Christmas 2013 in a nutshell

Ryla had fun decorating gingerbread houses with our teens at the Huddle Retreat.  She is just a little bit cute!

First Christmas in our new house and first time to ever hang Christmas lights outside!

Picture with Santa at the kids' preschool program.

Aidan just finished watching "The Santa Clause" and is pretending to be Tim Allen when he heard Santa on the roof.  If you remember that scene, he was in his underwear, coats, and boots!

Headed to our Christmas Eve service!

Trying to get all of them to pose nicely in front of the tree was not working.

All done......time for bed.

What a beautiful moment coming out of our room to the sound of excited voices and catching this pic.

He got a broom set....Now maybe he will stop trying to take my broom when I clean.

He got Yo Gabba Gabba stuff from Grandma.  As you can tell he was more than excited.

Aidan is all about Power Rangers right now!!!!

Christmas tradition of glass Cokes with our dinner.  Noah wanted one this year and loved it.

CHEERS!

Trip to the Dentist

All three of my kids had their first trip to the dentist today.  They did great.  Noah didn't like the exam part but it was over quickly.  Aidan had X-rays and a cleaning and he thought he was pretty cool stuff.  We read the Bernstein Bear book the night before to help prep so Aidan decided to explain to the dentist all the tools that were on her tray.  So cute!  This place had the hook up for kids to including video games while they waited.  No one had cavities and we were told they were doing great.  They left with prizes and stating that "The dentist is awesome, when can we go back?"  I would call that a SUCCESS!

Reading with Aidan

Finally getting one of the things I dreamed of doing with my kiddos....reading chapter books!  All of my kids love being read to, but there is definitely something different about transitioning into chapter books.  So far, Aidan has LOVED it and it has become such a special time for he and I.  One thing I promised him was that when he finished the book he got to watch the movie.  Of course he loves that.  For our first book, we tackled Charlottes Web.  He enjoyed it, but not near as much as when his preschool teacher read him The Lion, The Witch, and The wardrobe.  For that one, we promised him we would watch it with him, in our bed, after bedtime, and with donuts.  Very fun!  For his birthday I got him all 46 books of the Magical Treehouse series.  These are much more suited for his age.  We finished the first one in two days and he is already obsessed with them.  LOVE THIS PHASE!

Thanksgiving 2013

It's taken me awhile to post on our trip home for Thanksgiving mainly because we all got sick and I mean all 17 of us!  I just recovered so am trying to catch up.  The first day we traveled to Oklahoma and stayed and a retreat site in some cabins.  It was a lot of fun a very cold.  The cousins loved being together as usual and it was the first time in a few years that we were all able to be together.  After a couple of days my family headed up to Kansas to stay for a week with my parents.  All of us were sick most of the week but it was still so nice to see them.  We took the kids to the Wichita zoo and my dad took them to see Frozen.  There was of course a lot of card playing and movie watching.  We had a great time.

Noah and his quirks!

Ryla singing the 12 apostles!

Ryla's 3rd Birhtday Party.

It was Ryla's year to have the big party!  We rented out our church's gym and blew up the bouncy houses!  She requested balloons and cupcakes so I decided to go with an "Up" theme.  I think it turned out cute!  We had a great turn out and she had the time of her life!  We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day but it was all worth it!  Here are some pics!