Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from us! We have had a wonderful year and hope that all of you have too! The goodness of our families and friends continues to bless our lives more than we can say. We are so thankful for our Savior and celebrate his birth, his life, and his sacrifice for us. We pray for peace and joy in 2011 for all! Merry Christmas.

Gingerbread House Party

We had a great time at our Gingerbread house party this year! We had six houses when we were finished:
Michelle, Aaron, & Junie
Dave, Jen, Lizzy & Julie
Mikey & Jessica
Katie & Dad
Noah & Grammy
Addie & Papa
They looked great! Grammy always has tons of great colorful candy to use! Noah's strategy was to pack the most candy onto his house for eating later, Addie made his complete with a vampire face, and Katie's was just cute and colorful! We ate lots of pizza and watched Elf, one of our favorite holiday movies. It is so fun to be with the whole family around the holidays!

Tis the Season

We are very merry over here!! We love you Christmas!

It is always fun to get out these darling angel ornaments. They are so special to me. My sister made these for me the Christmas after our baby Jillian passed away and although 8 years have passed by it is very sweet to think of our little angel.

My favorite ornament when I was a little girl is now Katie's favorite.

The Christmas cookies and treats are being baked, eaten, and given away!! Yummy Christmas!

The Christmas stories are being read, and then read again, and again.

At our house baby Jesus is always being adored very seriously. You will never find anyone in our Nativity far from him.

The house is decorated, Christmas everywhere and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care!

Merry Christmas Season everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a smaller dinner than usual with only a few guests. We missed Mom and Dad, Michelle and Aaron, and Aunt Dianne and Chelsea. But I had fun hosting and since I am not too experienced with Thanksgiving dinner it was probably a good thing. Jason made a delicious turkey and we had a great time. One thing about hosting is that there really isn't time to take lots of pictures! What you see here is the total of what I shot. After we finished our yummy dinner and dessert we all headed over to see Tangled. It was a very cute movie, one that Katie has been waiting to see forever. I really love Thanksgiving, it is wonderful to have a holiday that is solely about gratitude and family and we truly have so much to be thankful for!!!

Winter Wonderland

There's been snow and lots of it around here. The kids got the whole week out of school! There's been lots of sledding, snowballs, baking, card games, legos, hot cocoa, stories, forts, Mario Cart racing, and snuggling under blankets in pjs movie marathons. Hooray for snow days!!

Believe It or Not

The other day Noah and I have the following conversation:

Him: Mom I know Santa isn't real. It's just moms and dads doing everything.
Me: Oh well right. I guess you are growing up. When did you figure that one out?
Him: A long time ago. I just didn't want to hurt your feelings.

So Noah is on to the second stage of life. I have a very funny door hanger that reads:
Stage 1: you believe in Santa
Stage 2: you don't believe in Santa
Stage 3: you are Santa
Stage 4: you look like Santa

When You're Having Fun

How much longer will this hand be so little in mine? Time is flying by as always. Soccer is finished right down to the pizza parties and the trophy's. No more wet Saturdays for a while. The boys had a great time and were sad to see it end. Katie was happy to see it end. As we were getting on our rain boots for the last game she said, "Mom, I HATE soccer!"

The boys have been so into games lately. We spend most nights playing skip-bo, uno, milleborne, and scrabble. I love card games so it's really fun for me!! I no longer have to talk Jason into games of skip-bo.

Adam has been writing lots more lately and spelling words phonically in the stories he writes. He gets his d and b mixed up lots and the other day I found a paper saying this: "rot die Adam." I was worried until he told me it said: "wrote by Adam." Heh. Of course.

I am back to being the den mom for cub scouts, although this time it's the webelos den. I love it already! I get to be with Noah and the other boys in the den are great. Cub scouting is so fun, I hope to do this for a year, then maybe move on down to the wolf den with Addie next year.

Christmas will be here before you know it and guess what....I am already listening to Christmas music!!

Goofy Katie

I have been doing some photo shoots of my friend's kids lately and Katie has been my little helper. She is very patient while I photograph the other kids and sometimes she can't resist getting in on the action, covering herself with leaves and saying, "Take a picture of this Mama!" How can I resist.
The other day Katie and I were watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse and she said, "Goofy is so silly and not reverent at all. It's ok though because there isn't any church on this show." She is such a crack-up with the things she says.

Adam

That's right! More steps than any other first-grader! Yea Adam!

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween! Our ghost, ninja, and Rapunzel loved the trunk or treat, the spooky dinner, and all the scary movies. What they loved most of all was being able to have Grandma and Grandpa here to celebrate with! This year the boys were able to carve their own pumpkins and they turned out very spooky. We made LOTS of Halloween treats, dirt cups, cake pops, caramel popcorn, and lots more! Our scary dinner was witch's hair spaghetti, bread stick bones, and creepy glow in the dark drinks! Best part of our Halloween: no rain!! Katie got her fill of scary movies: Coraline, Monster House, Ichabod, and lots of others. We definately enjoyed it and are ready for more holiday fun. I love this time of year!!

Pumpkin Time

There's something about winding your way through a big corn maze on a beautiful sunny day that really makes you feel as carefree as one of the kids you are with. The boys loved finding their way through the maze and following the map along the twists and turns. The hay bale maze was great too although Katie had to cry her way out because she got stuck in the middle and felt scared. Too much Scooby Doo if you ask me. We loved taking the hay ride and picking out our pumpkins! Katie kept trying to find "spookly the square pumpkin" so she could pick him, but we just didn't see him. The rule is you can get it as long as you can carry it back to the car! Noah's was a big fella, he was feeling pretty ambitious and almost made it, but had to have Jason carry his while he helped with Katie's. Can't believe Halloween is only a week away!

Bedtime

Tonight as I'm tucking Katie in this is the conversation we have:
Me: Katie remember do NOT come in my bed tonight.
Katie: But I love coming in your bed.
Me: No
Katie: But I love you
Me: that's nice but you need to sleep in your own bed.
Katie: But you're beautiful.
It's kinda hard to continue arguments when she goes on like this. Is she really just four? She's very smart.

Welcome Fall

We have been enjoying such a gorgeous fall this year. The sun has been shining, the wind is crisp and a little chilly, and the leaves are turning. It is so beautiful. We have fires in the fireplaces, delicious apples everyday after school, and hot chocolates at night. There are lots of tiny frogs in the backyard to play with, along with all the soccer that's played back there. We have been watching lots of Halloween movies, Katie even declared that Scooby Doo was her prince. Tons of Halloween treats, yummy soups, and pumpkin bread. The birthdays are over, the costumes are ready, we are loving fall and we are happy.