Day at the Ice Palace

We took the kids ice skating this afternoon. Morgan and Lindsay did great! Jared and Caleb needed a little help, as you can see.

Our Little Sledding Adventure

Jared got a new sled for his birthday, so we took the kids over to the ball field at the local elementary school. Fun! Fun! Fun! I loved watching my kids fly down the hill!

Jared's Birthday Party

We thought we'd have Jared's birthday party a week early so that our family visiting for Christmas could join us. He wanted to have a Spider Man party at Chuck E. Cheese. I was a little sad at Target last Sunday when he chose Spider Man for his theme. No more Elmo or Thomas. We now have big boy parties!

Children's Museum

Cousins Are Here!

The kids got these great snowball makers for Christmas!


Here's their stash of snowballs in the playhouse.



Phil and Corinne worked hard to build this great snow fort with the kids. After nap time, we wage war!

Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas morning.


Phil read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2.


Here's Lily playing with the girls' new play kitchen...


...and Gracie in their new playhouse tent.


Caleb's getting ready for battle.


Jared in his Armor of God.

Warming Up

We warmed up with hot chocolate and cookies after Christmas caroling on our block.


Phil made a fire for us, but at first he got a little side-tracked with the Harbor Freight ad.

Christmas Eve Caroling

Floral Design 101

Corinne and Gracie are replacing the dead flowers in the arrangement Gramma sent to us 2 weeks ago. We're getting ready for Becky, Morgan and Lindsay to arrive tomorrow night.

Our Christmas Eve activities will include take and bake black olive pizza, Christmas caroling around the neighborhood, hot chocolate and a special gift exchange by the fire when we get home. Last night each member of our family drew a name from a box, and then spent time today planning/preparing a special homemade gift for that person. The recipients will remain a secret until our gift exchange tonight.

Flashlight Tag

If you were here today, you might have been tagged by a cute little boy and his flashlight. The object of the game: freeze when the light shines on you.


When Lily takes her turn, she simply bangs the flashlight up against whatever or whomever she's wanting to tag. The problem is, the only flashlight we can find is Phil's large Mag-lite!

Aunt Corinne is Here!

And look how we're welcoming her! All of our snow melted and Jared was very disappointed that Aunt Corinne wouldn't have snow for Christmas. This morning at breakfast he prayed for snow. An hour before her plane was scheduled to land, it started snowing, and it accumulated rather quickly. We had about 2 inches by dinner time.

We usually shovel our snow in the morning, but most of our neighbors have been out shoveling snow tonight. We're pretending to know why; Phil and Corinne are outside shoveling snow right now. Does anyone out there know why we should be doing this tonight?

Finger Painting

The kids did a great job finger painting these Christmas wreaths today. I guess you would call Lily's attempt hand painting.



We had fun hanging them up around the house tonight.