Baby Milestones

Alyssa is getting very good at sitting on her own now and playing with toys.
I've actually only seen her roll over once. She hates being on her belly so much that it will be a miracle if she ever learns to crawl. But that' s fine with me for now. I'm not quite ready for my "human vacuum" to be mobile quite yet!



She is such a sweet baby!
Good things:
Happy children
Older siblings who love to entertain her
Finding diapers that don't leak
Dresses and Hairbows
Delightful Smiles
Sunny Days

Princess Heaven

That's where Emily is ever since she got a trunk full of beautiful princess attire from her Uncle Matt for Christmas. I love to watch her twirling around requesting "princess" songs for me to play on the piano. She's definitely my "girly girl."

Early To Bed and Early to Rise...

Makes a Man Healthy and Wealthy and Wise.................
even on New Year's Eve! :)
The first time I ever saw the apple drop was when I was nearly a teenager and had a sleepover at a friend's. I guess I follow in my parents footsteps because we don't stay up to welcome in the new year. I'd rather get a good night's sleep to start out the new year feeling refreshed.
Jared & I definitely are not late night partiers, so on New Year's Eve we decided to just do fondue with our own family so we wouldn't be sending any friends home who wanted to stay up all night to celebrate the new year.
We started out with the healthy stuff... veggies in broth fondue and bread in cheesy garlic fondue. I loooooooooove the simple recipe we got from my friend Angela - cream cheese, milk, parmesan cheese & garlic seasoning.
But, I think the best part is the chocolate fondue with angel food cake and bananas.



After our bellies were full, we ended up watching an "impromptu" slide show of all the pictures from the last year that popped up on our computer screensaver and then headed to bed before 10 pm.

Christmas Day

This year the boys let us sleep in a little on Christmas morning....
instead of awaking at 2 am to rush out to see what Santa brought, they didn't wake up until 6 am:)
The girls disappeared quickly into their room to play before I could snap any photos of them:(

I always like to leave home with a clean house... but that was too big of a feat for us on Christmas morning - so we left the mess and headed down to enjoy visiting our families.

Nothin' like a nice football game to work off all the Christmas goodies!

Uncle Matt entertaining the girls

We topped off the night with some scrumptious Almond Sheet Cake made by my sister Kara.... if you're ready to drool click here for the recipe. Ohhh my mouth is starting to water already

Christmas Eve

I think part of that big smile is correlated with the fact that Jacob finally got to open one of his presents as part of our Christmas Eve tradition :)

Jacob surmised that Joseph probably needed a little break from walking too - and the donkey agreed.
Emily was pretty excited to dress up as our angel this year. I guess she figured that wearing a dress beats riding on a donkey anyday.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Jared had a fun time dancing with our "Christmas Angel" (Emily) before we did the traditional acting out of the nativity on Christmas Eve. I've never seen an angel with quite so many accessories!

New Year's Resolutions

I love setting New Years goals... even if they seem like they look about the same every year. It just feels so good to recommit and actually see that I'm making a little progress. I sat down to set some new goals with the kids and look at their resolutions from last year and ended up having a great time reading over little experiences I 'd recorded about each of them over the years. I used to love hearing my mom read from her journal about me too. That's how I know I was a totally wicked toddler! One of the excerpts that I had forgotten about was this poem that Rebecca brought to me one day when she was 7 years old. After reading it she said that I probably felt this way a lot as a mom... it's true.

"If I had my child to raise again
I'd build self-esteem first and the house later.
I'd fingerpaint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting, and more connecting
I'd take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging."
-Diane Loomans

I feel so thankful to be alive, to be healthy, to be truly living the dreams I always hoped I could with my amazing husband and cute kids. Today I feel so thankful to the Lord for all of the amazing blessings in my life. I'm glad to have another new year to enjoy it all!