Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas always starts out with . . . the reading of the Christmas story . . . in which the adults are always substantially more attentive than the children . . .

Getting ready to open . . .

. . . his scooter. Since then, we've had a lot of this . . .

. . . and this.

Kayla playing with her tea set. (The tulle skirt she has one was actually "her" gift to "me." We take the kids to the dollar store and let them pick out one gift for each parent . . it's always interesting what gifts they select for their "parents!")

Tyler decided to get a jump on waking up Christmas morning . . .so he was ready for his first nap when we were ready to open gifts. So . . . he "opened" his gifts a little later. And was so thrilled to . . .can't you tell????

Our birthday cupcakes for Jesus . . .

Grandma thought the Christmas story needed more visual interest, so she made an angel costume for Kayla, and a shepherd costume for Joshua. Kayla played the part with dramatic style. You will notice no pictures of Joshua because . . . he wanted nothing to do with dressing up. Oh well . . . maybe next year???


This Christmas will be remembered as the Christmas with all of the snow. Wow.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

December, Etc.

Happy 8 months, bud!

I know, it's pathetic . . . but we had our "family" party for Joshua at Wendy's . . . when your b-day falls the week of light show craziness, finding even a 90 minute "open" time is impossible. But . . . he didn't seem to mind.

We got him his first "real" Bible . . .so very precious!

Five candles on that cupcake . . .

He insisted on taking his Bible to bed with him.

Joshua's preschool Christmas party today.

Emmy came and led the sing-along . . . she's a real hoot!

Happy campers!

Thanksgiving 2009

We took a few days to go to WI for Thanksgiving . . . and as you can tell, at times the trip was a little long . . .!


But it was worth it, right? Tyler was fighting a cold, so he was a bit "off" for a couple of days :(

Joshua had his birthday celebrated AGAIN -- with homemade ice cream!

It just wouldn't be a trip to WI without ice cream!

We got together with the cousins on Thanksgiving -- Joshua especially enjoys playing with his cousin Ben!


On the way home, we met up with my brother and sister in law outside of Chicago. The cousins enjoyed playing with each other for an hour or so!

I'll let you decide . . . one a scale of one to ten, how much is Kayla enjoying this picture????


We had a "Varner" Thanksgiving the day after we got back -- good to see family on that side, too!

Just happy to be along for the ride!


Once again, I realized I managed to not take a single picture of Thanksgiving "DINNER" -- oh well, maybe next . . .

Happy 5th B-day Joshua!

Joshua celebrated his 5th b-day this week at preschool so I thought I'd post a few pics! This week was also Joshua's "helper" day -- which explains why he is sitting at the head of the table. It is so funny how the kids know EXACTLY what they get to do when it is their "helper" day!

Helper day also involves getting to bring show and tell -- a very, very big deal to an almost-5 year old!

And the b-day box . . . he was SOOO excited about getting to see what's in the box!

Blowing out the candles on the "cake!" (a wax edition)

And, today we had our very first every "friend" b-day party. Yeah -- it's several weeks early, but with Bryan's light show schedule, the free time on the weekends are non-existent until January. We went with an Outer Space theme -- and in the above pic they were testing what the "moon rocks" had inside them! (I had made a baking soda paste and molded it around several plastic toys, then when you put it in vinegar . . . it bubbles and viola . . . you see the toy inside!

We had to wear goggles because it was a very dangerous experiment!

Tossing the balls into the planets

Joshua giving it a try.

Bryan working his magic with the kids. From what I hear, he is exceptional at this on Wed.. night with the 3 and 4-year old Cubbies, too!

Joshua was very adamant on having blue icing on the cupcakes . . .

Opening gifts . . .

Look above the steps . . . yes, we had our very own "meteor shower" indoors!

The kids had fun unwrapping all of the "meteors!"

Even thought we're a bit "pooped" it was so much fun -- just very, very hard to believe our oldest is five. Holy Cow. We're planning on a "family" birthday after Thanksgiving. Have a great Thanksgiving!

First Snow of Season

The kids just BEGGED and BEGGED to go play in the snow outside . . . because, as you can well see, there is SOOOO much snow to play in! So, 30 minutes later, they were all bundled up and ready to go. . .

. . . and 13 minutes later the "playing in the snow" session had ended and then they were ready to come in! I supposed if their mother hadn't been such a stick in the mud and actually gone outside with them, it might have lasted a tad longer . . . but SOMEONE had to listen for Tyler on the monitor, right?

Happy 3rd Birthday, Kayla!

Our little "princess" turned three today, but we celebrated on Sunday. She was SOOO excited about her birthday . . . a nap on Sunday afternoon just didn't seem necessary :). Kayla has been REALLY into the princess thing, and I think it's safe to say that her birthday definitely had a "royal" feel to it! I saw a "princess castle cake" online so I decided to give it a try -- I think the kids just liked the candy pieces on it!

Posing with the gifts. Joshua offered NUMEROUS times to help Kayla with opening her gifts -- and she seemed to think she could take care of it herself! Needless to say, he is VERY excited about his own b-day coming up!

Aunt Bem got her FOUR pairs of princess shoes and a princess "beauty kit" -- complete with a working hair dryer!

These would be the light up princess tennis shoes from G/G Nelson . . she's been stomping CONSTANTLY around the house!

A NEW princess dress from G/G Varner -- so, so, so exciting!

You can't really see it, but she is so proud of this ring . . . we have lost it in the couch cushions, in the van, in the backpack . . .

Posing with the loot . . .

Kayla came down the stairs Monday morning with her princess dress on, backpack on (which was fully loaded) and her princess sticker book! Yep, we're lovin' the princess thing!

She was highly confused today when I told her TODAY was actually her birthday . . . should have just let it go! Kayla, we love you and are so thankful for the three years we have had with you!

Happy Halloween!

This was our princess and our rocket! Joshua wasn't overly thrilled with "mommy" making his costume . . . I'm afraid those days might be numbered :(. But, he did like the "fire" at the bottom! Kayla begged to be a princess from the get-go . . . recognize the white part of the princess dress???? Yep . . it's her "flower girl" dress from B/C's wedding in August. I realized we might as well make it into a princess dress she can wear around just for fun!

This was our church's Trunk or Treat -- the weather was great!

This is Joshua and one of his buds from church . . Joshua was a rocket and his friend was an astronaut . . . and no, they didn't plan it!

This was Joshua's preschool Halloween "program." He still loves his preschool!

Just saying "hi" during the "costume parade."

So, because we had a change of plans last night, I realized this morning (Sat). that if our pumpkins were going to get carved before Halloween, it had to happen today . . . and Bryan had to be gone all day. (Welcome light show season!). Note: Bryan is the "carver-in-residence" -- I STINK at carving pumpkins. So, being resourceful, I found some templates online to use (I'm thinking triangle eyes, etc). But before I could "edit" the possibilities . . .Joshua sees this spider one and INSISTS we have to carve a spider. So -- gave it a try . . .
I think it served it's purpose. I was going to carve one for each -- but when I picked up the second pumpkin from the porch . . it was a bit, um, soggy shall we say. A day or two past its prime. So, we just went with one, and Kayla seemed to be ok with it.

And, not to be excluded, here's our "little" pumpkin . . . 7 months old today!