Cami's Gotcha Day!

Today we celebrate a special day, Cami's Gotcha Day.  It is hard to believe that 4 years ago today, she was placed in our arms to be ours forever.  She has been such a joy in our lives.  We can't imagine not having her in our lives.  We enjoy listening to her sing songs, color pictures, and give lots of hugs and kisses to Ian and any other child that is smaller than her.  She is such a great big sister and little sister.  She looks to Ben for guidance and then is right there with Ian showing him the ropes!  

Justin took off work to fulfill Cami's Gotcha day wishes.  We give each of the kids the ability to choose (within reason) what they would like to do for their Gotcha day. This year Cami wanted to go to daddy's work and hand out cupcakes.  For the past 2 months, she has stuck to this and has not changed her mind.  We made cupcakes on Sunday afternoon and finished up with a second batch on Monday morning.  We ate lunch and then Justin took Cami and Amelia to his work.  Unfortunately there are no pictures of her handing out the cupcakes since Justin was busy watching Ameilia and helping Cami hand out cupcakes that he forgot to take any pictures.  They had a busy afternoon and both girls fell asleep as soon as they got back home.  Even daddy took a rest to recover.   

It has been a tough few days as mom has had to learn to NOT do things around the house.  I was diagnosed with mono and was ordered to rest and take it easy.  That is easier said then done as I am used to constantly be doing things.  It has been a big adjustment.  I am very thankful that I seem to have a milder case of mono as I am not tired all of the time.  I am reminded by the pain in my left side, an enlarged spleen, to take it easy.  Please keep us in your prayers that we learn to slow down and allow time for healing.  This is an especially difficult thing for me to do.  

Need for rest

For the past few weeks, we have been going and going and going. Rarely a night or weekend would go by without something being scheduled. We need to take a day and rest...just sleep.

New Years January 2009

William kissing Ian goodbye

Elyse, Ben, Leeland, and Cami at the anniversary party.

Happy Anniversary Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Jerry

Picture with one of the Zooperstars

Ben and Caleb LOVE the Admirals

What a busy few weeks in the Marthaler house, although I can't really remember when it hasn't been busy for us.  We had a fun New Year's Eve at the Hilton Garden Inn on the west side of Madison.  We went with another family who has a little girl in Ben's class.  The kids had a blast playing in the water.  The hotel had a very kid friendly pool a shallow area that Ian could walk in. It also had deeper areas where the kids could swim, go down a slide, etc.  With adjoining rooms, we were able to have a room for the kids to watch movies and a room for the adults to talk.  New Year's Day morning, we left the hotel and hurried home to meet our friends, Becca and Bill and their family, to hang out for the day.  The kids always enjoy spending time together.  

We had another busy day on Saturday starting with a trip to Mequon to see our goddaughter, Katelyn.  We celebrated Christmas a little late, since ours and Jeff and Kerri's schedule did not work out to get together.  I guess that happens now that all of our friends have kids, life is getting a lot busier!  After we headed to celebrat Dana's aunt and uncles 40th wedding anniversary party in Menomonee Falls. Ben and Cami became fast friends with Elyse and Leeland and spent several hours playing with them. It was nice to see cousins and aunts and uncles that we haven't see since last Christmas.  Although we live a short one hour away, it seems that schedules don't coinside very often for us to get together.  After the anniversary party, we headed to the Milwaukee Admirals hockey game with Becca and Bill and their family.  Since Bill works for the Admirals, we were able to get tickets to the game.  The Zooperstars were performing that night (they were seen this summer on America's Got Talent on NBC), so we were also able to go back stage and meet the Zooperstars!  The kids had a blast.  Ian's favorite part was dancing to the music during the show.  After a very LONG day, we headed home.  The kids changed into pajamas and quickly passed out in the car.  It was a fun and eventful week and we were all very, very tired!

Christmas Time

Ian sitting on the boxes of presents handed out to each family at church on Christmas Eve.

Family picture at church on Christmas Eve

Kids in front of our Christmas tree

Ian playing with the new kitchen set from Santa.

Natalie, Cami, Ben, and Ian

Ian enjoying a sled ride from Grandma

Ben sledding down the hill at Grandma and Grandpa's house

The kids have been excited for Christmas for the last month.  They have been counting down the days on Ben's red and green chain he made at school.  Each morning they would awake to pull off one of the links.  They would both count the remaining links to see how many more days!  Cami was excited for the presents for Jesus' birthday.  At preschool, she and her class had a birthday party for Jesus.  It helped her learn why we celebrate Christmas.  

We attended Christmas Eve service at St. Paul and then came home to a picnic style snack dinner and then opened Christmas presents.  Cami had fun handing out the gifts and quickly opening any and every gift that had her name on it, including one for Aunt Keri and Uncle Joe.  She figured whether it said  To Cami or From Cami, it did not matter, it just had to be opened.  She was definitely surprised when she opened a baking dish and serving set.  Ian was content opening one gift and then playing with it until Cami and Ben finished opening theirs and wanted to "help" Ian finish opening the rest of his gifts.  He was happy to let them open his gifts and proceeded to want the toys out of boxes.  "Help, help" he would say to mommy and daddy when he wanted something opened.

The kids headed off to bed and eagerly awaited morning when Santa brought gifts for their stockings and a few small gifts for each of them.  They even got one larger gift of a new kitchen to play with .  They spent the morning playing with the kitchen and the Tupperware kids cup and plate set from Aladodo and Papa.  

We got the car loaded and headed up north late Christmas morning to spend time at Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Neil's house.  We always enjoy going up north where the kids have plenty of space to run and play and always have a long list of things they want to do with grandma and grandpa.  Grandpa used the tractor to build a nice big hill for sledding.  Ben spent several hours going up and down the hill and then dug a tunnel through the hill.  

Cami and Ian helped grandma taste the topping for her Lemon Meringue pie.  

We spent the afternoon and evening with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Keri and Uncle Joe and Natalie.  It was fun watching Natalie and Ian.  Ian is a boy of very very few words, while Natalie, who is 2 months younger than Ian, is a little girl of many words.  They are both extremely fun and active.  The kids enjoyed opening another round of gifts and spending the night playing with all of their new toys and books.  

Friday we enjoyed some preperation time for the family Christmas party on Saturday.  With a short nap and lots of yummy food, the day went very quick.  On Saturday, about 30 people attending the Krizan family Christmas party.  There is always plenty of delicious food and lots of great company.  

Saturday went too fast and we had to head back to Madison to avoid some more yucky weather coming our way.  The roads were slippery and foggy so we took our time driving the usual 3 hour trip home.  

We can't believe that last year at this time, we were enjoying our first Christmas together as a family of 5.  We had finally received our best Christmas present for 2008, our son Ian.  He has been an absolute joy and blessing in our lives.  

When asking Ben just now what his favorite Christmas present is, he answered, "all of them" and then "actually, my favorite Christmas present is Jesus being born.  He is my favorite Christmas present."  My heart is filled with happiness and my eyes with tears that a 5 year old boy gets what Christmas is all about.  How often do we as adults forget the true meaning of Christmas.  We get caught up in the busyness of shopping and cooking and baking cookies, etc. that we forget why we are celebrating in the first place.  JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!