Christmas 2011

This year we celebrated Christmas with the Boyle's on the Thursday before Christmas at our house, then Jim and Mary went with us to "Christmas Eve" service at our church before we left for Battle Creek the next morning. The kids get more and more excited about Christmas each year. They were so excited that they got to open up presents a couple days before Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Boyle, Uncle Jim, Aunt Rachel and Lily. I introduced Pat's mom to Amazon this year (sorry Jim!) and the kids always put their wish lists online, so Ryan's funny saying each time he opened a present was an amazed, "This was on my wish list!!" (it was funnier in person, and also when he would say, "hey...this wasn't on my wish list?!"). This was also one of the first times that Hannah actually was happy and excited to get clothes for Christmas-ha! Here are a couple of pics... 

Images of Christmas Prep

Here are some images of our getting ready for Christmas this year, from the addition of "Elfie Christmas" the Elf on the Shelf, to the boys' preschool party and program, to our Christmas card, house decorations, and Christmas baking and gifting...

Ryan in class for their Christmas Party

Josh in class, Ryan is behind him at the blue table

"Elfie Christmas"

Ryan and Josh on stage at their preschool Christmas program

Hannah, her doll Emma, and her friend Emma

See the blond girl between R & J? She's Sarah, their girlfriend!

Poinsettias and Kelly's

I learned that the weekend after Thanksgiving our nearby Birdhaven Greenhouse decks the greenhouse out in poinsettias for the Christmas season, so we had to go check it out. Hannah, Josh, and Ryan have become good little "photo shoot" participants. They even like to come up with their own poses. One that Ryan does is called his "X Factor" pose where he tries to look like Simon Cowell with his arms crossed. I think one of the pics I'm posting features this pose. Here are a couple of the shots I got...

Thanksgiving Memories

Thanksgiving thoughts from the kids:

Josh:  "I love Thanksgiving, and I'm happy that we went to Battle Creek."

Hannah:  "Every Thanksgiving be thankful. I am thankful for my family and Thanksgiving and Christmas."

Ryan:  "I like turkey and sweet potatoes and my new cozy blanket to sleepover in my new room."

We went to Michigan to celebrate Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's. The kids always love to play with their cousins each visit. Ryan sought out Evan as soon as he arrived and the two barely separated the whole day. I think Hannah enjoyed being an older cousin to Olivia too. All the cousins played so nice together and all enjoyed each other it seemed. Mom had all kinds of foam crafts for them all to do and it kept them happy and busy! We now have foam gingerbread ornaments coming out of our ears! It was great visiting with everybody and getting to catch up. 

We were all talking about how different each year becomes as the kids keep getting older. Pat and I actually get to talk to family as opposed to feeding babies and changing diapers, and the trip there is so much easier since we don't have to leave as soon as we're done giving bottles, or hope that nobody has a "potty accident" on the way either! Hannah even wore a dress that mom had saved of mine from when I was little-awwww...

Mom made a delicious meal as always, and accidentally tried her first organic turkey, which turned out to be DELICIOUS!! Great job, Mom! Here are some pics of our visit...enjoy!

Brothers

I'm testing out my mobile blogging to see if I would get into a better habit of updating my posts, so here is my first mobile post with a pic of the boys. I'll try to make it more exciting going forward- ha!

March to July Catch Up

Wow, so a lot has happened since my last post. We took a spring vacation to Hilton Head, Hannah finished Kindergarten, we had our patio put in, celebrated Hannah's 6th birthday, went to the Shedd Aquarium, celebrated Ellen and Shawn's wedding with Hannah as one of their flower girls, hung out at the beach and mom & dad's pool, caught some kids' summer movies at the theatre, and the kids all learned to swim without their floaties!

It's been a strange weather spring and summer with lots of storms and extremes-too much rain, then not enough, too cold then too hot.

Here are a slideshow to catch up on what's been missed...