Christmas Happies!

 

A portion of Joshua's school Christmas performance

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

(be sure to check out the other new post below)

 

7 months old

Anna Ruth has had a busy month.

She now has her first 2 teeth (as of November 27th).

She is such a sweet tempered baby we didn't know she was teething until all of the sudden her bottom gums had 2 poking through.

 

 

Anna Ruth loves to talk and laugh.  She is making noises of some sort most all of the time.

She lights up whenever Dave or Joshua comes in the room.

 

Eating solid food is not on Anna Ruth's priority list.  She tolerates the food but doesn't seem to love it.  Her favorites so far include: squash, green beans, peas, carrots and oatmeal.  She does not like fruit and makes some pretty hilarious faces when we try to feed them to her.

 

Another milestone reached is sitting up (as of December 8th).  She is proud of herself and loves having a new vantage point beside laying on the floor.

 

 

As he did with Joshua, Dave is helping Anna Ruth "walk" around the house.  You can tell by the laughter, all 4 of us think it is funny!

If I could only whistle...

Last Friday we enjoyed having breakfast with Santa at kids' school.

Joshua was very excited and had been counting down the days.

 

Santa asked JP what he wantedfor Christmas.  Joshua replied, "a hippopotamus." 

Santa asked AR what she wanted for Christmas.  She just grinned.

 

These two where trying to get in good with the big guy.

After visiting with Santa we ate a delicious breakfast together.  Then Joshua's class sang a few songs.  Initially, Joshua stood toward the end of the long row of kids.  But his teacher moved him front and center, in front of the microphone.  I immediately knew 1 of 2 things would happen, either JP would freeze up, act shy and not sing or he would act silly and clown around.  Thankfully I was wrong on both accounts.  The first song sung was "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." (Note the "teeth" the kids are holding in the photo below.)  Part way through the song the teacher grabbed the microphone and put it in Joshua's face.  As the line, "...if I could only whistle" was sung, Joshua leaned up and whistled loudly into the mic.  His whistle solo came up again after the 2nd verse.  He was quite proud of himself.  Dave and I knew nothing of this solo until it happened.  However, we should have suspected something when Thursday night we both threatened to put him in time out for the rest of his life if he whistled one more time.

 

(Video of the solo is to come)

It's an odd numbered year...

On the odd numbered years my grandmother, her two sisters and all of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren celebrate Thanksgiving together.  We have been doing this for over 2 decades and this year topped all the previous gatherings.
Cousin Amanda put it best saying, "you would have to see it to believe it."

This year we had 76 family members present.

There was food, card games, board games, four square games, softball games, food, football watching, catching up on the events of the last few years and food.

 

Uncle Larry, Dave and Joshua enjoy lunch together.

An intense game of Sequence

taking it all in

taking a break

Abigail and best friend Whitney making bracelets

sweet cousins

sometimes you feel like you may be going a little crazy...

and you're glad you aren't the only one who feels that way.

Luke looks ready to ambush someone.

the traditional softball game

all time pitcher and camp director

old faithful...the house

the littles god in on the four square action

Lottie requested a turn too

It is amazing how 4 days, 3 nights, 30 year old bunk beds, and limited bathroom space with 76 relatives doesn't seem bad when you realize how blessed we are to have such a great family.