Well, Christmas is over. I am always amazed how quickly it comes and goes. We had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at my sister's new house and enjoyed delisious tamales after attending the Christmas Eve service at our church. It was a fun evening with of course lots of noise--how can there not be noise with 6 children!

The next morning the kids woke up at 3am ("go back to bed"), 5am ("go back to bed") and again at 6am ("ok, get up on the bed and we will get started"). We start every Christmas morning by Scott reading the Christmas story with all the kids on the bed. Then it is in to the living room for presents! We had to wake Ezra up as he was still sleeping. I thought about letting him sleep, but then worried about the fact that he would miss all the "present opening" pictures and then how would he feel years later. Ok, so he would probably understand but I would feel bad...so "wake-up Ezra." I always enjoy watching the kids get excited over their gifts. For Silas I believe the highlights would have the Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary and Lego Star Wars watch; for Mary her Princess Vanity (a hand-me-down from a friend, but don't tell Mary), the boys received a joint gift of a bike trailer to ride in when Mommy goes for rides (hopefully, more often). My favorite part was Scott opening his gift from me--Love Boat Season 1--in case you are wondering, he doesn't like Love Boat, but this was my way of tell him we are going on a cruise in April. I have been keeping that secret for months and was so glad to finally tell him. He is very excited as am I!

After presents it was breakfast consisting of Giant Breakfast Cookies (made with whole wheat and honey--a new change I am making), sausage and eggs. We then relaxed and hung out until that afternoon when we went to Scott's brother's house. Ok, so the kids relaxed and I kind of relaxed--outside of making green beans and a salad and getting everybody dressed.

We had a great time with Scott's family. Ezra got a Dirt Devil Jr. vaccum that makes real-like noise. He LOVES it and likes to just turn it on and sit next to it...when he is not pushing it around the house. Too bad it doesn't really work because then my house would be much cleaner:)All in all it was a wonderful day! I will try to post pictures later. Right now I have to get ready for Celebrate Recovery. I am loving having the kids home from school...it makes it a little easier to think about going places at night:)

Okay, so it has been over A YEAR since I have last posted. Good thing I do this mostly for myself and that no one is relying on it for up-to-date information:)

It is Christmas time and we are all enjoying the season. Yesterday, we went to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop. Why Bass? Because they have a real looking Santa, activities for the kids, and most importantly---FREE photos with Santa!! Yeah Bass Pro. This was our second visit this year because I forgot to check Santa's hours and the first trip turned out to be when Santa wasn't there. Oh well, we had fun anyways and went back last night for actual pictures.

Nehemiah is at a great age for Christmas. Anytime we see lights or trees he yells out "Christmas", which sounds more like "Missmas". Also, we kept asking him to say Merry Christmas and he kept saying "No, my missmas." At first we were confused, then we realized he was confusing Merry with Mary (his sister). He obviously thought we were saying it was Mary's Christmas and he wanted to inform us, that no, it was his christmas, too!

Laundry is calling, so I will try to post more later.