Christmas Cookies, Crafts, and Friends

 The Masters came over for cookies and crafts.  As you can see, the boys were just as involved in the cookie dough process as the girls!  So cute to watch them.

 The girls wanted their own work station:)

 Huge smiles.

 I kept having to remind Micah not to eat the dough.  Finally, he said, "I am not eating the dough, I just biting it."  Don't worry.  We didn't bake any of those:)

 All decked out.

 Some of the finished product.

After a  day of cooking and crafting, we had the Wolfs over for dinner. It was so good to spend time with them as well.  Finally, I got to snuggle up with my kiddos and watch a little bit of a Christmas movie.  Great first day of Elli's Christmas vacation.

Dec 19, Birthday Party

 Micah really does love his great grandma.

 Again, Gloria playing with Ruby.

 I wanted all the adults to wear red or black so we could get a good picture in front of the fireplace.  Elli took this one. You can tell she is a little shorter than we are:)  A good picture though.

 Well, I didn't tell them what I wanted to my birthday, so I got a gag gift.

 It was an auto sauna, at least on the box.  We all had a good laugh.

 Then, they surprised me with a fitbit!  I was truly surprised and excited.

 Mom attempted to make me a layered cake.  It slid all over the place but was extremely delicious!

And here are the littles that came to my party!  I do love celebrating with these precious kiddos.

Dec 19, Gingerbread House

 Elli earned a ginger bread house from T and T in AWANA for saying a minimum of 24 sections.

 She did a great job this year of putting it all together.

 The Raymond girls were there as well with their daddy.

 The Masters also were there.  The house stood long enough for a picture:)

 Micah started crying because I asked him to smile for a picture.

 See, such a good job?

And now he smiles because Sherry said she wanted a picture.  Gracious, little guy.

My 39th Birthday!

 Mom and dad came over and brought me breakfast from biscuit world.

 Dad stayed until noon!  We had a great time talking, crying, sharing stories, and playing with Micah.

 Micah and I joined Elli at her school for her Christmas party.  I love it that when I get there, the kids excitedly say, "Elli, your mom is here!"  I hope they always like me and know I care about them.  I talked or laughed with every kid there.

That night, Elli and I went to see the Nutcraker at the Schuster Center.  It was a surprise to her.  I told her we were going on a Christmas Tree hunt so we stopped for this picture:)  Then, we went to the Shuster Center, saw a tree in there an got a picture.  Elli then saw a sign that said The Nutcracker and she said, "Hey, mom, this is the show!"  I asked her if she wanted to stay and she got so excited.  I told her it was my surprise for her and how I wanted to spend my birthday!  We had a great time.

Woodland Lights

 They changed it quite a bit this year.  We really did enjoy the lights.  It was the coldest night yet of the season at around 30 degrees so it also wasn't very busy:)

 We were able to go with the Masters.  Cody and micah were very cute together.

 The girls were the first to talk to Santa.

 And why not get a picture together.

 Micah was excited to talk to him again, and hug him.

 He was laughing while telling Santa he wanted Skywarp!

 This is a little blurry of the Masters.  Not sure what setting I had this on.  Bummer.

 Micah and Cody giggled the whole time they were riding rides.  The big kids rode as well, but couldn't ride all of them.  They were too tall.

Sherry snapped this one of us right before we went down the slide.  We had a fun and cold night!

Dec 16th

 How is it that we are outside at the park for over 3 hours playing in the sunshine, part of the time without coats on?  Crazy December weather here.  I love how Gloria is playing with Ruby here.  She loves her!

Such a fun day!

Elli's Christmas Concert at Cedarcliff

 Since Elli is in student council, she was able to help hand out programs.  She was the prettiest helper there!

Not the greatest picture, but you can see her profile in there next to Isaac.

Just because

 The kids decided to play dress-up.

Absolutely love their excited faces in these pictures!  Memories of little kid pure fun.

One Foggy night...

 We enjoyed the Christmas at the Park Music on Dec. 5th.  There was a candle-lighting part and I was a bit terrified.  Micah did well though and Elli's hair did not catch on fire.

Our drive home was very foggy.  I wanted to capture the lights shooting straight up in the air but instead, when I took the picture, it looked like it was snowing!

Celebrating Mom's 65th birthday!

I love holding this sleepy baby.

 Annual birthday pictures.

 Me and mom

 Mom trying to open her presents.

 A shot of all the kiddos, minus Elli on mom's birthday.

 Mom and Elli before Elli left for another birthday party.

 Elli went to Caroline's birthday party which had a "dress as your favorite Bible character" theme.  Elli went as Mary.

 We ate on the snowman plates that mom got for me my first year of marriage!

 Wesley and mom:)

I love that I got this picture of grandma helping Elli get dressed.  I remember Grandma wearing this outfit in the First Baptist Church of Kettering Christmas Cantadas.  Funny, it wasn't all that big on Elli!
Another fun night of celebrating mom.