Christmas 2012

Thanks to a very generous monetary gift from my parents, we had a super exciting Christmas! Everyone got what they wanted, and it was a lot of fun! Here is a picture of our kids playing with one of their favorite gifts:

Sam's 5th Birthday!

Sam just couldn't wait to blow out his candles on the birthday cake that his sister made for him! Happy 5th birthday, Sam!!

Happy Birthday to Becca!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Becca...lovely like a rose & twice as sweet!

Snow!

Finally...we have snow! What a beautiful and peaceful sunrise in my backyard this morning! Thankfully, we are getting more snow tonight and tomorrow, so the kids will be able to use all of their new sleds! Happy kids = Happy mom!

The Reptile Zoo

Sam's birthday is only 6 days after Becca's, so we took them to see some exotic critters at the Reptile & Amphibian Zoo! We all had a blast! And, since the Zoo is only about 20 minutes south of our house, we decided to buy a membership! It is great to find places that welcome our large family, and let us experience hands-on educational activities! :-)

American Girl Dolls

My girls have been asking for American Girl dolls for a couple of years now. So, we all saved up some money, and decided to buy them as birthday/early Christmas gifts for this year. Becca decided to buy Rebecca Rubin, and Christy bought Josefina. They love their new dolls, and it has been a blessing to watch them read about the history of the dolls' characters, and to see them playing with the dolls so sweetly.

Little Boy Troy

My youngest, Troy, decided to help clean up the "baby books" after reading time. However, all the books ended up falling back onto the floor. I thought he would be frustrated, but he thought it was funny! He has such a sweet and easy-going disposition!

Snow-covered Trees

I love my big trees...covered in a blanket of snow!

Creative Cooking

My girls' latest baking creation!

Cabin Playhouse

Eric's co-worker gave us a cute cabin playhouse for the kids! After cleaning it up a bit, and assembling it, we got a good picture of all the kids playing in it. What a fun addition to our "backyard playland"! ;-)

Practical Math

We decided to have Math class in the kitchen today! It was amazing to see my girls' attitude change when fractions were applied in such a fun way! As an added benefit, the oven warmed up our house on this blustery day.

Zoo Field Trip

We celebrated the first day of school with a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo! It was a great day, and all of the kids had fun. We learned a lot by observing, discussing, and just enjoying the wonders of God's creation. We try to balance "book work" with hands-on and multi-sensory learning. Well, today is a beautiful day, so I'm going to head outside with all of the kids. Here is a "photo gallery" of our day at the Zoo:

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit

We had so much fun with Grandma Becky & Grandpa Terry when they came out from Oregon to visit! We started out slow, just visiting at home, then we had some fun going out shopping, and our biggest day was at the Mall of America! I have many pictures from the visit, ranging from our time at home to the theme park at the mall. I don't have much time to caption every picture right now, so I'll just put them in order for your viewing pleasure:

Home Decor

When Eric and I were discussing how to decorate our house, we both agreed that we would like to use scripture, and inspirational sayings, to keep our minds on God. Here is another decoration that we put up in the dining/kitchen area:

Truly, God has given us our hearts' desires...mostly in the form of our precious children!

First Haircuts

The twins did fairly well during their first official haircuts. A few tears were shed (by both babies and mommy), but we made it through. They look so grown up now!

Captain America...crashed

After playing hard at being the famous superhero "Captain America", this is how I found my 2-year-old Daniel this afternoon:

Good Weather & Family Fun

Today, we decided to spend some time working on our garden plots. We made a trip out to "Cedar Acres" plant nursery, and found some really good deals on new things that we could add around the house! This little shopping trip was supposed to only take half an hour or so, but we kept wandering around...they literally have ACRES of plants, trees, shrubs, landscaping supplies, etc. There was even a little mini-golf area that we played on for a little bit. When we got back home, we spent the rest of the day outside...enjoying the great weather and some productive family time together!

Here is Becca, looking over the edge of our deck and imagining where she wants her flowers to be planted:

Here is Christy, after working around one of the garden plots:

Homestyle Haircuts

I'm getting better at cutting Sam & Dan's hair! I've gone from a "boot-camp buzz" cut to a "been in the service for a few weeks" style. The boys are growing so fast, and they are wonderful big brothers! Sorry about the quality of the picture...my main digital camera has gone missing, so I had to use an alternate camera.

Twins' Birthday Party

We decided to have the twins' birthday party today, since we have church tomorrow, and Eric will have to sleep most of the day in preparation for working all Sunday night! It was a fun party, with some of the local neighborhood kids attending. The twins loved listening to the kids sing "Happy Birthday" to them, and then they received help in opening their presents. I think their favorite part, however, was tasting their first cupcakes! Here are some pictures of them before, during, and after the cupcakes. The video at the end is them playing with some of their birthday toys, and showing off their new skill...walking!