Michief

Jonah was having a bit too much fun with the Desitin.

Elena's 8th Birthday

Our smart, loving girl is 8!  I can't believe it.  She enjoys school, creative writing, designing outfits for herself, and crafts of all kinds.  She is a funny girl who loves to laugh and is an excellent problem solver in math and in life.  She is a natural peace-maker and is always willing to compromise and work things out.  She loves her brothers and her daddy, and looks adorable in braces.  We couldn't love her more!

  Her first big Lego set.  She did a great job putting the Lego Friends beach house.

For her 8th birthday, Elena opted to go bowling with the family.  We all had a great time.

Kevin is giving the thumbs up in this picture because he got 8 out of 10 pins on his previous roll.  Good job, buddy!

 

 Check out that score!  Elena wins!

 After bowling, we went back home to open the presents from grandparents and Aunt BB. 

 A pink, sparkly cake with a heart - just like Elena ordered.

 

 Two sweet, selfless, kind-hearted peas in a pod

 Everybody loves Grandad.

 The next day was Sunday, and Elena was super excited to match Lilly.  Jonah was super excited to hug his favorite sister.

 

New Library

We went with Grandad to check out the Slover Library.  It had its grand opening and it was grand indeed!  The building is actually 3 buildings combined, and it is beautiful.  We posed in a photobooth, the kids did a couple of crafts, we enjoyed reading some of the books, and we even went to a magic show.  Kevin was actually chosen as a volunteer for one of the magic tricks! 

I love these pictures.  I think that my favorite part is how you can see Jonah's tongue sticking out beneath the Batman mask in the middle photo.

 Isn't this view from one of the conference rooms, amazing?  This is the room that the magic show was in.

 

 

 My favorite picture from the whole day:

This was our first time seeing one of these table-top computers.  Elena and Kevin could've played on this all day.  Jonah was more-or-less asleep in the stroller at this point.

 The view inside the atrium.  You can catch a glimpse of the amazing ceiling.

Christmas and New Year's Eve 2014

We spent Christmas here at home.  Andy's family came to visit and it was wonderful to meet sweet Clarissa for the first time. It's always awesome to spend time over the holidays just hanging out, but I can never resist a good family outing or two. ;)  Here are some of the highlights!

 Before the cousins arrived, we went to Christmastown.

 We saw Glory with Granny and Grandad and it was incredible!  It should be a new Christmas tradition to see it every year.

 Jonah loves to goof off with his Grandad.

 We all went on the bumper cars (even Granny) and had a great night.  It was cold, but not freezing - perfect Christmastown weather.

 Our favorite tree:

 Smiling in the fake snow.

Christmas morning at home!  Andy's family arrived very late of Christmas Eve.  So we spent Christmas morning at our house and headed over to Granny and Grandad's house after lunch. Stocking gifts!

 Playing with new toys around the tree:

 My own personal 2 favorite gifts were #1: this lovely (and engraved!) jewelry box and #2: some origami-style folded dollar bills.  Both were from Dan. The bills were the money for me to use to pick out my very own smart phone. Only 2.5 years after getting a phone plan with texting, I was going to get an iPhone. :)

It is such a joy to see these cute cousins enjoy spending time together.  They are all so loving!

 Uncle Dan is very popular:

 Uncle Andy is too. We went to aquarium just a couple days after Christmas.

 

 The Mr. Potato exhibit was a big hit. They played in this one area for about an hour.

 

Grandad saved his leaves an extra month, so that everyone could play in them together at Christmastime rather than at Thanksgiving.

 

 Post-Christmas Christmas cookies:

 

 

 

 Sweetie Clarissa:

 Dan and I took the older kids to McDonald's for a treat one afternoon.

 We celebrated New Year's Eve a few hours early.  We watched London's celebration live on a BBC channel.  Dan and Jonah needed a nap first. :)

 Happy New Year!!!

 

 

 Uncle Adam was briefly able to come into town. It was exciting for the kids that his flight kept getting delayed, so we were able to spend about 2 or 3 extra days with him.

 Before we had to say goodbye to our visitors, we went to Chuck E. Cheese together.  As always, a good time was had by all the kids.

 

 

 Our final Sunday dinner before our kids go back to school and Andy's family flies home.  Notice how all the kids are all coordinated?  Someone out there has a nice picture of all the kids sitting together in their matching outfits, but sadly, it is not me.