Christmas Pics

Here are some pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Piper and I went to the Moravian Lovefeast with Nana, which Piper kept referring to as "the Feast of Love and Grace," on Christmas Eve, then we let the kids each open one present. Abe was so cute opening presents, he actually tore paper and bows from his gifts, all of which he enjoyed more than what was inside the gifts!



Christmas morning consisted of more presents and a big, yummy breakfast (eggs, deer sausage, hashbrowns and yeast rolls). The big, yummy breakfast proved to be more for Chad and I, as we had to beg the kids to eat they were so excited.

Cohen's Guitar

We have been super busy during Christmas this year. We had an additional celebration this year to include my dad since he has no other family to celebrate with and did not attend any of the other gatherings. The kids were so blessed with gifts this year, with their birthdays both near Christmas and the addition of Abe, we had toys coming from every direction! One of everyone's fave gifts has been this guitar:


Cohen plays and sings all day. He writes songs for Piper and Abe and sings, "They call me the fireman, that's my name" evidently that is some old country song he has picked up from a friend!

Even Piper and Abe bide for some time on the guitar:

Barn Burning Birthday Bash

For Cohen's birthday we celebrated with cousins and the local fire department at our house. The fire department was doing a practice burn on our property to get rid of an old barn and Cohen thought they were there just for him! His Aunt asked him how he got the fire department to come for his party and he replied very matter-of-factly, "We just called them." This picture shows the burning in all it's glory:


Here is Cohen with his Kung Fu Panda cake:


A cute pic of Abe with his Aunt:


And no party is complete without a wrestling smack down!

Santa Claus

We had a big day of Santas on Tuesday! We started the morning off with "Breakfast with Santa" at the local library and ended the day helping Grandaddy (Chad's dad) hand out presents to the patients at the nursing home!

We do not do "Santa" at our house, I mean he comes and he leaves gifts, but there is no question about who "Santa" is. As soon as Piper was old enough to understand, I told her the truth and have not regretted it one bit. Cohen has always known the truth. I have to do some coaching with my kids when we go to events with Santas so they will not ruin it for the rest of the kids but I just couldn't bring myself to lie to them. It is so much easier this way and there will never be that revelation that their parents lied to them about Santa or anything else!

Santa, greeting the kids at the library:


My kids with Santa, aka Grandaddy:


Grandaddy volunteers at the nursing home where his mother spent her last few years, once she was in a condition that family could not longer take care of her. He has made a practice of taking the grandchildren with him to love on the patients as often as possible. Cohen is awesome and just hugs and kisses the older people; Piper is getting there too, but she has made it more of a job whereas Cohen actually enjoys it. This year Chad dressed as Santa and took his little elf Cohen around one hall to hand out gifts and Grandaddy took Piper around a different hall to do the same. I am hoping serving at the nursing home will be an outreach our family can continue for many years!

Nice Do!

Piper "fixed" my hair for me in a very interesting fashion! She was so impressed with her creation she took a couple photos:

Christmas decorating

As a tradition, Chad takes the kids into the woods at their grandparents house to pick a Christmas tree. Family members and friends laugh and make jokes about our trees but my kids are so proud of them! As long as they are happy, I am happy with the trees and I can spend that money on Christmas gifts instead. We enjoyed decorating and singing together and our tree turned out pretty cute this year, you would agree if you had seen some in years past!



And Piper wanted her own personal tree in her room which she decorated herself. She waters it and takes care of it.

Happy Birthday C-Bear!

Cohen celebrated his 4th birthday on Monday! He is thrilled not to be "fleee" anymore; birthdays are so exciting when you are a child. The fire department is burning a barn on our property Saturday so we are planning to have his cousins over for pizza and cake to watch the event. However, we still celebrated as a family on Monday.

Cohen at 3 days old. He was a beautiful, sweet, good-natured baby.


Cohen at 4 years old!


Decorating his own cake. I took the time to write "HAPPY BIRTHDAY COHEN" on the cake and he covered it all up with a ton of sprinkles!


Opening a gift from Aunt Ashley. I let him open a gift at breakfast, lunch and dinner so he was not overwhelmed and could enjoy each gift after opening.


Asleep amidst the toys!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

My Baby is growing up

Over the last week Abe has started sitting pretty well. As if that were not enough, he has also started getting up on all fours and rocking. I am so not ready for the crawling stage! I wish I could freeze time and keep my cuddly lap baby right where he is! My mom once told me that my job as Mom is to teach my children how to live without me. That is so true, but this job is bittersweet when phrased in such a way.

What's going on here?

The older kids were on the porch playing when this picture was taken. What exactly in going on here??

Another of Piper's photoshoots

Piper was watching Abe for me to do dishes a few nights ago and in true Piper fashion, she set up a "photoshoot" with him. She started with Abe alone in the little recliner then added some props. She seems to have lost her subject in the props though!

Adding in the other little brother!

These pictures were so funny to me for some reason!

Family night at Sciworks

We are involved in a local program titled Parents as Teachers, and they sponsored a Night with Santa at Sciworks this past Friday. We had free access to the entire museum, they served us dinner and the kids got a gift from Santa! Here are Piper, Cohen and I with Santa:


Cohen in the astronaut face:


Piper having her nails painted:


And Cohen sitting in the hyperbolic funnel. He had no idea what is was really for until we gave him a coin to put in the slot. Then he watched with excitement as the coin circled around to the bottom.

Cute, huh?

I saw these reindeer cookies in my Family Fun magazine and decided to try them. They are so easy to make and really yummy too!

Gingerbread Home

One of my best Black Friday purchases was this gingerbread house kit! As part of school yesterday Piper put this together with almost no help from me. I helped get the parts stuck together with the icing but she decorated the entire thing herself using the box as her example.


As I understand it, she bribed Cohen with $1 to *not* help her! He did pretty well sitting back and watching except he kept trying to sneak pieces of candy to eat. And every time Piper would have her hands covered with icing he would lick it off for her, kinda gross, huh?


The finished product:

Make-up

Piper received several play make-up gifts for her birthday this year, problem is - she has no idea where eye shadow goes!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration (3 of them to be honest) this year. I finally got my digital camera back (yeah!!) for the last gathering, so I took some cute photos. We had yummy deep fried turkey and the usual fixings and way too many desserts. We are a family of sweet tooths I believe.

Here are Piper and my sister Ashley cuddling:


Abe wearing all smiles:


And no one can be prepared for the chaos that is my children, especially those who have not had children of their own yet! Ashley's husband Steve offered my older kids a dollar each to be quiet for a minute. They are trying really hard here, Piper has even buried her face to stay focused:


And here is the chaos that ensued as soon as the dollars were in hand!

Lots of fun!!

Dedication

We dedicated Abe a few Sunday's ago at church. As I have with the others, I had to get a boutique frock for the event! Chad is never too thrilled with my boutique choices for the boys, he said I can dress them like "that" until their first birthday then no more :)

Abe's Photo shoot

I took a bunch of pictures of my adorable 6 month old this evening for a baby casting call. Silly, I know, but a friend of mine who has modeled for many years encouraged me to make them. She has worked with this photographer before and he contacted her wanting babies for a job this weekend. Whether he gets the job or not though, I think he's perfect!