Christmas Morning

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas! The kiddos have had such a wonderful morning playing with all their new goodies. They absolutely love the cars and table, the fish tank light, and other great things. This is Ellie's first Christmas, and all 8 month old, she absolutely loved the bows and wrapping paper! She finally got a couple girlie dolls!

We are so grateful for all that we have, for our little family, for our home, friends, and family. We are grateful to be able to spend family time during this Christmas season, and to be able to talk to our boys about our Savior, celebrate his birth, and all that he has done for us.

Christmas Eve Celebration

What a fun Christmas Eve we had with great friends! We had the Huff's, John's, Moss', and Thurber's over for dinner. Everyone brought yummy food, the kids enjoyed playing with each other and doing crafts, and grown-ups were able to chat a bit. Thanks for making the night memorable!

Random

Ethan thought Jaren was so cute at church because he insisted on wearing his tie on the outside of his vest, so he could look at it, show it to others, and play with it. Speaking of church... Jaren is graduating from the nursery and will officially be a Sunbeam in a couple of weeks! Hurray! (Oh, notice the bare tree in the background? Compliments of a 3 1/2 yr old, a 2 yr old, and 8 month old...)

More video of Ellie:

The Library

We took the kiddos to the North Macomb County Library on Saturday before running errands. Santa read a couple books and sang songs with kids from the community, then they made a Christmas tree craft. Jaren might be in the local paper this week. You gotta love Xander's face! Another successful visit with Santa...

Reading Skills

For a 3 1/2 year old, Jaren does a fantastic job sounding out words. It's amazing to see how fast kids picks things up. The more Jaren reads, the faster he sounds them out. What an exciting process to be a part of. Way to go Jaren!

Preschool Christmas Party

Ethan stayed home for a few hours this morning so I could be with Jaren at his Preschool Christmas party. It was SO nice to be able to sit and do crafts with Jaren without taking care of the other kids. We did different centers, and then decorated sugar cookies and had other snacks. Jaren and I had a lot of fun. Jaren was excited to give his teachers, Mrs. Dembeck and Mrs. Ferretti, some snowmen magnets he made and some peanut brittle I made. Here are a few pictures from the party:






The kids sang a few songs for us, here's one of them:

8 Months Old

Ellie is 8 months old, as of the 10th. I really like the stage she's in now. She's so busy, exploring everything, and going everywhere. Here are a few things she's doing right now: crawling, pulling herself up into a sitting position, pulling herself onto her knees, and sometimes her feet (depending on how low the object is that she's holding on to), makes lots of cute noises, plays with her tongue and sticks it out quite frequently, she's a thumb-sucker and prefers that over her binky at night, wants to play with anything that her brothers are playing with, loves the door stoppers and all the noise they make when pulled on, opens and closes her hand to wave and makes a lot of noise to say "hi", loves to bite crackers and bread and anything else that others are eating, learning to drink from a cup (although she doesn't try to hold it... probably because she's never held a bottle), loves to look out the back window and try to pull herself up, sits in her high chair like a big girl, adores her brothers as they adore her, doesn't like Santa (other others she doesn't know), always has a smile, and still keeps Mommy up a couple times a night. There are plenty of other things she does. We are so grateful that she is part of our family!

Santa is Popular at our House

We went to the Great Lakes Crossing Mall on Saturday to "window shop." We knew that Santa would be visiting the Bass Pro Shop, and the boys enjoy seeing all the fish and animals (stuffed, of course). We got a free picture with Santa, but I don't have a scanner, so here's a picture I took of Jaren. He was so excited, and especially liked the candy cane Santa gave him.

Cuddles

Jaren came in this morning (at 5:30) and said he wanted to lay by me for a while. After taking him potty (which is probably why he woke in the first place), we got cozy under the blankets. Jaren said, "You can cuddle with me now, Mommy, you can cuddle with me." How could I refuse such an offer! I'll take cuddles anytime (I always ask for them, and usually get them, but sometimes it takes a while)!

I didn't ask them to pose...

I promise! I just love watching the kiddos playing together and looking at the FREEZING white scenery. Jaren and Xander were so sweet with Ellie, I just had to take another picture.

Ellie, as usual, is getting in on the action of building train tracks with the boys. After Christmas, it'll be nice to see Ellie with a little doll of her own... we'll see if she actually plays with it!

Just Another Day

Ellie is loving the freedom that comes with mobility. She goes wherever she can. It was adorable to watch her crawl to the window, climb up, and check out the new snow. She was all smiles!

The boys have been playing "Choo-choo Express" all day with the kitchen chairs. Jaren was the conductor and Xander had to sit in the caboose. Train noises all day... need I say more? I love these boys! Ethan came home and was automatically invited to ride the train. Welcome home Daddy! (Xander is waving in the picture and saying, "bye-bye Mommy, bye-bye!"

1st Santa of the Season

Our ward Christmas party was today. It wouldn't be a party unless Santa came to visit! The boys were so excited to see him, and absolutely enjoyed the candy canes.
Xander still doesn't enjoy sitting on Santa's lap...
...and Ellie actually didn't cry. Amazing.
Xander was tuckered out!

Birds

The other day the boys and I watched a TON of birds put on a little "air show". They literally swooped up, around, down, turning everywhere, then would land and peck at the grass. Then they'd to it again. It was amazing to see all those little birds following each other so closely. Then they flew off and we watched them circle around another house near us and do the same thing. In the first picture, you can see all the birds all over the grass. I actually got a pretty decent shot of them taking flight in the second picture.

Decorating the Tree

I just had to show this picture of Xander. He loves to cuddle with this little dog that plays music when you press it's paw. As Jaren finished putting ornaments on the tree, Xander was in the other room cuddling.


So, obviously the boys decorated the tree. If you saw it, you'd notice the 3-4 ornaments on 1 single little branch all over, and very colorful on only about a fourth of the tree... at the bottom. Jaren and Xander were so excited to put them one the tree. I'm glad I decided to get plastic little balls last year, because the boys have played with them so much, a few of them have broken. Imagine if they were the glass ornament... no, thanks. We put 2 strings of lights on the tree, the one at the bottom was brand new. After putting them on the tree and turning them on, within a minute, the newer light set stopped working (only half of them work now). I checked them BEFORE we put them on the tree too! Oh well, we'll just add them to the cheap plastic ornaments this year and call it good. Ha!

O Christmas Tree...

We went to Blake's Orchard & Cider Mill last weekend to find the perfect Christmas tree. The boys had a great time running through the "maze" of trees, as Jaren would say. We took a wagon ride to the tree farm, cut down a cute little tree, rode another wagon back to the mill, then sipped some hot cider and had a yummy donut. We had a super day!
Here's a little video of the boys:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with our friends, the Bendorfs, the Daynes, and the Harrisons. The food was yummy, the company was fantastic, and the kids all had a great time. After lunch, the kids made crafts then played BINGO. By the end, we were all STUFFED! Thanks for coming ya'll!