Happy New Year

The Passion Tree

The "THE PASSION TREE" painting follows the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Each ornament illustrates an event in history. The red garland represents the crimson thread of Jesus Christ woven through the entire Bible. Jesus IS from eternity (before Creation) to eternity (after the end of all things), and this garland weaves through all history, showing His Story. The first twelve ornaments show events in the Old Testament and the last twelve illustrate events in the New Testament, and a star representing the glory of God crowns the tree. There are 33 candles, one for each of the years that Christ spent on earth in the form of a man. You can see a suggestion of Christ in each flame . The red ornaments down the center and across form a cross. The three largest ornaments represent the trinity: God the Father (#13) gave His gift, the Son (#15) who came to earth, and God the Spirit (#22) lives within believers today. Use this as an advent calendar, reading and studying one a day from December 1 through December 25.

National Treasure - Book of Secrets

We have watched so many movies over the holidays and I will go back and write about them however I wanted to post about this one since we just got back from the movie theatre (thanks Vit for watching the kids).

Both Fil and I love the first National Treasure movie. We have watched it many times. So you can imagine that we wanted to see the Book of Secrets. I wasn't so sure that I would like this movie since I loved the first one and I was afraid that I would be disappointed. We LOVED this one as well and if you like all Jerry Bruckheimer movies you will like this one as well. I will just leave you with a thought that I think there will be another one.

Snowman

We got a few more inches of snow this morning and since the kids spent most of the week indoors enjoying Christmas presents it was time to get out. As you can see it was the perfect snow for a snowman so here is the new guy who watches over our household. The kids, Fil, and his brother Vit had a good time playing outside. They spent almost 2 hours outside and came home only when they got hungry for lunch.
I was busy in the kitchen cooking lunch but as you can see they even had a snowball fight going on. Apparently Emma loved throwing snow. However, she got very mad if anybody threw a snowball at her.
And here is my girl posing for another picture.
In the afternoon my doctor sent us for for an x-ray of my ankle and since I haven't heard from anybody yet I am sure it is not broken. Hopefully it will start feeling better soon.

Today I spent the whole day by ....

.... lying on a sofa. I know it looks like I am being lazy but the truth is that I couldn't really get up. I was planing to run to the grocery store this morning and on my way down the stairs while holding Emma in my arms I miscalculated that I was at the bottom (I was not) and I twisted my ankle badly. Somehow I manage to put Emma down before I ended up on the floor in a lot of pain. So I spent the rest of the day with my leg up and on the sofa. I got to read (and finish) Fil's new book he got for Christmas by Clive Cussler The Chase (good book by the way). The boys went to a hockey game later in the day and I am waiting for tomorrow to go see doctor to make sure I only sprained the ankle. I will let you know how it went.

By the way the picture is from this Monday when Emma and I got an early present from the boys, Beautiful roses. We were both very excited and the boys managed to keep it a secret.

Pictures From Christmas

Here are some pictures from ChristmasWe even got to take a family picture this year.
Emma is such a goofy little girl. If you are wondering I made the sweater she is wearing and I had some left over yarn to make a matching sweater for her doll. They got to wear it to a Christmas Eve service and they both looked cute.
Christmas morning
(I am sorry but they look like three prisoners who escaped from prison don't they?)
Sam and his new camera
Nate with his new microscope
Emma got some more clothes for her doll.
Uncle Vit got the boys a race car set. All four (Sam, Nate, Fil and Vit) are having fun with it.

A Hockey set was a big hit
Here is Nate lost in his new Star Wars comic book. He didn't want to open more gifts till he was done reading.
I got this cookbook in the summer. As soon as I saw it in the book store I knew I had to get it for Vit. It does have good recipes in it.
Here is our Snow White with daddy

And with uncle Vit

Uncle Vit and his nephews and niece at the computer
Uncle Vit took Emma for her first Build a Bear. (She picked a monkey)
They all got to ride on a carousel.

We had a great Christmas. We thought of Jordan a lot and we are hoping that we will get to go get her soon. We miss you little girl.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Letter and Card

Christmas 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Very warm Christmas greetings to everyone we hold dear in our hearts. Although in many instances distance and time keeps us apart we fondly remember all of you this time of the year and we trust all is well this holiday season.

Big News 2007 - If you noticed our Christmas picture there are two items which may seem out of place. The first is a map of Africa and the other is a statue of a mother and father holding a little infant. If you look a little closer you will notice that the country of Ethiopia is highlighted and that the family is holding a little African child. Last December Lenka and I began to seriously consider adopting a child internationally. After much prayer and soul searching we felt God’s calling to take this step of faith. At the end of January we submitted an application to adopt a little girl from the country of Ethiopia. Thus began one of the most exciting journeys of our lives. On October 19th after months of paperwork and waiting we were referred a little two month old girl. When we saw her for the first time we instantly fell in love with this little one. We are currently waiting for a court date that will officially make this child ours. At which point we will be able to share her picture with all of you. We anticipate that we will be able to travel and bring her home in early 2008. Her name will be Jordan Steiger.

Lenka has been keeping a pretty detailed blog about the adoption process and general family life for most of the year. If you wish you can view it at the following link;

http://thesteigerclan.blogspot.com/

Travel 2007 – We didn’t do as much traveling this year as in past years primarily due to the adoption. However, we did make several trips as a result of the adoption. Lenka’s Czech passport would have expired next year and because we will be traveling to Ethiopia it was time to get a new one. Because of new bio-metric requirements the Czech consulate couldn’t issue a new passport through the mail. This required us to make two unplanned trips to NYC. We had a great time and the kids loved it. Some of the highlights included; Central Park, NYC Children’s Museum, FAO Schwarz, American Girl, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and the many train rides. However, I think the highlight was the top of the Empire State Building. The boys were amazed. Nate couldn’t get over the fact that the cars looked like toys to him. Sam and Nate talked about the experience for days.

During our second trip to NYC we first spent several days in Philadelphia and we had a great time. We absolutely fell in love with this beautiful city. Our main reason for going to Philadelphia was to see the King Tut exhibit and the Franklin Institute. I saw this exhibit some thirty years earlier the last time it was in the United States in Los Angeles. We also had a lot of time to walk the many beautiful streets of Philadelphia and enjoy the historical sites in and around Independence Square.

I made two business trips this summer. On the second trip I went to AZ. I lived in AZ for 10 years and went to college at Arizona State University. Over the weekend I got to spend some time with my old college buddies and had a great time. It was great to reconnect with great friends after so many years. I also had a chance to visit the church I went to during those 10 years. It was nice to know that people still recognized me after all those years.

Kids 2007 – Emma turned 2 in August. She is a very busy and outgoing girl who is only shy for a little bit. She is a bit of ham and loves to pose for pictures. She loves her dollies and takes very good care of them. She also likes to prepare meals in her kitchen for any one willing to eat wooden blocks.

Nate turned 6 this month and is doing very well in School. He is really into science type things. He has requested a microscope for Christmas so he can look at bug skin. In Philadelphia, at the museum, there was a three story model of a heart which you could walk through from chamber to chamber just as blood would flow through a real heart. Nate spent over an hour just at this exhibit pretending to be blood in a heart. He really is our little biologist. Nate is also good in his studies learning to read and write very well for a kindergartner.

Sam turned 7 and loves sports. It doesn’t matter what it is football to bowling he loves it all. He really enjoys playing on sports teams and is always asking to play something. When the newspaper comes in the morning he wants the sports page. He requested a digital camera for Christmas so Emma can be his model. Like Nate, Sam is doing very well with his studies. Grandma was very impressed at how well he is reading.

Christmas 2007 – We are looking forward to spending Christmas with family and friends. We really enjoyed visiting with many of you this year and hope to see many more of you in 2008. We wish you peace, health and trust that the birth of Christ and its significance is real to you this holiday season.

Love the Steigers
(Filip, Lenka, Sam, Nate, Emma, and Jordan)

Sunday

While we ask, Lord, for the most meaningful Advent season ever, we sadly confess having done so little with so much. Forgive us, Lord, for not bending the knee, for not reading your Word, for not searching our hearts, for not facing our sins. Forgive us according to your tender mercies, O God! Grant that when Christmas morning breaks for us this year, we may have a fresh sense of your presence and a renewed resolve to live to the praise of Christ's glory.

More snow pictures

Here are more pictures from our snow storm on Thursday. Doesn't it look pretty?

As you can see we get some use out of our swing set even in the winter.

And here is Fil's grill with a big snow hat on top :)

17 Weeks

You are probably wondering what does the seventeen weeks mean. We just finished week 17 weeks of school. That means we have 19 more to go. We started earlier than public schools and we only took a week off at Thanksgiving so here we are almost half way done.

Here is a picture of the books we have read so far or we are still reading.


We sure were busy during those 17 weeks and we have more to go. I am still enjoying homeschooling and already starting to look at what we will do next year.

Snow AGAIN !!!

I am sorry if you are already sick of me posting pictures of snow. We live in New England and you may see a lot more snow pictures this winter. However, we've never seen this much snow before Christmas and even for New England this is very rare. This will be our 5th year in the North country and we haven't seen this much snow in such a short period of time. We are all very excited and are enjoying it very much (I will definitely feel differently by the end of February and I will surely let you know about it).

So here we are 5 days until Christmas and we have more snow than we can handle. I am writing this post at 3 in the afternoon and the snow is still coming down hard. The boys are outside again and we are praying that Fil will make it home from work in one piece and in a reasonable time. We all played outside after the boys finished school and as you can see Emma lost it at the end. There is just too much snow for her little feet. Poor girl got stuck and I was too busy taking pictures.
Yep, she wasn't a very happy one.
Can you believe all that snow and I took this picture around 11 am and it is still coming down hard.

And here is Emma happy again.


We are now waiting to see if the swings will get completely covered by snow. We are guessing we have just under 30" of snow in the backyard right now. On Sunday it is supposed to be about 45 and rain hard. Hopefully too much of it won't get washed away before Christmas.

planet earth

I am starting to see what a movie junkie I am. I wanted to post about planet earth even though we haven't finished watching this 5 disc set series. (each dvd about 150 minutes). This is a great Christmas present if any of you are looking for a last minute gifts.

Using high definition photography and revolutionary ultra-high speed cameras, five years in the making, over 2000 days in the field, using 40 cameramen across 200 locations, Planet Earth is the ultimate portrait of our planet. Everybody in our family loves it and we are all learning something new. Beautiful pictures from around the world.

We do not own this series but we are able to enjoy it from our local library.

Nutcracers and being silly

As I wrote yesterday we are on a roll when it comes to crafts this week. I saw this idea from Mailbox earlier in the year and I loved it. First the boys were not so sure about it but they have been playing with them ever since.
Sam even made a gun by himself for his little guy.

Here is Nate and Emma pretending to be asleep (it was time to go to bed and these two decided it would be a good idea to sleep in our living room).
Who knows what Emma was smelling.
And here are some pictures of me (very rare). Emma was trying to give me a kiss and Fil was trying to capture it. We (me and Emma) had a good laught during it.

Yep, two girls waiting for one more partner to join them (hopefully soon).