Christmas Extravaganza~Playing, Laughing, Crying, & Sleeping!

I've included some random photos. We played Apples to Apples, a card game with Aunt & Uncle Smith, & Granny S. I posted a photo of myself below because I realized I had been the photographer during Christmas so it appeared that I wasn't around. I had my daughter snap a quick photo of me after church today so I could post it. I wish I'd taken a family photo with all 7 of us. Christmas was fun! We kept it simple this year with less presents for the kids and we were much happier. They each got 1 thing that they really wanted, then some clothes. The stockings each had a nice large orange and a few pieces of candy.

Above: Clowning around! Our baby girl ate until she zonked out! We had a brunch with homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit, turkey sausage, and a yummy egg casserole.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. No one stood a chance of winning playing against the Smith's compatibility strategy. That E-Harmony sure can match-em up & produce kick-but game players!!!

Christmas Morning!

The Sunday before Christmas was special because we had our Christmas Cantata at church. My Husband and oldest daughter sang with the choir & our daughter (the one on the far right pictured above) sang a solo of the song "Silent Night," and the whole choir backed her up. She sang beautifully. She said she was so nervous that she was shaking. The other kids all sang a beautiful song with the primary children. Then when we got home, they got to open presents from Granny B. & Granny S., & Pa Pa T! Thanks for the books, coats, & PJ's!!!

Playing trombone in the middle school band concert.

"Helping" mom in the kitchen!

Santa! Santa! Santa!

The baby thought this Santa was pretty scary. She's warming up to this Santa guy(below), but he kinda freaked me out. I took the baby to get her photo taken at Walmart and while I was waiting Santa started talking to me. He knew all about me, my husband's name, and he asked me about the other kids. At first I had no clue, but this Santa just happens to be our next door neighbor, lucky us!
Our daughter (below) was in a long detailed conversation with Santa about the robotic dinosaur toy she wants. Santa said, "I made that one yesterday in my workshop!"

Just For Laughs..........

She pulled and wrestled, and just couldn't get that stubborn hair bow off!

You'll have to scroll down to see the latest post, I wrote it a few weeks ago, and finally posted it:)
Or click, http://4rfun2.blogspot.com/2008/11/shes-in-doghouse-and-loving-every.html

HHHHHAAAPPPYYYY BIRTHDAYYYY!

The race car cake. Turning 5 years old ROCKS!

I had to sneak up on him to get a normal picture because this boy loves to flash his huge smile for the camera. He had a fun birthday with cupcakes at pre-school, cake at home, and a cake at Granny's house a week ago.

She's in the Doghouse and Loving Every Minute of It.

(Disclaimer: No children or animals were harmed in the taking of this photograph. Baby entered and exited the doghouse by her own free will.)

Our baby girl absolutely terrorizes our dog, stealing his food and evicting him from his doghouse. Max is a good sport and patiently tolerates it.

Holiday Humiliation!!!

I was helping my sister-in-law and the other women clean up after an enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner. We were visiting and talking about our kids and family. I told them about our 5 year old's most recent stunt at pre-school when I picked him up and his teacher, still feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed told me of the naughtiness. Apparently, our 5 year old went into the bathroom, closed the door, then emerged minutes later,and burst into the classroom buck naked! We all had a laugh in the kitchen as we washed dishes and put away leftovers.

Then from across the room we heard someone snicker, "look at the trampoline, he has his pants off." Our boy was wearing a shirt, his whitey tighties, and swinging his pants in the air as he jumped around. The adults laughed & some family members grabbed cameras to snap a quick photo, before the discipline began. Our clever little boy saw the cameras and heard the laughs from the adults, which pushed this kid, who will do anything for laughs, into a crazed frenzy of stripping and jumping. He was buck naked, jumping around on the trampoline. His sisters attempted to tackle him and shove his clothes back on, but he wiggled away from them and fought them off. My husband and I were horrified! He ran out, grabbed our little nudist, dressed him, carried him inside and placed him alone in a room for timeout and the "naked speech." That speech has been given far too often with this kid! It goes like this:"Where can you be naked? Only in the bathtub, or in your room when you're changing clothes." Then we make the little offender repeat to us where he can and cannot be naked.

I apologised to everyone for ruining Thanksgiving. I felt like we were in some raunchy redneck reality show. This will go down in history and be remembered years later as, "that one Thanksgiving when MY kid jumped on the trampoline naked." The only redemption is the photos that will be brought out 20 years from now to show his future fiance, we'll see who's laughing then!

The Most Beautiful Woman in the World!!!

Happy Birthday Mom! I am so blessed to have you in my life. Thank you, Mom, for the encouragement that you give and for the inspiration that you are. This blog entry is a tribute to you. To honor you for the beautiful, loving, generous, compassionate woman that you are. I have always been amazed by your optimism. Through life's trials, and you've had your fair share, you have always had the ability to handle your struggles with grace while lifting up those around you. You are a woman of unwavering faith and strength. I am blessed to have your influence in my life and in my children's life.

When I was a teenager, all my friends wished their moms were as cool and fun as you (and my guy friends thought you were hot!) Now you are the coolest, most fun, hottest grandma ever!

I love you very much. Thanks for teaching me how to have fun, lighten up, be happy, and love life! I am proud to say I have the WORLD'S GREATEST MOM!!!

We'd love to buy this place.

Even though we probably can't afford it, we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon trespassing.

When Your Helping, You're Happy.....

Applying water seal stuff to the swing set. Our 4 year old said,"I wanna help, I wanna help."

Mowing and mulching the leaves. Our 10 year old said' "You can't make me do it!!!" Max supervising

Last weekend, the first weekend in Nov., we worked on some outside fall chores and enjoyed the warmer than average, beautiful sunny day.

We See The Light!

Above, view from inside the basement, currently our family room.

Above, the side of our house before, and below see the new 32"x23" window installed, after.

My husband's weekend project was to add a window in the basement where the previous owners had boarded up the hole after they broke the original window. The basement was like a dungeon before, but now we see the light of day. Unfortunately, I took all the after pictures at night so you can't "see the light," in the photos. We have another window to install that is a 6ft x 2ft slider, it is a much bigger project for long weekend. We have plans to turn our 3 bedroom house into a 5 bedroom house and I am excited that our project is finally making progress. With 5 kids we are starting to feel pretty crowded with only 1152sq.ft. on the main level. Finishing out the basement will give us almost 2000 sq.ft. We are so fortunate to have a basement.

Our Halloween Costumes

The costumes!!!! From left to right: Baby Ladybug, Electioneer/Ballot Box, Spiderman, Bat, devil gymnast.

Our mischievous little bat!

Sorting out the loot.
Admiring her little plastic guys, she call them her "bouncy martians." She won them at the church carnival playing pumpkin bowling and the spider throw.

Our son tallied the results on his ballot box. Each piece of candy was a vote. The other children at church wanted to "vote" so they cast their "ballots" (candy) into the box. This kid got the mother load of candy in our house. McCain won 47-7.

It's always fun to put devil horns on the baby. Now that we have the baby, the dog is off the hook, and no longer has to bear the "dress-up" humiliation.

Carnival fun with Sister Scary.

All tuckered out! Snug as a bug,......