happy new year

I wanted to get caught up with blog posts before the new year, and I'm happy to report that I did. For the those interested, or just bored, click on the arrow next to the months October, November, or December to the left and it will show you a list of the posts because I dated them for when they actually happened. And here are a few fun pictures, compliments of my friend Tobey...

Winter Reprieve

One of our Christmas presents for our family was spending a day at a water park. I've had a hankering to play at a water park for the last 4 years or so. Fortunately, Michigan is chock full of indoor parks. Since all fun things are even funner with friends, we went with none other than the Crellins. We're conducting an experiment to see if we'll get sick of each other by spending exorbitant amounts of time together. No illness has resulted.

Yes, we had a blast. And yes, we slept very well that night.

One happy Saturday

The scene the night before Christmas:

We woke up on Christmas to falling snow--the first time for me that I can remember. The whole day was relaxed yet charged with excitement from the kids. Michael spent his time chewing on various objects.

He conveniently learned to crawl right before Christmas so he could gnaw on lights when we weren't looking.

Keturah had a great time with all the toys, but we had to start hiding the candy because she kept going after it.

Bekah was excited to get presents again. Boy was the 26th a let down.

Alex was tearing through presents and passing them out so fast that we had a hard time getting pictures in through all the commotion.

Alex made Matt and I some decorations in school.

Matt got an ipod speaker.

And an extra Kitchenaid bowl for moi.

We made breakfast that the kids hardly ate because they already had so much candy. Alex and Bekah tried out their new snow pants and snow tubes, we played Candyland and watched Beauty and the Beast, we saw family on the webcam, and made a delicious Christmas dinner. All in all, it was the perfect Christmas.

Pleading the Fifth

Bekah tried to convince me on her birthday that she needed new slippers. Her current slippers fit her just fine. She said she was now 5, resulting in the growth of her feet, which in turn meant new slippers. She also thought she could suddenly reach the kitchen sink on her birthday. She didn't let her defeat bother her too much.
We had a little party with her friends a couple days before. Matt built a castle for the kids to play in.

The castle

The guests

The cake

The presents

Matt and I didn't think it was possible for sweet little Bekah to get spoiled, but it did get to her head a little bit.

 On the big day, she started the day with a present.

Then she and I went out to see Tangled in the theater.

While we were out, Alex made her a present: the Grinch's sleigh.

And then she opened the rest of her gifts, followed up with the rest of that castle cake.

Ventriloquist

Sometimes Matt and I worry about kids potentially being mean to Alex because of his eye. So far, he gets comments but it hasn't bothered him. Today, for example, some kid at school told Alex that his eye "looks weird".
Alex pulled out a Santa puppet and said, "Hey you, you're on my naughty list!"

Laziness

We got a real snow storm that canceled school for two days. Not only were the kids home, but Matt was as well. We slept in, read books by the fire, had hot chocolate, watched movies--all the ingredients to the perfect, lazy snow day. Unfortunately, it was like negative ten degrees so we didn't play in the snow, but Alex was undeterred. He spent a good half hour out there before surrendering to the wind.  These first two pictures are from the first snow so it wasn't as cold.

The backyard wonderland

Michael lounging around

Keturah found a comfortable chair.

One of these is not like the other.