Shilo had quite the morning one day back in December..... She found a marker before Daddy and Mommy had gotten up out of bed, and found she's quite good at taking the covers off and experimenting.


Soon after the marker experience, she climbed under her crib and found the potty seats. She thought they were much more appropriate as jewelry.

Happy Valentine's!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'm going to try and 'update' our lives for the last few months.... we've been super busy and it seems like there's just never time to update the blog! Hope this post finds everyone happy and in love! xoxo

In keeping with the LOVE theme.... I haven't officially announced that my sister Chrissy and her boyfriend George got engaged while they were home for Christmas! We are super excited and happy for them! We can't wait to have George as a member of our family and hope they share much love and happiness all their lives!

Up to Camp with Auntie Steph!

We were really excited to have Steph up to camp with us after Christmas! We had a great time!

Merry Christmas!

FORTS!

Lily has decided that the best place for a fort is her bed. So every night she builds her fort with as many blankets as she can find.

Lily hiding in the fort

Cali hiding in the fort

The girls posing in front of their fort (lily's idea for the pose)

Setting up the Christmas Tree

We finally got our tree up and decorated. Yes, we've opted for a fake tree! I was against it at first, but after having it last year I have to admit it is so much easier. No mess on the floor, no watering the tree all the time, and no tree dying the week before Christmas! I'm sure when the kids are a little older and the nostalga of picking out our Christmas Tree means something to them, we'll do it, but for now, this works perfect!

Calista and the Smelly Markers

Look really close, can you see the blue marker on Calista's nose?

Okay, maybe not. But the story is worth telling. Calista came home from school last Thursday with blue marker all on her nose. When we got home I asked her why she felt the urge to color on her nose at school and she says 'I didn't color on my nose at school'. So I asked how all that blue marker just magically appeared on her nose. She informed me 'oh that's smelly marker. Kids aren't allowed to use them.' I further inquired as to how it got on her nose, and she said 'when I got my paper back I rubbed my nose on the paper as hard as I could to smell the marker, Katie got it all over her face worse!'

The First Snow Fall of The Season!

It finally snowed! November 30th! This is our house as we were leaving for gospel meeting.... by nightfall it turned to rain and nothing was left on the ground by morning. We are supposed to get snow this weekend, so we'll hope that stays around!

Thanksgiving Up to Camp

The Thanksgiving that almost wasn't!

Sally put the turkey in a counter top oven early in the morning so that the oven would be available for side dishes. At 10 am Jobe went to make toast and the toaster wouldn't work and we realized we had blown a fuse! The turkey was stone cold! We quick threw the turkey in the oven and thankfully it had enough time to cook and dinner was served at 1PM instead of the planned 12:30 PM.

All the girls in the tub getting ready for Thanksgiving! Natalie is missing, next year she'll be big enough!

Molly and Shilo

The kids table

The adult table

Natalie all dressed up

Cali, Lily, and Shelby

Lily and Shelby had meeting in Carl and Sally's bed. They were signing hymn #1 and using Sally's romance novels as their meeting books!

After Thanksgiving Carl got a great fire going outside and we all went out to enjoy the beautiful night.

Gretty ended the night by reading the kids P is for Pilgrim... and alphabet Thanksgiving story.

After Thanksgiving a bunch of the family came up to stay at the camp on the hill. On Friday night everyone came down to play some games and try to get rid of some of the left over pies!

The ladies started the night off with an intense game of Jenga! We reached 27 rows and 2 blocks before our tower toppled!

The guys thought they could 'out build' the ladies Jenga tower. Too bad! They only got 26 rows!

Then they all headed downstairs for a game of Foosball

The kids and Jobe enjoying a game of Backgammon

Lily enjoying a book in front of the sunny window

Shilo was NOT okay with Daddy holding Molly, so poor Daddy, he got to hold both the babies!

Sorry this post is so late (and so long!) We had a great time and took a lot of photos! Many of these are Sally's as my camera has been on the fritz so thanks Sally for the use of your photos! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!