Fa La La La La, La La, La, La

Christmas 2010 will go down in the books as a great celebration. We started the advent season by doing a Jesse Tree, which I highly recommend googling if you've never heard of it. They are advent readings each night leading up to Christmas. It really helped my older kids look at the big picture of the Bible. How Noah, Abraham, Rahab, John the Babtist, Mary etc., each played a part in leading to the Christ.

We took Rachel to see the Nutcracker this year. I think we have started a tradition because she LOVED it and is still walking around the house on her tip toes. I think we have to take Bennett and Ellie next year too. They would have enjoyed it as well.

We spent Christmas morning at home, opened Christmas stockings and let the kids play a while and fill up on candy while we were waiting for me to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast. No one was very hungry for them, but they were yummy this morning as leftovers!

We got to my parent's house at 11 and spent the day there, opening presents and eating WAY too much! Having small children and getting to watch their joy at each new gift is so much fun. They make for a great celebration.

Thanksgiving 2010- Xs 3

Thanksgiving is officially over for us. Our tradition is to have dinner at my parent's house on Thursday and then go back for leftovers on Friday night and Sunday night. I did pretty well Thursday and Friday night with not stuffing myself, but I think I knew that last night would be my last plate of yummy food, and I did myself in! I had a really good run this morning though, probably due to the carb loading! Jeromy was in charge of Thanksgiving pictures, but we only have pictures that he could take from the couch because he wasn't feeling very well.

The new traditions is that we come over early and the kids get to decorate my parent's tree. Usually my dad is so excited for Christmas, he has it up WAY before Thanksgiving, but hopefully we can get him to stick to the new plan. (My mom forces his to take it down by Valentine's Day!)








I realize there are no pictures of baby girl. She was napping during the time that any pictures were taken. She LOVED the turkey and cranberry sauce though!

Blogging Again?

I have been thinking about blogging again........ No, I don't have the time (I usually would be mopping the floor right now), or really the desire, but it might be the only way to chronicle the lives of my little ones. Time is going by sooooooo fast, and I am not good at journaling. That, and with family that lives far and wide (and a couple of friends bugging me to do it) I think I am going to try blogging again. So without further ado, here are some family pictures that we had taken this summer while my sister and her kids were visiting from Georgia. Yes, I know we don't look alike, we have different moms. Mine is 6'1" and hers is like 5'3". It was so nice to see them. It had been FIVE years! Too long to go without seeing your only sister.

June Happenings

The summer has started off slowly here in WA, but we are finally seeing a glimpse of it. We set up our pool last weekend, but it turned cool again, so we only got a couple of swimming days in earlier in the week. (I wrote this post over a week ago, and since then we have had day after day of triple digits. The weather turned quickly!) Rachel had a 5th birthday in June. She learned to ride Bennett's bike without anyone helping her, so she got a new bike from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday. Our other "big" news is that we are expecting another baby! My due date is February 28th, so hopefully he/she will appear before the middle of March :) Enjoy some pictures from the last couple of months.


Little Emma is 15 months old and still everyone's sweetie. She is such a lovable one and gives kisses to everyone all of the time.



She is an adventurous eater and wants whatever we have. She had Thai spiced turkey burgers the other night. She ate a whole hamburger by herself! I was worried about her little tummy with all those spices, but she seemed to do fine. She never liked the baby food thing.



This is what Rachel can be found doing during her "school" time. She and Ellie share a room, and Ellie stays up late. Rachie is quite tired some days because I think she needs more sleep than Ellie does. Does anyone have any suggestions about this? Rachel used to do the same thing to Bennett when they shared a room.



Still best buddies. Rachel plays an important role in our family I have noticed. She is the one that Bennett wants to play with, and she is the one that Ellie wants to play with. Some days the threesome dynamic is hard, but Emma is quickly filling the playmate role for Ellie. If Rachel is gone, they are all lost and don't know what to do with themselves.



Ellie is still as silly as ever. Boy can that girl make us all laugh. She is such a goofy one and has such a great sense of humor. She entertains us with a myriad of faces at the dinner table.



Bennett is learning to mow the lawn with Jeromy. Jeromy is very excited for the day to come when he can pass down that chore to his son!



Bennett loves his daddy and eagerly awaits his arrival home each night. He craves that testosterone and is praying several times a day that God will give us a boy. I told him not to get his hopes up. God is refining with with all these girls!




Rachel's birthday dinner. Steak tacos with beans, rice, chips and even soda! Her favorite is root beer.



Matching girls and Rachel's birthday crown.



Boy it's hard to get a picture of all 4 together!



Rachel's new bike.



Ellie is my bravest kid by far. Rachel, at 5, is just now not too scared of things like Chuck E.



Last year Ellie and Emma were both pretty scared of Chuck E Cheese and all the noise. This year they both LOVED it. Emma caught on very quickly, and when her ride would stop, she held out her hand for another token. The girl is ready for Disneyland!



Rachel had so much fun, and got into the collecting of tickets too. (Unfortunately..... although I talked them into candy instead of a bunch of cheap toys I would have to throw away!)



Bennett went to the dollar store and bought Rachel presents with his own money this year. He was very excited to give her the gift that HE purchased for her.



He bought her a bouquet of flowers and a canvas that had princesses outlined on it that she could color herself.

Surprise 7th Birthday Party!!

Bennett's 7th birthday coincided with finishing his 1st grad curriculum, so we knew we HAD to throw him a party. We usually have a family party, but this year we invited 3 other families with boys that Bennett really likes, and we made it a SURPRISE party. The little guy is pretty nosey, so keeping it under wraps was hard when people are responding to emails that are titled, "Bennett's Surprise Party." More than once I had to cover my screen and tell him to walk away. It remained a secret mostly because I didn't do anything for it until he left to spend the night at my parent's house. His other big surprise was a trampoline. It was quite a wonderful day, although Emma had a fever and wasn't feeling well. My mom was nice enough to hold her most of the time. The kids enjoyed hot dogs, chips, soda, cupcakes and all sorts of unhealthy stuff we don't get very often. Let's just say Bennett is still talking about how much he likes junk food.












We had a birthday lunch for Bennett on his real birthday. His birthday meal was tacos, his favorite, and root beer floats, which he had never had before but wanted to try. I think it was a birthday weekend he won't soon forget.

Easter Pictures

We asked a friend from church (Thanks, Denise!) to take some family pictures after the service. I am never too hopeful of getting a good one because someone is always looking away or doing something weird, or crying (I never blame the photographer. I think it is next to impossible!) Ellie had a pretty sour look on her face for most of the pictures, but there were a couple of good ones!