Before...

... and after.

It was a good day.

Christmas Eve Nativity

We each had to play multiple roles, but it turned out pretty well in the end.

Grandma Marynel

This weekend Grandma Marynel came to play!

HOORAY!
(Follow the Leader)

We had lots of fun going to the park
and making sugar cookies
and reading stories
and decorating the house for Christmas (finally!)
Thanks for coming to visit us Grandma!
WE LOVE YOU!


What will we do now that you're gone???

Overachievers

We had a little bit of gingerbread dough left over after L1's party, so Saturday morning we managed to stretch it enough to make one more gingerbread house... which Lisa and Brent turned into this...

Yes, that would be a Russian Orthodox Church, complete with minarets made out of Rice Krispie Treats and covered with fruit roll ups, decorating gel, and melted candy corns.And this was only the practice version - they have even bigger plans for one that they'll make on Christmas Day. I can't wait to see it!

Gingerbread Houses

Since L1's birthday is right in the middle of the holiday season, we started the tradition of celebrating with her friends by making gingerbread houses. This year, we're in the middle of replacing the floors in our house and all of our furniture is crammed into one room, so we held two separate decorating sessions.

First, L1 had some of her friends from school over for what I think was the speediest decorating ever.

Then the next weekend, a couple of friends from church came over for more decorating fun with lots of giggling and screaming mixed in :)

The final product looked good enough to eat!

And P generously put himself in charge of "putting away" the leftovers...

SIX!!!!!!

My baby girl is six years old!
(seen here in her birthday outfit from Grandma Marynel)

She seems so grown up already. L1 is definitely the queen of the house and rules her brothers alternately with charm and brute force. She absolutely loves being in kindergarten and is learning so much everyday. Her favorite subject is art and she is actually very talented - something she gets from her Dad.
Here is her project from school this semester.Impressive, no? Especially to someone like me who struggles to draw stick people.

Leah asked for a flower cake and potatoes for dinner. We had a great time celebrating with Grandma and Papa and Uncle Brent. Thanks for coming up and sharing L1's big day!

Blessing Day

Today was Elijah's blessing day. We've given all of our boys names that they share with our ancestors - Lincoln and Peter are named after an uncle and a grandfather on Andrew's side of the family, so we decided to find a name on my side of the family this time. Eli is named after two grandfathers in the Bardo line - Elijah after his 5th great grandfather and Charles after his great grandfather who passed away in February. According the the genealogy fiends in my family, there are also several Charles' on Andrew's side of the family as well. We are so grateful for the good examples that our ancestors have given us and for their testimonies of God and his blessings in our lives. As our children grow, we hope their names will remind them to look to these examples and be inspired by the lives of their forefathers.

Economizing

Rather than give our kids each their own room,
we decided to give them each their own cubby... maybe this will help them learn to keep the clutter to a minimum.