Top 10's of 2010!

This has been another exciting year for our family!

1. 
   Top 10 Fun Vacations and Activities:
   
   10. Camping in the mountains (Mom and Grace at girls camp and boys with the Scouts)
   9. Ice skating (Olivia and Eliza took lessons and the rest of us went for fun)
   8. Swimming in the pool and BBQ's in the backyard
   7. Kirk, Zach and Grace went on the trek in Wyoming with the church youth
   6. Grandma's 80th Birthday Party (We loved having the Washington cousin's come and stay)
   5. Kirk and Zach were buddies for the Chinese students in July
   4. Hosted our Japanese student, Kenshin (We have new friends in Japan)
   3. Steph and the kids visit to Missouri (We visited the grandparents, and Uncle Scott and family)
   2. Mike and Steph's Anniversary trip to Europe (From Copenhagen to a Baltic cruise, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia and Poland)
   1. Family Vacation to Disneyland in California ( We felt the earthquake on Easter Sunday)
   
   Top 10 Family Milestones
   
   10. Zach got an iTouch for Christmas and has joined the world of texting! Plus, the really big news is Zach's height...right after his birthday (Dec.) he was actually taller than mom!!
   9. Kirk has an iPhone so he will ALWAYS take a phone with him!
   8. Mike got an iPhone 4 and made all the Danish teens jealous!
   7. Grace got braces and went to Young Women's at church
   6. Eliza went to kindergarten and now has more "boy"friends; she also learned to read
   5. Olivia turned 10 and learned to ice skate
   4. Kirk got his driver's license and hasn't hit anything major, except the van :)
   3. Steph lost 2 phones to the pool but now has an iPhone4, it will be kept inside during swimming lessons!
   2. Mike got a new Toyota Camry and is madly in love with it!
   1. Mike and Steph celebrated our 20th anniversary!

Happy New Year to all our family and friends!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Silent Night, Holy Night...

Posing for a Christmas picture after the ward/neighborhood party

Tonight we went to our ward (church) Christmas party. We had a nice dinner followed by entertainment, one of which was me and Zach, Grace, Olivia and Eliza singing "Silent Night". We were asked to sing our favorite Christmas song and knew it had to be "Silent Night". Zach was a good sport and sang a duet with me on the first verse (him in German and me in English). Olivia sang a solo on the second verse and we all sang together for the third verse. Kirk introduced us and told the story of the WWI battle where both sides stopped on Christmas Eve and sang the only song they both knew...Silent Night.

Do you know how hard it is to get a really good picture of five kids? Well, I will tell you that it is not easy! Poor things, they had to sit still for several minutes while we tried to get one picture with everyone's eyes open AND smiling. Zach was having an especially hard time since he has an expander in his mouth that has suddenly given him a huge gap between his front teeth! I don't know why, but Eliza wouldn't smile at all, something about being too embarassed. They are so cute and looked very nice anyway!

I love parties that are more than just the gifts and Santa, but are focused on the true meaning of Christmas...Jesus' birth.