Our Christmas

We had a really fun Christmas this year. All three kids were so excited. Mason and Bo woke up around 3:00 am on Christmas morning and couldn't fall back asleep so they played games in their room until 5:00. That's when Bo came in our room and said he couldn't stand it anymore and begged us to let them go out to see what they got. There was no way I was waking up Lily at 5:00 in the morning so they had to wait another hour and a half. I'm sure it was torture for them. It's just a part of Christmas when you're a kid though, right?

When they finally got to run out to the family room, they were so happy to see that Santa had come. I didn't take a very many pictures because we had the video camera rolling on the tripod and I wanted to somewhat be able to enjoy the morning without having to worry about capturing every moment on my camera. But here are a few.

Before the kids ripped into everything Santa brought.






Bo with his new I-pod



Mason was so sweet with Lily. He helped her open all her presents.









Bo got LOTS of new BSU stuff. Here he is all geared up.



Always with the crossed eyes. He thinks he's such a comedian.






And Mason is a Packers fan.

Christmas Eve

Mason, Lily, Bo, Crew, Chase, Ty and Faith all in their new Christmas PJ's.


We went to Nan and Grandad's house for Christmas Eve dinner with Kirk and Danielle's family. After dinner all the kids got to open a present, which was new PJ's....as usual. Bo wasn't super happy about that, but at least he didn't throw a fit this year. The kids were super excited for Santa to come that all they wanted to do was go home and get in bed. Once we got home we made cookies for Santa. Bo left an envelope addressed to Santa right next to his plate of cookies. Thankfully, Santa left the note here so Ross and I could read it too. It's priceless.


Bo has been pretty nervous that Santa was going to put him on the naughty list this year. We just didn't know quite HOW nervous he really was. Needless to say, he was very relieved on Christmas morning when all of his Christmas dreams came true!

The good news....

We are happy to announce that we are expecting a new member of the family in June. I'm due on June 15th, which makes me 15 weeks pregnant. We went in for an ultrasound today and were hoping that she'd be able to tell us if we are having a girl or a boy. But nope, from one angle it looked like a girl and from another it looked like a boy. So we'll have to wait a few more weeks. I was hoping to be able to hit some of those after Christmas sales and stock up on either girl or boy clothes since this baby is due in summer and all the other kids have been cold weather babies. Oh well, we'll be happy either way! The most important thing is that the baby measured well and things are looking good.

Her birthday party

We celebrated Lily's birthday the other night. She had a great time. She got a new baby we named Lucy, complete with 3 changes of clothes. And she got a camera from her brothers. I know, not much. But in our defense, her birthday IS just one week before Christmas and she doesn't need or want much of anything........yet anyways. I'm sure things will change when she gets older. Anyways, she liked Lucy okay, but the $2 little mermaid camera was the big hit. She took lots and lots of pictures of everyone and would say, "you're welcome" to who ever she'd taken a picture of. It was so cute. She was also positioning her new baby and taking some newborn shots of her. I'm kinda hoping her new camera with inspire her to let ME get some good shots of HER in the near future. She's been a terrible subject to try to photograph lately.
Those dang terrible twos, huh?













And there's her cake. She kept trying to sneak M n'Ms off of it when I wasn't looking.

Happy birthday Lily!!!

It's hard to believe that Miss Lily it two today. It seems like it could've been just a few months ago that she was born. But it's also hard to remember what life was like without Lily in it. She has brought so much sunshine into our house and we all love her to pieces. She is such a sweet and loving little girl. I wish she wouldn't grow up so fast. I've put together some favorite pictures of Lily taken over the last two years. I could post hundreds of them, but I've narrowed it down to about 30. I know, that's still a lot. I got my SLR camera after Lily turned one, so all of the pictures of her 1st year are from my old Sony point and shoot. I'm sure I'd have a lot more to share if I'd had a better camera her 1st year. Oh, and the 1st 2 pictures of my C-section and are pretty graphic, so skip those if you want to.


Here is Lily's 1st picture. It was taken by one of the nurses in the delivery room because Ross was out of commission for a while.






Ross fainted about a minute before Lily was born so he missed the whole thing. He also headbutted me on the way to the floor. Thanks for the support honey :)









My brother in law took this of me and Lily and it's one of my very favorites. Thanks Kirk!







































































Lily's favorites at 2:

1. Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron.
2. The Grinch, the Jim Carrey version.
3. Apples, but only if it's the whole thing.
4. French fries.
5. Playing hide n' seek.
6. Horses.
7. Santa.
8. Going to Nan's house.
9. Nan's cats.
10. Cake.
11. When Pop comes home from work.
12. Running.
13. Wearing flip flops.
14. Acting things out for us.
15. Making a "tower" with the Christmas presents.