The end of a year

We spent New Year's Eve with Grandma and the kids were most excited about #1 Staying up until midnight, #2 spending the night there AND #3 the snacks!  

Emma & I made Stained Glass cookies

 And she made her own yummy marshmallow stick creations

 We finally did our Gingerbread project for this year-- the kids voted on a Nativity!  I thought it turned out great!

 We played games, watched movies, and ate until we could eat no more...

 Lucas went to bed around 10pm, and the rest of us celebrated with bubbles and pokemon blowers at midnight and then turned in...

Here's hoping for a great 2016!

This is the life

Busted lip and all

Together

box

One of the things I enjoyed most about Christmas was watching the kid's excitement about the gifts they had for each other.  I don't even mean the gifts we bought for them to give... those were fun too, but the FIRST gifts they wanted to give were the ones they made themselves... the ones they picked from their own belongings and wrapped up for someone, knowing it would make them happy.  

Samuel had one special box that started out as a gift for me.  Then he added something for Dad, and something for Emma, and something for Lucas.  (He had a separate gift already wrapped for Nathan).

I had to take a picture of the writing on the box.  This was the FIRST gift we had to open on Christmas morning!

The Moon

Christmas artwork

Big Ted and little Ted

Christmas morning #2

The former DJ's son has already begun to Jam! 

Nathan got Emma the skateboard she wanted!

And then on to Grandma's for another round of family fun!

 We LOVED seeing Nathaniel & Rachel, who are getting married next year!

 Emma was SO pleased when they asked her to be one of the flower girls in the wedding!  (Each of our kids will play a special role).

Over the next couple of days we had lots of fun together

Emma even got to watch Star Wars: A New Hope (the original first movie) with the "big kids".  This was Nathaniel's first time watching it as well.  She loved it!

Christmas morning #1

On years that we don't have Nathan for Christmas we have TWO Christmas mornings!  One on Christmas and one the day after with Nathan!  So much fun!

The kids were thrilled with what Santa brought them this year!  He certainly had some magic up his sleeve!

 Lucas collected his gifts IN/ON his favorite gift

We had some chill time and then went to Grandma's for the first of several days of Christmas celebrations...

 Emma, hugging the Bible she has wanted for so long (from Grandma)

 Lucas & Cole

Beauty of the season

Christmas Eve

We had our traditional Happy Birthday Jesus celebration before heading to church for a Christmas Eve service.  Emma enjoyed making the cupcake-cake... this was a first for us. 

And then we got ready for the man in red...