The holidays in full swing!

Well, it's past time for a family catch up on what's been going on. The holiday season feels like it's going so fast, but we've had so many wonderful experiences this year.



First of all Sunday evening I got a very unexpected treat. Due to some circumstances, I got to share the stage with ALL FOUR of my kids. That is right! And Jo directing as well! What a treat! It was the church Christmas program. Robert had the lead of Leon the child director, Jaclyn was a soloist not wanting her solo to be cut because her Grandma was coming all the way from Iowa to hear her sing and then Thomas was a fabulous looking wiseman. Ben found himself as the baby Jesus (and did a wonderful job I might add) while I played Grandpa (didn't take as much theater magic as some might think). Overall just a wonderful experience.





Monday evening the kids had their school concert. All the groups did wonderful, especially Robert's class with their version of Feliz Navidad. (You know...learning Spanish for fourth graders on a tight time schedule is tough so their version included went something like...Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Faliz Navidad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah). It was simply too funny!



Tuesday was carolling at the nursing home with the Cub Scouts and the boys made it a joy this year. Wednesday night was the annual Jesus Birthday Party celebration at AWANA at church.

The rest of the week found us finishing up school and getting ready for the holiday break. Today we had the great annual event of the Janssen Christmas gathering. It's always great to see the kids playing and having fun.

I guess before I go I should give a quick bathroom update...the drywall is ALMOST all up (should get finished tomorrow) and the drywall should get seams mudded tomorrow as well. It appears I'll miss the Christmas goal, but shouldn't be long after that!

Here come the holidays

Well, it's been a little while since I've taken a few minutes to post to the blog here. We've been busy with holiday preparations, shopping, fighting minor sickness and trying to stay ahead of things. Quick update...


Ben's billiruben level is on the way down. We did what we hope was our last billi check this past Monday. Things are headed in the right direction and everyone is happy about that. Right now we are monitoring weight gain and hoping for a more rapid weight gain.
Outside of that he is doing very well and growing more entertaining each day. Watch here for updates after tomorrow night as Ben will follow in his siblings footsteps and make his on-stage debut tomorrow night in the church program.



The rest of the kids have been busy preparing (they have a few more lines than Ben does in fact Robert has the lead this year) for the program. They are also busily keeping everyone they see updated on how many days until the much anticipated Christmas. (A few more weeks added to that would be fine with us so we could be ready!) Thomas missed a day of school yesterday with some sort of illness so he's back on antibiotic (again). It's been a pretty rough winter on the Janssen's health-wise already.




Mixed in with that we've been enjoying time with extended family to celebrate the season. A few weekends ago Jody's mom and step-dad came up to celebrate the season. Everyone was excited to spend the time together and the kids always enjoy the gifts of course. Spreading the season through contact with distance family is always great.



Last weekend we attended the annual Baumgartner Christmas in northern Illinois and as usual it was a great event to see family again. There were many that had other obligations and couldn't make it, but those that did attend really enjoyed the time catching up (and of course passing Ben around as much as possible!). It was a quick one day trip for us with bad weather moving in, but coming home turned out to be a great decision as the ice did come (after we got back home thankfully).

Before I close I guess I better add an update on the bathroom situation. The drywall is almost completely up. Once that is complete, the hope is the rest will go rather quickly. Those of you waiting for the "guest" bathroom to be complete before visiting, get ready because we are planning at least a functional room by Christmas!

Our Little Glowworm

We've had to step up the battle against the jaundice here today. His biliruben count went up again yesterday so after some checking with the doctor and following up, he decided to send out a light treatment. We're very thankful for the medical staff that has been helping us through this ordeal and very thankful for the home health care worker that braved the weather (not sure what it is like where you are today, but here we are iced in with a sheet of ice) to get the light treatment machine out here. As you can see by the photo, he is simply glowing (literally). The other issue we're still dealing with is Jo is still not cleared to drive. We went over yesterday for the blood test that was going to clear her to drive and when calling for results found that the lab ran the wrong test, so we need to return next week for another blood draw (and Ben will need checked again as well).

As a side note...many of you have asked about the bathroom progress, well, we were progressing nicely, but over the last few weeks the taxi service has brought an abrupt end to any progress. Stay tuned for details as we try and squeeze that in as the holiday festivities and parties begin to fill up our schedule.