Merry Christmas

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care...

This was a most unusual Christmas for us. With Ryan gone, I did not decorate much. The kids are still to little to know the difference so I kept it simple. I did miss NOT having a tree and all the trimmings. But we made up for it at Grammy and Pappa's.Beka, William and Grammy decorating the "grandkid" tree

Kira and Annabel watching

Grammy, the kids and the beautifully decorated tree -clump style
Beka and William had so much fun decorating the tree. They each had their own bag of ornaments and they each carefully placed all the ornaments on the same 3 branches.

Making the frosting for cookies. Beka was having so much fun making the different colors that when it came time to making green, she kept squeezing the tube of food coloring. Needless to say green was everywhere and it was a dark green.

Kids Table- eating spaghetti before cookie decorating

They were so cute. We loved listening to their conversation

William carefully placing sprinkles on his red snowman

See

Christmas Eve

6 kids 3 and under need I say more

Christmas Eve
We miss you Daddy!

Kids table- notice William has the same face. He is NOT into taking pictures- such a 3 year old

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Santa made an appearance

Christmas Morning

I was terrible about taking pictures or should I say overwhelmed. So Christmas was not as well documented as hoped.

Christmas morning opening stocking
William walks downstairs to see what Santa left and his response was:

"Where is my yellow car? I asked Santa for a yellow car." Mommy was crushed. Little did he know that Santa left his yellow car in Reno. It was too big to bring back. William was thrilled when we returned home to find that and a sled.

Thomas the Trains

Gifts from Daddy:

Mommy= t-shirt

William =a stuffed penguin

Annabel =a stuffed seal

Thrilling Thursday's

Every Thursday, we have playgroup. We have been together since the toddlers were just days/weeks old.

8 random women +8 terrific toddlers +6 playful babies
= wonderful weekly chaos
I love this group! I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends to share this great stage of life with. Our chidlren play so well together and love being together. We all take turns hosting the activity. This week we went to Rock a Bye for a puppet show and then headed to Red Robin for lunch.

Huge snowman outside Rock-A-Bye

William, Sara, Sofia, Jack

teamwork

race car drivers patiently waiting for our table

I love it that they are content with watching the screen- no money- shh


The boys being silly




The girls

Awe- food
I wish I had taken pictures of the entire group. 5 mommies, 5 tots, 4 babies made for one fun, loud, messy table. However, we were not the only large group with young children. I was pleasantly surprised at how well lunch went.

Starbucks Outing

We have had SO much snow! Can I say Cabin Fever! The first afternoon where I felt it was safe to venture the roads we did. We met our friends Miss Rebeeca, Larissa, Leila, and Liv at Starbucks down the hill. It was wonderful to enjoy a warm cup of apple cider, sit by the fire, and visit with friends. A quick pose by the fire

Annabel, Leila, William, Larissa and Liv

Larissa, Leila and William playing Having FUN!
Ta Da

Sweet kids

(sorry, don't know how to flip)

Snow Snow and More Snow

We have had so much snow! It snowed for days before letting up. We had a blast playing in the snow, buliding a snowman, making snow angels, having snowball fights. But I did not like shoveling! I had blisters, sore shoulders, and sore arms.

William making a snowball

Look!
William chose his snow clothes- rain boots and fireman hat. We had to wait and see if Santa was going to bring him new snow clothes.

My little helper
Our cheerleader

So pretty!

Hanging out with Timothy

Grammy and Timothy came to play to for the week. Uncle Brian and Auntie Amber were busy moving into their NEW home so Timothy came to play. We had a blast and enjoyed the snow. It snowed so much while Grammy and Timothy were here that that got snowed in for 2 extra days.

Before heading to Playgroup William had swimming lessons.

Showing off his skills

William GRADUATED to the next level Panda 2!!

(sorry no idea why the picture is this way- don't know how to change it)

Someone else loves the water

Timothy was able to join us for Playgroup at the mall to see Santa and have lunch. Boy was Santa surprised to have 6 toddlers around him. We were kind enough to not add the 5 babies. So hard to get everyone looking at the camera. This was the best we could do.

William, Averi Jack, Timothy, Sara and Mitchell

After lunch a little ride

SNOW DAY

Running wild in the snow

Sled ride from our neighbor Miss Casey

Sledding

Afternoon of Baking

Carefully unwrapping each Hersey kissMy happy helpers

Placing a kiss on each cookie

Best part of baking

Someone asked for seconds

Our cheerleader

Dessert time

YUMMY Apple cider- or should I say colored water??

The boys had so much energy after dessert that we headed outside to burn off some energy before bedtime. We bundled up and headed outside for a snowball fight.

Look OUT!

The Next morning ...

MORE snow

Snow continued to fall so we had to shovel again!

Taking a break for to toss some snowballs

Oh- this is hard work- now time to rest

Warming up
The boys had enough of the snow so we headed inside. We warmed up with warm apple cider, letter cookies and watched a show. (aka- the Veggietales)


Enjoying a cup of warm cider, a snack and memorized by the TV. I sure hope we did not start any bad habits while Timothy was here. :) (shows, sweets, apple cider) We sure had a blast and were glad to have our cousin to play in the snow with.

Thanks Grammy and Timothy for coming to play with us. What fun we had! What memories we made!