Riding a Donkey

Cute and fluffy baby donkey, "Rosie". She was born without anyone having known that her mother, "Daisy," was even pregnant...a huge surprise! She's a few months old now.

This reminds us of the donkey that Mary probably didn't ride to Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph couldn't afford to sacrifice a lamb so they sacrificed doves...how would they have been able to afford a donkey? How did Mary walk all that way?...must've induced labor...hence Jesus born in the manger in Bethlehem...a wonderful gift from God!

JB and Gloria rode on the donkey for the first time. You can see Sunflower Velcro in her new surroundings (and her new home) in the background.

The donkey foal follows close behind her mother.

Christmas Day

Benaiah received a lot of things with wheels this year. JB and Gloria both got lots of cool things in their stockings as well as presents. Grandude read them some Christmas story books that helps to direct their attention toward Jesus rather than just themselves. We have had a wonderful time visiting and being with family!


Gloria got a new princess dress, which Gramma Shell so lovingly sewed as a Christmas present. We'll see if this one lasts longer than the other one she received last Christmas. It is meant to be a little bit big for her so that it fits her in case she grows, given she doesn't wear it out like she did the last one. I think Gramma Shell is just happy she gets so much use out of them.

JB's Birthday

Hold Your...Chickens?

JB and Gloria have a thing about chickens. JB comes a long way since the Rooster "got him" (after he got slightly attacked by a rooster, but still traumatic for a three-year-old JB).

Here Kitty Kitty

The kitty was in the barn earlier, but ran away when I came in the barn. I heard Benaiah saying "here kitty, kitty" and I just had to record him saying it.

Having fun wears him out...

Benaiah loves to pour things into things. Since he kept wanting to pour things on the side of the tub and would sometimes miss, I put a table in the tub so that he could do his pouring on the table instead of on the bathroom floor. This is only his second bath since he got his bandages off. With the bandages we pretty much only bathed him once a week by putting saran wrap on his leg and "sealing" it with medical tape. Then we stood him up in the bath and soaped and rinsed him quickly. He much prefers the traditional bath. His leg is healed but still looks bad since different parts of his skin are all different colors depending on the depth of the burn on different areas. It's so good to see him get new skin...Who (or what) other than a Divine Creator of our bodies could design so well? no one, nothing.

Enjoying the train

Old Train

This train set is at least 75 years old. Max and his brothers played with it when they were little and got it from an older man that played with it when he was a little boy. Looking at how much dust had collected on it (and considering that it was the Bremer boys that had played with it) it was hard to believe that it would work again. But, my husband is talented and did some electrical rewiring and got the electric trains working again. Here is a video of JB and Gloria enjoying the newly set up old train. What a treat.

Ready for the Christmas Party

Max and I went to the SAASS Christmas party on Friday night. The babysitter's mom took these photos after dropping off her daughter. I rarely take a lot of time to do my makeup and hair and Max rarely wears a suit, so this was one of those rare opportunities for a picture in front of our fire place. I'm not sure why the second photo has spots in it, perhaps we need to clean the lens.

This Christmas party was different. It was semi-formal with a cocktail time, a dinner, then just socializing. Normally with the Air Force, the Christmas parties are packed to the brim with activities and by the last one or two activities you are wondering when it's ever going to end. This time I was surrounded by many people (SAASS guys, their wives, and SAASS faculty) that are way bigger thinkers than me, but it made conversations interesting.

Just Swingin' in the Forest!

Yes, More 4-Wheeling.

Some people have horses, we have 4-wheelers.

This is not too far from the house. The area around the house is very hilly and great for learning to 4-wheel over varying terrain. The kids certainly learned faster than I did...just not fair.

Cutie Patootie

Can you tell he likes a lot of stuff in his bed? He's the cutest thing in there though...

Owl

This owl heard we had a kitten at our house and was wondering whether she would come out and play...No such luck

A carpeted house for kitty.

"Sunflower Velcro" (the kids picked the names) plays in a duplo lego house.

Pop! Goes the kitty! Sunflower Velcro is soon going to go to live in Colorado as a barn cat. She started out as a one week old orphan kitty at our house, but indoor cats and the Max Bremer family don't really go together, so hopefully she will have fun catching lots of mice in Colorado.

Sweet four-wheeling

Did the princess hurt her fingers? Daddy always takes care of boo boos.

So, Benaiah, this is how you use the break on the four-wheeler....Benaiah, are you listening?

I know what you're thinking...they're obsessed with four-wheeling. It's just a lot of fun. Benaiah begs to go for a ride. When I'm just going up the driveway to get the mail or deliver the garbage trailer, sometimes I let him hold on to the handlebars and ride in front of me. Gloria rides on the back of a four-wheeler pretty much only when her little red one runs out of "juice" (battery) or when we are going for a longer family-four-wheeling ride where hers and JBs wouldn't make it. I don't know where else we could live that has such a perfect four-wheeling set up. It sure helped that Max cut trails and is currently scheming up some new trails, ones easier for the kids. It also gives him the excuse to get outside and work and also to use the chainsaw.

Benny-and-the-Box

Pop!

The turkey fight/dance

I'm surprised this turkey still sings and dances. It's been around for three or four Christmas' now.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

As you can see, we decorated the tree after the kids got ready for bed and while Max was reading with Nutcracker music in the living room. The tree is in the dining room, where you can see it right when you walk in the house and where there was plenty of room for a tree (and where there was no carpet to get wet).

This is the first year in three years that we have bought a Christmas tree. In the past three years we were in Kansas for Christmas and brought a cut tree home from the woodlot we have in Palmer Lake, CO after we visited Max's parents for Thanksgiving.

This year we had Thanksgiving with our good friends who are stationed with us here, Wedge (Dennis) and Amy and their baby girl, Faith. We had a good time and are very thankful for friends and many other blessings from God!