December in review

Had fun making a gingerbread house!

We joined a local church, where we feel absolutely loved! 

Kids got to sing in the choir and finish the first semester of Awana's here.(Hoping to get #3 more comfortable in both these realms now.  My schedule has changed so I can check out class with him for a bit.)

Were able to eat lots of yummy food with lots of different family.

We were flooded with love from our community in so many ways. 

As you can see we were very spoiled for Christmas.

  The kids eyes when they saw this was priceless!

 We learned how to swing from trees.

 We learned how to play in the snow.

Excited to see what God has in store for us in 2012 and beyond. 

One day at a time, one step at a time, surrounded by love from 5 beautiful, crazy, silly kids and HIS peace.

An Early Morning Hello

Merry Christmas from us to you!

Rules for gift opening

I was informed today by #3 that we must wear our PJ's to open gifts.  Well, yes, this is something we usually do.  Open up a gift on Christmas Eve(Pajama's) and wear it that night to bed, open gifts in the morning before changing.  Easy, peasy, no?  I suppose a difference this year is that we live near family and we will be opening gifts at more than one house.  So I was told we had to wear our Pajamas to grandma's house(of course I don't think he calculated in the fact that by the time we are done with that it will in fact be bedtime again.  Nor did I mention we won't be going to the other grandparents house until the next day. But I suppose it would save on packing space if we just wore the same thing the whole visit!)  He insists that part of the fun is opening presents in Pajama's.
I'm thinking I'll have extra pj's clean this weekend so he can be known as pajama boy.
I also love knowing what parts of the day are special to him.

cheese

 I thought I could get a nice shot with my two oldest before choir.  But this picture is the before mom's ready shot(and notice the arms folded-yeah, she doesn't like getting her picture taken anymore).

 And this would be the silly shot.  Somehow the nice picture didn't make it to the camera, what's up with that?!

At least the cousins took a pretty nice picture(#4 is great at the fake smile!).

Home school ways

 I had two tents set up in my house today.  Although I really don't like the clutter; they loved having school under the tents.

 My favorite part was listening to the two little ones "reading" to each other.  Although neither one can truly read, they  had picked out their favorite books-you know the ones I have read about a billion times and they have memorized by heart.  Love it! 

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I'm not the only one that loves snowmen.  He was taking care of his babies

#4 in the spot light

This picture was taken by a child when my camera was 'borrowed'.  I am always clued in on the fact that the camera was used when there are pictures of the wall or someones hand or a ton of close ups.  So glad we are in the digital age now and can easily delete!

On our way to church this morning #4 saw someone pulled over by the police and was excited that the police "scooted them over".

My sister took the kids to choir practice Saturday and said #4 refused to go on stage.  Today the older 2 had practice for 2 hours(in which me and the others had to busy ourselves on campus) and the Preschool choir had a little performance after that.  He stayed on stage!  He was quite the character!  Very interested in seeing himself on the big screen and head bonked the girl next to him.  I asked him later about the head butting.  He said, she was my friend and wanted me to.  I laughed about the was my friend part.  I'll see if they archive that video later, I know they do a live feed. 

Overruled:

What are your parental rights?  Do you have any?  Take some time to watch this video and be aware of what is going on in our country today.