December Phone Dump

Our tree this year was our favorite ever!  It was full and still perfectly green (even smelling nice!) on Christmas Day.

I always dread putting lights on the tree because inevitably, one of the strands of lights which worked last year doesn't work this year.  This year I only had 1 out of 5 working.  Ugh.  But when I stopped to think about it, three of those strands of lights were ones we'd purchased our first Christmas married.  So I guess getting eleven years from a $2 box of lights is okay.

Making peppermint pretzels is one of our favorite Christmas traditions.  It's our favorite treat to eat our weight in share with neighbors and friends.

Gingerbread house party with our community group.  We modeled our structure after St. Albans cathedral. =)

Modeling some new Christmas outfits from Grammy Deb!

Getting help cutting out his soap box car for the derby race coming up.

 The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train came through Minot!

White Christmas.  Christmas cards.  Warm drink.  Missing my sister.  Every year.

He was pretty excited about the candy cane grams his grandparents sent him at school!

One of our Christmas countdown activities was to make our own video of the Christmas story.  I had planned to have the kids act out the story, but they had the idea to use their nativity figurines.  We spent an entire Saturday morning working on it!  

The kids gave Ryan the game Clue for Christmas.

Temps during the week of Christmas were in the teens and even low twenties.  Then the normal winter weather came back and it got really cold really fast (look at the "feels like"!).  Apparently I should learn how to build an igloo.

Snack time!

The kids are having a great time with the microphone Grammy Deb and G Daddy gave Bridgette for Christmas!

Gretchen Turned Five!

Our sweet Gretchen turned five!  We kept telling her we were going to find the button that we could push to stop her from growing up, but the 22nd came and without our permission she turned into a five-year-old.  Big Daddy and Kaye K were visiting to celebrate with us, which only made the day more special.  Thoughtful gifts from family in Oklahoma and Canada also helped us to celebrate our big girl.  And . . . Gretchen got a new cousin as a birthday gift!  My brother and his wife had their second son, Strider Martin, on Gretchen's birthday (also known as Strider's birthday!).

  

Gretchen has a beautiful smile with precious dimples to top it off!  She is clever, verbal, nurturing, dramatic, creative, and carries the role of our middle child with flare.  

She has always been good at telling stories and can still be heard "reading" books out loud.  She and Bridgette have become better friends, which also means they know how to bug each other more!  They like playing "baby and mommy", and Gretchen is always the mommy!  Her care and kindness suit her well in that pretend role.

Mommy's closet has been a recent place of discovery and fun . . .

We started Gretchen's birthday with sweet potato waffles and round sausage - her choice!

She had no problem receiving gifts and being in the spotlight while we all watched her open them.

Her new footie pajamas from Kaye K and Big Daddy and the Frozen wand from Auntie Auby and Uncle Scott both elicited this reaction! 

We gave Gretchen several choices of family actives we could do for her birthday and she choose the indoor splash pool in town.  When we arrived, they were just closing the kiddie pool and hot tub to be cleaned for several hours.  I asked if we could have a discount since we were coming for our kid's birthday and they let us all in for free!  Happy Birthday!  We had the place mostly to ourselves and ended up spending most of our time going down the two amazing water slides, before heading out for burgers at FIVE guys for lunch (Gretchen loves their peanuts!).  

The birthday girl wore her new footie pajamas for the rest of the day!  She asked for a "chocolate snowflake cake" for her birthday. =) 

Happy Birthday, Gretchen!  We loved celebrating you on your special day!

Book Review

I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review:

I'd heard of Lisa Bergren's books before, but hadn't ever read one for myself and was curious to check one out.  The illustrations are captivating and the personalities of the papa polar bear and his cub are endearing.  The text is built on a conversation with questions from the cub and answers from the papa all related to angels, which was timely for us as we were focusing on the Christmas story this month.  The dialogue in the book opened up more theology than I expected.  The cub's questions are not always simple, which is appropriate since kids' questions are often not simple!  But the book doesn't include Biblical references, a point which will probably deter me from looking into more of Bergren's books.  Personally, I didn't necessarily agree with a couple of the answers to the cub's questions, so will need to read about those on my own before sharing the book with my kids.  

Sister Friends

These girls are always up for posing in front of the camera!

It's Christmastime!

Rooke is playing indoor flag football right now.  I brought my camera to this particular game to snap some shots of Rooke, but ended up using it to keep the girls entertained during the game!  They love to pose! 

Making marshmallow snowmen . . . always requires eating some of the building supplies!

Our friend hosted a gingerbread house party.  Patricia was there and happily helped Gretchen build hers.

Watching football

My handsome Captain, just home from work.

Sister friends. 

I found him cozied up with a book more often than not during his sick days. 

Long sister bath playtime 

Snuggle tickles

Friends from community group got together for a gingerbread house contest.  Bridgette is doing a little damage control on our cathedral!