Christmas Eve

This year we had a low key Christmas evening with just our little family. We ate some yummy soup for a early dinner and made some fresh home made cookies for Santa. His favorite from our home are chocolate chip with oatmeal. We then played games. My favorite game to play with the boys is Uno. After a rousing game that Andrew won, we read the Christmas story in the Bible, put out cookies for Santa, and tucked the boys in for a good night sleep--in new Christmas jammies of course! Their jammies have Lego Star Wars guys on them. They were a hit! --emily

Christmas Card 2010

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family! We hope you had a fantastic year as we did.

Andrew transitioned to a big-boy bed this year. He has enjoyed waking up early and keeping his dad company while he gets ready for work. He’ll usually wake Kelly up and say, “I want to watch something on your ‘puter.” He’ll watch old Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons on Kelly’s computer while Kelly makes him breakfast.

Jacob has enjoyed going to pre-school. He has gotten very good at learning the alphabet and he can count pretty close to infinity. Jacob can spell his name as well as several other words. We're proud of him for being such a quick learner.

Last year Emily crafted at a show to earn some extra cash for a new high tech camera. This year she has enjoyed learning to use it and is currently taking a local class. She really is enjoying photography.

Kelly had his 6^th anniversary at Applied Discovery, where he is the Director of Production Operations. He also passed the 1 year mark in his MBA program with Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Kelly has also experienced a resurgence in his guitar-playing career and enjoys jamming with his friend Larry as often as they can get together. --Kelly

The Falls

On Monday we went to visit the falls. We have had lots of rain so our rivers are quite swollen. It was the perfect time to go to the falls. The boys got soaked from the spray but they had a great time anyway.

I was having a hard time keeping my lens dry. The spray from the falls was so powerful. --emily

Christmas Tree Cutting

This year I let the little boys pick out the Christmas tree all by themselves. Usually I try to steer them in the direction of the type of tree that I like, but this was their year. Momma said, "Okay boys pick out your favorite tree." And that was the tree that we bought and are going to decorate on Monday. It is a lot smaller of a tree than I would have picked and a little brownish in the middle, but I love it because my big boys picked it out!

After all the hard work of picking and cutting a tree, splashing and stomping through the mud. We were all a little frozen on the inside. So we all went in to pay and enjoy some cider, cookies, and candy canes of course. What a great weekend of tradition! The Christmas season is off to a great start. --emily

Santa Day

The Christmas season has begun in our home. Black Friday isn't for shopping in our family. It is Santa picture day. It is a great way for us to get into the season. We were lucky and didn't have to wait in line. Santa was so great, he talked with Jacob about the things he wanted and what was write in his letter. Santa read the letter below like it was typed. He didn't stumble over any of the words. He is amazing! As you can see some of the words are split between two lines, but Santa knew just what Jacob was saying. Andrew was super apprehensive and barley made it onto Santa's lap. There were a few small tears, but after lots of convincing he sat nicely with his stuffed puppy in hand.

Dear Santa, I have been a good boy! [What I would like for Christmas:] Transformer, regular pencils, (boy) Zhu Zhu pets, Soccer ball, Stuffed puppies, Balloons and Marble race. Love, Jake

Dear Santa, [What I would like for Christmas:] Zhu Zhu pets (boy), Space ship and Transformer. Love, Andrew

I am feeling ready for this Christmas season. Let the celebrating begin! --emily

Thanksgiving Dinner

My mom is a wonderful cook. She always does a great job hosting Thanksgiving dinner, but this year she decided to take a break from long hours of cooking and cleaning. She took the entire family to a Chinese restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner.

It was fun to get the whole family together. The food was good, but I missed the good old-fashioned turkey and mashed potatoes.

Jacob, Andrew and Simon entertained them self on Auntie Rachel's iPhone after they were all done eating. Jacob has been telling me about this awesome game. Where you slice the thought the fruit like a ninja.

Andrew entertained Joshua and Adrianne the whole time. He was eating with his hands. He had rice all over his whole body. Andrew loved the attention!

--emily

Playing in the snow day 2

Today was an amazing day for sledding. The sun was shining; the snow had a perfect crunch from the cold evening prior. We all went up to the fields behind our house after lunch and spent about an hour sledding down the big hills. Kelly had to get back to work and Andrew was tired but Mr. Jacob wanted more so Jacob and I walked over to the smaller hills. We had an impromptu play date with some friends. The boys took turns riding the jump and also raced each other down the hill. Jacob spent the next hour and a half playing before he was tired enough to go home. What a great day to be a kid! --emily

Let it Snow . . .

Today was our first snowfall of the season. It has been an amazing day. The snow has been falling, swirling and dancing all afternoon.

(Andrew and Jacob)

This morning after breakfast we put all of our snow clothes on and headed out into the blistery cold weather.

(Andrew)

Today is the Monday before Thanksgiving and this winter has come so early. Yeah! We love the snow.

(Jacob, Andrew and Kelly)

We headed up to our perfect sledding hills. We had the place to ourselves because the neighborhood kids were all in school. We heard that it was an hour late and parent teacher conference week, so the elementary kids went to school for a whopping hour and a half today.

(Jacob right after a face plant)

Jacob wanted to go zooming down the hill by himself so badly. But he wasn't quite heavy enough to make the sled go fast. The snow was also so sticky. It is a Northwest thing! We will have to go out again tomorrow to see what the snow has to offer.

(Jacob)

The bright fall leaves in the other wise black and white picture. Those poor trees are hanging onto their leaves so tightly.

Here we are right before we headed home for some hot chocolate and cookies. We were all so frozen. We had a great morning playing in the snow. --emily

(Jacob, Mom and Andrew)

Halloween Evening

Halloween was on Sunday this year so we kept our evening low key. We trick-or-treated at a few neighbors' homes.

We decorated our yard as a grave yard this year. It was so much fun. It is too bad that we lost half of our decor. The wind blew it down the street. It has been a very windy October.

Here is Jacob helping us hand out our Halloween candy. The weather was so nice this year we just sat on the porch for a little while and enjoyed the activity on the streets. I love our neighborhood. --emily

Pumpkin Carving

The rain returned today so we spent the majority of the day inside. We played games and carved our pumpkins. The boys had a great time carving pumpkins.

The boys enjoyed getting their hands dirty and slimy. They both did a great job cleaning out all the guts. It was fun to me to see their different style of digging. Jacob looked like he was scooping cereal from a breakfast bowl and Andrew was scoopin' like it was hard ice cream.

Before we started carving Jacob went up stairs to his room and changed into the same shirt that Dad had been wearing all morning--a small red polo shirt Kelly picked up for him when he was Indiana this summer. He wanted to match Dad. Makes for a cute picture here.

This is Jacob's pumpkin he designed himself. Jacob drew little round eyes, a smiley face, and little arms on his pumpkin with a sharpie. Then Dad helped him cut out the skinny parts. I love how it has little arms. Very nice work Jake!

This is Andrew's Pumpkin. I helped him carve it out. He wanted teeth and eyes and this is what we came up with. A classic Jack-O-Lantern.

Here are all three pumpkins. Kelly helped Jake I helped Drew and Kelly made a Daddy pumpkin too. --emily

Ward Halloween Party

Friday evening our ward had a Halloween party / trunk-or-treat. The activity began with us trick-or-treating at each of the cars. I was impressed with how people decorated their cars. My car was so lame. But a mom can only do so many things and an elaborately decorated Halloween car didn't make the cut this year. After going from car to car we were all gathered inside for a well-planned kid Halloween party. They had a cake walk, a coloring station, bobbing for apples, ring toss and bingo. I feel like there was so much more but I can't put my finger on it.

Here the boys and I are playing bingo. They both really enjoyed this game. Note to self: when playing a game like this in public, don't use candy as the marking pieces. Hands get sticky! And the germ-a-phobe in me is thinking about all the little fingers that have touched the pieces before me. As I am writing this, I am remembering my friend, who will go unnamed, grabbed a piece from the table and popped it in her mouth. That is why I am gagging on the inside. Love you friend!

The boys are picking their prizes from winning at bingo. The guy running the game said they could each pick 2 things. Jacob picked 2 little sticky rats, and Andrew picked a pack of candy Dots. We have already lost the little sticky rats. Jacob has had me looking for them all day.

The boys are Transformers for Halloween this year. They look awesome! I had a couple of different people ask me if I made them. Boy do I have some people fooled with how crafty I am. Costco and Target made their costumes this year.

For the cake walk activity, they had asked for volunteers to make cupcakes for the kids to win. Here are the cup cakes I made for the party. It was a chocolate pudding base cupcake with coconut frosting. I have to admit I did sneak one and I sent my friends over to sneak one for themselves also. The kids don't know how to appreciate a good cupcake like that.

It was a fantastic party! --emily

Happy Birthday Hubby

We celebrated Kelly's birthday this last week. We partied with chocolate-on-chocolate cupcakes, a new golf club driver and many wishes. We have had a birthday tradition of having a birthday lunch with dad, but poor dad, he was supper busy with work and we were unable to party at lunch time. So we had to wait till later in the evening to celebrate. We are so grateful for a dad and husband that works so hard to provide so well for us.

Happy birthday Kelly! --Love, emily

White board fun

This summer we bought an easel with a chalkboard on one side and a white board on the other. We have used it as a chalk board in the garage for most of the summer and now that it is cold outside we have brought it inside and are using the white board side.

This pink picture Jacob drew for mom. "Mom this is you" pointing to the person in the middle. "And here are some flowers because you like flowers." I love that Jacob drew me with a skirt on and in a pink pen.

This blue picture Jacob drew for Dad. "This is dad" as Jacob points the the guy on the Right. "And here are the mountains" as Jacob points to the tall shape on the Left. "Dad is pointing to the mountains. He likes the mountains" Supper cute! --emily

Andrew's Birthday Week

We celebrated Andrew's birthday this week. It was a great week of celebrating!

Andrew's request for birthday breakfast was hot chocolate, toast and birthday oatmeal, which is regular oatmeal with sprinkles on it. Sprinkles turn everything into a party.

Andrew wanted to help me make his birthday cake. He was such a great little assistant. Upon his request we used the red baking dish. We made a funfetti cake with homemade chocolate frosting. It was Yummy!

Once Dad got home from work we ate dinner, made some wishes, blew out candles, and ate cake.

Andrew enjoyed his cake!

We concluded his actual birthday with opening a few gifts. It was a great evening party.

Then on Saturday we had a few friends over to play games and hang out. The kids played put the symbol on the transformer and we even had a transformer pinata.

Andrew's cousin Simon was so excited here. He is showing everyone the transformer head that flew off the pinata. It was a great week for a birthday.

We are so grateful to have Andrew as part of our family. It has been a great 3 years. It is so fun to see him " Transforming" into a big boy. We love you so much. --Mom

Let the party begin

Andrew's Birthday invite!

Yes, that is a Andrew-Bumble Bee. --emily

Vampire teeth

Jacob went to a friend's birthday party this morning and look what was in the goody bag. I think this is Jacob's first pair of vampire teeth. He was sporting them all day.

Jacob thought it was cool that he could stick his tongue out through the vampire teeth. What a cute kid! --emily