Holiday Season

We are wrapping up school this week before we take our Christmas break.

These past few months have been nothing short of BUSY!

In November, we got all dressed up for a special night out at the Marine Corps Ball. It's always a special night. They had rooms set up for the kids, playing games, eating snacks. Elizabeth and Abigail even had a bounce house in their room!!

We also got some much needed family portraits done!

This month is only half started and we have been running non-stop! We took a trip to "Bethlehem" with some old friends.

Had our first snow!!!

Christmas festivities galore!!!

And most recently, celebrated Ryan's 11th birthday with lots of fun and excitement!!

This may be how I feel most of the time.......

....but I wouldnt change a thing! Merry Christmas everyone!

Summer, almost over?!

Wow! Where did the summer go?! It has been a very busy, yet very good summer for us! Last time I posted, our school year was coming to an end, now our school year is getting ready to begin again. In between this time, we have visited with old friends; my sister has moved close(er); and we have had one activity after another.

Best news first, both of our boys made a decision to get baptized! We are so proud of them!!

On July 4th, we enjoyed time spent with my sister and her husband. We had a BBQ and enjoyed some impromtu fireworks. Surprisingly, our neighbors put on a pretty good show, too. :)

At the end of July, we were very busy with Missions Conference and Vacation Bible School at church. It was a great time of Christian fellowship, and making new friends.

In August, we took a trip down to Virginia to visit with my sister and her husband. There was an agricultural fair with rides and plenty of animals to see and pet!

A busy summer, now is starting to come to a close. We hope to begin school this week is Mom can get the lead out and stop stalling. HAHA!

Lazy summer afternoons

This is what I caught the children doing while I was fixing dinner this evening!

They had made a fort out of blankets and chairs are were fighting a "war".
Notice the heap of blanket in the lower left of this picture...
that's not just a blanket down there...

That was Elizabeth defending her fort.

She loves playing with her brothers!

Christmas Play

Our church did our annual Christmas performance today. This year they put on a play and did such a great job!! Sean played a Shepherd and Ryan was one of the Wisemen.

The Narrator begins the story:

The children singing 'Away in the Manger':

The Mom and Pop telling the story of Christmas to the children:

Mary receiving the news of her conception:

Joseph has a dream that Mary is carrying our Savior:

Joseph and Mary:

The shepherds receive news that Christ is born (Sean in red):

The wisemen bringing gifts to Christ (Ryan in silver):

Here is a video of some of the clips from the play. I found some neat video editing softward and had fun putting all these clips together - enjoy!! Unfortunately I didnt get it all, because my camera cannot hold that much video. They also spoke of why Jesus came and how he gave his life on the cross for all of us to be saved. The greatest gift of all!



And here is are pictures of the boys and Elizabeth before we left for church this morning. They looked so handsome (and cute for Elizabeth) in their little outfits. :) Merry Christmas!!!