New Year's Eve!

Tim was out of town, so we tried to do some fun stuff together! We made "snow" from a little kit that Tanya Murphy sent home with us. It was fascinating to watch it "grow".

We blew up some balloons to use in the evening!

 Played some games together...

 made some crowns...

 made some resolutions....

 Toby wants to improve at skateboarding, learn geometry and his goal is to help me!

 Jesse wants to learn to read fast and get better at chapter books.

 Annie wants to learn patience, get better at drawing and her goal is to not yell at her brothers. Sweet girl!

 I let the kids stay up until 10. So we watched a little Cake Boss to pass the time!

At 10:30...we did our own count down and I dumped balloons over the kids...Jesse was lying on the floor at this point...saying he was about to puke! Apparently staying up late does not agree with his tummy! He made it to bed and fell right to sleep!

The Rays

 We had a great weekend hosting our friends the Rays! They have a kid for each of our kids! We got to use my new fire pot that Tim made for me!

 The kids had fun roasting hot dogs...

 and marshmallows! Thanks to Holly we had graham crackers and marshmallows to enjoy!

 The next morning we did a Christmas trade! We each looked for something we already had that we could give!

 The kids were all really sweet and generous with each other!

 Later, we went to a park and played games.

 We climbed trees.

 A little baseball...with the ancient church as a backdrop! It was a perfectly clear day!

 Then we flew the solar air ship!

 It was so big and fascinating to watch!

 Do not put bags on your heads!

 These boys spent most of their time picking olives from this tree.

 The big kids....Dawn was such a trooper even though she was SO sick!

 Pure JOY!

 Hooray for the Rays!

Toby said, "Today was the BEST day of my life." So I guess it was worth all the rearranging to get us together. So thankful for friends that we have a lot in common with and we can all share from the heart...although we are hoping Dawn does NOT share her flu with us. 

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was sweet and special...we acted out the Story again, but this time I took video instead of pictures. Then we exchanged gifts.

The kids were so excited to give each other the gifts they found each other. There were flashlights and Annie found this fun  Nerf football for the boys.

Thanks Mimi...it's perfect!

They were all excited about the science book from Mimi! Way to go!

Jesse picked out this hat and scarf for Annie!

Jesse loved his gift from Mimi and Boppa...I still don't really know what it is, but Jesse figured it out.

We had lunch with the Houghs!

More gifts...dress up shoes for Vera!

But Annie was genuinely THRILLED to get a Webkinz with a tag!!

Braden got some new games!

Brad got a basketball goal that everyone wanted to play with!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Home again in the evening for a couple more presents..it's more fun to stretch it out over the day!

A Nerf gun!

Stocking Time!

We saved out the BEST presents for the end of the day! They had no clue! They were SUPER excited!

The boys were so excited that we found this big ship...a complete set from the Lange of Legos!

But even better was Annie's surprise! She had only received a few gifts from the Grandmas earlier in the day and from her brothers...nothing from us under the tree. But she was amazingly joyful and thankful. So it was even more of a JOY to give this to her and watch her glow!

She kept repeating over and over...I got a keyboard!

We still haven't found a teacher for her yet...praying one in! But we brought back some books with us this summer and she is doing a great job of teaching herself. I love that she has a sweet companion now! We had a wonderful day of giving and receiving! We felt full and thankful!