Promised pictures!

Andrea and Alexis goofing off

The kids by their tree!

Yeah she can give me nice shots when she want to :) lol!

AND Z!!!!! he hates being in that thing now but sometimes Mom has to stop chasing him and he has to be confined.

Z's first Christmas!

We started out this holiday season by getting our tree. We found a place that only charges 25 bucks for a tree. Any size! So we all bundled up and made our way around the Christmas tree farm and let the girls pick out a tree that they liked. Alexis and Zachary enjoyed the sled ride and Andrea and Kayla kept trying to hitch a ride. After securing the tree ever so precariously on top of the van with a rope simply slung across it (Matthew didn't feel it was necessary to actually TIE it down) we shut the ropes in the doors and held onto them for the trip home. Which was slow going because the wind was raging and the tree kept sliding back and forth on the top making the ropes difficult to hold onto. Yes, we hillbilly tied it. That was interesting...When we got home the kids went inside while Matthew and I got the tree put in the stand. I then strung it with lights while the children napped and Matthew went off to help with a project at my Grandparents new house. We didn't get a chance to decorate it right away but the lights and the other decorations were very beautiful as our house was transformed into a Christmasy wonderland. There were wise men, and angels, Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus, Houses all lit up on the top of the entertainment center, snowmen gallor, and hot cocoa for all to enjoy. Of course when the gift started showing up then it was all new excitement and the little ones enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree, but my favorite times were in the evenings when we would read the Christmas story from the bible. We truly had 25 days of Christmas each night as we read the different accounts of Christ birth over and over again. We enjoyed reading other stories by Max Lucado about Christmas but the girls asked for the story of Jesus every night...It was a blessing to our hearts!

Zachary's first Christmas was filled with fun and also sickness as we all ended up with the flu but I am thinking that despite that this was by far the best Christmas with children to date. Pictures to come...my batteries died this morning! :(

6 months old and feelin grown up!

So Zachary is now six months old and sitting up on his own with his nursing pillow. I never actually used it for nursing but I do so love that it wraps around the babies when they are sitting up for the first little bit with out help. He feels so big! And is loving his new freedom. The girls play with him more too which is nice for all of them. They are beginning to realize that he is fun.

Ok well back to the daily grind. I know this is not much of a post but well that is what I got. :) Oh and Z is eating a lot of solids now! WOO HOO! Less nursing for me every day...love it!

school days

School has officially started here. Ah the smell of freshly sharpened pencils and crying children...Well our first full week has been interesting. Kayla is in kindergarten and is learning to read. She is ofcourse having to adjust to a real schedule and that is not going over very well, as she is our child that doesn't like to work. Andrea on the other hand seems to be intrigued with all the new things she is learning and enjoying the new level of difficulty. She was funny and asked if she could do something harder. I told her we would complete this book first and then move on...since my books still have not been shipped!!! Irritating to say the least. Alexis has not learned how to amuse herself yet since she is used to having sisters to entertain her, and Zachary is just as content and happy as ever. I think that though our first week of lessons has not gone as well as I had hoped but better than it could have that I am over all very pleased. My biggest problem is staying on task and doing school at the same time everyday. *sigh* I have issues with self scheduling and have unfortunately passed that on to my poor Kayla. It gets done and they are learning daily but I think we would be more productive if we were more on the schedule that I set out to do...maybe I should be making charts and such instead of blogging :)

Ok well that is the update...here is a picture of Z playing in his excersaucer.

On this trip we invited my cousin Jake and his family. It was very fun and all the kids got along well. We didn't know them very well before we went up but we are delighted to know them better now! We are missing one kid in the picture below and Carrie is due with their fourth. They are a great family and we enjoyed playing with them at the cabin.
I finally got a picture of all four kids together...ok not the best picture but I got them all in their natural state :)

This is my cousin...He introduced Trout fishing to Matthew. They froze their tales off but man did they have a good time. Can you believe that it was in the fifties in the middle of July!!! Crazy!

This fish was one that Jake caught and it was a mounter but they don't have the money for that right now so they took good pictures and we "board" mounted it...they drew a outline and wrote down the name and date and hung it in the shed...hillbilly mount I guess they call it :)

Alexis loved the fish and was wanting a picture with them. She didn't care for the taste of these fish but she loved seeing them before they were cooked...really good btw! They roasted them over the fire...hmmm should have gotten pictures of that too.

Ok well over all this trip was a good one. All the kids except for Rylie and Alexis got sick but it was not too bad so we only made two different trips to the laundry mat :) Can't wait to invite them back again!

Little Alexis is Two!!!

So baby Alexis is no longer a baby. She is two years old! She is a spunky little girl and she sure does love life. Oh and cake :) lol! The pictures below are her "helping" with her cake.
Must be yummy!!!

And there she is with her dirt cake just waiting to dig in! She ate it that evening but didn't care for it after that. She liked just the gummy worms but then after the second night she didn't like those either. Crazy child! She did however like the bubble blower we got her and her squirt guns.

Thus begins another year with our precious Alexis Jill. She is a wonderful part of our family and she is so unique. We pray that this year will be a blessing in her life and that she will grow in grace and beauty

When Matthew is fishing...

When Matthew is fishing we have a few things we do...I normally do projects and watch chick flicks...this time however I planted a few new perrenials and I did a little weeding in the landscape. I cleaned the house and then found it messed up again because...we live here. Then I set up lots of play dates. We had our friend Meigen and her daughter Ashlynne over, then we went to visit the gals at the hospital that I work with. We stopped at the park afterwards and had McDonalds that day. We went to my friend Tonia's house and the kids played and then to Grandma and Grandpa's house where the kids were very ornery. Church, and then My parents came to visit. Then we had my friend Laura over...yup a full five days. It was exhausting and totally didn't make me miss Matthew any less than normal.