Christmas 2015

Christmas 2015 was a very fun Christmas for us - because of....you guessed it - Jacob!  He was soooo excited (due to his siblings excitement of course).  We had a small stomach bug running through so we stayed home for Christmas Eve service and watched a service from Tenth Presbyterian Church live streamed. It was nice and relaxing.  And to think a few weeks prior I was so upset that "our" church wasn't having a service - well we wouldn't have gone anyway!  God always has a plan.  Christmas morning was fun and pretty quiet.  Each of our kids got two presents plus a few small items in their stockings.  We all had a very special time together - most important was family.

Milk and cookies left for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Olivia 2015

Zachary 2015

Christmas Morning - mom gets a picture then you open your gifts:)

Jake with his second mommy!

Jacob blew us away with his expressions and joy over THIS gift.  

The complete love and excitement was so fun to watch.

After this big smile - the very next day he was telling us to "put him back in the box" and "don't want him".  Nice - you are 2 aren't you!

Ella got her first electronic device - a Kindle - she was so happy!

Olivia made me fingerless gloves!!!!  Wow! This girl:) 

My mom found this cute idea so we decided to try it this year - had to have snow some how.  This was the warmest Christmas ever - around 70 on Christmas Day.  We wore shorts.

I never want to forget...

How he plays with toy food.  He is so precise and neat - don't you dare try to mess up his "order".

Ella turns 8

Ella's b-day is always tricky - right after Thanksgiving.  This year we did an old fashion candy scavenger hunt (Zach's baby) and invited 6 friends over.  They painted, giggled, played games and of course ate!  It was fun!

Ella's favorite gift by far was...well you'll see.

 Leave it to biggest brother to make a card with a pig's butt on the front - she laughed very hard:)

 Little brother thought it was his birthday and had to open almost all Ella's gifts...she is sweet to him!

 Bashful the pig now has a forever home with Ella!

Noah turns 10!

Our Noah turned 10...so we thought we would try to surprise him (he never wants a party or friends to come over soooo) we decided to take the family to the movies.  I picked all the kids up from GCT and announced that I had a birthday surprise for Noah.  He got real quiet and still and said what?  I said we are going to see the Peanuts Movie together as a family.  He immediately, got very upset and proclaimed he DID NOT WANT TO DO THAT!  I pleaded, begged and asked why not?  After all we hardly ever do special treats like this.  All I got was I just don't want to.  The other kids were NOT pleased:( So I called Brian and told him to just head home instead of to the theatre.  So we all met at home, opened gifts (Legos of course, and Airsoft), had tacos and ate peanut butter cupcakes.  And Noah had a big smile - this was just the birthday he wanted...and we were okay with that.

Halloween 2015

We made a very last minute decision to dress up and go trick or treating.  We threw together costumes less than an hour before leaving...cheap and it worked:)  Jacob was such a trooper.  He insisted on walking and carrying his very heavy pumpkin (by the end).  After every house, he would say, "next one".  He loved the attention and the candy.

Crazy hair girl

Olivia turns 12

She is so sweet, loving, tender hearted, helpful and just plain joyful - fun to be with - and I'm SO glad I'm her mama!!!  Can't believe she is 12 and I do not think I would have survived the last two years without her. Love you babe!

50 years!

We celebrated Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary one day early - Sept. 18, 2015. We all went to St. Michaels for the day and enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Inn at Perry Cabin and some walking/shopping around the town.  The weather was amazing and so was the time with family. The kids were so well behaved too:)   Here are a few pictures.

Love you both very much!!!  

Back to school 2015

So it has happened...our long wonderful summer has ended (so so sad) and back to school we go.  It was our first day of Granite Classical Tutorials today.  All the kids were excited (even though one or two wouldn't admit to it).  A certain someone was up on his own at 6:30 am (his initials are NMR).  Can you believe it?  Here are a few (okay more than a few) photos to capture the time.  2, 4, 6, and 8 - can't believe it!

The last is my favorite - because everything changes with prayer!  Praying for each one of these children God has given to us!  Here we go...God grant me patience and LOVE for these souls that will live forever!