Merry Christmas!

We took a quick picture one night. It is kinda of a sad picture. The kids look scrubby. Someday I hope we can pay for a real one :)

I didn't send out Christmas cards again this year. Maybe next year...

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Reindeer and School Christmas parties!

Staucie and Parker made really cute reindeer masks the other day. I loved them. I loved that Parker made his with one big eye and one little eye on purpose. Then he was a little disappointed that he couldn't really see out of it. Adorable.

Staucie decided that hers was too small because it didn't cover all of her mouth so she quickly made a new one... She said Addie could have her other one. I know they also started one for Bensen, but then the boys lost interest :)

Parker's Preschool Christmas Party

Parker had a Christmas party at preschool and at the end we went to hear the kids sing and had some goodies with them. They are so adorable. They are missing 3 of the kids though. One was out of town, one got sick, and one was being shy and hid with his mom. Parker is NOT shy. And the two little ones at the end are some of the siblings. I LOVED the singing!

They got to wear their pajamas to school and Parker had so much fun. He really loves his preschool class.

Staucie's Kindergarten Christmas Party

We went to Staucie's school to help celebrate with her. The kids had fun all morning and then when we and other parents got there, they made frosting/candy Christmas trees, Santa visited with candy canes, they ate pizza and fruit for lunch, and got more cookies and candy. It was sugar overload. My kids couldn't eat all the goodies.

They all had lots of fun and I was glad we could all go and be with Staucie. At one point Staucie said, "I am not going to eat that because I have had too much sugar today." Good girl.

Addie makes the funniest faces when I tell her to say "cheese."

Extras

Some good friends of ours made us this super cute picnic table. We use it all the time. It sits in our garage and we need to stain it. But they eat snacks and lunch at it all the time while we play out front. We love it.

 Whenever I drop Parker off at preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Bensen says, "let's go to the mall!" He likes to play on the playground. We went a couple times so that I could find some coats, which took forever to find a good deal. Sears had a wonderful sale one day, and I love hand-me-downs for the other two. And then of course, a little bit of Christmas shopping. Then we would play on the playground. Bensen was always good about letting me go to one store before. We had to go a few times since I could only go to one store at a time :)

 When we do get to the indoor playground (which I am sure is covered in fantastic germs), Addie takes off and Bensen gets nervous. He does well if he can follow Addie around. Addie doesn't mind when other kids come near her or play by her, but Bensen shuts down. Poor kid. He needs Addie to follow around. It is a good thing that he has his little sister who will never leave him behind.

 Cheese.

Thanksgiving

Some of Daniel's family was able to come for Thanksgiving this year. We hosted it at our house. It was a lot of fun to have a house full of people. We had good food and great company. The pictures are all posted randomly since it is a compilation of 3 different cameras. It bothers me to not have pictures posted in order they were taken... but I will let it go this time... ;)

 Daniel's parents and Matt feeding Tessa.

Now Bensen and Daniel...

This is the table that Staucie and her cousin Sadie ate at. The little ones liked to play at it.

 Summer and Bethany

 Summer.

She is such a happy sweet baby and she only has love for her mama!

 Tessa

 Getting ready to eat!

Daniel's mom doing the cleaning.

Daniel played airplane with the kids.

 And then his dad wanted a turn. I think he pushed kids down and stepped on them because he was so excited and couldn't wait for his turn.

 Bethany was real happy about getting her picture taken :)

Addie, Ashley, and Evan

 Staucie and Sadie climbed on Grandpa to take a nap with him.

 It looks like Parker was in trouble...

 On Thanksgiving night the women went to see the Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn. It was fun, even though I am not a fan of the movies. But since I read the books I have wanted to see them. I am also not a Robert Pattinson (sp?) fan, but it was fun taking pictures! He sure is tall. Ha ha.

 Staucie is playing with Daniel's phone. We told ourselves that we wouldn't let the kids play with our new phones, but that didn't last long...

 Daniel's parents wanted a picture of us. We should have gone outside because the lighting was terrible, but it was actually really cold on this day. Funny pictures... I just noticed that Bensen is playing with Grandma's iPhone the whole time... And my socks look fantastic with my outfit...

I have cute kids

Parker was sick one day and after he nibbled a little breakfast he grabbed the remote and a blanket and got comfortable on the couch and turned on the tv. I thought it was cute.

 Addie was really obsessed with underwear for a little bit. She had to wear it over her jammies and sometimes her clothes. She still wears diapers, by the way, and steals Staucie's. 

 One afternoon we went to the fire station with Aunt Brittany and some others. Brittany got to dress up as a firefighter! It made the kids a little nervous. The firemen do it so that the kids know what they will look like when they come to your house.

 The kids got to take turns spraying the house. I didn't get good pictures because I was busy chasing kids :)

 Addie was sporting Staucie's helmet that she put on herself and went rolling down the driveway :)

 Snacking in the garage.

 I was able to go to Staucie's Thanksgiving Feast at school. It was cute!

 I took this picture so I could show Daniel who Eric is :)

 In this picture Bensen was making Parker whine. He does a great job making Parker whine and cry. Addie just thought she was being a big kid.

 A girl has gotta have her accessories.

 The next 3 pictures were taken from my phone by someone else...