Friday, December 26, 2014

December and Merry Christmas!

We went and saw santa at his log cabin.  It was a free thing so you took your own pictures, but Ethan and Eliza weren't too thrilled about sitting with Santa so Daniel and I joined in and had the people behind us in line take our picture.  It turned out a little blurry and the light is funny but it's the best one they got.
 
Family selfie on the horse and buggy ride (also free, but they squeezed in a bunch of people together).  Andrew and Hannah were up with the driver.
 
Sick girls. :(

Ethan watches Andrew and Hannah pack their lunches every night and one night he wanted to pack one too.  Hannah helped him and he loaded it into his backpack and then didn't want to take his backpack off.

He kept the backpack on while making scrambled eggs the next morning and then at lunch time he shared his lunch with Eliza while they sat on the kitchen floor.

Gingerbread house

They had a cool thing in downtown St Charles where there were a bunch of Christmas characters walking around (ebeneezer scrooge, mrs clause, elves, reindeer trainer, santas from different ages/places, etc...) Each character had a card with a picture and info on it about themselves and we had to try to find all the characters (roaming the sidewalks) and collect their cards. 


Daniel showing Ethan how to grip the bat


A cute family on a walk in our neighborhood

Andrew playing in the neighborhood

Our kitchen floor is full of peanut shells because the kids spend a lot of time using the nutcracker while enjoying their peanut snack.

Sick Eliza eating chicken noodle soup

Hannah baking

Cute kids showing off the bells they got in their church nursery class which Eliza is now old enough to be in and Ethan has one more week in before he graduates.

Cute girl
 
We have lots of leaves in our front yard

Our friends the Bredenteiners came to stay for a few days.  They moved from Seattle to Arkansas.  It was lots of fun! Daniel turned on a show for all the kids in the morning while Sarah and I slept because we did middle of the night black Friday shopping.

While they were here we went to the Science Center.  We love having visitors and there is lots to do here so feel free to come visit!
 
At the zoo

Andrew in front of the owl cage with a broomstick...he likes Harry Potter :) There is a section of the zoo that is called the children's zoo and it has a bunch of props and fun stuff.
 
On Christmas eve the kids give their presents to each other. This year the boys exchanged presents and the girls exchanged presents.  Ethan liked the imaginext airplane toy that Andrew bought for him.

Hannah loves her baby dolls.

I love Andrew's arm around Eliza

They all love pokemon.  I like pokemon because it is something they are all interested in together.

Acting out the nativity.  Mary riding the donkey with Joseph beside her.

The "stable" is Andrew's nerf gun base he made and he had the idea to use it as a stable.  Ethan was dressed up as a cute shepherd but then didn't want to do it anymore.

A wise man riding the camel to deliver gifts to toddler Jesus (Eliza)

Christmas morning before chaos hit

Opening stockings
 
 
Merry Christmas Eliza!
 
Cute/funny picture of Ethan

Andrew showing some pokemon cards

Ethan loves to be just like his big brother

Santa brought Andrew a bow and arrow set which he loves!

Hannah loves art!!

Andrew got the game battleship and has had a lot of fun playing it.
 


Thursday, December 25, 2014

November

Snow!!

Happy Hannah

Cold Ethan

Eliza tilts her head whenever she says "cheese" for pictures

This poor tree...the day the kids first decorated it was the best it ever looked.  After a week or so there was hardly anything left on it and everything left was bunched in one section.

Hannah loves the art area in the basement and spends a lot of time there

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to Daniel's sisters house for Thanksgiving (Ken and Martie are the ones in the front and they are the ones who live near us)

Another Christmas card option (the pretty tree in our Christmas card was not at our house, this is still at Martie and Ken's house)

Watching seahawks on Thansgiving

Good and cute present wrappers

crazy and cute curly hair

Our house

basement

big view of basement

day bed (the top of a bunk bed with pillows added)

another section of basement


the three doors are a storage room, bathroom, and a spare room which Daniel uses as his office

Eliza's room (and Hannah's but only Eliza sleeps in there)

Kids bedroom


Living room

view from front door

view from stairs

dining room

kitchen

upstairs (bedrooms and bathroom)