Our Simple Christmas - with a few surprises!

We have had a busy year with a few very big changes (i.e. bishop) so we decided to keep our Christmas celebrations very low key. Our main goal was to spend time together.

Christmas Eve day was pretty warm so we all worked together to rake some leaves in the front yard... although, as you can see, some of us worked harder than others :)

Our ancient rosemary bush had a hard time with the drought this year and we lost a good portion of it so we decided to get a rosemary tree to replace it - after it served as a beautiful Christmas tree first of course.

We acted out the traditional Christmas storywith a rather protective Mary

and a somewhat reluctant shepherd and got to bed early so Santa could come!

Christmas morning is always tricky when it falls on a Sunday - we used the incentive to our advantage and told the kids they could open their stockings after they got ready for church.
This year all the wards in our building combined for a 9:oo sacrament meeting - which was really nice as it gave us the rest of the day to just hang out together and enjoy the fun of watching kids open presents.

Eli can now wrestle to his heart's content without worrying about tears from brothers.

Here's Peter showing off some of the stocking prizes

and with the orange robot dinosaur he wanted.

Leah with her "American Girl" doll.
She named her Clara after the girl in the Nutcracker.



And here is the surprise that the kids woke up to on Christmas morning...Harry - a beautiful long-haired dachshund.
No, we did not get a dog.
A friend of ours found himself in a bit of a bind on Christmas Eve and we agreed to take care of his dog for a week until things got straightened out.

The kids had a great time, but even Lincoln realized that we probably aren't ready to have a dog in our family just yet!

Bardo Christmas

Every year it seems to get harder and harder to coordinate schedules and get together with my siblings and their families for a Christmas celebration. However, it is totally worth the effort. I have such fun memories of celebrating with my mom's family - aunts, uncles, grandparents, and - most importantly - cousins! Andrew's family is so spread out that it's just not realistic for us to all get together like that very often, but most of my family still lives in Texas so I figure we should be able to make it happen.

The kids always have such fun with their cousins...

Hopefully, we can always make the time for these fun gatherings!

Baptism

Today was the big day!
Leah decided to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She was beautiful in her white dress - and so excited for everything!

She woke up this morning to a "sweet" message of support from her family.

We managed to get everyone dressed with Lisa's help (thanks so much for coming up early!) and got up to the church to get things started.
The service was beautiful - she had asked me to give a talk on Baptism and her grandma gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. We sang some of her favorite primary songs and she braved the somewhat cold water to be baptized by her father.

Thank you to everyone who was there to help and support Leah on this special day!

We are so proud of our beautiful girl. She really does try to be helpful and make good choices. She sets a great example for her brothers... when she's not trying to get under their skin :).

After cleaning up, we headed on back to the house to warm up with homemade pizza and birthday cake and more presents of course!
It was fun to cozy up in the warm house with grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
Thanks everyone for making the drive to Austin for the day!

It's Great to be 8!

Our awesome little girl is not so little any more... in fact, she's almost as tall as I am!

And she turned 8 today!

Since it is a school night, we decided to hold back on the festivities until this weekend, especially since we have family coming into town on Saturday. But we did let her choose the menu for the day - and for posterity's sake, here it is:
Breakfast - eggs, sausage, toast
Lunch - macaroni & cheese, blackberries
Dinner - spaghetti, green beans, okra, asparagus

We did, however, receive instructions from the Grandmas to let her open their gifts tonight

A testimony glove - to help keep things straight when you get nervous.

(I might have to borrow that one sometime)

An American Girl dog to whet her appetite for all products American Girl - aahh!

But the most exciting event of the night was that
we finished reading the Book of Mormon!
We started last year on her birthday with the goal of finishing before her baptism... and we did it!
(18 verses per day in case you were wondering)

Thankful

...for healthy bodies
(running in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning)

... for yummy food
(clearing out Thanksgiving leftovers)


... and family to share it with


...for birthdays to celebrate
(Andrew requested blueberry cheesecake for his birthday)

... for cousins to play with

... for grandparents who love us

... for good books to share

...for girly girls

... for mischievous boys

...and for all those who love us and will hold our hand
to keep us safe and moving in the right direction.


Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Peter, Peter - Pizza Eater!

Our sweet Peter is four years old!

We celebrated by spending the morning at a bouncy house.
We got there right when it opened so he and Eli had the run of the place for about an hour.
They thought that was pretty special!

After lunch at Chick-Fil-A, it was time to head home so I could make the pizza Peter wanted for dinner - "with no corn and no tomatoes - just pepperoni Mom"
We usually load up our pizza with veggies so this was a very special request.

I also needed to make the dinosaur cake - shaped like a Parasauralophus of course!

After dinner, everyone was excited for presents - and cake and ice cream.
Peter was thrilled with everything he received
... from Legos to dinosaurs to a guitar.

Thanks to everyone who remembered his special day!
Peter is such a smart clever boy - he definitely keeps us on our toes.
He loves to smile and laugh and play with his brothers and sister.
We're so happy to have this loving little boy in our family!

We love you Peter!

Happy Halloween!

Presenting this year's costume choices:

Dorothy and her dog, Toto

Toothless the dragon (from How to Train Your Dragon)
Lincoln won the school costume contest with this one!

A packet of watermelon seeds

(I have no clue where he comes up with these ideas, but they are totally his - I'm only responsible for execution)Here's the back... click on the photo to make it larger if you want to read the fine print.

Almost Woody from Toy Story
Eli wanted nothing to do with the costumes, so I was relieved to get this much on him.

Birthday Celebrations

Eli was unlucky enough to get sick on his birthday this year... quickly followed by everyone else in the family. By the time we were all better, Andrew had to leave for a few days to present at a conference. So...

We finally managed to squeeze in some birthday celebrations today! Luckily, 2 year olds have no sense of time so Eli was just thrilled to be able to open presents!


Playing with some of the new toys...


The favorite of the day - Buzz Lightyear!

I'm taking advantage of the fact that this child can't yet articulate his opinions.
The birthday cake was generously donated by Lincoln - his winnings from the cake walk at the school carnival the night before.

It was a wonderfully fun, uncomplicated birthday celebration and Eli loved being the center of attention. We're looking forward to many more happy years with our sweet baby boy!

Thoughts on Halloween

Peter: Mom, all you need for my Halloween costume is a sheep.

Mom: Did you change your mind and decide to be a sheep for Halloween?

Peter: No, but all you need for my costume is a sheep.

Mom: Why do I need a sheep?

Peter: If you have a sheep, you can cut it's hair to make yarn and then you can use the yarn to make my costume... and also some other stuff like socks and hats and things.

Well, I guess I can't argue with that logic...
does anybody have a sheep I can borrow?

My Baby

My baby will be two years old this year...
He is such a force to be reckoned with in our family!
Eli always has something to say about whatever may be going on, but he is also quick to obey and give loves to whoever might need them.
Unfortunately, sometimes I think he bullies the big kids on purpose just so that he can give them loves afterward - and you can't help but smile because he's just so stinking cute!!

Eli has also decided over the last couple of months that he doesn't need naps anymore - not that his body agrees with him all the time... a growing boy needs his rest and this boy is growing more than most - he and Peter wear the same size clothes and shoes now!!


The result being that when we go to wake him from his naps, we find that he has been taking them on the floor, wherever he collapsed after creating chaos in his room.We love you our big boy and can't wait to watch you grow and learn throughout the coming year!

Austin Zoo

Peter has been asking to go to the zoo again, so this time we decided to hit the Austin Zoo. It is actually more of an Animal Rescue Center, but to children who grow up watching "Go, Diego, Go" that's almost better than a zoo!


While they do have some exotic animals like lions, tigers, bears (oh, my!) and leopards...


A lot of the animals are of the more domestic variety - pigs, llamas, sheep, goats, etc.


The Groupon we got included bags of feed for the sheep and goats, and I think that was the highlight of the day. This llama in particular was very gentle and would let the children just drop the food pellets in her mouth.