Christmas Smattering

Well, I have SO many pictures from Christmas and so little time to blog them all, that I am just doing a quick smattering, all out of order and with only brief captions. :) Hopefully now that the holiday joy is behind us I'll get back in my groove again, including blogging. :)
















This was playing "Guesstures" at our house on Christmas Day.





































Sweet little fiesty Moriah. :)

The Zajac family joined us for Christmas as well and Jonny played a little guitar for us. :)

Opening gifts:

Christmas morning with the kids:

Me and my big brudders:

Before Christmas, making cut-out cookies with the kids:

Visiting with my Grandma Jean and all of my mom's side of the family the weekend before Christmas:

Visiting with my Grandma Nita and my dad's side of the family also the weekend before Christmas:

This is Grandma Nita with twelve of her seventeen (?) great-grandchildren!

We drove to Grandma Nita's in the middle of the worst ice storm I ever remember seeing! Here is the outside of Grandma's house, with the ice-laden trees hanging down over the driveway. The ice was so heavy on the trees that tons of huge branches and limbs fell all over the place and the men spent the afternoon getting them cleaned up.

Some of the boys ready to eat our huge big yummy meal at Grandma Nitas:

Grandma Nita and Elizabeth (and Johann!)












Somewhere in the holiday bustle, Johann turned 3 months old and I stuck him in that wooden bowl again to get some pics. :)

Yes, he is outgrowing the bowl! :)

The quilt underneath is special because Grandma Jean made it.

And these almost last pictures are actually from the event that took place first! Mom had a Christmas craft/ project day for the grandkids that was a lot of fun! They dipped pretzel sticks in chocolate and sprinkles, watched a Christmas video, and decorated wreaths with their mamas.

Mom also had some "gifts" for them to open: dress up clothes for the girls and k'nex for the boys, to keep at her house for them to play with.

The finished wreaths:

Fabio and I at his company Christmas dinner - which currently consist of him and his boss! hehe. We went to a Brazilian steakhouse. :)

And lastly, another sister-in-law picture! Suzy hostessed a Christmas dinner at her church that she invited us to attend and it was a lot of fun! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Israel's Second Birthday

Israel had his second birthday last Wednesday! He is now a *terrific* two-year-old!! We are so blessed with him in our family - he is so full of life and so full of joy. It is super-easy to get a good picture of him smiling, because that is what he does most of the time anyway!
These pictures show his personality well:




































"TWO!"












































His birthday started at the breakfast table, as usual - where his big sister was kind enough to unwrap his gifts for him!

I tried to get a couple of sibling pics after that:

Then we had lunch at McDonald's with my girlfriend Michelle and her little ones:

Michelle was kind enough to bring cupcakes even!

Then for supper Mom and Jack came over. I wish I'da gotten a picture of the whole table! But here he is blowing out his candles on the cake that Grandma Carol made him:

Here is the cool new toy he got from Grandma Carol!

And our happy guy again!

I had to end this post with this picture! :-)~

He is truly a BIG boy now! He is "mostly" potty trained, sleeping in a big boy bed and the last of his molars are almost all the way through. He is a fabulous eater and sleeper, so what more could we ask for? Well..... what we ask for is the wisdom to train him in obedience and godliness, and we ask for the Lord to bless him with a heart that loves the Lord more than life itself.

We love you, big buddy!

Living The Dream

I was recently reminded by an article in my favorite magazine that I am living my dream! All of my life I dreamed of the day when I could be a mommy - when I could have my very own baby to cuddle, when I could have my very own kitchen to cook in for my very own family, when I would have a husband to welcome home at the close of the afternoon! This is it! My dream come true! It is easy to get lost under piles of laundry and toys all over the place, - or even harder to deal with is sibling squabbles and other discipline issues - but I'm posting this partially to remind myself of what a blessing it is to have the life I do. So, here are some random pictures from my dream life. :)

Israel had his very first haircut last week! His hair was close to seven inches long at the crown, but didn't look it because it is so curly. He was such a good boy for the cut. :) That same day, I also gave Dominique her very first haircut too! I only cut about 3 inches off, as it was a bit uneven since it had never even been trimmed. She sat fine for the cut, but afterward you would have thought I'd cut her arm off! She cried for two days, and continued to get teary any time she recalled the event over the following week....






























Dominique did find a way to hide her new haircut, though. :)



















Johann is the only child in the family that didn't get a haircut that day. He didn't need it - as his hair is falling out on its own. All of my babies tend to lose most of the hair they are born with about this time unfortunately. And even more unfortunately, I tend to lose quite a lot of mine too! Bummer...















All that growin' wears him out!

Dominique was playing Annie Oakley. :)

Rewind to when we had leaves on the ground instead of snow! Had to post these someday...

This was the day we went to Chicago to get Johann's birth certificate. I just LOVE this picture!

Our car is rather full these days! In fact, the Honda is a 6 passenger, so we are maxed out with just our fam...

Now let's fast forward back to our present weather conditions.

There, that's more like it! This was the day of our first snow, all bundled up and ready to go out. Sorry, I didnt get any pics of them IN the snow. Yet.

And this was a few weeks ago when BOTH Fabio and I got a bad cold w/ fever on the same day, while all of the children were fine! That was a bad combination! But we all made it through it. It was short-lived for Fabio and I, and thankfully, they never did get it.

Anyway, here they are making us ramen noodles for supper. :) So sweet!

(They did have a little supervision, though.)

Thanksgiving

Well, I have not been on the ball much lately with blogging, but I thought I'd post some of our Thanksgiving celebration! We spent the day at my brother Scott's house and had a lovely time!



We had lots of fun with pipe cleaners! :)

It was fun to have the Beals family celebrate with us!

And the previous week, we had had an early Thanksgiving/ Christmas dinner at my Grandpa's before he leaves town for the winter.

The highlight of entertainment at that party was Grandpa busting out his 100 year old trombone and blowing a few notes for everyone!

Uncle Bill meets Johann :)

Uncle Bill, Aunt Kathy, Eric and Craig

We had no idea that A.J. and Joshua had matching shirts, but they happened to both wear them that day!

Uncle Joe and Aunt Sue with Johann. It was the first time Johann had met Uncle Joe too!

Sorry commentaries have been lacking lately! If I post at all, it is in a super-hurry and I keep thinking one of these days I will write more! Maybe that will happen, someday.....