To be continued

I spent part of nap time today taking down our Christmas trees. It's always sad to see it end but I'm excited for what this next year will bring. I overheard the boys talking and Colin said something like Christmas is really over Joel.Isnt it really sad to see it go.  And then Joel replied "my Christmas isn't over yet. It's to be continued!" 

I love that boy. 

stories

The kids all crawled in my lap the other night to read stories.  Sometimes I think thats why your hips dont exactly go back to normal after kids - gives more lap room :)  This picture make me laugh to see the boys faces.  Joel is highly disgusted and Colin looks like he's on the edge of his seat to find out whats going to happen.  

Christmas

My favorite quote from Christmas is from  Joel who upon inspecting the stockings Christmas morning exclaimed "I didnt get on the naughty list!!!!!!!!!"   (he had some reasons to worry but thankfully squeaked by this year!)

 Lots of relief on that face while looking at his stocking.

 Chocolate and bracelets.  All this girl needs in her stocking

 Joel was so excited to give Norah the puppy he got her

 Norah was really cute this christmas.  She's got a molar coming in and possible ear infection so she was a little grumpy at times but watching her face was priceless. 

 Colin was up until about 3am off and on Christmas Eve night with his asthma so he was wiped out Christmas Day.  Poor thing.  I felt so bad because I shouldve known the drop from 70 degree to 40s would bother him.  He's bounced back today and enjoying all his gifts. 

 Growing up we would all write our christmas lists and post them on the fridge.  Mary would ALWAYS have a dog on there.  One year Sarah got her a dog on a leash that had a remote that made the dog walk and bark.  She loved it and we all remember this little dog.  (Ha although after that Mary would add REAL DOG to her list!)  But Mary got Norah almost the same thing this year. 

 Its well loved already.

 My mom made this amazing kitchen set for Norah.  Joel loves it just as much.

 And I off handledly requested a bench and my mom asked what size and she made me one. I LOVE it.  And now have requested a few more furniture items for my house.  We like to keep mom busy! 

 Poor boy. 

Norah thinks the bench under the window is great  (going to have to stop that but it did make for a cute picture)

It was a great Christmas.  Thank you everyone!

Gingerbread houses

We did gingerbread houses on christmas eve. Which made us miss our friends a lot - I think this was the first time we've done it alone.

 Norah thought it was hilarious

 Joel was very precise and took his time

Coiln was upset at first that I hot glued the house together so it would stay up but then he got into it by throwing his sprinkles onto the house (brent said he's still finding sprinkles on the floor)

After talking about how far away Noah and Nathan and Adah live from us now and the fact that they have will have snow until the spring on the ground, Brent made our own snow ball fight for the kids :)

Accessories...

 the more the better!

And she's getting a new doggie shirt for christmas. So hopefully she will stop digging through the laundry to find this one.  But knowing her she will want to wear both.  That purple shirt that she is wearing under her dog shirt has a fox on it and when you ask her what a fox says she starts singing the song "ring ding ding"  haha so funny.  And she will probably be very confused when she realizes her brothers just sing a song all the time and that a fox doesnt really say ring ding ding or kapow (her version of it)

Merry and Bright

She's not feeling Joy to the world at the moment :) 

Presents

 Oh no! my lego man is falling into this present...

Guess I have to go fish him out.

kids choir

We have been blessed to be a part of this church for the past 4 years and recently this past year we became part of the church plant that they started.  We had our christmas service tonight and the kids sang a few songs.  Joel this whole month stated how much he hates singing and even his teachers will tell me when I go pick him up how much Joel doesnt like singing.  I dont think its hating singing as much as being in front of a large group of people that he doesnt like.  So he didnt go up but sat with us while the rest of the kids sang.  Colin was pretty funny.  You'd think he hated being up there but he said he had fun. So serious.  But the kids were so cute.  I have it all on video but the files are too big to upload here so this is just a small clip from tonight.  Kids are so fun to watch.  In Away in A Manager the kid next to Colin in the white decided to do a karate chop during the song.  And Colin didnt do any of the moments to away in a manager - he told us later he thought those were just reminders of the words to the song.  Ha! Love these kids a lot.

 We tried to get a group picture of everyone :)

 He lost the other tooth.  And his smile right now makes me smile too.

 

Die

Sweet girl. I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner and thought Norah was with Brent. I kept hearing her say "boys....boys...boys?"  And then silence.  Then "dada help...dada help...dada help..." But I thought she was with Brent so I kept cleaning and then I heard a pitiful "die...die...die...." Over and over.  So I went to look and she had locked herself in the bathroom and had been calling for help. Guess she thought she was going to be in there forever

.  

say sights

 Norah loves playing with the "say sights" too

 (say sights = christmas lights)                                                                 

  

 

Respect

We went to a breakfast honoring Colin last week in school. He was the citizen of the month for respect. 

Giving

This is the tree in the boys room.  Joel has wrapped and placed presents for Colin and Norah under "his" tree.  We took the kids to the store the other week and had them secretly pick out gifts for each other.  It was fun to see how excited the boys were. Norah just kept picking up stuffed animals by the armful and yelling "mine" over and over.  So she needs a few years before she understands the joy of giving but hopefully the boys are starting to get it.  The other day Colin went grocery shopping with me and as we were walking out he proudly reached into his pocket and pulled out a dollar to put in the salvation army red bucket.  He had been carrying around this dollar for days in his pocket and it was so sweet to see him give his prized dollar away.  And even greater to see his beaming face the whole way home. 

Great Wolf

We just got back from a trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  My friend Heather sent me this homeschooling link where they had a special for half off your stay at Great Wolf this week so back in August we signed up and have been looking forward to it ever since.  At first Colin was so upset we were taking him out of school early on thursday but once he got there he quickly forgot about school.  (guess its good he loves school)

  We got up there Thursday afternoon and went straight to swimming with a break for dinner then the boys did more swimming. And then we swam most of Friday.
 

 We had a lot of fun.  We brought Ant Ant with us and it worked perfectly to have each child have an adult to stay with.  Thanks Ant Ant.  Norah couldnt do the big rides and Joel was a few inches too short to do this one terrifying tornado ride (I did ride it twice with Colin but after we had done it once with him he had to work to get us to do it again with him - I think Brent did it the most with Colin)  But Joel could do all the others and they all have fun going from ride to ride or just playing in the water.

  Norah loved Ant Ant's scarf.  And kept wanting to wear it.

 I'm pretty sure she wasn't going to give it back

Hey Norah do you want to give that raccoon a high five?

 NOPE!

I dont have many pictures inside the water park because we were busy riding rides and playing. Sarah has some really good ones. We liked it so much better than water country because you dont have to walk all over the park to get to a ride or wait for hours to ride one ride.  And we all loved the family hot tub.  Norah even started saying hot-t when she got cold and wanted to go in the warm water. 

It was a great trip and we are ready to go back anytime! Thanks heather for the discount code. We never would've done it without that. 

The only downside is that I started to feel sick about an hour before we left. I thought it was going down the tornado after eating lunch but I ended up throwing up the WHOLE way home with of course traffic being stopped on the bridge tunnel. Thank goodness I had a heavy duty plastic trash bag left in the car - otherwise we wouldn't have made it. And thankfully no one else got it.  It was still a great trip and a ton of fun. But I did lose about 5lbs so once I get my stomach back I wont have to feel guilty for all the christmas goodies the next few weeks :)