Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

It is suddenly 2010.
What happened to 2009?
I certainly didn't keep track of it here in this blog...
One of my new year's resolutions is to do a MUCH better job of keeping up to date with this particular resource.

And so to begin what I hope not to have become a "January/July Journal" let me update you on the Bangert's 2009.

(This picture was taken at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee Wisconsin.  It was taken on James cell phone... what a surprise that it would turn out so well.  Merry Christmas!)


EDEN
Eden turned 1 last January... her birthday is coming up again in 14 days.
She had a happy year, learning all about being in charge and being her own person.

She loves playing dress up.  She always has on a mask or a cape, or some combination of monster and princess... although I must admit...  having two older brothers means she that she knows more about zombies then she does about princesses.

Eden loves hanging out with her brothers.  She loves to play whatever they are playing and challenges herself to keep up with them.  She doesn't understand that they are 2 and 4 years older then her, and that that might mean size and skill differences.  She is also extremely stubborn and wont allow anyone to help her, she has to dress herself, build her own block creations, dress and take care of her own babies, wash herself in the tub, etc... of course I am also stubborn and insist on "supervising".

Sometimes she allows her brothers to use her as their guinea pigs.  As you can see from this picture, Isaac got into his Daddy's hair molding goop.  It's a good look. lol



Eden also enjoys helping Mommy in the kitchen.  Mommy will sometimes be cooking and so Eden will start to get things out of the cupboards which she believes would be useful for Mommy, like utensils or pans or cans of this or that... sometimes even flour or sugar...

For Halloween this year I was at a loss as to how to dress her... I didn't think she was baby enough to dress as an animal, and I certainly didn't want her being a ghost or zombie, and I just wasn't happy with the little toddler princess costumes, so I found her a little 1920's Flapper outfit.  She looked so adorable and unique.


Eden is so beautiful and smart and independent and fearless and friendly.  She is everything wonderful that a little girl should be. She loves going to Nursery at church.  She loves "reading" and being read to.  She loves singing and dancing and learning new words.  She loves being a part of our family and being included in everything we do.  She also loves pretending that she is the mommy and that I am her baby, she is a very sweet mommy...

Happy New Year Eden!

ISAAC

Last year was his 3rd birthday, in April, and what made it super nice was that Grandma Jane came and spent it with him!  Isaac got a lot of Ben Ten Alien Force toys.  He is still a huge fan, in fact he rarely will answer to himself being called Isaac without making sure that we understand that he is really "Ben Ten Alien Force."  According to him, I am Gwen, James is Kevin or sometimes "Sick Kevin" because he hasn't been feeling well, and Eden is Ship.

One of the most important changes that happened for Isaac this year was giving up his beloved pacifier.
He was so attached to it, he couldn't sleep or be comforted without it.  Unfortunately, the Dentist informed him that it was making his mouth shaped wrong and he needed to go home and get rid of it that very day!  The Dentist's assistant told us about the Pacifier Fairy who comes for old pacifiers, she takes them to give to new little babies and leaves a gift in its place.  So that is what happened we went outside the next night and watched and sure enough there was the Pacifier Fairy at the next house (thank goodness Illinois has fireflies) so we ran in and put ALL the pacifiers in the house, even Eden's, in a baggy, and put them by the door and hide.  We heard the door open and close and when we went to look, we found a box of coloring markers waiting for Isaac!  It was so amazing!

Another important change for Isaac was starting Preschool!  He is in Miss Haberkamp and Mrs Cress class and he absolutely loves it.  He goes to school in the afternoons 5 days a week, for 2 1/2 hours.  And because he was in school we had to get his eyes checked... what do you know, he has the same kind of astigmatism that his mommy has so... Isaac got glasses.  He was very excited about that and he looks soooo handsome!



For Halloween Isaac wanted to be a skeleton, and we found him the perfect costume... it was bony enough to really be a skeleton but not so scary as to make him scared to put it on... He was the best skeleton on Halloween this year.

Isaac is kind of nervous about leaving Nursery and going into  Sunbeams in church this year, but I think he will be just fine once he gets used to it.

Happy New Year Isaac!

Jeremiah 
Jeremiah turned 5 on his birthday in May.  We had a nice quiet birthday and he got some cool presents including some marbles with bugs inside them!

During the spring Jeremiah started speech therapy.  His speech has improved so much ever since he was 4 but it was nice to get him into a program to start working on it with a teacher.  Because he was in this program we had to get his eyes checked and sure enough he also has his mommy's astigmatism (Sorry Eden, the chances are looking pretty slim that you wont need glasses soon too.  I got my glasses when I was 5!)  Jeremiah looks wonderful in his glasses, and we could tell almost immediately that it made a world of difference for him.  His learning curve went right up, his behavior improved, he was happier.  And so were we.

The second big change in Jeremiah's life was starting Kindergarten!  What an exciting day that was both for him and me!  He is in Ms Criswell's class.  She is absolutely the best teacher he could have gotten.  She has been teaching Kindergarten for 29 years and has perfected it!  She said during parent-teacher conference that Jeremiah is one of her all time favorite students.  She said that he loves to learn and is very well behaved, which of course made us into very proud parents.  We knew he would love school!  He is learning to read, write, and do math as well as learning fun stuff about pilgrims, and farms (they went on a field trip to a farm that James got to chaperone)  He has had projects dealing with making a sculpture of something beginning with C out of cans:
He made a cow.  Nice work, Son.


He was able to bring home Traveling Teddy and spend the afternoon and evening doing things with it, then recording in the Traveling Teddy's journal what they had done to share with his class.  One of the activities they did was to squeeze oranges and make orange juice.  Jeremiah and the Traveling Teddy squeezed 10 oranges, and had a blast.  Then Jeremiah had a drink of the juice and left the rest of it for James and I to finish... he is a very picky boy!

For Halloween this year Jeremiah decided to be a transformer, Optimus Prime to be exact!  Yeah... as you can see he didn't exactly stay with that idea.  He ended up deciding that a Ninja would be more fun and exciting... so he was a Ninja and a very impressive one too!

Jeremiah is excited about going into the CTR 6 class at church.  He is all about getting bigger and more grown up.  What a wonderful attitude he has.

Happy New Year Jeremiah!

JAMES
James was qualified as a Recruit Division Commander last February, immediately after graduating from that school they assigned him to a division of new recruits at the Navy's Boot Camp here in Great Lakes Illinois.  His schedule consisted of waking up at 0400 and working until 2200 7 days a week for 8 weeks.  Not very fun for him or for us... but that's what we signed up for with this duty, so we knew it would be rough.  But then the Lord surprised us by blessing James to be sent over to the other side of the base to fill in as an instructor at one of the school houses because they were short on instructors... his schedule became up at 0530 and home by 1600-1700 5 days a week, with weekends and holidays off!  That was only supposed to be for 3 months but it has been 9 months now!  What a blessing...  He will be going back to RDC duty at Boot Camp this month, we aren't looking forward to the harder hours, and he certainly isn't looking forward to marching in the cold and snow with the recruits, but it's time for him to get back to work I guess...

James has been teaching the Valiant boys (9-11 year olds) at church.  He has enjoyed it but it can be challenging sometimes.  He also has enjoyed having Jeff Zimmer as his Home Teaching companion, they have been burning up the town as far as Home Teaching is concerned, and having a great time doing it.  James also has enjoyed having the free time to spend going with the full time Missionaries to teach discussions and assist them in their work.

For Halloween James had a hard time choosing a costume, he really wanted to be a Zombie but didn't know if that would be appropriate for attending the trunk-or-treat at the church, so he settled on going as himself.  But he did get dressed up for Christmas which I for one thought was fun... Isaac really wanted James to be Santa Claus on Christmas morning.  So he was Santa Daddy in his Navy PT gear.

And James wish/dream/goal this year is to get himself a Harley.  He has fallen in love with this particular beauty...

Happy New Year James!

Leah
As for me... I have had a nice year.  I have finally started to get the hang of this Mother thing.  Some how having 2 of my kids in school for all and/or part of the day has made a real difference to me.  My only explanation is that I don't remember life with my Mom before I was in school myself.  She went through it, the all the kids at home all day phase, but I have no memory of it at all.  Everything I knew was centered around a school day schedule... for years and years!  Now I am finally starting to fall into my niche.
I have also been enjoying cooking more this year, thanks in part to my Relief Society's cooking club.  This year I learned how to cook really yummy pork ribs, and I finally made a homemade pizza that was edible, this is what my pizza attempts usually end up looking like!  Until now....  I also finally found my absolutely all time favorite pie crust recipe , which had been lost (in the pages of a recipe book I never thought to look in) for about 8 years...so now all is right with the world!  Now none of this means that my family has evolved into food eaters yet... They are still AMAZINGLY picky... peanut butter sandwiches, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets are my fall backs for everything I cook.  But I still have hope.

My parents came and visited us this summer, and the kids and I went with them to New Jersey for a couple of days to visit my sister Cami and her husband Brian.  That was a really fun trip.  Then we were doubly blessed to have had the blessing of Cami and Brian come and visit us for Christmas!  Twice in one year!

I was able to invite some friends and their kids over for Thanksgiving Dinner this year.  It is my philosophy that you can happily have a quiet Christmas, but Thanksgiving has to be LOUD!  And this year it was, with the added bonus that I didn't have to cook everything or clean up all the pans and serving dishes myself this year... but I did get to pull out my Nice plates and my Silver silver wear!  I love being able to do that... and I put a tablecloth on the table too...

I have been enjoying being the Compassionate Service sister in our ward.  It is really a wonderful calling, and I think I have benefited more then anyone in our ward has from me being in this calling.  I have also really enjoyed having Misty Sessions for my Visiting Teaching companion and will really miss her when she and her family move this year.

And in 2009 I got a bowflex so of course that is my SUPER HUGE PRIORITY New Years resolution... get my girlish figure back... lol  (Faith and Hope, Faith and Hope!!!!!!)

So that is the Bangert Family recap of 2009.  I am looking forward to a wonderful, and eventful, but not too eventful 2010!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!