2009 in reveiw

Here's our pictorial year in review!
There's hardly a better way to start off the new year than a family vacation!
Boone in January

February trip to the beach

Birthday boys in March (Grandpa Hink turned 89 while Ryan turned 3.)

Duke Gardens in April

Emma's Birthday in May

June 13th: Nathan James Chryst was born!

July was big month for us! Nathan had lots of family to meet. Here he is with his Great Grandmother Hink (DeAnne's grandma)

Here are the cousins from DeAnne's side.
This is the Chryst grandchildren with Great Gram (Philip's grandma)

August with Mr. McFeely- (Not sure where Peter's Birthday pictures are.)

Septmeber in the Duke Gardens

October means NC State fair

November family photos by Kate Turner Pope

December in the snow

Christmas Eve

It's nearly time for the Christmas Eve service to start. Philip has the oldest 3 over at church preparing for the service. Nathan and I are spending a little more time indoors before we make our way to the church.
I made the executive decision early this month that we would "draw names". For a variety of reasons ranging from intentionality, financial, and creative I thought this would be a good idea for us.
Here's the listing:
Nathan drew me.
Ryan drew Nathan.
Emma drew Philip.
Peter drew Ryan.
Philip drew Peter.

I have marveled at the conversations that have been going on around me for the last week as the kids have talked (secretly) about what they thought the other would like. My favorite has been Ryan's. Upon finding out that he drew Nathan's name immediately Ryan declared," I'll get Nathan a paci. He loves his paci.". He wasn't deterred either when he arrived at Walmart with the assignment of buying a gift for Nathan. It was a new paci that he picked out.
Actually, all the gifts that were picked out were thoughtful and sweet. I look forward to tomorrow when they are able to give to each other what they picked out.

Children's Choir

The kids sang during worship this Sunday. I remembered to bring my camera with me so I could record it. I must warn you that the quality is poor and you hear Nathan fussing throughout. Oh- and it's really long! Other than that- the kiddos are cuties!

Weights

Nathan had his 6 month check up today. He passed with flying colors and an ear infection. I had no idea that he might have an ear infection. He has been rather fussy since Sunday but I attributed it to "teeth". Poor guy...I'm thankful we caught it before he was completely miserable.
I dug out our files on the kids to compare their weights at 6 months.
Peter: 19 lbs 6 oz and 28 1/4 inches
Emma: 15 lbs 8 oz and 25 1/2 inches
Ryan: 17 lbs 6 oz and 27 3/4 inches
Nathan: 15 lbs and 15 oz and 26 1/4 inches

I remembered Peter being "big" but I had forgotten he was that big.

Snow news

The snow started falling as predicted this afternoon. Emma rushed outside to play in the snow. Philip had Peter and Ryan with him running errands and Nathan was asleep so I joined Emma outside. She was so excited about the snow. I mentioned to her not to get her hopes up because it would probably be a few hours before the snow stuck to the ground. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. A little less than thirty minutes later we had about an inch accumulation. What seemed like an eternity to Emma, her brothers and daddy finally got home. They eagerly dressed in their ski pants and boots and headed outside.
Nathan enjoyed his first experience out in the snow. He even braved a hike in the woods behind our house and remained wide eyed the entire time. Speaking of wide eyes, look at those blue eyes.

It tastes "Yum"

Ten years and two months I have been married to Philip and I can not recall him ever even mentioning that he likes a dill pickle with peanut butter. Well, for some reason, it was on this day that he remembered and stuck a pickle in the midst of his peanut butter sandwich. After that was done, it was straight to the pickle.

Emma and I were not impressed with this combination. Actually, it makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it. Ryan and Peter, however, LOVED it and have asked for it every day since.

1/2 year day

It still surprises me how quickly time does pass. Will the next 6 months pass even quicker than the first? I hope not. My baby is growing up! I know; I know. It's only been six months and he still has a lot of baby left in him.This little guy continues to amaze me at the amount of food he can put away. It wasn't until 6 months that I even began to think about starting cereal with the older three. Nathan, well he's had carrots, peas, apples, bananas, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, pears, sweet potatoes and green beans. The boy loves to eat.

Ode to Joy

Can you hear the music coming from our home? If I was clever enough I would attach this song to my post. Today is party day here in the Chryst home. We have made it through 7 out of 8 semesters. Well, I should clarify, at 5pm when all 40 pages have been turned in then Philip will have completed his semester. For us at home, we are already breathing easier just know that today is the day. I can remember this day 3 years ago when Philip completed his first semester. I remember him saying, "Sweetheart, I'm 1/8th of the way through.". Holy cow, we have come a long way. I think this semester comes in a very close second (in hardness) to that first one. I am so glad that things got easier before we got slammed with this semester. I mean I even thought it would be a good idea to have a 4th child! Thank God for his divine providence that Nathan was born over the summer and he has been a dream baby.
I remember the day that I wrote this post. I am not positive but I think I did succeed in cherishing this semester more than I begrudged it. I still take the time to rock Nathan a little bit longer than I know I "should" sometimes. I savor his baby sweetness and intentionally get down on the floor to play with him when I should have been preparing dinner. I am a bit teary eyed though when I read that post. It's tempting to think of all that I didn't accomplish but I will not. In fact, since it's 6:50am and the kids are still asleep, I think I have just decided that we will not crack open all our books today. We will celebrate; laugh together; read together; play together and wait for the door to open and Philip to walk through. Then we will continue to celebrate - at least until it's time to go to Cub Scouts!
I am proud of you , Philip. You have worked incredibly hard this semester. I am truly in awe of all you do for our family, the church and those around you. I may be a bit biased but you are an incredible man with a heavy load to carry that doesn't seem to dampen that smile of yours. We love you.

A new addition

Emma, Ryan and myself spent about an hour yesterday learning about Christmas symbols. We talked about why we have Christmas trees in our homes. We talked about the traditions that we carry on that have nothing to do with celebrating the Birth of Christ and we talked about those traditions that prepare our hearts for Jesus. We have this conversation yearly. I'm always curious what will be remembered and what will have been forgotten. Our family doesn't "do" Santa Claus. We read about St. Nicholas yesterday. We talked about how Americans have taken the person of St. Nicholas and created a tradition called Santa Claus. Emma and I even practiced how to respond to the questions she will get like, "What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?".
I'm excited that our family is participating in collecting money for Stop Hunger Now this month. We got a received a calendar at church with suggestions for donations. I was proud of Peter and Emma as they eagerly ran to their wallets. Tuesday's suggestion was to contribute $0.25 for every person in your family as you share a meal together. I hope that it's through these little opportunities to give and our many conversations that the hearts of our children will be shaped to reflect the true meaning of Christmas.As we were outside this morning, making our house ready for winter. We were surprised with a visit. Mr. Gene and Ms. Bobby made this snowman family for us! Aren't they just precious.

Llama llama

The library hosted Llama llama this week for story time. It was the first time this guy has been to see us. Emma was with our a friend delivering Meals on Wheels. She requested a photo!
Ryan was not at all interested in getting up close. As you can see from the picture, Llama llama was a bit TALL.
Peter got the chance to spend some time with my parents this week. It's quite different around here with out him. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it other than different! I sent along a backpack full of school work so we'll see if he gets any of it done.