A Year in Review video!

I decided to wrap up 2010 with a picture video instead of loading up the blog with pictures! This was the first photo video I have made and I am somewhat upset that my pictures look distorted in the video!

2010 was a year of unexpected surprises or blessings! With finding out in early February we were expecting a sweet baby, then on a whim buying a fixer upper house, spending time at the beach, Jacob finished wearing his pressure garments, booming business for Little Green Swing clothing, going to the zoo, the kids switching schools, my what a busy year this was! It was a busy year and sure to be memorable for us. Our New Years Eve celebration consists of playing the wii till midnight then three little ones will go to bed, if not before! (Then Lillian will most likely be waking up then, so she can party!) Last year we had people over for some sparking grape juice, since we are a nonalcoholic family, but this year it's just us! I am still working on New Year's resolution/goals for 2011 along with a theme for the new year. This year one of my resolutions or goals was to lose weight, but instead I ended up gaining weight! He! He! In 2011 I would like to loss about 10 pounds, not sure if I can or should do this quite yet since I am still nursing Lillian but through out the year I would like to get back to pre Lillian weight! We were lucking enough to be able to scratch off a few of our goals this year and hope to do the same next year around this time!!!! Wishing you a blessed and wonderful New Year! Blessings, Lisa

Christmas 2010!

Excited little children, sounds of paper ripping and mounds of wrapping paper are all gone, until next year! It is so hard to believe that just like a snap, Christmas is over. Time to put the tree away! OK, so I may wait a few days to put the tree away. This year we spent Christmas Eve with Chad's family and all of the grandchildren were together. All 17 of them under the age of 12, Lillian being #16 by a few hours! (I'm really not sure what # the others are as I would have to sit and really figure that one out!) We had a wonderful time together as I think we always do! The kids played outside on the sleds down the big hill with the bigger boys, aka fathers and one grandpa! We weren't quite sure who had more fun the little ones or the big ones! I do know this, Chad and his brother broke one of the new sleds that we bought a few weeks ago! It was incredibly funny and sure to be remembered! I didn't take to many pictures of the kids this year, between holding Lillian and visiting with others, it was hard to do! Here are just a few of the pictures I took on Christmas! Jacob was excited to see what was in the box!

Kyle and his new hunting game, that the big kids seemed to really like too!

Lindsey and her new boots!

Lillian and her new toy!

Kyle helping Jacob with his new toy.

As usual we had a wonderful Christmas and Lillian enjoyed her very first Christmas, just as Jesus may have many many years ago! Although I think Lillian was glad to be back on a somewhat normal routine and familiar surroundings or maybe that's me!

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. (11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (12) And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:10-12

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!! Blessings, Lisa

Christmas Shopping!

It's done, my Christmas shopping that is! Today I had finished up with all of my shopping, insert sigh of relive! My motto this year for Christmas shopping seemed to be this:

This year has been quite difficult finding presents for the kids. It seems to get harder the older they get! Really what do I get children that seem to have everything they could imagine! Thankfully, I think they realize that they are very fortunate in what they do have. (with a slight reminder) When I asked them what they wanted they would tell me the same thing over "I don't know?". Really, thanks that helps a lot kids! I had a goal of getting them each 3 things, being symbolic to the three gifts that Jesus was given. This made things easy for me and they won't have toy overload on Christmas morning! OK, now on to a fun shopping story: Last Friday I needed to do some grocery shopping so I loaded up Jacob and Lillian while the others were at school and headed out. We get to the store and Lillian was sound asleep, no need to rush, so I thought I would take Jacob to the toys to see what sparked his interest. That is one area that we never go to in the store. He understood that we were NOT buying any toys and he pointed out what he liked and what the others would like. So we left the toy department and head over to get our groceries. Right before we were about to check out I needed to pick up some Christmas cards. I got my cards and over to the check out we go and then it hits him like a snowball! "I want that card" crying, actually laying on the floor crying! OH MY GOSH! "What are you doing!" I ask him "I want that snowman card!" Of course I had forgotten to get something so we went back and guess who got a $4.99 Frosty the Snowman card that sings! After looking at everything in the store he wants a Christmas card! Really!? I would have whined over the cheap toy in the check out lane or better yet something really expensive in the toy isle! The whole way home all I heard was "Frosty the" "Frosty the snow" "Frosty" "Frosty" "Frosty the snowman", you get the picture! Of course he still loves to play with that card! Guess who's getting coal in their stocking for Christmas! Ha! Ha! Lisa

Christmas Program 2010

Today Kyle and Lindsey had their school Christmas program and this one just blew me away compared to any of their others! I have to say it was an absolutely beautiful program and so blessed that my children got to be apart of it! Kyle and Lindsey did an amazing job along all of the other children from their school. Not to mention all of the teachers and helpers that made this all possible for them. Thankfully Lillian was good the whole time, I was a bit fearful as she didn't eat much before we left and I don't feel comfortable feeding her in public! Jacob enjoyed watching all of the kids sing and even tried to sing along! It was cute but unfortunately I had to shush him for singing! Before Jacob and I left home to go to the program I found this in Lillian's car seat buried under all of her blankets! Goober Jacob's baby doll, he named it not me, who looks like he needs a bath!

At least he strapped him in! Now we have Lillian ready to go to the show! Off we gooo!

Here is a picture of Kyle and his class, he is in the green actually singing! I was so proud of him for actually singing, normally he is not a big singer at these types of programs!And then we have Lindsey, who loves to sing, wearing green in the middle!
Then at the end of the program the fifth grade class sung "Silent Night". It was so beautiful and brought back memories from when I was in fifth grade and I got the honors of being Mary! Not to mention Kyle's music teacher was my music teacher when I went to school there!

This program was much different than the others at their old school. I love the song's that they sang here at this school. They never really sung songs like Silent Night and Oh Come All Ye Faithful, so hearing those types of songs in a school was wonderful. Kyle and Lindsey really enjoyed themselves and I know that I truly enjoyed watching them!!!! Blessings, Lisa

Christmas Home Tour!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here! I have always loved home tours, so today I am linking up to The Nester's Christmas home tour! Come on in and have a look at the Christmas decorations we have put up this year!

This year I have the joy of decorating in two houses, our new/old Victorian house that we are still not moved into yet and our house we are currently living in! We purchased our Victorian home in April of this year but have had so much remodeling and rewiring to do in this house it seems to be taking much longer than we had hoped for! We are hoping to be moved into it the beginning of next year! Of course I have already started to decorate the parts of that house that are finished! I decorated the staircase and the front door for Christmas just to make it look festive when we go in there to work! That was about the only decorating I did at that house!

On to the other house! Oh how I love lanterns, they are so fun to decorate with and the possibilities are endless!

You can never go wrong with a candle in the window, especially at Christmas time!!!!

This is one of my favorite Christmas wreaths!

A plain white wreath becomes a chic wreath by putting a birdhouse in it!

A wreath above the kitchen sink to make dish washing more enjoyable!

A small tree above the kitchen cabinets.

This is my favorite motto for the kids! He! He!:

Also linked up to Hooked on Houses, My Romantic Home and Kelly's blog

Thanks for stopping by! From our house to yours we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year! Lisa

Playing Dress Up!

Today was a rather blustery day outside, so what better way to spend the day than playing dress up! Lindsey has this thing about changing her clothes around 20 times a day. (OK, slight exaggeration!) I think she had a total of six or seven outfits on today! Earlier this afternoon I was folding laundry in my room on my bed, which is were I always fold laundry, and Lillian usually watches me. I'm trying to teach her young, hopefully she will be folding towels before she can walk! Ha! Ha! Lindsey was in with me and asked if she could change Lillian's clothes into a pair of pants she found in the pile! I told her yes and that I wasn't going to help her, she had to do it herself. Oh my she loved this, of course I just sat and watched along with assisting her on what I would do if I was changing her clothes. She wasn't sure if she should go up over head or down with some of the outfits! She stripped her down to her onesie and started to put on different thing. Lillian didn't seem to really mind, she's a girl so this must come natural for her to like changing her clothes!

I love how she is looking up Lindsey in the photo below, she looks somewhat worried/delighted! Ta da! Here she is! In a dress that is way to big for her! It was Lindsey's when she was little and I have the cutest picture of her wearing it! I will have to take Lillian's picture in it when she grows into size 6-9 month clothes! Oh yes and she is holding her sock in her hand, she loves to hold onto them as they are the perfect size for her hands and soft too.

Lindsey sure looks happy! Lillian, not so much!

We also made pretty flower headbands today too! Here is Lillian showing off her new flower headband! Chad had the boys with him most of the day so it was just us girls! Tomorrow the kids don't have school simply because we have 45 mph winds and about 3inches of snow! Chad and the boys went to the other house today and on the way home the wind had really picked up! Let me tell you, the boys were sure full of stories about coming home in the white out conditions! We could hardly see our neighbors house at times, that's how bad it is! Hooray for no school and burr for snow and wind!!!! Lisa

2 Months Old!

Lillian you are 2 months old today! Last week you had your two month check up and weighed 12 pounds even and 23" long! Goodness gracious you are growing like a lily flower! You have really started to show your playful side, you are smiling so much more and cooing and ahhing! It was either 5 or 6 weeks that you started to smile real loving smiles for us. Your brothers and sister love playing with you as you are growing more interested in watching them. You are sleeping around four hours at a time at night and still won't really sleep in your crib! Some of your favorite songs that we sing are: Skidamarink, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Frere Jacques, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Splish Splash Lillian's Taking a Bath which we do in the bath as I splash your hands in the water and you just smile and deal with it! Your father asked one day" does she really like it when you do that?", and I said "of course she does, she's smiling"! He thinks were pretty silly some days! Here are your two month old pictures I took of you today in your cute Christmas outfit! We did nice pictures:

and Naughty pictures!

Oh your still cute even if you were being naughty during our photo shoot! You got see Santa for the first time today too! Grandpa had his Christmas work party for all the workers children and/or grandchildren. Of course grandpa has only worked at same place for over 30 years! Daddy putting you on Santa's lap, you were just like a big girl!

Tomorrow you have to go and get your two month shoots! Ouch, I am not looking forward to that! I'm sure you wouldn't either if you knew what they were! We love you Little Lillie!!!! Blessings Lisa

Lets Play Ball!

It's that time of year again, Kyle and Lindsey started basketball today! Lindsey's practice started this morning bright and early at 7:30 and I got to drive in our first accumulating snow this fall! This is Lindsey's first time playing basketball for school and she seemed to really enjoy it! Kyle had played basketball at his old school so he knows what he's in for! They both enjoyed themselves and I think they will have lots of fun this winter playing basketball! I was glad to see that their coaches do a very good job working with the kids. I did manage to get a picture of Lindsey and her group, I didn't dare take out the paparazzi in front of Kyle's group as that would of been embarrassing for him! (Lindsey is staight ahead in the blue shirt/pink pants!)

I will be the photogenic mom taking tons of pictures from the side line, I guess that's better than the mom yelling and coaching her kids from the side! Ha! Ha! I don't think I could do that even if I wanted to, I get way to shy in front of a crowd, the camera thing is bad enough! Of course Lillie and I will get to dodge basketballs from the sidelines at practice, literally! We had one ball come our way today! Happy basketball season Kyle and Lindsey!!!! Lisa