Farewell 2015

 There are a couple of things that I've recently realized I forgot to blog about.  That's the consequence of infrequent blogging.  :)

First off - a year ago (January 2015), Jason was driving his farm truck and pulling a trailer loaded with firewood, when he looked out the driver's window and saw one of his truck tires rolling along next to him!  He somehow was able to maintain control of the truck (driving on 3 tires on a curve and with a full trailer) and come to a safe stop.  He then had to chase down his tire.  It was crazy and we were very relieved that he was safe!

Secondly, in May 2015, we put Levi to bed as normal, and a few hours later when we went to bed, we heard him whimpering.  We went in to check on him and he told us he had put a toy up one of his nostrils.  We weren't sure if it was true because we couldn't see it at all, and he wasn't in a lot of pain, but he was able to tell us exactly which toy it was (see the tiny piece below), so Jason took him to the ER to have it removed.  He was sleeping when they arrived, and the doctor was able to remove it easily, so we were thankful it wasn't a traumatic experience for him!  It should be noted that he had never put anything in his nose before this, and hasn't since.

 In other news of Levi sticking things where they don't belong...
In October we got some new windows installed.  Before we got the blinds back up, Levi took one of the brackets and stuck his two pointer fingers in the holes.  By the time he came to show me, his fingers were a bright red/light purple color.  I quickly iced them down , then slathered them with olive oil, and (with heart pounding) was able to slowly work them out.  As he screamed.  He had a few small scabs on his fingers but thankfully no major damage.  If my heart survives motherhood, I will probably live forever.

11/14 - Josiah was part of a flag ceremony for cub scouts.  It was really cool - there were even bagpipes.  Everything is cooler with bagpipes.

11/20 - we pulled out a science kit Levi had received for this birthday and did the dino dig.  The boys had fun finding the bones and putting the skeleton together when they were done.

 11/27 - we went to visit my side of the family for Thanksgiving.  These dudes LOVE playing with their cousins.

 Thanks for a fun weekend Ooo Ooo and Paw Paw!

 12/5 - we had a little family get-together at our house for Josiah's 8th birthday!  He wanted a Jurassic World party.  Thanks to Mi Mi for making the cake!

 12/6 - Josiah's real birthday!  We went with my parents to Branson and of course still had to do breakfast in bed.  We had a fun time swimming in the condo pool and going to Silver Dollar City.  It was a beautiful day.

 12/9 - I took the boys to Bass Pro to see Santa, and we got to meet up with some friends.  We unwittingly got there at the perfect time when there was no line, so they got to spend a few extra minutes talking with the man in red.  We don't really believe in Santa at our house, but it's still a fun tradition to get a picture with him.

 I'm not sure that's where the guns are supposed to be pointed....

 It was difficult to get the kids to leave because they were having so much fun with their friends!  Josiah and Brayden even touched a fish in one of the fish ponds.  Thankfully we didn't get kicked out.

 12/12 - Josiah got one of his birthday presents in the mail - yikes!  The directions were very helpful in telling us to put these guys in the fridge for a few minutes before opening so they wouldn't be so eager to escape.

 This is just after putting the ants in their new home.  In just a few hours, they started digging tunnels.  They are pretty amazing creatures!

 This pic was taken today - you can see their network of tunnels.  Plus it doubles as a night light.  Bonus.  Thank you Auntie Genevieve!

 12/13 - we did a friend birthday party for Josiah at a laser tag place!  It was super fun.  They even let the adults play!  Then they gave each kid a $10 card to play arcade games.  Happy stretched out birthday to my awesome 8 year old!

 12/14 - this is most of my Monday morning moms bible study group.  This is our little Christmas get-together.  Love these ladies!

 Afterwards Levi and I went to the library where we couldn't resist taking a picture with the Grinch.

 12/17 - the school Christmas program was called Christmas Around the World.  They had some kids from every class dress up.  Josiah got to wear lederhosen!

 This was Levi's first year being on the stage and singing.  He did such a great job!  He can carry a tune well and didn't seem to have any stage fright.

 Josiah did a great job also!  His class sang 2 songs in French, which took a lot of work to learn!

12/18 - class Christmas parties.  Here's 2nd/3rd grade.  I didn't get a pic of Levi's class, but there are 19 kids so I'm not sure they'd all fit in a picture, or that they'd all stand still that long!

 12/19 - our first Christmas celebration with the Bonvillians.

12/24 - the kids got to open their Christmas Eve present - a shaving kit.  Just kidding - obviously these mustaches were professionally groomed.

 12/25 - Christmas!  After opening stockings, Levi wanted to wear them.  He did this for several days.

 One of Josiah's presents was snap circuits - it's a cool thing where he can learn about electricity without electrocuting himself.  Definitely a plus.  We had a fun day playing with new toys and staying in our pajamas.

 12/26 - Regehr family Christmas!  We've all come to love the minute-to-win-it games.

 More cousin fun!

 That morning it started raining.  And raining.  And it didn't really stop for a couple of days.  In the afternoon we lost power.  So of course the kids decided to watch videos on a phone.

 Then they told ghost stories!  Levi's were the funniest, er - I mean "scariest".

 We were all concerned about the flooding at Jason's grandparent's house, but thankfully none of our family had any real damage from the flooding.  Just fences down.  Jason went over the next week to help fix fences.

And finally, this is how we ended 2015.  We all had horrible coughing and colds for about 2 months, and then the beginning of Christmas week, Levi was throwing up.  The week after Christmas, Josiah was throwing up and Levi got pink eye.  By the weekend, I was having stomach flu issues also.  For several weeks I also had some ear issues.  It was a miserable way to end the year / start a new year.  Just yesterday I went to a clinic and got my ear issues resolved (it is amazing to hear again!), and got eye drops for the boys - Levi whose pink eye issues continued and Josiah who (after one day back at school) now has it.  We're finally on the mend and praying hard for a healthy rest of 2016!!