Advent

We've been enjoying the month of December with some pretty crazy warm weather and lots of Christmas festivities. December 1st started our advent calendar in our home and since the girls had practices every week for a Christmas musical and Ryan's cleaning business stretched from 2-4 office buildings we decided to go light on the daily activities! We've read a lot of books, colored a lot of pictures, delivered a card and crumb cake to our mail ladies, practiced a lot of songs, baked, had a fancy family meal and enjoyed hot chocolate. 

Baking and decorating sugar cookies for the school party. 

Hot Chocolate time! Thanks to my grandma we enjoy our hot chocolate in style!

Secrets.....don't tell mom! I still have no idea what they were whispering about. 

We had a great time at our school party!

The fancy candlelit family meal is still our favorite.....

......as well as dancing in the living room afterwards. 

Oops! These pictures are out of order. Our school crew at their party!

The gift exchange is always a highlight.

And our handsome guy turned 8 months at the beginning of the month! He is crawling/scooting backwards and in circles. This can be very frustrating for him at times because he can't always get the item he wants. He can say 'Uh-Oh", sing at the top of his lungs (can be hear above a singing congregation!) and has started a new laugh whenever he thinks something is funny or that he should join the current laughter. His new laugh sounds like a machine gun and he knows he's funny when he laughs like that and continues just to get everybody to laugh! We love this adorable goofball!!!

I'll write about the girls' musical soon, but just because they were so adorable I will let you enjoy a sneak preview!

They are the most adorable line dancing angel and tap dancing wise man ever!!!

Thanksgiving

Ryan was super sick all of Thanksgiving week but we still made it over to his parent's house for Thanksgiving. His mom had graciously taken the girls overnight for us so that I could catch up on some housework, sleep and get cooking done for the Thanksgiving meal! We headed over for the afternoon and while Ryan napped up in the loft (poor guy!) the rest of the family enjoyed a fantastic meal and time together. Great Grandpa and Grandma Myles were also visiting for the week and the kids enjoyed getting to know them and especially liked listening to Grandpa tell them the story of "Prinderella and the Cince" They thought this spoonerism was hilarious!

Papa and Grammy enjoying snuggles with the boys!

The girls loved the kids table. Here they are writing down what they are thankful for. Chloe said, "Sleeping at Grammy's house." Olivia said, "For a baby brother." Lila said, "All the things that Jesus does for us." 

The Moser family took care of all the table decorations......beautiful!

On Friday the girls and I quickly headed into town to buy  their ornaments for this year, some more pieces to our nativity set and pick out our Christmas tree while daddy and Ian napped. I was so thankful for Lowes this year because I didn't have to even touch the tree until I carried it, fully wrapped,  into our house. They made it so easy! This is the only picture I took of decorating.....Chloe is wearing the tree skirt!

The day before Grandma and Grandpa had to leave we got together to take some pictures. This is the best one of all 6 grandkids. 

It's so hard to get all these little ones to look at a camera or smile! I think this was the best one that I got of  G&G with their great grandkids. I was having trouble with my camera when we were trying to get pictures of the entire family. I'll try to post one later from my brother-in-laws camera. 

4 generations. We tried to get 4 generations of the women too but I didn't get any on my  camera!

November Activities

November started out low key with the activities pictured below and ended in a blur of sickness. The first set of pictures are from bowling for Ryan's brother's birthday. The girls were sooooo excited for uncle Jordan's birthday party that they counted down days and laid out their 'bowling outfits' (long sleeve shirts, skirts, tights and fancy shoes) the night before on their bedroom floor! The following weekend we made another trip to the zoo to see the lights. That was a fun, but late trip that ended with us in bed at midnight. Well, not really because I spent the rest of the night/early morning rotating with 2 sick girls. I washed so much bedding in the next 24 hours it was crazy! A few days later Ian had a mild case of that stomach bug but since he's so little and gave me no warning I ended up with almost just as much cleaning and laundry. Then Ryan started one of his classic fevers, high and lasting for days, and we discovered a week later that it was mono. I will have to admit that when his fever hit 105.9 I panicked a bit! So glad he's on the mend and that the Lord protected me from all sickness and I was able to run on His energy to take care of my little family. I'm also so thankful for family that helped me with the kids and Ry's cleaning business while he was so sick. Couldn't have made it through that crazy week without them!

'Happy Birthday Uncle Jordan!"

Like father, like son. 

It's so much fun celebrating birthdays with little ones! They are so enthusiastic about everything!

Cousins and best friends. 

The carousel was a highlight of the trip. 

The night wasn't too cold, the lights were beautiful, and the company was perfect! A fun night!!

'School Pictures'

Every Fall I try to get new pictures of the kids and as a homeschooling mom these are the 'school pictures' that I update yearly. One of my favorite things growing up was looking through all the old school pictures when it was time to put the new one in. There are some interesting ones! Now I enjoy doing the same thing when I replace my kids' pictures each year. Wow, they change so much each year!  One night earlier this month the kids and I rushed out the back door to try and get a few pictures with the amazing light from the setting sun. It was a little colder than I thought and Ian was not his normal happy self. So, I got a few great ones of the girls!

This little bug turned 7 months old in November and can now clap, kind of wave, smack and spit with his lips,  eat puffs/crackers/mum mums on his own, scoot backward while on his tummy, and 'sing' along with us. 

The best one of all 3 of them....

At 5 1/2 this bundle of energy is becoming very independent. She lost her first 2 teeth and a third is getting wiggly. She enjoys learning to read and read all of  'Green Eggs and Ham' by herself this month. She loves to sing and dance and recently started doing her own choreography. She always wants to know 'why/how' things are the way they are and is constantly trying to prove things. For example, we don't do the tooth fairy in our house and just to make sure that Ryan and I were telling her the truth she put her tooth under her pillow to see if the tooth fairy was real. She later confidently told her cousin that the tooth fairy definitely does not exist because she put her tooth under her pillow and the next morning it was still there! She also enjoys creating and decorating. I never knew that a box full of bottles, lids, boxes and other odds and ends could provide so many hours of entertainment! She exhausts me at times with her energy and questioning but I'm thankful for her inquisitive mind, desire to learn, and outgoing personality. 

At 3 1/2 her moods are always changing and we're never sure how she'll react. She can cry or laugh at the drop of a hat!  She has been stretched a lot this year in her interactions with other kids and has greatly improved in her ability to play with others rather than going off alone. She still plays well by herself and enjoys books, singing, and playing pretend. She can be seen and heard singing and talking to herself and her 'guys' many times throughout the day. That's one of my favorite things about this age! It can be exhausting to have to pull her back into our world so often but I love how imaginative she is! She has also joined us for school this year and discovered that she loves to color. And I have discovered that she is VERY particular. She colors in the lines better than Chloe does and hates it when she is bumped or if she accidentally messes up. She likes things to be a certain way and often grabs her corresponding books when I switch activities with Chloe without me having to ask or remind her. I'm so thankful that she enjoys learning as well. I hope it continues!

Another picture, just because. 

I LOVE this picture! 

Zoo

God blessed us with the perfect trip to the zoo. We had been trying to get there all summer and it just didn't work out. So, we thoroughly enjoyed the high 70's, uncrowded zoo, and no meltdowns from our kids or their cousins when we finally made it to the zoo. Couldn't ask for a more perfect day! 

Ian's first trip to the zoo. I think he liked the aquarium the best because he actually focused on the fish and yelled at them as they swam around. Not to mention that he could smack his hands on the glass and make more noise!

Our favorite stop was the new sting-ray touch pool. We visited here first and last. Everyone but Olivia was brave enough to reach down and touch one during our first trip. But, during our last trip Olivia got brave and not only touched one but was the only one brave enough to feed them with daddy. Ry bought some dead fish and proceeded to show the girls how to make a fist while holding the fist and then putting his hand down in the water as far as he could. The sting-rays would swim over his hand and eat the fish. Pretty cool to watch!

So cool!!

Of course we tried to get a picture of all 4 girls on the smallest animal statue in the zoo!  Hahaha!

Attempting to stand like a flamingo.

Happy boy in his stroller for the first time. He loved being able to sit up by himself and grab at everything. 

What a crew!

Party, party, party!

The month of October is my favorite of the entire year. The weather is usually nice, the leaves are all changing, the harvest is in, pumpkin in any food and cider are among my favorites, campfires and get togethers abound. I feel like we've been on the go for the whole month enjoying time with friends and family. 

One celebration was a 'Potty Party' for Olivia because she is now dry through the night and wearing underwear to bed instead of pull-ups! A huge milestone for her and definitely worth celebrating! She asked for cupcakes with green frosting. So, I made pumpkin bread into cupcakes and dyed the cream cheese frosting green. To top it off I printed these cupcake holders from a site I found on Pinterest. The girls loved their kitty cats!

It was quite a celebration with homemade mac 'n cheese, cupcakes, hello kitty balloons and candlelight. Way to go Livy!

Ian finished out the night with his first time in a swing. He didn't like it at first but warmed up to it as long as we pushed very slowly. We had him belly laughing so hard he could hardly breathe though. All we had to do was run at him from a distance and say 'Boo!' He thought it was hilarious!

That Sunday night we had our church group over for a little Harvest Party. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy so we improvised and brought the outdoor movie in and made hotdogs on a skillet instead of over a campfire. It was a fun night of friends, food and 'The Lorax'.

Dancing along to the credits in front of the projector (so they could see their dance moves) may have been the highlight for all the kids!

And, completely out of the norm for Ohio, we received our first snowfall on October 30th. (Compliments of Hurricane Sandy). We woke up to a winter wonderland and had a beautiful snowfall until lunch. We ended up with about a 2 inch accumulation at our house. It promptly melted by the next day!

Our snowman....with grass for hair! Ryan literally mowed the lawn 3 days before it snowed. 

After school and lunch they headed back out to make snow angels and have a snowball fight. Ryan and I laughed hysterically from the house as they smashed snow in each other's faces.

The next day was co-op and we did a short day of school followed by a party. All the kids got to dress up and we played a few games and had a bunch of snacks.