Christmas 2010

I hope you all had a meaningful Christmas. We had 6 family get togethers but only made it to 5. We are so grateful for family, well aware that there are people who really don't have get togethers at all due to family living far away or not having a functional family or not having family at all. And while it's nice to have the get togethers over, i'm so thankful for the opportunity for fellowship with family. And was thinking the other day how blessed Rod and i are to have been brought up with a strong christian heritage.

So w/out further adieu, here's some of our Christmas photos, in rather random order.

Christmas slippers!

I talked my grandma into getting Adam Hungry Hungry Hippos. Love that game!

My cousins organized a snowman craft for the kids. Christmas fell on "pancake day" this year. Daddy got creative. Don't they look scrumptious?

Clay w/ 2nd cousin Lexi.

Clay liked knocking over the manger scene, chewing on the pieces, and throwing them around.

Updated photo w/ Rod's family.
Ben talking w/ Great Grandma Smoker

The Clay collage

I've been accused by multiple people that I probably don't take many vidoes of Clay. I'm here to tell you that you are correct, but i've taken several lately because he's doing so many new things. As you'll see below Clay can stand, walk, and crawl now!

Tea anyone?

Our church ladies had a Christmas tea last week, which was so nice.

But my favorite tea party is w/ the boys (and neighbor girl, in this case), using their very fancy Curious George tea set!

Isn't it adorable?!? This could only come from a Grandma.

Come on over for some tea!

True story:

The twins keep their room looking like this. They pick up after themselves and keep it neat...

Adam keeps his room looking like this....He doesn't clean up after himself. Adam looked at this picture and said 'i usually have more toys out then that!'

When i was little i used to love when my mom would rearrange the furniture in my room. i told Adam yesterday we will clean his room and rearrange it. It was fun. Now to keep it looking like this!

Christmas program

Last year just Adam was involved with the play, this year the twins were also old enough to participate. It was the cutest little program with mostly singing and a couple solos and lines. It was done during worship on Sunday with preschool thru grade 5 involved. The boy's preschool class dressed up for the manger scene. Too cute. Their class sang "Away in a Manger" together. Krista and Donna did a wonderful job coodinating the whole thing.

The boys all wanted to be different things; Brad was a sheep.

Adam his shepherd:

And Ben a Wiseman:

In line, ready to get up on stage. Everyone fit their part so well. The kids were so cooperative as some of us moms had to "wing" it the day before, with who was going to be which part.The manger scene/ just the sheep and shepherds first:

Then, everyone....Good job Frogs! (the name of their sunday school class)

decorating and such...

The day after Thanksgiving, the boys were asking to get Christmas decorations out. So for the first year EVER we've had the place decorated before Dec. 1st!

Christmas is so fun w/ little ones. their excitment, questions, involvement has been a delight. We're excited to do some things that we did last year, starting up some traditions.

Today my mom came over and i took the morning to get things for some Christmas projects we have going. up until today i was a bit stressed by all that needed done. But now that the supplies are gotten and in the house, i feel better. The fun can begin :)

Last year after Christmas i got the boys each a Christmas tree for their room, like 80% off! it's very small, but they love it. The lights added a nice touch.

Some other 80% off items. ( i was surprised how quickly places like target and walmart totally get rid of all christmas stuff and get out valentines things. some of these things came from Michaels, they kept their clearance christmas items out longer).
i simply could not resist this Goodwill bargin for Clay.. Aside from the Christmas buzz around here, i'm still doing homeschool with Adam. He's learning how to read some words. Actually he does better spelling words then reading. If i tell him to write the word bus, sad, nut, cat etc..he can. But to ask him to read a word is harder for him but when he wants to, he sometimes can do that too. i knew it would be a process so i have no expectations on his reading. In other 'school' news, Brad wrote his name for the first time today! use your imagination, the first couple letters are sideways! i was proud of him, he picked up on it on his own.

Celebrating

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving and Adam's birthday at my parents house. Adam turned 5 on Monday of this week! His cake of choice this year was a baseball field. Adam sure keeps life interesting around here. he has his own ideas and agenda for just about everything. i try not to let that drive me crazy :) i joke that there's the 'normal' way to do things, and there's the 'Adam way' to do things!

Adam asks some really good questions, like "are there silly bandz in heaven?" and "does Jesus have any multi colored ones to trade?" but seriously, he does have some good thought provoking questions, keeps me on my toes.

Last weekend, we also celebrated his birthday along w/ his cousin celene. They both have november birthdays. All the kids enjoyed Grandmas lovely birthday ice cream cone cake.

We are thankful for this little guy! Happy birthday dear Adam

Trip to the "north farm"

The boys and i did an overnight adventure earlier this week to my dad's farm near williamsport. He is there for a couple weeks doing the corn harvest. My mom was also up there this week, so we thought it would be fun to join them for a couple days. We had a good time!

My dad has owned this farm for a few years. No animals, just land/fields. They got the trailer put in just this year. There was a very old house on the farm, which they tore down.

Since it rained all day Tuesday we had to find indoor things to do....

They played in the huge corn pile...

Did some crafts...Wrestled a little too much....And we went to Reptileland which was just 3 miles from the farm...

The each touched an alligator and a snake. They were pretty proud.Do you know the difference between a crocodile and alligator? The croc's snout is more narrow, and when it's mouth is shut it has teeth on the outside. (just 1 or 2 on each side, i think), and the alligators snout is wider. I never knew the difference, but would have guessed it the other way around.

My favorite were the huge turtles...excuse me, Tortoises. These guys were huge! as were the anacondas, which i didn't take a picture of. I joked that everything was big around there. We went out to eat and got 99 cent "baby" cones that were bigger then any normal sized cone around here!!

Looking forward to more memories at the north farm.

Photo contest

Last month i entered Clay in a "cutest baby photo" contest. I found out today he got 2nd place!!! It was through a local consignment shop and there were 30 some entries. Here's the picture i entered. . . . I totally took this picture just for the silly little contest!

The best part about getting 2nd place is that Nadene's baby got 1st place!! Go Emma!

Thanks to the Grandma's who stopped in and voted who knows how many times!!

7 months

Clay is 7 months old!

On sunday we dedicated him at church. It was great having our families standing up front with us. The boys also sang a song during dedication. And Rod's brother prayed for us. It was a special family event!

Something we started doing with Clay, that we never did with the other kids is sink baths. He loves them. Each time he baths the kids take turns being his "bath buddy". Last night was Adam's turn. On a selfish note, while Clay is bathing with his bath buddy, i get to do dishes and catch up in the kitchen.
No signs of teeth yet on our little guy, but he chews and slobbers like none other.