Christmas Production at Church

The girls both performed in the Christmas program at church.  Olivia had four speaking parts to memorize and had no trouble remembering her lines:)  The kids were so fun to watch! 

See shorty in the front row?

Olivia's Elementary School Christmas Concert

Olivia got all gussied up for her school concert early in December.  The kids did a great job on their songs and performances.  It is definitely one of the joys of parenting to get to watch our children participate in groups!

Our beautiful little 1st grader:)

Can you find Olivia?

Uncle Sid and Aunt Amy attended Olivia's concert.  What a treat!!

Snow Fun

Remember that snow we had?  The kids sure did have fun playing out in it while it lasted.  

Nativity

My little helpers love setting up the nativity during Advent.  I've lost count of how many we've got in the house now, but I'm certain it's nearing 20! That's probably considered a collection, right?

Here, Sylvia is unwrapping the ceramic nativity that I collected through my years of Vacation Bible School at Grace.  Each piece was hand-painted by a young Abbey.  The stable you see in the window sill was made by my Dad.

This little nativity Joey plays with is from my childhood as well.  The tiny wooden pieces are perfect for tiny hands:)  The bigger wooden pieces and characters in Joey's scene are from another nativity set-a gift to the kids from Grandma Lola...he likes to combine them for a bigger crowd.

Fall Artwork

The kids were busy creating some autumn masterpieces in November.

Daddy's little helper

We didn't think it possible to have a second social butterfly child, but the Lord blessed us with this little dude.  (of course Sylvia is a blessing to us as well, just a shy, reserved one) Joey loves to be with his Daddy and Mommy, no matter what the task or event.

Joey rambled on for at least 15 minutes straight as I folded clothes the other night.  He seemed to be so content just talk, talk, talking to me, with the occasional request for affirmation from myself with "k, Mommy?" or "right Mommy?".  I had to excuse him to make a phone call, and when I got done on the phone, I found him happily lending a hand and a monologue to his Daddy:)

sweet, sweet boy

Stomach bug in the house

Sylvia was the first to manifest symptoms, aka hurling undigested spaghetti across the kitchen floor.  She lost her cookies at least 3 times in very few hours...which I thought was a lot until Olivia started in.  Ugh. At least they were good sports about it, simply taking care of business when need be.  Thankfully, Joey only had one "frow-up", but it completely freaked him out:(  Matt and I avoided the explosive GI symptoms, and skated by with only body aches and fatigue.  That illness can stay away for the next lifetime or so!

Only Sylvia had been "hit" at this point, hence Olivia and Joey's easy going attitudes in this pic.  They were showing their sister their support by lying with her and the movie.  Awww.

Olivia was completely wiped out after being up literally all night:( Poor baby.

Happy Birthday Grandma

What fun to be able to help Grandma celebrate her birthday over the Thanksgiving holiday!  

 Joey was very "helpful" with the gift unwrapping.  Bless his heart, he even acted excited about the granny clothes that were in the gift box:)  Thanks to Grandma for being so very patient with him.

Thanksgiving

Now that it's almost Christmas, I've got a moment to post about Thanksgiving. Hmph.. You'll be lucky to hear from me again in the next month!

We headed to Le Mars for some family gatherings.  Grandma Lola hosted on Thursday, then Matt and the kids spent Friday and Saturday with the Rudens, while I worked back at home.  I wasn't present to document the Ruden gathering, but I heard they had some fun...something about mohawks and pink hair dye:) 

Here's us...Christmas card picture.  Thanks Mom!

The annual, "we're still together" picture.  

Got a decent one of the kids too:)

the meal

those in attendance at Mom's: Matt, myself, Mom, Lonnie, LeeAnn(aunt), Daniel(cousin), our kids, Grandma Evelyn