New Years Eve...

We didn't do much this New Years Eve. We went to the Kemper's house earlier in the day for a play date, but then just had our own little party at our house tonight. Elijah actually stayed up long enough to see the ball drop! Adrielle didn't quite make it. Here are a few pictures from the day/night...



Ezra playing the hormonica at the Kemper's house
He finally figured it out...(oh, no for us).




Adrielle Fast Asleep...

Elijah trying so hard to stay awake to see the ball drop...

Adrielle singing at her party for Jesus at school...

Here is the promised video clip...
Her party was actually on Dec. 18 2008...Sorry It took so long to get this on here. I had trouble downloading it for some reason.

Christmas Day...JESUS IS BORN...Santa was here!

Santa was here! We had such a great Christmas this year. It was priceless watching the kids open all the gifts. They were so excited and thankful for everything. They played all day today with all of their new stuff. We had a very relaxing day today. We just stayed home and played all day. It was so fun! Ezra really loved opening gifts this year. He was so cute and so curious. I sure love Christmas time. The kids all sang happy birthday to Jesus and we had yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast to celebrate his birthday. Daddy made yummy chili for us today too. We all were so blessed this year.


What they saw when the woke up -----------Their stockings and newly dressed build-a-bears


Adrielle's new pink doll stroller---------------The boys checking out the new army guy stuff


Showing off the new gifts---------------------------- Ezra checking out his stocking

Adrie in her new tent with all her new stuff---------- Ezra checking out his new gifts

Christmas Eve...

The kids were so excited when they woke up this morning. They have been counting down the days on their nativity advent calendar. They finally got to put up baby Jesus tonight. They also were so excited about Santa coming. We made cookies for him and gave him egg nog and custard. They also fed the reindeer. Here is the letter they wrote for him...

Dear Santa,
We hope you like the egg nog, cookies, and custard. We love you Santa. We have our Santa jammies on for you. We hope you give us good toys. We will be thankful for the presents and for you Santa. Please be careful tonight. Adrie wishes you a very Merry Christmas. Elijah says don't eat to much tonight. Make sure your reindeer eat as much food as they can. We put food on the lawn for them. Have a great night and we love you. We are so thankful for you giving all the children toys.

Love, Elijah, Adrielle, and Ezra

It was so cute writing this for them. They had so many ideas to write, and it took us a long time to get it just right. They went to bed so easily tonight. They knew they had to be asleep before Santa would come. We can't wait to see their faces tomorrow morning! Thanks so much Stafford family for the pj's! They looked so cute on the kids! They couldn't wait to wear them.

Christmas jammies...

Getting ready to feed the reindeer...

Feeding the reindeer...


Putting cookies, custard and egg nog out for Santa...

Christmas With Nanny and Poppy...

Today Nanny and Poppy invited us over for an early Christmas dinner. She made chicken and dumplings and all the "fixins". It was so delicious!!! We love old fashioned home cooked meals like that. She even gave us tons of left-overs (which by the way were all gone by the next day). We also opened gifts which were totally unexpected. Adrielle and Elijah got DVDs and Ezra got a snail toy. They got Will and I a gift certificate to Carrabba's which includes Nanny and Poppy's babysitting service, which we can't wait to use. Thanks so much for everything Nanny and Poppy! Merry Christmas, we love you!

Christmas in Indiana...

We traveled to Indiana on Friday night (Dec. 19) to go to Papa and Grammy's for Christmas. We all were pretty excited about seeing everyone. Grammy and Papa planned to celebrate early so we could be home in time for Santa. On Sat. everyone came to Papa and Grammy's. We had a delicious dinner. It was so nice to visit with family and be back in Indiana for a bit. We also got to meet Sadie Belle for the first time. (Who, by the way, is absolutely adorable!) Adrielle has been begging for a little sister ever since. On Sunday night Will and I went on a double date with Jeremy and Terri. We went out to dinner and then bowling. It was a lot of fun! Thank you so much Grammy and Papa for babysitting all the grand kids (ALL 7 of them). Then we headed for home. We miss being there already...we had a great time.

.....1. All the grand kids.....2. All the grand kids + Sadie....3. Javan AKA "spiderman"

.....4. Papa and Grammy......5. Elijah and Sadie Belle......6. The Warner Family.......

....7. Adrie opening gifts...... 8.Elijah and his new toys.......9.The Steuck Family.....

Adrielle's Preschool Party for Jesus...

Today we all went to Adrielle's Christmas party for Jesus at her school. She had a great time. Nanny and Papaw even came to watch. They had Christmas Chapel and then snacks to eat in her classroom afterwards. They had a book exchange too. The class also sang some songs for us. It was so cute. Adrie was so excited to have us all watch her sing. She did a great job! She is really going to miss all of her freinds and her teachers over the break. She loves school! I will be posting a video of her singing soon...

Swimming at the YMCA...

Today we decided to go to the "Y" to swim. Daddy had never been there before and we had a couple of guest passes to use. The Kempers came over to our house to play, and to open Christmas gifts the kids had made for each other, then we all went to swim afterwards. We had a great time!

Christmas Greetings To All...

We Want To Wish Everyone A Very Merry Christmas

And A Happy New Year!

My Gingerbread House

Adrielle made a gingerbread house at school today (Tues. Dec. 2) and was sooo excited about it. She had so much fun! She asked me to take a picture of it before she ate it all and it didn't look pretty anymore. This is a short video of her talking about it.

First Snow of the Year...

Yesterday it started snowing and it actually stuck to the ground! We went outside and played in it today. Mommy dreaded getting us ready...she knew we would complain about all the bundling up, but daddy finally convinced her into helping us get ready. (Notice Adrie is still able to wear the snowsuit Grandma Kay made for mommy when mommy was a little girl...so cute!) We actually stayed outside much longer that mommy thought we would. We had a blast making "snow castles". Ezra napped while we were outside...maybe the next snow he can join in on the fun.

Grammy's Surprise Birthday Dinner...

Last night we drove to Anderson IN. to meet the family to surprise Grammy for her birthday. Papa planned it all out. We met them about half way (2 hours). We met Uncle Troy and Aunt Sarah at our church and we all car- pooled together. Grammy was so excited! We all met at Cracker Barrel. The May family, Aunt Ginger, Claire, and her friend were also there. The kids loved to see their cousins. On the way home Ezra got sick serveral times...I think he had a little 12 hr. virus. Thanks so much for helping out and sooo very sorry Aunt Sarah and Uncle Troy! We had a great time! (Except for the ride home ). Hope you had a very Happy Birthday Grammy, we love you!!

Rub-a-dub 3 in the tub...

Three in the tub...today we were in a hurry to get baths, so I had them all get in together.

I won't be able to do this much longer! What a tight fit!

The Boys...(and sugar too)

After Church tonight Will wanted to have a picture taken of "the boys." He loves it when they dress a like. But of course Daddy wanted one of sugar too (sugar is the nickname daddy has given Adrielle). She hasn't been feeling the best. She is recovering from strep-throat and scarlet fever.

Decorating the tree...

It has been a tradition to put the Christmas tree up the Friday after Thanksgiving. The kids could not wait! They were so excited! We waited until Ezra took a nap. He was excited to see everything once he woke up. He walked around and pointed to all the decorations and said "pretties".