Pop-Pop and Suzie visit...and Christmas number 6!

My dad came to visit for a bit after Christmas and the kids really loved every minute of it. They got to ride in Suzie's fun Cooper car, they played games and puzzles, they built track, lego's, and the list goes on and on! This visit was the first one that the kids were old enough to really interact and connect and everyone had a great time! Michael was able to take a few days off work and I was still off for Christmas break so it was all around family time fun! Thanks Pop-Pop and Suzie for making the trip!

Here is a picture of Pop-Pop with the girls!

Fighting robots!

Jacob loved having Pop-Pop here to play boy stuff with!

Something that was started years ago by Megan was "Blow Up Pop-Pop." The air pump is carefully placed in a shoe and then as they pump Pop Pop gets bigger and bigger until he pops and runs all around and the kids end it with a proper plop themselves to make sure all of the air is out! Somehow this pump always makes an appearance when Pop-Pop is around!

Another round!

Pop-Pop helping Jacob put his track together!

Emily and Daddy playing a new game!

Megan is a pro at CATAN Junior and the game is actually fun for adults too! She caught on quick and loves to play it!

Even Shoney was in heaven because she had time with her little dog friends!

Christmas Number 5 with the Patterson's!

We love time together with family we don't get to see very often and Christmas afternoon we were able to gather and celebrate. The food was yummy and the time was wonderful! I think Megan was looking more forward to the dollar elephant gift exchange than any other part!

My cousin Kendra with her nephew Karsten and an Emily booty because Emily was all over the place!

My cousin Steve had the boys all riled up chasing and playing snowball fight with the paper!

Jacob was in heaven...he had boy time!

Emily was being silly...again!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (#3 and #4)

Megan is in our church's children's bell and singing choir called Purest Praise and they did a beautiful job singing and ringing about our Savior on Christmas Eve night....it was simply wonderful and we are very thankful to everyone who has a hand in helping make their performance such a success! We've been listening to the Christmas CD and practicing in the car since about October! I'm so used to the songs that it's going to be hard to go back to the radio...luckily they will get their Easter CD soon enough! After the Christmas Eve service we went home and the kids exchanged their own presents with each other and we gave them a few things from us! Apparently I took so many pictures everywhere else that we forgot to take pictures so we have 2 pictures from these 2 days to share!

The kids on Christmas Eve night in their new pj's patiently waiting to open a present while eating a yummy cookie!

Christmas morning! I can't believe we didn't take any pictures! This is our only one...Emily on her new Minnie bike that Santa brought her! She loves it! The kids loved their gifts and celebrating together. We had enough time to play around a little bit before we headed off to our next Christmas celebration!

Christmas Number 2...with Grammy!

We celebrated Christmas with my mom too! We had a nice time and the kids loved having time with Grammy!

Emily smiling and acting silly as always!

Megan's silly face!

Jacob's smiling face! He usually doesn't let me take his picture so he must have been having a great time!

Love this picture of Grammy with the kids!

Let the opening of presents begin!!!

Megan and Jacob are studying their presents!

Jacob calls my mom's calculator his timer...well she got all of them their own "timers" now and it was a crowd favorite!

Christmas Number 1...with the Dierking's

We all had a great time at Grandma Dierking's house celebrating together! We have a great family and are very thankful for it!

The kids always have to blow up balloons and then use them to beat up Uncle Jon!

Emily was loving the yummy cookie! She is such a delight!

Jacob loves wrestling around with Uncle Jon too!

Megan was covered in balloons from head to toe!

Here is a before picture of all the grand kids!

Jacob was excited to get a nerf like his big cousins have!

Emily loved all her presents and if it had Minnie on it that was even better!

Love this picture! The kids are all smiling real smiles because it's so close to present time!

Megan's Green Room!

Part of Megan's Christmas present from us was painting her room green!

Megan picked out the "House Plant" color all on her own. She loved helping paint and did a great job!

She decided the room needed a little variety!

A friend gave us this bed and it's the perfect addition to Megan's room! Other Christmas presents for her included a big animal mural (that we hope to get up soon!), a bug light, bedding, some stuff for the wall, and some other things! I will post more pictures of the finished product when it gets completely done!

She loves her animals!

Christmas Party Fun!

Christmas at my school is lots of fun! This year because I had an early release for the first time I was able to attend one of Megan's school parties!

Shoney was all dressed up for the annual Christmas celebration at school!

Ugly Sweater contest! A friend made me a tree skirt shirt with ornaments and lights aglow!

The kids loved turning themselves into snowmen!

Here is a picture of Megan and her friend Alana!

Here is part of Megan's class!

More of Megan's friends and her teacher who is amazing!

Here is Megan enjoying the yummy snacks from the party!

Snow Fun!

Here are a few pictures from our first snow! The kids loved it of course and so did we! We are hoping the next one will stick around for a while though!

Megan has become a pro at sledding!

Michael had a little fun with the kids too!

Here we go!

Cheese!

I decided to give Michael a lift to his car one day because the timing was just right so he wouldn't have to walk in the rain...after I called to tell him I realized that the entire back end was filled and Shoney was in the front seat...so the only seat was the kids booster seat!

Jacob and Emily have really enjoyed singing and jingling Christmas carols this year!