses hanging them towards the top of the tree. The boys ornaments don't currently go on the tree, but I had a great idea! I might get a small tree for each of their rooms in the upcoming years (a fake one) that they can decorate with their ornaments. How fun would that be?!

So here's what we've got so far.

(2007 The year we met (on eHarmony...hence the computer)

(2008 Married, First Christmas together in our home)

(2009 Got our first dog...Harley)

(2010 Welcome Coleman!)

(2011 Finally Debt FREE! but the journey to financial peace still continues)

(2012 Welcome Brekan...aka Dreky-B as Coleman called him)

(2013 Our Cruise to Cozumel and Grand Cayman)

(2014 The year of Chaos! Welcome Leyton - moved out of house, move in to basement at in-laws house while building our new home!)

(2015 First Christmas in our NEW home! Sword symbolizes a trip Justin and I took separately from an organization called Fellowship of the Sword - life changing for both of us and our family!)

Coleman: Handprint from his first Christmas 2010, Puppy 2011, Tractor 2012, Buzz/Woody 2013, Police Car 2014, Dinosaur 2015

Brekan: Handprint from his first Christmas 2012, Bus (round and round) 2013, Fire Truck 2014, Dinosaur 2015

Leyton: Handprint from his first Christmas 2014, Bobcat 2015

Traditions: Part 1

I've been wanting to write about this special tradition we have in our family for some time now (3 years actually) and I decided that there wasn't time for excuses anymore, I want to get back into updating my blog for myself and for my boys. So here it is....Traditions Part 1

Christmas/Advent Countdown

When I was a little girl, I remember my mom getting out a special basket of book during the Christmas Season. They were about Christmas, Santa, Snowmen, how other cultures celebrated the season, etc. When I taught 1st grade, I wrapped up 26 books (the number of students I had) and let the kids each open one during the month of December leading up to our Christmas break. Now that I have a family, I knew I wanted to bring this into our family traditions.

Here's what we do: I have gathered (and still am gathering) books about Christmas. In our home, we want the focus of Christmas to be about Jesus' birth. While we do have some books with Santa, we choose not to put a huge emphasis on him in our home. Most of the books in our Christmas countdown emphasis the Christmas Story but some have Santa, some are about snowmen, kindness, helping others, etc. Below is a list of the books we currently use. The same book is used on Christmas Eve that tells of the Christmas Story from the bible. Currently it's in a version that the boys can comprehend for their ages but eventually we will simply move to reading the story right out of the bible as Justin did that when he was younger. I usually buy more books after Christmas when they go on clearance and also look throughout the year at garage sales and mom to mom sales. I keep out a basket of other winter/Christmas books in the house during the season as well.

Ten Christmas Lights by Teresa Imperato (adorable counting book)
Biscuits Snowy Day by Alyssa Capucilli(my oldest will be able to read these this year as he just started to read!)
Biscuit Gives a Gift by Alyssa Cpucilli
Seek and Find Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (they LOVE the movie)
Seek and Find Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown (again, they love this movie at Christmas Time)
Snowmen at Night by Carolyn Buehner
One Night In Bethlehem by Jill Roman Lord
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by Emma Kragen
Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson (we love these Bear books)
What is Christmas? by Michelle Adams (found this at Family Christian)
Room for Little One by Martin Waddell
God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Bergren
Baby's Santa Mouse by Michael Brown (a book I read when I was little)
The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scary (read this book growing up too but bought a new one so we could smell the pages as it's a scratch and sniff book)
An Otis Christmas by Loren Long (Otis books are awesome too if you have tractor loving boys like me!)
Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karam Wilson (author of Bear books - we love this book, our pastor read it last year on Christmas Eve and I'm excited to add it to our collection.
Humphrey's First Christmas by Carol Heyer
Snow Friends by Christina Butler
Mistletoe the Christmas Kitten by Joe Troiano
Snowman's Story by Will Hillenbrand (Coleman loves this book because you make up the story as it has zero words....it's different every time!)
Goodnight Manger by Laura Sassi (same author as Goodnight Ark, beautiful pictures)
Pine Tree Parable by Lizz Curtis Higgs
Away In A Manger (this is a song book that plays the song with pictures and lyrics)
The Christmas Story by Patricia Pingry (this is our Christmas Eve book) we wrap this one in gold paper because it's the most special story for us


I already have a list going of books I'd like to get for next winter! Titles Include, Santa's Favorite Story, Ten in the Sled, Christmas Day In The Morning, When Jesus Was Born In Bethlehem, Christmas Alphabet (it's a pop up book), If it's snowy and you know it clap your hands, and I'm sure I'll find more. 

At the end of November I'm busy wrapping up 24 books. It takes a bit to organize the books and put them in order for the boys (they take turns opening one each day so I want to be sure the book is appropriate for their age level even though we will read them all together). Leyton will have lots of board books/touch and feel books, while Coleman and Brekan will enjoy longer stories this year.

(before)

(all set up)

(excited boys!)

Coleman remembers some of the books from last year and keeps asking when we will get to read a certain book....but it's all a surprise as to which book will come next (and it varies year to year). Just today I was able to see (through Facebook time hop) 2 years ago, a pic of the boys starting the season with their books. It was so precious and I'm glad I have pictures of this each year for them.

We look forward to this tradition. I love books and instilling a love of reading in my children (and I love that they love to read!). The boys love being able to open a present each night leading up to Christmas. It allows us to keep the focus of the season on Christ and create fun family memories reading together before bed each night while also not going crazy waiting for Christmas to open their gifts (it's like a little present each night). On Christmas Eve the boys will get to open up new pajamas and we will all open the 24th book of the Christmas Story and read it before bed.