Merry Christmas!!

 

With love in Him,

 

Nathan, Rachel, Kaine, Halle, Layla and Daisy

more goodbyes...

As my sister Jill said recently in a blogpost, our lives are full of transition.  Along with these transitions will come MANY goodbyes.  A few days ago we had to say goodbye to a family whom we have grown to love very much.

Scot and April are on staff at NTBI, and our family has grown close to theirs.  Our kids have become such good buddies!  But they are leaving soon to spend  a few months in Texas--so when we get back to NTBI from our break, they will be gone.  So anyway...we said goodbye to them :( 

This is Jon Wiley.  He is a couple of years older than Kaine, but neither of them notice or care!  They are such good friends!  I have overheard them saying things such as:  talking about how they are "brothers in Christ"; talking about maybe being on the mission field together someday; and about becoming "blood brothers" (they actually asked us parents if they could cut themselves and become blood brothers!  So funny!  We persuaded them to make matching tatoos instead).   Anyway, Jon Wiley has been such a good friend for Kaine, and we have appreciated the influence he has had on him!

This is Madison.  She is only a couple of weeks younger than Halle, and they are such good friends, too!  Maddie is a very affectionate girl with a fun personality...she says such funny things!  I have always appreciated how much she enjoys Halle and how well they get along together.  Maddie and Halle were ballet buddies this semester, and it is always so cute to see petite little Maddie in her tutu and leg warmers!  She is so cute:)

And here is sweet Sadie.  She melts my heart :)  She says the funniest things, and she is always wondering where Layla is when we see her (she loves Layla!)  They are good buddies, too...they are in childcare together and it is so cute to see them hug when they see each other in the hallways at school.  What a sweetie.

A couple of weeks ago, Scot and April had Kaine and Halle over for a sleepover!  They had sooooo much fun.  (and no, Daisy didn't spend the night, too! this picture was earlier in the evening while Nathan and I were there).

Here is Scot with Nathan and Aaron...haha!  They were going to go out with Scot for coffee and showed up in their Christmas sweaters for a joke.  It was very funny:)

I am so sad that I don't have any pictures of April!  When we left NTBI today to come home for Christmas break, I was thinking earlier that I wanted to take a picture with her...but then I forgot.  Sigh.  Oh well.  April is a super godly woman whom I respect very much.  She has been a great friend for me at NTBI!

We are so thankful for this family blessing us in many ways.  As Jon-Wiley said to us one time, "Being a missionary is hard because you have to say so many goodbyes.  But it also means that you get to say more 'hellos'"!  Such a wise thing for a young boy to say!  But so true, too...and a perspective that I want to remember.

good times with good friends...

We are so excited to be back home again in our hometown!  All the way here yesterday, our kids could NOT stop asking us "how much longer"..."are we there yet"...you know, all the kind of questions that we as parents typically get so tired of hearing.  However, since I knew how excited they were about seeing their grandparents after not seeing them much at ALL these past few months...it was hard to be annoyed :)

 

Before we left Michigan, though, we were privileged to hang out with a very cool family.  These are some very good friends of ours (whom also have been our next door neighbors for the past 1.5 years at NTBI).  I have grown close to Enoch, whom I have been helping with language study for all 3 semesters so far.  Jae and Enoch have taken the full load of classes at NTBI, in a language that is not their own, and have had to work soooo hard to learn English on top of all of it.  They are great examples to Nathan and I of perseverance and faith!  (and doing so well with their English, by the way!)

 

We went out to Applebees with them, and Coldstone for dessert.  Yum.  Lots of good food and good times:)

Kaine is good friends with their son Urim.  They had fun playing with knives at Applebee's :)

And their daughter Woo-ah is Halle's age, and they are really good friends, too!  Halle comes with me to all my language sessions that I do with Enoch, and the 2 girls play so well together!  At Applebee's, they kept wanting to turn around and watch tv :)

Jae has always had a soft spot for Layla...he (and Enoch) think she is sooo cute!  (And with good reason, of course!  She IS so cute!)

So thankful for Enoch and her sweet spirit.  She is a wonderful example for me.

So now, we are in Indiana!

I wish I had taken a picture of our kids when we first arrived at my parents' house...they were swarming my mom, showing her all their special things they had brought with them, and all talking to her at once.  It was very sweet:)  Here is Layla, showing her all that was in her little backpack.

Kaine and my dad had fun doing "science experiments" last night.  Kaine loves this kind of stuff!  He didn't even want to eat a bedtime snack because he just wanted to keep doing science experiments :)

We are so happy to be back for 2 1/2 weeks and very excited to see everyone.  And of course, we are anticipating Christmas along with our kiddos :)

starting some traditions...

The other night we celebrated our family Christmas.  It was so much FUN!  I think our kids are getting to the age now where they are getting into it, too, and I told Nathan recently that I thought it would be smart to try to start some traditions for Christmas.  It seems like that is important in a family, right?  Up until now, we didn't really have any family traditions, within just our immediate family.  When the kiddos are little it doesn't seem to matter as much.  But now that our kids are getting older, and also since we are going to be moving around so much during their ENTIRE childhood, it seems like it would be good for them if we had some steady family traditions.  (and it will be good for me, too!  I think if we end up living in a remote tribal location someday I will so appreciate something familiar at Christmastime).

 

So...we did some things this year that seem small, but I think we will continue year after year.  And I hope to add more traditions along the way, as the years go by!

 

So we started out by making Christmas cookies, which Kaine and Halle LOVED decorating.  I think this will be easily continued on the mission field.

Their finished creations.  COVERED in sprinkles :)

Another tradition that I personally loooooved.  Waffle sundaes for supper!  You can see that our kids were pretty excited about this, too!  It was extremely good.  And extremely unhealthy :)

I think Daisy wasn't sure what to think at first...a bowl filled with ice cream, redi-whip and sprinkles for supper???  (with a waffle under it somewhere)...she LOVED it.

Of course, our kids' favorite part--the gifts.  (as of right now, we don't get our kids much for Christmas...just little things.  Kind of like stocking stuffers--minus the stocking!  They get enough other gifts from grandparents, great-grandparents, etc that they definitely don't need anything else.  They didn't mind, though.  They love little things, too:) ).

Then, another tradition that I think will easily be continued wherever we are--homemade games.  Nathan thought up a few games and our kids loved it.  Actually, this is a tradition that is big in my family.  My grandpa Ralph used to make up the best games at Christmas, and it was a huge part of our day!  Now, my dad does the same thing for our family and we LOVE it!  I told Nathan that he needs to continue this, too.  He did a great job!

Here is the first one--pop-can bowling.  They got to keep whatever cans of pop they knocked down...

Then, not sure what this would be called...I guess "spin the gun"?  Nathan put tape on the floor (see below) with prizes in each section.  Then he drilled a hole in this wooden rubber-band gun that Kaine has, and stuck something in it so that it would spin on the carpet.  It worked great!  Whatever the gun pointed at was the prize that they got.

And the last one--shooting a dart gun and knocking down prizes.  Kaine loved this one the most:)

Halle decided to create her own game when it was all over :) 

It was such a fun family Christmas!  Love my little family:)

our miniature grandma jan

Most of you probably know my mom had foot surgery recently.

This is my mom with Layla and Ivy at Thanksgiving.  Poor mom had to be on the couch for a week.   She had a big boot on her foot and anytime she needed to get up she had to roll around on one knee on a cart-thing.  She had such a great attitude about it all!  What a great example to me!

The girls really enjoyed sitting on her lap (or her stomach) and having her read books to them!

So after we returned back to MI after our Thanksgiving break, Halle rolled out of the bedroom like this...this girl's imagination never ceases to amaze us!  She had put one of Kaine's snowboots on her foot and was rolling around on this princess car, saying "I'm grandma Jan!  I had surgery!"

It was so cute.  Mom, your grandkids are watching you!  I'm glad you are such a godly example for them, because they love to imitate you:)

will you marry me?

Some people have nicknamed NTBI "New Tribes Bridal Institute" because it is a great place to find a spouse:)  It is actually amazing how many engagements have happened since we started here!  We live at the end of the single girls' hall, and one semester there were multiple days that we could hear ecstatic squealing coming from the dorms :)  We knew it was another engagement!  So fun!

So my kids must be picking up on this...the other day Kaine and Halle were playing together and I caught Kaine proposing to Halle!  It was so cute.  Such innocence:)

Have a great weekend!

"tacky and khaki"

Every year NTBI throws a great Christmas party, and after having so much fun last year, we were so excited for this year's party!  The theme was "Tacky and Khaki"...so yes, there were some VERY tacky Christmas outfits!

 

However, I didn't have anything tacky for my girls, so they just wanted to wear nice dresses:)  I tried to get a good picture of them, but that just doesn't happen easily!  (You will notice that Layla is wearing a semi-tacky Christmas dress...but don't tell her I said that.  She loves it!)

On the other hand, the men in our family represented us well in the tacky department.  The sweater vest that Nathan is wearing was a white elephant gift from our dear friends (Michael and Jane!) years ago, and it has gotten tons of use over the years!  Nathan may or may not wear this sweater every year to our Yergler family Christmas.  why, you ask?  good question:)

Anyway, Aaron found this awesome kids sweater for Kaine so we cut the sleeves off to match his daddy.  He was VERY unsure about wearing this out of our apartment ("is this appropriate, mommy?") but Nathan talked him into it:)

There were beautiful decorations and a HUGE food table! 

Daisy was very overwhelmed by the LOUD music and all the people...but she warmed up when I gave her a little cup of m&m's :)

I hardly saw Kaine all night!  Except when he and his friends would run (at full speed) past me through the crowds...

And I hardly saw this little one all night, too!  She could be found at the craft table most of the night.  Here she is showing me her creation (notice the paint streaks all over her dress...don't worry though...it came out:) ).

The rest of the time, Halle was busy mothering Daisy and Layla.  It was so cute!  (and it gave me a break from Daisy and Layla hanging onto my legs!)

Oh yes, and the tacky sweater post would not be complete without a picture of Aaron (and his lovely wife)...don't they look pretty?  (I cannot help but laugh every time I look at Aaron's sweater!  Hilarious!)  Jill also blogged about the Christmas party, so if you want to see how cute their kiddos look, you can check out her blog here.

Good party, NTBI!  It was a lot of fun:)  Wish we could come again next year...