Christmas 2010 Newsletter

It's that time of year again, everything is white and cold with snow outside, and the Christmas tree brightens everything up inside.
The Bangert family has had a good year.  Not too boring and not too exciting, just the right blend to leave us laughing and happy and expectant for the new year.



In January, Eden had her 2nd birthday. Isaac turned 4 in April. And in May, Jeremiah turned 6.

Jeremiah:

Jeremiah graduated from Kindergarten, at Howard A. Yeager School.  His school had a big graduation ceremony that was a lot of fun, and the kids put a lot of hard work into it.
Jeremiah loved his Kindergarten teacher, Mrs Criswell.








Now Jeremiah is in 1st grade at Forrestal Elementary.  His teacher this year is Mrs. Sabor.
He is doing a great job in math and science, but his best subject is reading.  He's in the yellow group, which is reading chapter books!  At home he loves to read all kinds of books to his brother and sister, as well as reading the Book of Mormon for family scripture study.  He loves getting up in Fast and Testimony Meeting to share his testimony and does so almost every month.  He also enjoys superheroes, action and comedy movies, gymnastics, Wii sports and Lego games, and anything he can do with his dad.  Jeremiah also lost his first 2 teeth this year!  He is a great helper, he keeps the toys picked up and does the vacuuming as his regular responsibilities, and loves to find other ways to help his family.  His mom doesn't know what she would do without him.


Isaac:
Isaac finished his first year of preschool, at Howard A. Yeager School.  Isaac loved his teachers Mrs. Cress and Miss Habercamp, and happily, has been able to keep them for this, his second year of preschool.

He has learned so much this year.  He has learned to write his name.  He has learned sign language for all kinds of pets, and the first letters of the names of everyone in his class.  He memorizes really well (ask him what John 14:15 says) and remembers stories and lessons almost word for word, such as the stories of Jesus calming the sea, and the Good Samaritan.  Tell him a story once and months later he can repeat it back to you.  Isaac also loves to compose songs, they often sound like Mike Myers poetry readings from "So I married an axe murderer," but they are so creative, and they make his family laugh.  Isaac is a good friend and loves to make people happy.  He also enjoys gymnastics and loves riding the bus to school.


Eden:

 Eden has been tolerating being at home with her mom, while her brothers are in school.  She is hoping to be able to go to preschool next fall.

She has been learning everything she can from her brothers and considers herself fully capable of anything anyone else in the family can do.  She loves counting, and can count to 10 with or without her fingers.  She loves coloring.  She doesn't like to be helped with anything, I even caught her pouring her own milk (thank goodness the jug was almost empty!)  And she is an expert covert operative, she can sneak off with anything as stealthily as a pickpocket, she always remembers what she has hidden where, and she can stay hidden in the simplest of places for up to 20 minutes without being found.  But mostly she loves her brothers, they are her best friends.

As a family we have had fun this year.  Grandpa Bob came to live with us, in July.  He has had quite the adjustment coming to Illinois from Monterey California's climate.  (He got to throw his first snowball a few days ago.)

As a family, we have been on outings to the Children's Museum at Navy Pier, in Chicago;

 the Cottonwood Farm, in Crest Hill, Illinois;
 
as well as the Dinosaur Museum and Kenosha Public Museum, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.


We have also had fun doing science experiments, things like learning about magnets, building soda can robots, and experimenting with soda and Menthos.











The kids had fun riding their tricycle and big wheel when the weather was warm.

James has been very busy as a Recruit Division Commander at the Navy's Recruit Training Command (Bootcamp).  He is pushing his last division now, and looks forward to serving with Fleet Quality Assurance for the next year, beginning at the end of February 2011.  He looks forward to seeing more of his kids and getting a lot more sleep.  James has also been busy as the Elders Quorum President in our ward, and has been blessed in abundance by the Lord ever since receiving this calling, for which we are very thankful.

Leah has been busy keeping the family sane, fed, clothed, and relatively happy.  Leah is also pleased to report that she has lost 10 pounds this year.  It has been hard work and challenging, but definitely worth while.  Leah has also been accepted into a Master of Science program in Forensic Psychology, at Waldon University.  It is an online program and hopefully will take no more then 1 1/2 years to complete.  And at church she is enjoying her calling as a Relief Society teacher.

So now at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 we would like to wish all of our family and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Isaac's 4th birthday

Happy Birthday Isaac.  


It was so much fun to celebrate Isaac's birthday with him on 3 April 2010.  He turned 4 years old, and I am amazed that my little baby is that big and that old.  


He didn't make a very big fuss about having a birthday, he just sort of took it as kind of inevitable and natural.  I didn't get much input from him on what he wanted for a gift or what he wanted to do for a celebration.  If I made a suggestion he would agree or disagree.  He was pretty happy about it all though, just kind of quietly.  He is so funny.


So the day before his birthday, a Friday, we went as a family to Chuck-e Cheese's and had pizza and fun.  And James took Isaac and Jeremiah to see the movie How To Train A Dragon, which they totally loved.  As his gift from his family Isaac received a Radio Flyer big wheel.  And from Grandma and Grandpa Bryson he got some money, which he took to Toys-R-Us and independently, and thoughtfully (which has always been his way) ended up buying 3 different Play-Doh sets and didn't go over his budget by even a cent!  I was very pleased with him.


Then on his birthday, a Saturday, we had a party with his friends.  It was 2 hours of noise produced by 11 small children!!!  And it was a blast.  The kids who came were mostly from his Sunbeams class at church, but he also had friends from preschool and a little neighbor too.

Last year Isaac was totally into Ben 10, this year he's kind of over that and it's all about BATMAN...  So we had a superhero party.  

We made great invitations, we had so much fun making them and all the kids and their parents loved them too.
  

Everyone came in their superhero costumes, and we played some serious superhero games...

They played a pass-the-Kryptonite game using a green glow stick.  

Then we discovered a super villain had tried to sabotage our party with lots of balloon bombs, so the superheroes had to defuse them all by twisting them into different shapes... 

Isaac makes an extremely handsome Batman and he was very excited to be defusing those bombs...

Then they had speed race playing red light, green light and seeing who was the fastest superhero.  One of the parents played the traffic light.  The little heroes played this game 3 times.

Next they played a Spiderman web game.  Taking turns they would use an old measuring tape that we had, holding one end they had to throw the other end into a basketball hoop.  They all took turns so patiently and everyone got about 3 or 4 turns before they were done.  Here of course is my Batman Isaac demonstrating his spider skills.

Then everyone gathered around the table for birthday cake.  We didn't have 11 chairs but the little heroes had no problem with sharing.

Of course he had a Batman birthday cake which he was absolutely thrilled about.

Isaac did a great job blowing out his candle...

Then every one dug right in... there were a few kids who ended up with blue lips and blue teeth after wards...

Then it was present time.  They sat in a circle and then one of the little heroes took charge and selected a gift for Isaac to open, I expected him to excitedly bring the one he had himself brought, but he was just so excited about the whole thing it turned out he didn't care which gift it was as long as Isaac was opening something.  It was very cute.

Then all the kids caught the spirit of it and started to bring him gift after gift and helping him open them... I expected this to turn into chaotic present-warfare, but these are all superheroes that we are talking about, not a villain among them.  So although 3, 4, and 5 year olds were organizing this event it actually maintained an amazing order, and everyone was very thoughtful and happy.  I was very impressed.  And as you can see Isaac was Super excited about each and every gift he received.  I was very pleased with his gratitude.  After opening the presents, everyone then had to play with them and that too was actually a very pleasant experience with all the little superheroes taking turns with each toy and sharing beautifully.  Wow...

Isaac is such a good boy.  It was a wonderful Joy to celebrate his special day with him.  
I love you Isaac.
Happy Birthday.

Jeremiah's 100th day of school project

Back in March, when Jeremiah had his 100th day of school, he had a project to make a poster of a collection of a 100 things of his choosing... so he decided to use the foreign money collection that James and I have built up over the years.  It includes money from Ireland, England, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, The Seychelles, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, Germany and maybe a few other places.  Jeremiah did a great job and had a lot of fun, too.

Eden's 2nd Birthday

January 15, 2010.  Eden is now 2 years old.  We had a very nice little birthday here at home for her, Mommy, Daddy, Jeremiah and Isaac celebrating with her.  She got 3 gifts, one from her family and 2 from Grandma, all of which she still loves a month later.  At her 2 year check up she measured in at 25 lbs and 33 3/4 inches.  If you believe the old rule that a 2 year old has reached half of their adult height, then WOOHOO! that means Eden will be about 5' 6" tall when she grows up!  No being 4' 11" like her mother, thank you very much!  For her sake hopefully it is true.
The only bad thing in her life right now is that both of her brothers are in school, and she is not... this is a sore spot for her.  Everything else is bright and shiny, for her anyway.  For her mom and dad... well, she hit her terrible two's on the same day as she had her birthday... ;)  She is a beautiful, thoughtful, intelligent, and cuddly little girl.  She loves babies, books, and Apple Juice, she can get herself dressed from her socks to her coat and boots, she wants to be potty trained and is working hard at it- it's just so hard to get to that darn toilette in time!  She is a wonderful little princess who is loved by everyone who knows her, especially her family.  But she is also tough and knows what she wants and wont allow anyone to say otherwise.  She has been known to tackle, kick, and punch both of her brothers, especially Isaac, when they get in her way, or take her toys!  An angel with her halo askew, and a black eye comes to mind...

Here is a picture of Jeremiah showing Isaac how to "wear" the polar bear blanket Grandma made for Eden.  We love this blanket... it took Eden a little while to realize it wasn't a REAL polar bear, but once she did she wouldn't let anyone else use it but her.









Grandma also made this "E" barrette ribbon for Eden.  She loves it, she loves to have Mommy "Do" her hair, which is long enough and thick enough... finally... for pony tails and barrettes.  She loves looking like a princess.  She thinks she looks so pretty and she is right.

The third present Eden got for her birthday was a new Butterfly for her collection.  I gave her the frame with the 5 butterflies when she was first born, then she received the Blue Mountain Butterfly, from Australia, for her 1st birthday , and the black and red Scarlet Mormon Butterfly, from the Philippines, for this birthday.  Eden loves butterflies.  This is a collection that I hope to keep adding to every year until she tells me to stop.

This was Eden's Tinkerbell cake.  Wow, she loved it!  She's definitely a girl.

Here she is happily singing "Happy Birthday" to Everyone in the family.  She loves to sing, and will use any excuse for it.

Happy Birthday Eden!