Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

The boys were up at 6am this morning... so excited to see what they got!

We certainly had a white Christmas this year! It started snowing in the morning on Christmas Eve and is STILL going at 3pm today on Christmas day. We have at least a good foot out there.

Elizabeth was the last one to wake up! The boys finally asked, "can we just wake her up!" haha!

She discovered her rocking horse right away.

Daddy had to open his present first! He had no idea that it was for him. I told him last night that it was a "family surprise" and he kept asking "what's in the big one" all night long.

He was very surprised that he got a guitar!

The boys then started on their gifts.... Elizabeth was still enjoying her horsey.

Finally she got down to open something.

She needed no help! She knew what she was doing.

Elizabeth thought the Nerf darts were chapstick so she wanted to make sure her baby had chapstick on too.

Ryan and his Lincoln Logs.

Both boys got these little books answering questions about the Bible.

Playing with her kitchen set.

I told Sean to give me an angry face!

Elizabeth was so worn out her angry face came naturally. HAHA!

Ryan and his War axe.

Merry Christmas!!!

Ryan turns 8!

Well I suppose now that it is Christmas Eve, I should get pictures up of Ryan's birthday. hahah!

He had a great birthday. It was on a Sunday. After we got home from the morning church service the boys changed out of their clothes into something comfortable lightning fast. Then they ran over to the presents waiting and ready to open!

Ryan got some Legos! :)

And MORE Legos...... haha



Look at his face on this one, he got some of those "silly bands". New, very popular bracelet things in the shapes of objects or animals.


Aww a stuffed animal that he asked for.


And a nerf gun that ALL the boys (big and small) had fun playing with afterwards.


Later on that evening we had the Ryan's Dirt cake. We took it to church to share and have a good time with our friends.

Christmas Markets and a Party

I have lots of pictures again, so give them time to load up. :)

This first set is of our recent Christmas Market excursion in Stuttgart. Some of you probably have seen these already, this is for the benefit of those of you who have not. Skip on through to the newer Christmas party pictures if you've already seen these. :)

The weekend before last we took a quick trip downtown to do some Christmas shopping. It was SOOOOOOO crowded!

But at least we got a quick taste of som Kinderpunch... which is the main reason we went. HAHA!

Elizabeth enjoyed her Pommes (French Fries).

CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

On Friday, we had our Church Christmas Party. As usual, it was a blast!! The pastor and Mrs Thornsley had the "Busnauer" cater for us so all we had to do is bring in dessert. The food was yummy!!!

After dinner we did our gift exchange. First the Children!
Here the Pastor is telling the children about the true meaning of Christmas while they wait anxiously to be given their gifts.

Elizabeth receiving her gift.

All the children piled around while each one unwrapped their gift.

The dads had the job of de-packaging the toys. LOL

Then we had the adult's White Elephant gift exchange. The fun begins!!
Dennis was the first by pulling the number 1 out of the basket!

Showing off his gift in case anyone wanted to "steal" it. haha!

The first gag gift of the night... notice the toilet paper and plunger! HAHA!

We had a whole lot of fun this year. There was no limit on how many times gifts could be stolen, so several items passed through many hands!

The infamous "duck"!
This gift is in the exchange every year and it's the gift you "dont want!"

While the adults were playing... the little ones kept themselves company playing with their new toys!

Merry Christmas from all of us!!!

Thanksgiving into December..

I've fallen horribly behind on posting, I'm sorry. To make up for it, there are a TON of pictures here for you all to enjoy!!

Tree Decorating:

The week of Thanksgiving, I gave the boys off school so they could help me prepare for possible guests in our house. Unfortunately we never did get the guests but they house was nice and clean... AND we got up our Christmas decorations!

This was Elizabeth's first year helping to decorate. She just loved all the ornaments!

They all did a really good job!

THANKSGIVING:

This was taken just before we were leaving to go to church to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The turkey I prepared... it turned out!! LOL
No turkey hassles this year, thankfully!

Everyone seated and enjoying the feast. We sat in the front right table there but I couldnt squeeze Dennis and Elizabeth in, who were sitting there.

But here they are.... I love this picture!

After dinner the children entertained us with a song. This was real fun trying to get a picture. Since they all had their balloons and were playing with them too. HAHA!

Pastor and Mrs Thornsley were presented with their gift. :)

We sure do love them!!

Mass chaos in the auditorium after dinner!
Every year a missionary from Romania brings his balloons and makes much anticipated balloon animals for all the children.

For the most part all the boys (and some of the girls) get swords....

and they have some pretty wild sword fights. haha

The little ones stay out of the way. :)

Snow

We've gotten a WHOLE bunch of snow these past few days! It's amazing! It's only just December.

Today I gave the boys a 1/2 day, snow day so we could go out in play in it. HAHAH!!
I would say there was a good 6-8 in for us to play in.

Hey! We did some science too, we looked at the different snowflakes. ;)

It was hard for her to walk, the snow was up to her knees. haha!