Christmas Eve in Hilbert

Good morning! The kids are hanging out with mom and dad while Bo prays for a cookie crumb and mom begs me not to take the picture.
This is right after church this morning. Look Alex is actually smiling!!!
I think Josh is drunk?! Either that or he's pooping!!

Look...It's a tea party! Even Bo wants to play.

It's a Christmas Party at the Pethan house!!

Trust me. This is the best out of 5 attempts at this picture! ;)
All the guys are in the garage with conversations ranging from plumbing to sports.












All the women are in the kitchen with conversations ranging from baby bedding, hot flashes, and menstral cycles.
Please don't ask me again what they were talking about. I'm trying to burn it from my memory!!
Mom enjoying hour #5 in one spot because her of her foot. See the crutches behind her. I think this may be the "Hot Flashes" conversation.

Lepak's and Nickel's visit us for Christmas

Don't break the ice!!!

Look...Heidi Nickel is in the back!









Brett and Maggie enjoying a little moment

New pics of Jack today!

We just were emailed some more pics of Jack today. We think they are from December sometime. Take a look...



Yikes!!! That's quite a double chin there for a baby that was 4.5 lbs when born. That's the way I like em'...with girth!

Abby's Christmas program

Abby had her first Christmas program tonight at church. She was an angel with her friends Madison and Jessica (left to right). They were all very cute and sang a bunch of songs like "Away in a Manger", "Silent Night", and pieces of a few others. After the service, they all went downstairs and we met up with all the kids. By the time we got down there, all the angels had been stripped of their gowns. So...sorry no pics with the angel gear...

Going home...

Day 6...The pool & MGM

This is me getting volunteered by Kelly to get showered by 80,000 gallons of water in the backlot tour...I got a little wet.

Day 5...The Very Merry Christmas Party

This is about the 5th time in a row by now!


This was the best night. And it shows. We were so busy enjoying we didn't get a hole lot of pictures...

Day 4...still

Chip...stop smashing my hat!!

Day 4...More Magic Kingdom fun

Mom...I gotta pee!!!

Day 3...Animal Kingdom

Please don't make me eat anymore ice cream...

Day 2...Magic Kingdom & Epcot

Day 1...MGM

We're back from Disney!

We had an awsome time!! It was our first real family vacation all by ourselves. And Kelly did a great job of managing all three of her kids (the 3rd is me)! Alex got to go on his first rollercoster in Tune Town along with Peter Pan and Small World over and over again. Abby was tall enough to go on Space Mountain once with Dad and once with Mom. The Very Merry Christmas Part was proabably the best night we had. Alex slept through the parade but woke up after and dragged us through Fantasyland one more time. That night we all flopped into bed at 1:15am. The kids even got to go swimming. The temps for most of the week were in the 70's. Only one night required jackets. We are back and ready for Christmas in Wisconsin. I'm a little sad all our snow disappeared while we were gone though...

Jack Update...

The latest is that we are in one of the last stages in adopting Jack...PGN!!! Don't ask me what that stands for. I don't know. We started this process in May and we are closer than we thought we would be right now. We didn't expect PGN til this spring sometime. Still...If you ask Kelly, he may not come home til next fall sometime. Only God has control and we're giving it up to him. We also received a video of Jack from when he was 6 weeks old while we were at Disney. Ang picked up the video from our mailbox and called us there. It was an interesting conversation to listen to...a bunch of Kelly squeals and high pitched tones is all I heard as Ang gave Kelly the play by play over the phone. Anyway, he's adorable and it's hard to imagine him in Guatemala and not being able to pick him up and talk to him. The video is very fun and all the family will have a chance to see it during Christmas sometime. Here is one of our favorite photos that we recently received...