Sigh.....

In a very loud, excited voice, my dear child says: "Mom, I really didn't know that Ladies could have mustaches!?" right after passing a sweet lady who was smiling at Chelsea, Jacob and Emily as they held hands walking through the grocery store.

A few memories I want to cherish

Jacob is so wordy, just like me. Sorry people! I love it though and I cherish his precious little heart. This is the package that Jeremy helped Jacob to wrap for me. I suppose we were out of Christmas bags. :-)

 Austin has not been sleeping with his treasured kitty lately. When I asked him about it he just said "Oh yeah, I'm through with that stage." Sigh....

 I finally got matching stockings. I love them. The kids however were not so impressed. They liked the mismatched ones better. Oh well.

 All the presents for Santa:

 Cinnamon rolls, our new Christmas morning tradition. Austin says we have to have something with cinnamon and sparkly juice.

January 2013

Jeremy was working on New Years Eve this year so I took the kids to a dance party at church. They love running around playing and dancing with their friends. Jake took a turn dancing with his friend Kyleigh. He got a bit shy when I brought out the camera. Austin was too busy running around for a picture!

 Emily and her friend Aubrey had fun hiding behind the glass doors! They were so cute playing with each other and eating giant cookies!

 Brad and Rachel are our good friends that come over on Monday mornings for me to babysit for them. These guys have made quite a band! Funny thing is I think they could actually sound really good!

 Jake has his own style and he dresses like this most days. I not so secretly love it and do not try to stop him!

 The boys went to their first real concert! Winterjam is a tour of ten Christian artists. The boys LOVE Tobymac and Matthew West and they were both on this tour. There was also a group called Red that had fire and huge, 20 feet gears turning while they were on stage. It was quite the event and we had a great time! A friend of mine from church and three of her kids joined us.

 This was taken just as his favorite artist was coming on! He did wake up for it.

 The kids love snuggling together and have tried to spend the night together. After an hour of sleeping (talking and laughing) Emily had to go to her own bed!

Christmas Came!

Christmas Eve was a busy day! We spent the morning with Jeremy's Dad's side of the family then we came home for a quick nap and then left for the Christmas Eve service at church. This year was a little crazy as Emily didn't want to sit still for very long. The carols and candlelight service made it all worth it though! After the service we hurried home to set out cookies and milk and read about the real meaning of Christmas. The kids really know the story now and it is fun to listen to them tell their versions. After this we drove about 45 minutes to celebrate with Jeremy's mom's side of the family at Aunt Lori's house. We drove home with some tired kids and went to bed in hopes that Santa would come!

 Austin read The Night Before Christmas to Jake and Emily on our long drive home.

 The little kids blowing out the candles for Jesus' birthday cake.

 On Christmas morning, the kids were waiting to go out front to see if Santa came!

 He did come!

 My parents flew in around lunch time and joined us for a few days. We had fun celebrating Christmas together. Then we had a big snow and that of course, meant sledding and then a trip to COSI!

 The day after Christmas we were back at the Corven's to celebrate Christmas with Trisha! Whew! What a busy few days!

A Corven Christmas

A few days before Christmas Lance and Jere came over for some Grandma and Grandpa time. We all loved having some time to celebrate Christmas with just Jeremy's parents. We had dinner and shared some presents with each other.

Excited for Christmas

I really wanted to send a Christmas card this year. I tried to gather the kids for a recent picture in time to order cards. This was the best picture I got of all three kids. I love them anyways. I'll try again next year.

 We had our first real snow of the season. Emily wasn't too sure about this white stuff. She's my child.

 Emily's hair is long enough for a ponytail now! I think she looks so big!

 We tried to get a picture with Santa and Emily ran away as soon as I set her down. She did not want anything to do with that man!! Jacob asked Santa to surprise him and Austin asked for a watch.

 Emily loves accessories and all things girly! I painted her toes for the first time and she loves to show off her "pupple toes."

 And, we added a dog to the family! Jeremy and I wanted to get the kids a dog for Christmas. We've been looking for one and Austin said he wanted to name her Joy. When a little 8 month old, mixed breed, named Joy popped up on the dog shelter's website I just knew we had to check her out. She was the one! We've tried changing her name to Molly but I think Joy has stuck.

Christmas Prep

We've been preparing for Christmas around here! We always enjoy going to pick out a live tree. Austin even stood in a spot where a tree used to be and made up a whole song about "I'm a live tree, pick me, pick me." It was cute. The kids always help carry in the tree and we decorated it a day or two later.

 Emily loves the Nativity set and likes to yell "Hiiiiii baby Jesus!"

 We went to a play about the Grinch and how he discovered the real meaning of Christmas. It was fun and even Emily sat through the whole play. The boys loved running up front when the snow was falling, they even got to catch some snowflakes.