We're going to have a WHITE Christmas!

Although we're sad we won't be in Michigan for Christmas we will still be having a white Christmas!  It's been snowing allllll day!  Eric has been shoveling and shoveling and shoveling!  :)  We've been having fun Skyping with cousins in MI though!!!

The work of a public servant is never done!  Thanks, Beld! :)

One of the cool things about having a lot of kids with the same birthday is..

you can get a pretty good Clone Trooper Army going!
Happy Birthday to our FIVE year olds!  Now for a day filled with activity. 

Snow much fun!

More fun playing in the snow this week/weekend. We're getting a nice long stretch with snow (although, nowhere near the accumulation that MI is seeing but it's great for us!) and the kids are having fun playing in it. We even headed to the park for some "big hill" sledding today but I chose to leave my camera safe and cozy at home.


With now school on Friday we headed to Aunt Joan's for Sand Cookies and other "goodies"(just a side note...it dawned on me, one of my first times enjoying sand cookies came 5 years ago when Aunt Joan visited me in the hospital on bed rest with the boys. I got to enjoy a whole container FULL almost all by myself!) :)

Just a little canvas we painted for Aunt Joan.
And with a few snow days under our belt we caved and let the kids open a couple presents. Yesterday was a few stocking gifts, today was the presents they bought for each other. They picked names this year and it was so fun shopping with them and watching them open the gifts they picked out for each other. This is Tyler's reaction to the Transformer Joey picked out for him. Do you think he liked it?

We've also been busy with Christmas programs. Mia had her piano recital the same night as the boys pre-school program. Both were perfect! The day before was the church program but my pictures weren't the best. The school program has been postponed until the new year.

Here comes the snow!

With record low temps all week we FINALLY are getting some snow with it!  Lucas went out by himself for a while so I headed out for a brief moment with him to get some pictures (his brothers were napping! and the girls were still in school) and everyone was out in it later but I was to big of a wimp to go out and take pictures. 

Dear Grandpa and Grandma

I worked so hard yesterday to make a special card for you and even got the box all ready to go all by myself but my Mom won't send it yet.  She said she still needs to "add a few more things."

Eventually, it will get to you and it will be worth the wait.

I love you!  

Lucas

The Birthday Week

We pretty much celebrate Holly's birthday all week long. That's what happens, I guess, when your birthday falls right around the holidays. So I added a few to many pictures once again, I'm afraid!The Monday before her birthday she wanted to go to Kyoto Japanese Steakhouse, where they make all the food in front of you. The much anticipated "volcano"Cinnamon rolls for breakfast on her birthday.I do believe this is her opening the card from Grandma R. who has been known to use a little to much tape! :)We finally had a "little" party with family last Sunday. Uncle Dave was the sucker who bought her the monstrosity of a balloon. That's what happens when you send him on the errands!We had to have Shirley Temples to go along with our Hawaiian themed party!

Giving Thanks

For all of you who have no idea who these people are...so sorry!  You've got lots to skip over! :)  But for those of you patiently waiting for visual proof that we actually did get together as a HUGE group this Thanksgiving...here it is!  We met in a local Christian school gym and it worked great.  Lots and lots of food, lots and lots of kids and lots and lots of good fun!  To our CA visitors, we are so grateful you made the trip to spend the weekend with all of us!  I'm sure you were all exhausted on the ride home after all you packed in.

These are in a completely random order.  I'll be back later to edit it and then add some pictures from Holly's birthday.  Enjoy!