Making cookies for Santa...

"Santa needs some cookies to eat Mom...." Oh yeah!! Doh...what was I thinking? So Christmas Eve morning we baked and frosted some cookies for Santa! We had the neighbor friends over to enjoy in the fun too! The cookies turned out great and the kids had a fun time doing it!Lydia got to enjoy a non-frosted cookie!

This was right after Jenna took a HUGE scoop of frosting and ATE it....nothing else.

Anthony's cookie was piled high with good stuff! He had to make sure that one was set out for Santa! He is one lucky guy to get so many cookies!!

Here they are sitting up with Parker. Fun, fun days with kids around! The holidays are way better with them! The kids chose three cookies to give to Santa, poured some milk and left some carrots for his reindeer. Santa ate 2 3/4 of the cookies...the kids were excited to see that they were gone!

Neighbor gifts...

This is what my neighbors and friends got for Christmas this year! I thought they turned out quite cute...and Anthony had fun helping me!!

Graham Cracker Houses...

This is Anthony's. I made the house and he decorated it! He was so excited to put bugs all over it! He did a fantastic job!

Every year, but one, since Jake and I have been together we have made Graham Cracker houses and LOVED every minute of it. This year we invited Jessica, Justin and Grandma Williams to come have fun with us! Jake didn't make one this year because he had just gotten back from hunting and decided he needed to eat instead...oh and hold Lydia :)!! We missed his wonderful creations though, he usually goes all out!!

Lydia is 8 months old...almost..

I cannot believe how fast Lydia has grown up. I was telling Jake last night that in my head, she is still about 4-6 months old, not almost 8. I guess that is what you get when it has been a very stressful last 6 months....time just flies!Lydia LOVES to sit up and play with toys out of a basket...she can do it for such long periods of time! As long as we keep putting things in the basket, she will keep playing. Isn't she so cute?

We had Popsicle's the other day while Jake was at scouts and we watched "The Sing off". I was eating one and Lydia was sitting on my lap...you can tell what happened next by the pictures! She took it from me, ate it and was SOOO mad when it was gone. Cute little thing!
Lydia still doesn't crawl, but when you have limited time on your back or belly, that is to be expected. She doesn't get much alone time and anytime I have her on her back or belly the kids maul her and either pick her up and put her on her bum or roll her over or whatever the case may be. If she wants something REALLY bad, she will scoot on her bum to get it! Funny how each child develops so differently!

Brrr...It's cold outside!

Do you have as much fun as we do when its too cold to go play outside?? (-16 degrees with a wind chill is just too cold to even think of going outside!!)

Camping in a 'tent'

Coloring and stickering :)

Swimming around the living room and staying away from the sharks in the water!
We CANNOT wait for it to warm up a little bit so that we can send the kids outside to play in the snow, if there is any left with the weather being so random!

November...

Just a synopsis of what happened in November...

• The kids grew up!! Anthony is starting to spell things out and wants to know what EVERY word says. Jenna was potty trained, but then regressed; more on that later. Lydia is just getting bigger and bigger
• We went to lots of wrestling matches. Jake coaching takes up a lot of time, but he loves it and Anthony loves going to watch.
• Jake spent 3 days in the hospital. He had been sick from the first weekend of November with strep throat and bronchitis. He went to the doctor *which was a miracle--he never goes and will probably never go again* and got put on antibiotics. They ended killing all bacteria in his body, good and bad. C-diff (a VERY bad bacteria that we all make) ended up growing in the place of the other bacterias. It made Jake very, very sick. It caused some serious stomach issues for about 12 days before we got a doctor to take tests and take him seriously. The Monday before Thanksgiving Jake couldn't tolerate anything, liquid or hard, I didn't want my husband to die, which he wasn't far from, so we took him to a different doctor. They admitted him to the hospital because of his severe dehydration and being VERY ill looking. He was still super weak until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. He ate about as much as the kids for Thanksgiving dinner. We are grateful he is back to normal and that we don't have a zombie for a husband/father. It was probably one of the worst weeks in my life. So scary. The doctor said that it was a good thing Jake was young and healthy or he would have died. Counting our blessings for promptings of what to do!
• Thanksgiving (as you can imagine) wasn't the most relaxing. It was however nice. We stayed here and went to the Williams. It was nice to be able to sleep in, relax and let Jake recover.
• We didn't get to get our own Christmas tree this year, but Jeral was nice enough to get one for us! So at least we have one.
  
• So needless to say, not many pictures or too many other activities to report. We are grateful for our health now, our home and all the things the Lord has blessed us with. We sure hope that December is a heck of a lot better than November was!!