Merry Christmas

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that you have a day of love and family.

????

Name the baby...

...the answer is Maddie and Emily!!

SOOOO Big

Here is a picture of Emily and Maddie when Maddie was 1 week old... and a picture of Emily and Maddie from today, 5 months old...

Bake Shop

The Bake Shop is open again. It is that time of year when you make more sweets than should be allowed. I am making turtles, peppermint patties, Special K bars and I think that is it?? These are to given away, so that will be good. My New Years resolution is to not bake anything and loose all this weight by May. Is it wrong to ask for a birthday salad instead of a cake?? Anyway...Happy Holidays!!

Sisterly Love

I am always amazed at how loving Emily is towards little Maddie. She is always willing to give her a blanket, make sure she has plenty of toys and smother her with lots of kisses. It is too sweet to watch.

SNOW!!

Yes, that is right, snow in Houston (Tomball) Texas!! Yesterday when the kids got out of school it was snowing!! An "arctic front" had moved in over night and the temperature never got above 34 and with the wind it felt like 25. It was great, and I can say that because it melted as soon as it hit the ground so there was no shoveling or slushy mess. I do wish it had been cold enough for it to stick so the kids could have had snow ball fights or built a snow man. Maybe in another 10 years...

The Wedding and Stillwater

We have made it back from Stillwater and everyone survived. It is official Madeline HATES her car seat. Every time I place her in it she wiggles and worms her to get out and one thing I never forget is the way a baby or any child for that matter can arch their back when they do not want to be buckled in. The others did pretty well on the long ride home, Nathan was over tired and therefore over cranky and argumentative. Kayla was great no complaints, took her nap and sat quietly with books, and coloring or the Leapfrog Leapster. Emily was great the entire time, minus the last hour, when she had, had ENOUGH!!

CONGRATULATIONS to Mark and Sharla on your wedding, it was a nice ceremony and we are excited for the both of you to start your new lives together. May you be blessed with a long and happy life together.

It was good to get back to Stillwater and see how much it had all changed, but stayed the same. On Friday we went up early and walked around campus and the old downtown. We did more window shopping than anything. Nathan and Kayla fed the geese and ducks while Emily ran in fear. Kayla fed the ducks from a safe distance~ in the bushes. The geese were not pushy, but the girls have been a bit apprehensive of animals since Baily. Paul spent Saturday in bed as he was not feeling very well from the night before (we went to the bars with his brothers). Which meant that the kids were allowed to watch TV, thank goodness there was the Disney channel. The hotel had little yellow duckies in the bathroom of the rooms and Emily collected ours and the one from Paul's parent's room and she did not want to share, nor did she let them out of her sight for very long. After the wedding on Saturday we just hung around in the hotel and ordered pizza for dinner, than it was church on Sunday and we were off to Houston. A quick trip, but well worth it.

Happy Birthday Nathan

It was 6 years ago that Nathan was getting ready to make his appearance, IV's in place, monitors on, my uterus contracting and feeling as though my insides were being squeezed until they screamed out in pain. Once that was over, it would start over again!! Oh but you forget the pain. I can't believe that it has been SIX years since Nathan was born, hard to believe!! This morning Nathan started the day with opening one of his presents and he chose the one that was "the strange shape" which turned out to be a transformer. He enjoyed trying to transform it, however, soon gave up and returned it back to it's airplane form and off to school we went 24 cupcakes 4 kids and all!! This afternoon the neighborhood boys Jake and JT came over to make personal pizzas, play and have cake. It was a simple birthday, but they had a good time just playing and I think The simpler birthdays are the better ones. Who needs 20 birthday presents anyway!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!

Thanksgiving...

Well Thanksgiving was a good break. Short, but good to get away from the house and the daily reminders of everything I still need to do. We ate too much and had a good time with the family, there were tea parties, bocce, and numerous other fun games. Emily and Kayla wished that Uncle David had left Baily somewhere else, but Nathan enjoyed being chased all over the back yard by Baily. We went dress shopping for my sister, she will be getting married next November. We went to 1 store and she tried on about 8-10 dresses, tried on the last one and it was "it". She did not want to go shopping around, did not want to look at any other stores, she was done. When the woman rang up her total at the register, she had included the vail, tiara, and slip, my sister wanted the shoes and the dress, that was it. You have to watch those sales people they are sneaky!! After that it was home to eat lots of yummy appetizer food and watch the OSU vs. OU game. Unfortunately OSU lost, but they tried. On the card ride home Nathan drew a picture of a football player and asked who had won the game, when I told him OU he said nothing but went back to his drawing and added a little OU in the corner. Too cute!! Next Thursday we get to drive back to Oklahoma again, HOORAY!!!

Roll Over...

Maddie has been rolling over for about a week now and is getting quite good at it. I am sure she will be crawling in no time. Well, another month or two...

Yum-Yum

Last night was the birthday party with Mr. and Mrs. G. It was a good time and nice to catch up with them. They got Emily some foam hats and decorating bits, I do not know what they are called. Emily had fun playing with all of the little pieces while Nathan made a picture out of the foam stickers while Kayla and I decorated the hats. After dinner we sang happy birthday to Emily and ate cake then it was time to go upstairs and play Hi-Ho Cherry'O. After the kids went to bed it was time for the grown ups to play sheep's head. It was fun spending time the Grundmeier's, we are just sorry the fun the night ended early. Thanks for helping us celebrate!!