Happy Birthday Jesus!

Every year we have had a happy birthday Jesus party. So, since we weren't back in Texas, we decided to start our own party. We started with the true story of Jesus' birth. The book had buttons on it for the kids to push. They seemed to enjoy the book. We then had a hunt for all the pieces of the nativity and we put the nativity back together.

The kids seemed to have fun and hopefully we will continue doing this for years to come!

Halie

Drew - Caleb's BFFFFFF

Isaac

Noah

Caleb

Cassidy

Landon

after the story and game, we decorated stars for a treat.

Gingerbread village

So I bought a village this year to eliminate fighting over the one house. This village had 5 separate houses which was nice so each person had their own house. I learned a few lessons when it came to making the houses. 1. Always put the houses together at least an hour before you let the kids decorate them. 2. Make your own frosting. 3. next year, buy graham crackers get frosting and your own decorations. It will taste a lot better!

Our village complete with little gingerbread people.

the kids had fun, ate way too much candy, and were super happy with the results....what more can you ask for?

Decorating cookies

Annual cookie decorating activity...

18 dozen cookies.....

tired hands (from squeezing the bottles)......

but ohhhh soooo yummy cookies....

Candy Cane party

Some dear friends of ours had a candy cane party. We went in our pajamas, had hot chocolate and a candy cane. We read the legend of the candy cane - if you haven't read it, you need to. It is a great story of how a man was making a peppermint candy for his daughter. The thought of every detail of the candy cane has meaning that will turn our eyes upon Jesus. It was fun and the kids learned something new.

Halie, Keira, Halle, and Chloe

Pizza with Santa

Caleb and Chloe's school had pizza with Santa on Friday night (the 2nd). They had crafts, a cake walk, Santa, and the Grinch to take pictures with. The kids didn't want to get pics with Santa or the Grinch, so we did the craft, cake walk, and had pizza, but not with Santa....it was fun :)

the crafts made great additions to our tree.

NEW trampoline!!!

When we moved to Colorado in July, we left our trampoline at our old house and told the kids we would get one when we moved. Well, here the kids are almost 6 months later awaiting the arrival of a "big" package that dad was bringing home. We were going to wait until Christmas, but I think that Josh and I were probably just as excited as they were. So, they went upstairs to watch for their dad to bring home this big package they didn't know what it was....

A couple of days later, they are loving their trampoline.

December 3

Saturday, the 3rd, we decorated the tree. These cupcakes were supposed to be for Caleb's karate Christmas party, but we didn't go....so we ate them while we decorated the tree.

My crazy kids!

Merry Christmas!

December 2

On day 2 of our Advent calendar, we headed out to cut our tree down. We have some friends who know someone who has like 85 acres, so we went to their land and found us a tree.

Cutting down our tree....all the kids got in there and helped...

finally home with our tree.

yes, we have to trim it quite a bit before we can fit it in our house.

December 1

December 1st was a snow day for the kids, so I pulled out a "snow day" craft and we got to work. They had fun, and it was a cozy day inside.

Our first advent activity was game night. Each kid was allowed to pick a game to play and the whole family played each game. Caleb picked hide and seek - clearly I didn't take pictures of that...Chloe picked WII bowling, so here are the pics of that.

I won the game :) GO ME!

Keira picked playing with the Mr. Potato head, so we all laid on Caleb's floor and played with the potato head family....

Lots of fun....and red eyes....more to come!

November in a nut shell....

So, sit back and enjoy our November highlights - all from one week.....

We headed to Texas early Saturday morning and arrived in the evening, the trip seemed long, but we made it. This is out of order, but was the theme of our trip....Caleb was sick almost all week. We took him to the dr. on Monday and then to the ER on Friday....ugggghhh frustrating and expensive especially when it was all stuff that really was somewhat untreatable. But we got some answers and so we know now what to do if this problem happens again. Was it worth $200 dollars? knowing everything is alright, yeah I guess.

Back to the beginning of the week - on Sunday we (Caleb, Josh, and I) went to church to see some of our friends and go to fellowship and worship with our brothers and sisters. Caleb went home with his good friend Jacob and spent the day with him. Chloe and Keira spent the day with Grandpa and Grandma. For dinner, we went to Ja

cob and Emma's house and enjoyed spending time with our dear friends Mike and Tamara. We had a great time and so did the kids. I think we spent at least 2 hours and the kids got along the ENTIRE time - no tears, no fights, nothing...it was glorious!!!

Keira and Emma

Jacob and Caleb

Chloe and Emma

Cousins came over on Monday and the girls rode their scooters. Chloe and Keira got their scooters for Christmas (early, I know, but riding a scooter in Colorado in December, not really an option, so they got them early and have loved them). Keira looks so cute waiting patiently for a turn...

Bella tries it out...neither Victoria nor Bella had rode a two wheeled scooter, so it was fun watching them try it out.

they both caught on quickly

Chloe loves her scooter and is really good at it.

We visited our favorite yogurt shop - Berrylicious...yum!

Grandpa had a remote control airplane that the kids enjoyed playing with, well, maybe Josh and Grandpa enjoyed it more.... It's a toss up.

On Wednesday, we went over to Jeremy and Cindy's house to get the turkey ready for Thanksgiving...the girls had fun touching the turkey and getting the anatomy all figured out thanks to Uncle Jeremy....

The only pics I took on Thanksgiving were of the family....

On Saturday we went and got pictures taken with Santa, went bowling, went to the grass maze, and Freebirds (Josh's favorite restaurant)...here are some pics from that....

Caleb invited some of his school friends to come and go bowling with him...

Daniel

The group that came, Caleb was mad because he didn't win...what a good sport I have :)

Hayden, Caleb, and Daniel

Jacob

We got pictures taken at the big tree by the grass maze.

our Christmas card picture

Eating at Freebirds - YUM

The grass maze was a lot of fun...the kids LOVE this place and really love it when dad, grandpa, and uncle Jeremy chase them....it was super cold and windy, so we had the place all to ourselves.

We had a great week and loved spending time back in our old stomping grounds. Thanks to Grandpa, Grandma, Jeremy, and Cindy for making us feel so welcome! We had a great time!