Happy Birthday Jesus!

What a day!


Nathan was feeling sick on Christmas Eve, which made me very nervous. No one wants to be sick for Christmas. He was on guard for kids coming downstairs, a.k.a asleep on the couch, and was able to rest until he felt better.


Garrett woke up at 1 a.m. and was VERY EXCITED to see that Santa had already been to our house. He was wide awake and ready to open presents, but we were able to convince him to sleep a little longer (atleast 5 hours!!!) and then we could all see what Santa had brought.


The kids were very excited to come down and see all of their presents.


Dylan said that Santa is like a wise man, because he brought us presents, just like they brought presents to Jesus. They all think Santa is very nice.


We began our morning reading about Jesus' birth and the kids sang "Happy Birthday Jesus". We then attempted to open presents one at a time - CRAZY!!!! How do you do that with 5 kids?????


Grandma Theresa came for Christmas Brunch, which is another new tradition, and that night when Sami and Macy went to have Christmas with their mom and her family, Grandma babysat Garrett, Dylan and Sydney so that we could relax. That was by far the best Christmas Present we could have received! We went to a movie! It was so much fun, and the kids got to have fun playing with Grandma.


That night I got sick with the flu, which was horrible, but I was so thankful to make it through Christmas first. I did miss a family Christmas with the Smith's on Saturday, but Nathan was well by then and able to take the kids all over.... which gave me a few hours to rest without children climbing on me or asking me for a drink, a snack, to play, etc... Brent and Rachel were a great help to Nathan, as were Dan and Kim and Phil and Kathy. The kids had lots of fun being there.

Christmas Eve

Grandma Theresa and Great Grandma Connie joined us this year for a Christmas Eve Dinner. Last year was our first year to have Christmas with my side of the family at our house. It made more sense for them to come here, rather than for all 7 of us to go to my mom's. She seems to really enjoy it, and has several times said "This is a great new tradition!" I never knew how much work went into preparing these dinner's until my mom relinquished the task to me.

Garrett loves to cook, in fact, one of the many things he'd like to be when he grows up is a Chef. He was in charge of the christmas cookies and did a terrific job.

The kids loved their gifts from Grandma Theresa. Sami's favorite gifts were her Chad and Ryan High School Musical Dolls and floor pillow..... OF COURSE!!!!! She is such a fan, and those were the only ones she did not have. Dylan loved his Batman and Robin action figures, Garrett hasn't stopped playing with his Creepy Crawler maker and loves his new pixos. Sydney loves her Glo Bear and Macy got the perfect gift - a pony in a purse (her 2 favorite things). Thanks Grandma!

After dinner and gifts, we all got jammies on and put out cookies and milk for Santa and a great big carrott for the reindeer. We also sprinkled reindeer food and glitter in the yard. We watched Santa on the Santa Tracker and saw that he was already in South America so the kids were in quite a hurry to get to sleep.

Master Shifu 2

A little over a week after Garrett got his gerbils, Master Shifu passed away. I was on my way home from visiting my brother, when I got a call from Nathan. Garrett had very bad news! He got on the phone, crying, that his gerbil had died. He already had come to love that gerbil and was going to miss it.
We were able to get a new gerbil, Master Shifu 2 and Garrett and Daddy buried Master Shifu 1 in the back yard, complete with a little cross. It was a very sad day. It has stirred lots of conversations up about heaven.
Do gerbils go to heaven?
How do you get to heaven?
Does your blood float up to heaven?
Are animals in people heaven?

Karing for Kids

There is a ministry at our church, started by a family who lost their daughter in a car accident called Karing for Kids. They help kids in the area in several different ways, but one of the biggest things they do is the ANGEL TREE. This year, they helped buy presents for 440 kids (8 gifts each). It is a great ministry and we had lots of fun at the Karing for Kids wrapping party. Nathan got to be Santa this year, and though Garrett and Sami had planned on being Santa's elfs, on the delivery day it was freezing, and I thought it was too cold and icy for them to be out and about. They are looking forward to next year though.

New Gerbils

Garrett went on a walk this summer with Sami and Macy and Uncle Brian to the pet store a couple of blocks away. Ever since that walk he has talked about getting a hamster. We told him that we wanted him to take over feeding the cats, to show us that he'd be ready for a hamster and maybe he could get one for his birthday. Well he is a very responsible little guy and he did a terrific job. So his birthday was coming and he had not mentioned the hamster for a couple of weeks, and I had thought that he had changed his mind.
He didn't!
He decided to use birthday money that he had gotten from Cheesy (GG) Pap to get a hamster. We went to the pet store, and after talking to someone at the store, decided to go with gerbils. (They bite less and are awake during the day, while hamsters are nocturnal) Well, gerbils like to have friends, while hamsters don't so, of course, Garrett did not want his gerbil to be lonely. We needed 2 gerbils. He picked a blonde one and a grey one. We picked out a cage with a wheel and a tunnel and all the supplies we'd need.
Garrett knew right away that the blonde gerbil would be Isaac, after one of his favorite people ever, his 11 year old uncle Isaac! The grey gerbil was trying to escape from his container they sent him home in and Garrett saw some Kung Fu moves, so he named him Master Shifu.
Now our family has 5 kids and 5 pets! (2 cats, 2 gerbils and 1 dog)

Christmas Pictures

Pictures of the kids after they finished decorating the tree.

Ice Storm part 2

Ice Storm

We got the anticipated ice storm early this morning, and have stayed inside warm and cozy. We are fortunate to still have our power, which over 120,000 people in the area were without. Thank goodness, I can't imagine what I'd do with 5 little ones and no electricity. We've had lots of limbs/branches falling throughout the day. Fortunately no damage yet. There are some branches and limbs that look ready to fall at any minute. We will have quite a cleanup when this is all done!

Decorating the Tree

Decorating the tree is always a lot of fun. We let Garrett decide when we would put decorations up, before or after his birthday. With his birthday being in December, we want to make sure that he knows his birthday is still so special. He wanted it up before Christmas, so we slowly started decorating. (It's a little hard to decorate with so many little ones running around, getting into everything, and being mischievous because they know you are busy.) Plus we ran into a slight snag when opening our ornament tote - a water globe had leaked! Wet ornaments, airtight container, 12 months = mold! YUCK!!!! but we saved what we could and decorated away.

It is quite a haphazard looking tree, decorated entirely by a 2 year old, a 3 year old, a 4 year old, a 6 year old and an 8 year old. Nathan did put the final touch on, a star, which now doesn't work :) due to the water globe incidence, but still, we like it.

Build a Bear Birthdays

Happy Birthday Sami and Garrett! We love you!

Our niece, Sami, turned 8 Nov. 27th and our little boy, Garrett, turned 6 on Dec. 7th. So hard to believe that so much time has passed. Both had decided that they wanted to make a build-a-bear for their birthdays. So we all went, even Grandma Theresa, and they both made their bears. Sami made a high school musical bear, of course, and named it Gabriella. Garrett made a koala, dressed like a rollerskating Santa Clause and named it Santa Clause. It was a lot of fun, and Macy is looking forward to making her birthday bear in March, and Sydney in June.