lily and sam

Matt, Kim and Lily have been visiting for Christmas for the past week. Sam and Lily are having a ball together! Sam can't wait to wake Lily up in the morning and they will play as long as you let them. And the best part... they play GREAT together! They love chasing each other or fixing things with their tools. They will play in Sam's room or living room or downstairs, doesn't matter, as long as they are together. Sam normally gets a bath every night (hey, he's a boy!) and one night Lily jumped in there with him and they played in there together for forever. I had to warm the water up twice! The night before they were leaving we let Sam stay up late and play with Lily a little extra. The next morning when Sam woke up Lily was already gone and he was sad. Every couple days he would ask where Lily was and why she wasn't there. I know that he can't wait to see Lily again!

Bath Pictures Here!

Cute Video Here!

christmas day!!!!

The kids actually slept in longer that I thought they would, which was a GREAT thing (since I did not get to bed until after 1:00am). Sam kinda woke up like it was a normal morning, but he was excited about something, I just don't think he really knew what. Andy reminded him it was Christmas morning and that we needed to go downstairs and see if Santa came. Then he got really excited! He made sure Jacob was awake and busted into Ben's room to wake him up. We made it downstairs and Lily was sleeping on the fold out couch in the living room, so Sam made sure she woke up too. Within minutes kids were ripping into presents and throwing wrapping paper all over! It took about an hour for everything to be opened (except for Ben's stuff - which some of it was not opened for days). The kids were very happy and were playing with all their new toys for the rest of the morning. It was a great morning and a lot of fun. Loud and full of energy... just like Christmas morning should be.

Later in the day Rob, Patti, Kelsey and Lucy come over and we had a nice dinner and opened even more presents!

I put more stories about each of the kids on their own blog pages - links are at the top of this page.)

Christmas morning pictures are here!

Christmas afternoon pictrues are here!

christmas eve with pam's family

Tonight we went over my sister Becky's home and celebrated Christmas with my family. We had a really nice evening and the boys got some awesome toys! Sam even got the same fire engine from Grandpa and Grandma that Santa was suppose to bring him that night! Sam just LOVED it! Jacob got some books, Legos and gift cards and was very happy! Ben got some of his own trucks that light up and make noise. Afterwards we took the kids back home and snuggled them into bed, before I headed back out with the midnight service with my parents and sisters. It was a nice relaxing evening and we had a really nice night!

You can see all the pictures here!

making christmas cookies

Sam is certainly at one of the perfect age's for Christmas time. And everything is revolving around making sure that Santa is coming and we have everything ready for him! This of course includes making cookies! Since I wanted it to be a fun experience for Sam I waited until Ben was taking a nap. Jacob would joined in the "fun" (don't know that he is really into this kind of stuff anymore) but him and Andy went to the movies and escaped. Sam and I just made simple sugar cookies. I had some leftover green food coloring (Sam's favorite color) so we made some of the frosting green and Sam heaped that on the cookies as best he could. He also made sure they had lots of sprinkles! We also made two snowman, one for Jake and one for Sam. Of course they were left out before he went to bed with some milk and carrots for the reindeer. Santa said that they just delightful...

more pictures here