Ski Day

The girls got their own ski equipment this year for Christmas so the first chance they got, they wanted to be up on the slopes.  Josh took them and put them in a morning class then was able to ski with them the rest of the day.  These 2 girls LOVE to ski and are getting to be really good little skiers.  So proud of them!

It's a boy!

Wohoo! We're having another boy!  Wait.  Did I say wohoo?  What am I thinking?  These boys are taking over my life!  Can't wait for this next one to join the madhouse!

Liev's artwork

Liev has become quite the artist.  He loves to draw and color and spends lots of time on his pictures every day.  He has started drawing people and they are so cute!  This is our family.  Don't you love how some of us have scary teeth?

Another picture of our family on Christmas opening our presents.

I love that he is into drawing.  I love seeing his creative side and hope he keeps it up!

Bowling

Josh has been off work this week and we've had the best time with our dad being home!  Today we went bowling with the whole family and the kids loved it.  They each did a great job and were excited whenever their ball hit any pins.  Mostly it was great being with the whole family together.  Such a fun family activity!

Marble Run

Some of the kids favorite gifts they got this year were the boxes of marble runs they got to be able to make a giant run.  They pulled them out the next day and together with dad they made this monster marble run from the table down to the ground.  They played with it for over an hour after it was made just running the marbles through over and over again.  Love these gifts that keep them occupied and keep their minds thinking!

Christmas 2015

We had such a great Christmas this year!  We had Christmas Eve at my parents house and spent most of the afternoon and evening there just being together and having fun.  Hayley planned a darling song for the kids to sing and perform for us.  They were each dressed up as a present and sang "Good things come in little packages."  It was so cute and all the kids did such a good job!

 We also went caroling to some neighbors and its was a perfect night for it.  There was new snow and it was so Christmasy to spend an hour or so singing to people that we care about.  This is our group on the doorstep and I have to say, I think we sounded great!

 Back to Grammie's house for the nativity and pjs.  The nativity is always fun and a little chaotic but the kids love it!  We all went out separate ways after that and headed home to get ready for Christmas Day.

 The kids couldn't wait for Santa to come but I wanted to get a picture of them in their pjs before we put them to bed.

 Of course every picture session has to end with a "crazy" picture.  We let all the kids sleep in the same room that night and it took them a while to fall asleep.  Eventually everything was quiet and they were all dreaming of Santa and what he would bring!

 Lined up at the top of stairs on Christmas morning and each of them came down in order one at a time.

We had such a fun Christmas morning giving gifts to each other and seeing what everyone got.  This was the first year we had each of the kids choose names and get a gift for each other.  We opened those gifts first and they were each so excited to give their gift to the person they had chosen.  It was really sweet.  We also try and let everyone open one gift as we all watch.  It makes for a little slower morning but it's so fun to see what everyone got and see their reactions.  It's turned out to be the best way for us to do it.  

The final gift was the room reveal and we got the girls reaction on video.  It was priceless.  They were so excited and couldn't get enough of what was different about their room.  I'm so glad they liked it and hopefully they keep it clean now!

 As always my favorite gifts always come from my kids and their homemade cards.  Rhen made this cute book about our family. 

 And also a coupon booklet just for me!  Love it!

 Liev made this Christmas book at school and had it all wrapped up for me.

 And Rease and Rhen made homemade picture frames with pictures they had drawn for me to put by my bed.  I love these kids so much and their thoughtfulness!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all had a season filled with the love of Christ and had some great moments with your family!

Daddy's Work

The girls have been out of school this week for Christmas so Josh decided to take them to work with him today.  They had such a fun day with him and Josh said they were actually really helpful.  They cleaned his office and did a few odd jobs for him while he tried to get a little work done.  He took them to lunch for Mexican food and snapped this cute picture of the 3 of them.  What a good dad they have!

My project - the girls room

I decided that for Christmas this year I was going to try and avoid getting a lot of toys for the kids and wanted to do something different.  We have millions of toys floating around our house that the kids don't really play with that much anymore so I wanted to get away from that if possible.  So I thought that it would be fun to redo the girls' room and see what I could do to spice it up a little bit.  I knew I wanted to put a dresser in there for them and maybe do some painting and change bedding etc.  I figured I could do it pretty cheap if I had enough time to find the right things.  So I was on the lookout for a few months.  

I finally ran across these beauties at the DI one day.  I found a dresser and 2 matching nightstands.  I know they don't look like much now but I knew they had potential.  They were very sturdy and well made and I knew I could do a little work and get them to be just right.  I also found a small church pew there that would be a perfect addition to the room.  So I bought them all and ended up spending $95 total.  Pretty good for 4 good pieces of furniture.  I also got some picture frames from mom that she was getting rid of and thought those would be good to add to the mix.  

So a few weeks before Christmas I got to work.  I bought some fabric to recover the bench, bought some spray paint for the picture frames and bought a very costly gallon of white paint that matched the white in their room for the dresser and nightstands.  The bench used to be this ugly pink velour fabric and I knew that had to go.  Hayley, mom and I raided Hobby Lobby one day and found this cute paisley patterned fabric that had just the right colors.  So I bought the last piece of it that they had and used it to recover the bench.  I took off all the handles from the nightstands and dresser and sanded it all then primed it.  

 I bought a bunch of cute, colorful knobs to go on the dresser and nightstands and decided to try getting all different shapes, sizes and colors.  I wasn't sure how it would look but went for it anyway.  Once everything was painted, the fun part was putting on the knobs and seeing how it all looked.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

 2 days before Christmas I put the room all together and this is the final product.  New bedding from Target that is white with gold polka dots.  The pillows I got from Barnes and Noble when they were having their clearance sale.  They were each $2!  Can't beat that!  

 I got a poster sized print of the girls together and didn't frame it, just hung it as it was.  It looks cute and different next to the pink frame.  

 Overall I think the room turned out really cute and I'm so excited to show the girls and see what they think.  They have been banned from their room for the past week while I finished up so they know something is happening.  They're pretty excited to see what is going on and I can't wait to see their reaction!

Letters to Santa

The kids each wrote letters to Santa and also were able to sit on his lap and tell him everything they wanted for Christmas.  Hopefully it's a happy year for them!

Becker

Our little Beck is not so little anymore.  He just grew up into a little boy and he is so fun!  Here are a few new things he's up to...

Beck has an ear-piercing squeal that he lets out at random moments during the day.  He recently figured out that he can plug his ears at the same time he screams and it's not quite so loud.  He does it over and over.

He has also become an expert at folding his arms during prayers.  He is usually the first one ready for the prayer when we call everyone together.

Liev and Keen got Ninja Turtle stuff and Beck wanted his turn at the mask.

 Cutest turtle I ever met!

 We love our Beck who is growing up too fast!

Watching the snow

We had a pretty good snow storm last night and the kids decided they wanted to eat their breakfast by the window today to look at all the new snow we got.  Plus it's the warmest spot in the room sitting right over the vent.  These kids are so excited for winter to be here in full swing!

Merry Christmas!

Mom and her boys

I get to spend a lot of time with the boys since the girls are at school all day.  We get to do lots of fun things together, but mostly we just love hanging out and taking it easy.  Here are a few pics of my sweet boys and they funny things they do!

Candy Day

We held our annual Candy Day again this year and it's a day that we all look forward too.  We had a little bit smaller crowd this year - it was just our family and dad came over to help for a few hours.  Greg was a lifesaver and came a took all the little boys (except Beck) to the movie and lunch.  They were gone for a few hours and we had some very productive hours while they were gone.  It worked out perfectly!  We made the traditionals: turtles, caramel pretzels, peanut butter cups, peanut clusters and oreos.  We added homemade twix bars to the list this year and I think they turned out good.  Overall, it was a great day and the girls and dad were a ton of help!  We love getting the holidays started with this yummy tradition!

Christmas Tree

We love going to look for a Christmas tree and finding the perfect one on the lot.  This year there were lots of different colored ones that the kids thought were pretty cool, but we settled on this tall skinny one instead.

 We got it home and the girls helped me put the lights on and then everyone helped with the decorations.

 And we had to hang our stockings too!

 This is the final product of all the kids' hard work today!  We're so excited it's Christmas time!

Thanksgiving in Iowa

We decided to take a road trip to Iowa this year for Thanksgiving.  Josh's sister Dixie and her family live there and it's been so long since we've been out there.  The kids were excited to go even though it meant a 14 hour drive to get there.  But Josh is a pro at driving through the night so we packed up and left Tuesday night after dinner.  The kids watched a couple movies then we all fell asleep until the next morning.  When we woke up Josh told us we were 45 minutes away!  Just like that we were almost there.  It worked out perfect.  We got to Dixie's and had breakfast and put Josh right to bed.  Scott and Dixie live on a farm and have 950 acres of land all around them.  It was so fun for the kids to be able to get out and run around in the open space.  They helped feed the chickens, gather eggs, feed the cows and all those farm life chores.  They thought it was awesome. 

Liev made fast friends with Nolan and was so excited to learn to shoot the bow and arrow.  He was a pro right from the start and that's all he wanted to do the rest of the week.

Thanksgiving Day was great.  Robin, Guy and their kids also drove out for the week and Andy flew in to be with the family too.  It was a great gathering of loved ones.  

All the cousins at one table - looks like too much fun!

 Rease and Rhen organized "I'm thankful for..." decorations.  They had everyone write down what they were thankful for and hung them up all over the house.  It was so cute and turned out to be the perfect thing for this Thanksgiving Day.

 Before we started for home I had to get a couple pictures of Keen and the animals that he fell in love with in Iowa.  He is an animal lover and could not get enough of the kitties and the dog.  He played in the garage all day everyday that we were there.  

 A picture of all the cousins.

 There was an ice storm the day before we left and this is what our van looked like as we were trying to pack it up.  It was so cold that the ice never really did melt until we were well on our way home.  

 And this happy camper made it all the way there and back without much of a squeak at all.  He was the best boy and actually so were the rest of the kids.  It was a great trip overall and we are so glad we got to go see Scott and Dixie and spend Thanksgiving with family!