We still exist here in the Midwest. And I still believe in blogging. Even if it's just a reminder to me that even if some days are long and hard, the years go by quickly and life is beautiful.
Yes, Life Is Beautiful.
Thanksgiving 2013.
This was, I think, our first Thanksgiving without family ever in the history of our family. :)
So we invited another resident family over and had fun spending time together and being grateful.
All cute things were not my ideas. :)
Thank you Pinterest.
Oh ya except for the adorable children.
Those are all mine. :)
The kids were so good to run around the yard finding me the perfect leaves for this.
They were SUCH good helpers.
I love these pictures.
There is nothing better then the family working together in the kitchen.
We played soccer with our friends and then the kids watched some Charlie Brown while the adults visited. All in all a great success. Even if we did miss our families just a little bit. :)
Christmas 2013
I wish I had more pictures of Christmas. We had a great great time deciding what family traditions to make into OUR family traditions. (ok I decided and everyone just did what I told them too. :))
We made 10 loaves of Grandma Judy's christmas bread and delivered it to our friends and neighbors. Caroling as we dropped the deliciousness off. We did this Christmas eve day/evening and I have to say that next year maybe we will do it the day before. This isn't Raymond ya'll and I think everyone was at Christmas Eve Mass. :) Except the Mormon folks - they were all home. :)
When we got home we had hot soup in soup bowls with crackers, yummy cheese, and dips.
Then the kids opened up Christmas P.J's from Grandma Judy and we acted out the Nativity.
I think Sammy was a sheep. :)
Christmas Morning!
My family is so good to me. The kids didn't even complain when we ate a delicious breakfast casserole with egg nog, watched old family Christmas movies, played with our stocking stuffers and didn't even delve into a single present until it was at least 10:45.
I sure do love these rascals!! Our favorite part of Christmas is always watching our homemade Christmas movies from our families and our own. I stayed up until 4am Christmas eve to finish ours and it was fun to show it to the kids in the morning.
Davey Jay. 15/16mths
Oh this boy. He is so sweet and such a rascal all at the same time!
He thinks he is one of the big kids and loves to follow them everywhere and try and do everything they do - even the naughty things.... :) He climbs on everything and then bounces and dances like he's the king of the world. I'm always saving him from the tops of things and he always gives me the biggest cheesiest grin. :) He is really coming into his own personality and is STUBBORN! He loves to throw all his food on the floor and then scream (and I mean scream) until I let him out of his chair and then he runs around the table climbing onto everyone else's lap to eat their food. I have been trying to wean him from night feedings, but man is he putting up a fight. I might have to wean him completely because of lack of sleep. He loves a good snuggle and nurse all.night.long!!!! Ahh, just thinking about it is making me go batty! He loves to read books and is really pretty good at communicating with us. He says wow, mama, papa, hi, waves bye, gives hi fives, copies everything, and I think he is trying/is saying more words but they are pretty unintelligible. I have wondered if this is due to an extended double ear infection (which I'm hoping is way in the past now), but either way I'm sure his words will come in his own good time. He is always bringing me shoes to put on him because he always wants to go outside. He often walks around the house with two different pairs of shoes on. We can't wait for warmer weather so we can spend hours outside! He is really shy of other people and takes quite a while to warm up. We had a play group at our house the other day and he literally bawled every second I set him down. It took him about 2hrs to warm up and let me put him down so he could go play. I'm thinking that's no good for Nursery in a month and a half!
This boy LOVES his Papa. Today I was giving Mark a hug when he got home from work and Davey came up pushed me away and wanted up to have Papa all to himself. It was pretty cute.
This little boy is so full of life and energy and love. I am so grateful he is part of our family!
I love the photo bomb by Sammy. :)
See, how I can hardly keep up??!! Way to smart for his own good!
Loving the outdoors even after a few face plants. :)
Sunday Evening Giggles.
Valentine's Day!
We had our annual Valentine's Day Party!
It was Pizza Friday so we had heart shaped pizza's, special drinks, fruit with chocolate and whipped cream for dessert.
The kids went on a treasure hunt to find their Valentine's from Mama.
(this was Wilson's idea and then when he wasn't looking I actually did it. Usually I just stick them in their envelopes on their chairs. They were pretty excited) We played pin the heart on Cupid and had a family balloon dance.
Zina's class party was the week before and she spent about 2hrs making homemade valentines for her 17 classmates. She wrote out a personalized note to each one and I loved how thoughtful she was. Her teacher told me that several of the kids came and showed her Zina's valentine to them and what she had written. I am grateful for this sweet daughter who loves to make other people feel happy.
This was my idea (from Pinterest of course) for her Valentine's and I loved that she happily went along and then did her own thing too. That's my Zina. Sometimes I need to just chill out and let her do her thing because her thing is always awesome.
We had a snow day (haha try like a week on snow days this year!) and Zina gave us an art class and taught us how to make clay pots. She is such a good little teacher and she loves loves loves art.
One night after the boys were in bed me and her snuck downstairs and had a little girl time painting our pots. It was fun to be together. It doesn't happen near enough with 3 little brothers!
I volunteer in Zina's class every Wednesday for an hour and snuck this picture of her class (and the class trash can.. :) I will have to get a picture of her and her teacher. I think Ms. McCloud must be the nicest teacher in the school. Seriously. I am grateful for her.
Even though it's blurry I love this picture of 4 little heads gathered around something so intently.
True brotherly love. This is real sharing. :)
Last but not least we have had some truly awesome snow this winter and we have been LOVING it.
One Saturday I started building an igloo for the kids and Mark and Wilson stayed out for probably 5hrs and finished it. It was pretty darn cool. :)
And we found a sledding hill!!
Sure do love this bunch of crazies!
