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| 2017 Christmas Jammies! |
The year began (and ended) with Joey hard at work at our new house. They kids called Sunday, “Daddy Day” because they only got to see him on Sundays; he left before the kids awoke and returned home after their bedtime. That made Pam, in effect, a single mom. The kids really missed Daddy (and so did Mommy!) We were, obviously, ecstatic when the house was finish-but we were even happier to have consistent family time once again. We were able to sell our Powers Creek property with the help of the amazing Cindy Yoder. The sale finalized before our house was complete so our friends, Scott and AJ Stoddard, graciously allowed us to take over their large finished basement for TWO FOUR weeks. Our 9 (combined) kids were ecstatic to have all their best buddies just one floor away. The inevitable delays occurred but we were able to move in at the very end of July.
We are feeling pretty settled, though there are a few disorganized areas yet to conquer and many more projects to come. We still managed to squeeze in some fun. We enjoyed another fantastic year serving our youth at COVE Palisades in Culver, OR. We joined some of Joey’s family near Ukiah for a camping trip (which included an evacuation due to forest fire.) We joined in the 2nd annual church campout at Cottage Grove Reservoir. It was another amazing weekend with fantastic people. Pam had a blast checking jet skiing off her bucket list and even took a few kids out for a ride!!!
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| Enjoying some school time |
Pam returned to the choir at the end of April in time to practice up for a few songs. It was so good to stretch out the vocal cords again. Now that the house is done and there are no infants in the house she is feeling more able to tackle a few photography sessions as they arise. She is very excited about all the picturesque spots that are right on her new property.
Emma continues to enjoy baking. She donated nine inches of hair in honor of her Gramma Madonna. She is now a sixth grader and joined our church Middle School program and really enjoyed her first youth group weekend getaway . How is it even possible she is old enough for this?!? She is working through her last year of AWANA. She has been serving in our Children’s Church program about once a month (and one of those days she lost her molar in a cupcake). She finds birds enchanting loves her two birds named Grace and Mercy. She continues to take care of our 2 dogs. Levi the pony grazes in the pasture. A goat named Snickers joined him for a month or so. She is constantly asking for ducks and chickens and bunnies. After years of struggling with her reading/writing (which was baffling because she is so bright and creative) we had her tested for Dyslexia.. She was diagnosed as severely dyslexic. It is good to have a more definite course of action before us and we could use your prayers as we work to help her in this. She could also use extra encouragement (from more than just Mom and Dad) as it can be disheartening to struggle at something others find so easy. I have to constantly remind her of how smart she really is and there are gifts that come with dyslexia that we have yet to explore!
Katelyn got her first wiggly tooth in the end of May and spent much of the next month
fretting over the potential pain. The first one came out in a pickle and her second got stuck in a banana. Boy was she relieved to find that she actually had not eaten it! She is now in the SPARKS section of AWANA. She is competitive and doesn’t like losing to all the older kids. She has a zest for life and loves people. She often is found in tears when it is time to say good-bye.
fretting over the potential pain. The first one came out in a pickle and her second got stuck in a banana. Boy was she relieved to find that she actually had not eaten it! She is now in the SPARKS section of AWANA. She is competitive and doesn’t like losing to all the older kids. She has a zest for life and loves people. She often is found in tears when it is time to say good-bye.
Gideon graduated out of our church nursery program. He is such a big boy. He started Kindergarten with Katelyn this year because he is so eager to read! He is determined! He still likes to have some quiet space to himself and often disappears with a stack of books. He enjoys CUBBIES (AWANA) and is showing Evelyn the ropes for her first year.
Evelyn is a ball of energy! She loves to sing and dance. She keeps us on our toes. She started pre-school and tries to learn alongside her big siblings. She pretends to be in charge, and almost has us convinced. She doesn’t lack confidence. She cracks me up and drives me nuts. She is entertaining and darling. She too loves going to “MOANA” (AWANA)
Benjamin has teamed up with Evelyn to destroy mom’s sanity one disaster at a time. He also enjoys coloring during school time. Just don’t let him out of sight with the markers or stickers. He also loves helping. He follows Mommy around closing cupboards and dishwashers and refrigerators. He thinks brooms and dustpans are toys. He also likes to drag toilet brushes and plungers through the house. The kid has no concept of E.coli. He is also the bravest of the bunch. He’s the only one who has ever enjoyed being tossed in the air, he loves to free fall backwards out of mommy’s arms to swing upside down between her legs. He calls it “Wheee”. We cannot store out of reach on our upright piano any longer, because he climbs right on up to get what he wants (usually the markers). He is slightly terrifying to watch. |
| Taking Uncle Ron & Nancy to the falls |
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| Taking Maya and Ema to the falls |
Kids Comments (As Random in Order as in Content)
¯Musical Mistakes ¯
¯Evelyn ~ “Tinkerbells! Tinkerbells! Tinker all the way!"
¯Katelyn ~ “Away in a manger….the little Lord Jesus asleep on the head..”
¯The Little Mermaid sang: “Bright young women, sick of swimmin’.” Emma sang : “Pregnant women, sick of swimmin’. . .”
¯Evelyn ~ “God’s sitting on a mountain” (Go tell it on the mountain)
¯ Katelyn ~ “I know the way….I AM A WOMAN!!!” (I am Moana)
¯Evelyn ~ “Picky-Pocky-Poo” / “Pitty-Potty-Poo” (“Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo”)
¯Evelyn ~ God is on the moon (God is on the Move)
(mis-Spoken Word)
- Katelyn-“A praying mattress is the best because it eats bugs and spiders” (praying mantis)
- Evelyn- I don’t want to get in a stinker sack. (sleeper sack)
- Katelyn chugged her juice and said, “I’m getting more injury!” (Energy)
- Gideon wants to be a big kid so he can go get the Moosepaper all by himself. (newspaper)
- Katelyn-Knock Knock (Who’s there?) Under-rupting Cow…
- Some of our kids’ favorite foods? Pam-Cakes (Pancakes) & Homemade-O Soup. (tomato)
- Evelyn enthusiastically yelled “Deep-pits!” with the crowd at our local Foxes football game.
- Evelyn thinks the games with goof balls are boring to watch. (golf balls)
Conversational Classics
Katelyn: “Evelyn do you want to get married?”
Evelyn: “No.”
Katelyn: “But if you get married you get babies.”
Katelyn was anxious about her upcoming vaccinations. I (Pam) tried to explain to her that sometimes people really sick from their germs or their germs could make a baby sick enough to die. Emma’s take-away was: “If you don’t get your shots you will die.” She (not so kindly) reminded Katelyn of this “fact” repeatedly. So on the morning of the appointment:
Katelyn: “Mom, did Cinderella get her shots?
Pam: “Cinderella wasn’t real.
Katelyn: “No, I mean the real Cinderella. “
Pam: “Um, sure.
Katelyn: “Did Cinderella’s Mom get her shots?
Pam: “Yup.”
Katelyn: “But Mom…they both died.
Pam: “Gideon, do you like the little chicken Grandma made you for Christmas?”
Gideon: “Yes.”
Pam: “What are you going to name it?”
Gideon: “Rainbow.”
Pam: “Oh because of the rainbow flecks of color?”
Gideon: “Yes, it’s name is Rainbow, but I’m going to call him Foot.”
Katelyn: Mom! You have a bomb in your tummy!
Pam: “I do? “ *gasp* Oh No!)
Katelyn: “Yes, and it will blow up in 10, 9, 8, 12, 13, 14, eleven-teen, “gibberish”, “gibberish”, 3,2,1, BOOM! “
Pam: (Fake burped, much to her delight, and told her I ate it.)
Katelyn: I got stuck in an elevator
Evelyn: (In a fine show of one-upmanship) WELL I got stuck in an alligator!!!
(Katelyn really did get stuck in the IKEA elevator for about 15 LONG minutes. It terrified her and developed in her a sincere case of claustrophobia. Evelyn, on the other hand, has yet to see the inside of an alligator.)
While watching the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp, Emma says:
“Looks like a lot of boys took their girlfriends to see this movie.” (Romantic?)
After hearing: “Live in the present” Katelyn responds: I don’t want to live in a present
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| We enjoyed the total eclipse! Right in the path of totality! |
Gideon: Mom! I found a bee!
Mom: Cool!
Evelyn: It was dead.
Mom: Oh.
Gideon: No, it was alive.
Evelyn: It was alive dead.
Pam: What is your favorite food?
Gideon: Berries. I’m a Berry Man, Mom. I like all the berries.
Evelyn’s favorite thing about Christmas? “Bears. They eat people sometimes ….or bananas. Bears eat bananas.”
Benjamin also loves Football (especially while on Daddy’s lap) and makes all sorts of noises (and imaginary touchdown passes) when it comes on T.V.
We are thankful to God for His many blessings. We know time is fleeting and we hope to serve Him with these gifts He’s given us. We pray you have opened His greatest present given to you and will remember Him this Christmas as we celebrate His coming to Earth to be a blessing to all mankind.
As this world struggles to even dare to hope that evil will not win, we rejoice that evil was indeed defeated on the cross two millennia past and remember that death needn’t be the end because He is risen indeed and offers eternity and abundant life to all who believe!
Merry Christmas with Much Love from
Joey & Pam & Emma, Katelyn, Gideon, Evelyn & Benjamin Shetler
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