Sledding Day Fun, Jan 21, 2011

"Elli give mommy a smile before we go sledding!"
Elli and Emilee getting ready for their sledding turns.
Love her giggles.
Such a sweet face on my girl.
"Wee!"
Elli wanted to decorate the tree. She asked me for help on the high branches.
What a perfect angel:)
At the end of it all, we had hot chocolate. Such wonderful way to spend an afternoon. She drank her hot chocolate so fast! Of course she didn't have any pants or socks on because they were soaked, so she did her best to warm up! Hehehe

The twins are dedicated

Wesley found his thumb and we couldn't stop taking pictures. He cried when he pulled it out and couldn't figure out how to put it back in:) So sweet!
The pastor prayed over these boys that they would grow to be warriors of the faith and prayed for Leah and Matt to have patience and wisdom. Very sweet. He made a small mistake in saying they were born on January 16th. Then he stopped and said wait, that's today and that would be crazy! The boys were very good and looked so sweet.

Gary's birthday dinner, two months later

Sweet picture.
The whole gang minus the picture taker, me:)
Elli thought it was hilarious to put the balloons on AnnaBelle. What a good sport she was:)
Gary got some help blowing out the candles.
Mmmmm. Elli said we needed a lot of candles for Gary's birthday cake, so she put the whole package on!
Heather and Gary grilled out for us. Yummy!
Happy birthday Gary. We didn't have a special celebration on Nov 15, for his birthday and this was our celebration, two months later. So sad! But, at least we got to celebrate together.

My musician and updated pics of the twins

Elli, Luka, Wesley.
They weren't sure what to think of this picture taking:)
Elli loves to play music. She has been taking piano lessons with Brent each night since the 1st of January for about 10-15 minutes a night. She can play two handed "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and other little songs. She is loving it. She also likes playing guitar with Brent. He tuned both of their guitars and they enjoyed an evening of "playing."

Sledding Day Jan 13, 2011

Love this shot of her running from my snowballs:)
She is aiming at me, but not getting me.
Funny girl.
What is a snow day without eating the snow?
Elli loves to make snow angels. She made this one as soon as she got off her sled after the first run down the hill.
Cheesy smile!
And here it is. The first sled down the hill on our first snow storm of 2011. She loved it!

January visitors

Elli could not resist dressing her little friend in a tutu:)
Caleb and Madilynn came over to participate in school one morning. Here they are working on the shapes:)
They each pretended to be a different hibernating animal as well. Caleb was a bear, Madilynn a hedge hog and Elli a bunny. It was probably more on the fun side and less on the learning side:)
I was excited to have school with Caleb and Madilynn today. It was very fun. They each started by practicing their names. So cute to see each of these little ones working together:)

New Year's Day

Elli holding Luka

Mom and dad's pumpkin did not survive the snow. It was buried under the snow until it turned 66 degrees outside and melted it all.

Leah and Matt brought the twins over to meet Lance, Lana and Liam.

Linda was enjoying the babies too:)

Wesley showing of his strength. I wanted him to roll over, but it didn't happen today. We ended up going to mom and dad's when the Fergusons left. We had our traditional pork, sauerkraut and ice cream:) It truly has been a couple of weeks full of family time. I love the holidays and visiting with family.

New Year's Eve party at Jenna's

Elli did very well ringing in the new year. She played, ate, and then asked Justin to watch her new Strawberry Shortcake movie with her:)

Jenna and Linda.

Jenna and Justin had us over for a New Year's Eve party. We played round robin ping pong and catch phrase. Actually we played catch phrase nearly everyday the whole week. It was a fun night. Justn handed out noise makers for us to blow when the ball dropped. I will say that a sleeping Seth was none too fond of the noise makers! Again, we had a great night.

Family Picture Day, Dec 31st

Lana wanted a jumping picture:)

Love this!

Not a bad picture. Just hard to get everyone looking at the same time.

Devin with his niece and nephews.

The grandparents with their grandkids.

Jenna and Justin.

Kyle and Meg with Seth. He was quite active so this was the best of his action shots.

Great picture of Lance, Lana and Liam.

The cousins. Next year it will be quite different:)

We planned on getting a whole family picture. I think it turned out just great.

Lana's birthday and family dinner

Heather got foam curlers for Elli for Christmas and I put them in her hair for the first time on the 30th. It made me think of being a little girl myself. She loved it!

We had Jim, Laurie, Kandice and Joel as well as Julie over for dinner on the 30th. Fun times with family.

This was not meant to be the kids table but it ended up being so:) Elli loved sitting with these big kids and playing with the purple girl (aka Kandice) and Julie. Thank you all for being a good sport.

Elli loves playing with her little cousins. Liam was a good playmate.

Lana celebrated her 30th birthday here with us. I made a crumb cake for her birthday breakfast. We sang Happy Birthday,then wWe spent the rest of the day as a family shopping at the Greene, (Lance got Lana a massage at Hausfelds), lunch at Panera, (everyone used my card so they kept calling out 'Lori', funny), relaxing in the afternoon, then dinner at Kyle and Meg's. Another fun day.