Selfie

Sometimes when I look through the pictures on my camera, I see that someone other than me has been taking pictures, and sometimes it is pretty clear who the (handsome) photographer was.

Curly hair

On New Year's Day we went to Aunt Amy's house and Paige wanted to try out her new curling iron on Ali. The only problem with her new look was that she looked too grown up!

Table

Jake is learning to climb things, which means he tends to have a lot more bruises lately and that he thinks he belongs on the table.

Laser Tag

Logan's school had a mother son Laser tag night that Logan and I enjoyed going to.

It was fun running into lots of Logan's friends, like Emmitt an Camden.

First Snow

You can't even see it here, but when I snapped this picture it had just started snowing for the first time this winter, and all the kids gathered around the back door to watch it accumulate. Lucky for them, it was a Sunday and by the time church was over there were about four inches of fun, packable snow just waiting to be played in!

The Reading Spot

This corner of our couch is literally called "The Cuddler" and Ali takes that seriously. If we are sitting on it Ali wants to snuggle. And she will often come up to me with a book and ask me to get a book and go read with her, and this is where she wants to read. How can I say no to a book, a cute girl, and a snuggle? I can't. 

Baby Trap

This blanket is the baby trap. If you lay it on the ground, Jake will run onto it and wait for it to be picked up! So when the kids had some friends over, they had to show off the game:)

Evie

The kids are always really excited for the reappearance of our Elf, Evie, every year. But this last Christmas, Logan lamented that all he did at night was move; his friends' elves not only moved but did funny things. Evie must have heard Logan, because since then, every night he came up with something funny to do while the kids sleep, and they got a big kick out of him each morning.

Traditions are fun!

Baby for Dinner

He looks delicious!

Super Eli

"Look, Mom, I'm flying!"

Book Worms

I am grateful my kids love to read. I went to the library while they were at school and when they got home they had to check them all out right away!

Happy New Year

We had a great time ringing in the New Year with our good friends the Andersons. All the kids partied in their PJs. We met the Andersons about ten years ago when neither of us had kids...look at us now!

We shared our New Years tradition of a sparkling cider toast:

And the Andersons shared their tradition of having a home made pinata. All the kids loved taking their turns trying to break it, but none so much as Jake! He kept happily beating it even after it was broken and all the other kids were scrambling around getting the candy.

We sure love these good friends!