Christmas photo dump

I thought I'd do a quick Christmas recap.

 

All in one big sha-bang.

 

We started Christmas break with a  fun case of stomach flu.

 

First A, then baby L. (mild), then me (really mild)

 

 

Then Dave....whoa, Dave.

 

I'll spare you the pictures from that.

 

(You're welcome.)

 

 

On the 23rd, we had Christmas with Dave's side.

 

With all the kiddos in that house, most of my pictures are blurry.

 

Constant activity.

 

Here is a quiet brother moment...

 

...and yet, still a little blurry from their twitching for more sugar.

 

 

 

This girl loves her grandpa.

 

 

This was the first time in (probably) 7 years that everyone was home for Christmas.

 

All 5 siblings and their whole families.

 

Matt knows a photographer who lives across the street - and he took our whole family pic.

 

The ice storms created a surreal backdrop for this nearly perfect family pic.

ALL 21 of us are looking at the camera!

(this is not a photoshopped pic at all- he literally sent it to Matt within 15 minutes of our shoot)

 

 

 

We spent Christmas Eve as a family of 5.

 

I loved it.

 

Low key.

 

Games.

 

Books.

 

Church.

 

Quiet dinner.

 

Amazing.

 

Cute jammies.

 

 

 

 

Christmas morning woke up to gluten free Cinnamon rolls

and a breakfast birthday party for Jesus.

 

We played with toys a bit:

 

 

 

 

We gave Baby L. an Anywhere chair for Christmas.

She loves it.

She sat right down in it, and didn't get out for the entire duration of family present opening.

C. gave A. a mug for Christmas, and Baby L adopted that as her own too.
She put her bottle inside it, and proceeded to drink her milk that way.

HA!  She's a funny girl.

 

 

Christmas morning, off to church:

 

 

Baby L. is to the point that she will NOT sit still in church.

 

No one was working the nursery, so in an effort to hear snippets of a sermon, I stood in the narthex.

 

It was actually really neat- because we had some cool guests in church that day,

 

some with kids,

 

so I got to meet them while we had a mini-daycare in the back of church.

 

I hope they come back.

 

Anyway, Baby L made a new friend too.

 

 
 
 
 




After church, we high-tailed it over to my parents house for Christmas Day celebration.

And our traditional Christmas dinner: crab legs and prime rib.

Mmmmmm.

The pic below is from my phone.  I took a picture of the cuts on my fingers from the spikes on the crab legs.


First world problems, I know.

 

 

Next stop, their living room for gifts.

 

And Nerf-a-palooza:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby L. was content to just sit in the boxes and drink her bottle.  :)

 

 

 

We had one day in between for some down time,

 

And then the next Christmas surprise for the boys.

 

My Facebook status update said,

 

My Christmas decorations may be down, but the Christmas surprises aren't over for the boys.

 

 

SURPRISE!

 

 

 

 

My brother and his family came into town for a few days.

 

They surprised their boys with Bears/Packers tickets for Christmas

 

(GO PAC!)

 

And since they were so close, decided to make it a few days longer and come see us in the Mitten.

 

I didn't tell the boys they were coming because I didn't know if they would make it north with the ice storms, etc.

 

So, my kiddos got a nice surprise out of it too.  :)

 

The picture above with the 4 boys just warms my heart.

 

The next day, Dave took the day off and we went back to my parents house for

 

Christmas: Round 63

 

(yes, slight exaggeration...slight)

 

In anticipation of the U of M football game that day, Baby L. donned her new Michigan outfit.

 

And showed support for our Packers by dressing it up with Trappers new scarf.

 

 

 

The boys:

 

happier than happy with one of the gifts from Uncle Dan and Aunt Erin

 

(they also got a Green Machine- which they LOVE as well!)

 

Well done, Uncle Dan and Aunt Erin!

 

Baby L. was loving everyone.

 

And the wrapping paper.

 

And the boxes.

 

And the ornaments.

 

It was a good sensory day for her.  :)

 

 

I can't believe I held this baby kid young man on his baptismal day.

 

 

 

And just for good measure:

 

The treat I decided to make for Christmas give aways (besides the Christmas crack)

was chocolate covered bourbon cherries.

 

They soaked in bourbon for 45 days.

 

Wrapped in homemade fondant.

 

Dipped in chocolate.

 

Oh yum.

 

 

And when the day was done,

 

the whole family went to bed.

 

I sat up.

 

Reading a book by the light of the Christmas tree

 

With the dog

 

who was cuddling up with her candy cane raw hide.

 

 

 Merry Christmas!

Christmas pictures.

 

 

Oldest child

 

Middle child

 

 

Youngest child

 

 

 

Boys and their dog

 

All three of them

 

Photobombed by dog

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite pic of the night

 

Christmas letter 2010

Hi family and friends!

If you've stumbled on this page you're either 1) a recepient of our Christmas card which had our blog addy on it, 2) a regular reader of our blog, or 3) a combination of both (Hi, Melody and Kathy!).  Whichever you are, welcome!  This blog started as a way to keep family and friends posted our our Love Shack progress, but when progress came in small clumps with years in between, well... I found other things to write about.  Now, I post our Christmas letter here because I'm too lazy to write it out, copy it, fold and stuff it into 72 envelopes going green.  (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!).

Ok, quick recap of our year:

D. is still working for himself.  He's going on 7 1/2 years now.  He still has yet to advertise.  All work he has is by word of mouth.  I cannot tell you how proud of him I am!  He has built our house with his own hands (with help from a few others). He's also plowing, again, this winter and serves our church as an elder.  In his spare time, he loves taking the boys on hikes through the woods, playing catch with footballs and baseballs, and shoots hoops with A. in the driveway.  Now that the boys are older, they're identifying more and more with their dad (read: not so much the mama's boys anymore), and its so fun to watch them blossom under his guidance.  He really is a great dad to them.  (Which makes me love him all the more).

I am still working out of the house as an auditor.  I'm enjoying it, and the adult interaction it gives me, but its quite a challenge to balance everything.  I also serve on my MOPS steering team (crafts!), and am the PTL president for A's school.  I'm also the coordinator of the SCRIP program there.  I gave up the Wedding Coordinator position in October to make a little room on my overflowing plate.  This year, I was asked to be a blog contributor for a local website, and love doing that.  I'm figuring out that I'm much more right-brained than left, so anything that gets my creative side going really rejuvinates me.  The boys are my little helpers, and they still love cuddling with me while we read books and watch movies.  I love that!

A. is in first grade this year.  He's LOVING school.  He's achieved the top reading group and is excelling in math as well.  I was shocked pleasantly surprised to see straight A's on his report card this fall.  He played on a Jr. Basketball league last winter (D coached), and took swimming lessons over the summer.  He really enjoyed both, so we're going to continue those throughout 2011.  He just received the Flat Stanley books and U.S. map for his birthday, so if you live far away from us, be prepared to see an envelope in your mailbox in the coming months.  Stanley has lots of traveling to do!

C. started three year old preschool this year.  It's really used as a day care to give me some uninterrupted work time, but he's LOVING it.  He's learning all kinds of social things that I don't think to teach him, and making all kinds of new friends in the process.  He follows his big brother everywhere, and wants to do all the things A. can do.  C. is, by far, the biggest mama's boy of the two, but growing out of it faster than I'm willing to admit.

We have a huge update on our house!  As of September 21, 2010, we received four APPROVED stickers for our final inspections.  All of our inspectors made comments on how they admired D's work, and loved that we were doing it debt free.  They all also said that they admired my patience (every single one said their wives would NEVER go for that).  I simply replied that, "I'm not a patient person, by nature, but I do believe in my husband and his ability to finish anything he starts.  That's what got me through."  So, we moved into our addition shortly after.  It's been so much fun to decorate and make the space ours.  The boys are loving their new shared room complete with bunkbeds.  We have more room to move and aren't on top of each other all the time.  The kitchen hasn't moved over yet, but will by the end of 2011.  Now, we get to save and save and save more before we're able to tear the existing Love Shack down and rebuild in its place.  Stay tuned for updates on that saga in the next four years.

Well, that's it for our little corner of the world.  Merry Christmas!