December: Alice Turned 2 and Christmas!

Okay, so this wasn't taken on her birthday but I had to post this for Neal's mom. She made the dress and gave it to her around Thanksgiving. She just looks so cute in the picture I had to put in on for her to see.

Ali's cake. I attempted to make a ladybug cake. She seemed to love it so that's good.

Brothers helping with the present opening.

A jacket and skirt she got for her birthday.

This was a great present. A garage sale find. We just had to buy a new battery for it.
She loves it.

I just love this picture of the kids. This was the Sunday before Christmas and they are all wearing clothes that my mom gave them as part of a 10 days of Christmas she did for all of us. They are all smiling, looking at the camera, and I love that Max has his hand on Alice's shoulder.

We then tried to take a picture of the whole family. This was the best one. Oh well, at least there is a good one of the kids.

As you can see I didn't take a whole lot of Christmas pictures. I forgot to pull it out Christmas morning. This is a picture of us on Christmas Eve. They boys all got pjs with monkeys on them and Alice and I got strawberry themed ones.
We did do a nativity scene reenactment and I filmed that. Its pretty funny so maybe I'll have to post that but that's about it for Christmas. It was so much fun and we always feel so fortunate for all the gifts we receive both of a spiritual nature and material at this season. We feel so blessed. I always want Christmas day to last forever.

November: Twins Start Wrestling and Our First Snowman of the Season

Josh getting ready to take his opponent down.

Tanner doing something to his opponent, I'm just not sure what.

They boys were really excited about wrestling when it first started but I think their enthusiasm kind of died out by the end (I'm don't think they won a single match). I have always like watching wrestling and still have high hopes that they will learn to love it but they are only five so I will give them time if they want to take a break for a little while.
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The twins, Ali and I built our first snowman of the season in November. He turned out pretty good I think.

She just looked so cute in her snow clothes. All but the jacket and hat used to belong to the twins. You forget how small your kids used to be.

October: We Can't Forget Halloween

The annual Halloween School Parade. Tanner the pirate.

Josh as Frankenstein.

Max as Count Dracula.

I helped out with the twins class party. It was actually combined with all the kindergartners.
Can you say chaotic? They had tons of fun though.

Neal's costume that he chose to share with Ali at the church party.

I'm so proud of this costume. I bought it the day after Halloween last Halloween for like 3 dollars at Children's Place. She would have nothing to do with it until the night of Halloween and we were able to convince her that she would get candy if she wore it.

The whole group ready to get their trick or treat on. You might notice that (1) the twins are wearing different costumes then they did at school (I'm not sure what to tell you. They can be quite indecisive and we have a huge box of dress up boy clothes in the basement that makes it easy to be 3 or 4 different things for Halloween.) and (2) there are a few extra children and adult in this picture. They are my adorable nieces and cute sister-in-law. They came up for the occasion and we are so glad they did because we had so much fun while they were here.

October: Neal turned 31 and Max and I went on a field trip

We got to pick pumpkins and ride a bus. I think those are the highlights.

The boys drew pictures for Neal on this birthday. My favorite is the one that says Dad F. Good thing we cleared that up...Neal might not have known which dad those pictures were for.

And of course, we had to have Banana Raspberry Pie. I don't think we will ever go back to a traditional cake again when it comes to Neal's birthday.

Where to Begin?

It's been awhile. I know. I know. I think I kept putting off the blog because our camera wouldn't connect to the computer and so I couldn't get any new pictures on here. I don't think I have hardly ever posted anything without a picture to go along with it. Family and friends occasionally want to see what has been going on with us and the best way to do that is with a picture or two. Let's face it though, there have probably been about five people max who have even noticed that I haven't posted for awhile. Anyway, Neal was able to figure out a way to get our pictures on the computer a month ago so now what excuse do I have? I guess I better just get going. I'm just not sure where to begin...