The boys made gingerbread houses at school this morning. Whoever thought of this idea is a genius! They are milk cartons underneath the graham cracker. Oh my gosh, the boys were so excited when they got to school this morning!









Zach had to carry his house upstairs to show Daddy. He was so proud of his building!



















Tyler (mouth full of peanut butter and jelly sandwich) was so excited about the mini candy canes he glued on as doors.




















I absolutely love the boys' preschool. I love that they are making so many projects and learning so many things. I am amazed at all that they do in the 3 hours they are there. Songs, crafts, numbers, colors, letters, theme of the week, etc.














Zachary made this star and this morning he went around the house pointing at us and yelling 'sprinkle power!'

Gramma & Papa's house

We've been spending quite a bit of time at my parents' house lately, doing activities with them while Mike sleeps between shifts. The boys get very excited to go play with gramma's Christmas stuff. Last week we spent the day up there and Dad was doing a side job at the neighbor's house. Tyler was determined that he wanted to sit and watch Papa. So we drug a chair across the street and Tyler sat in the chair for about 45 minutes just watching my dad. He loves his Papa! We of course had to get a picture of the progress.







Tyler loves to get the mail and Gramma's. He always runs out to the brick mailbox that Papa built to see if there is anything there.















You will notice that this is a pretty common theme this day: Papa and Kylie. In a rocking chair. My dad is so in love with this little girl. He loves to hold her, and she loves to be held by him. She'll usually squirm for anyone else, but she gets in his lap and she is so content! He calls her 'little Kylie girl'.











See, she rocked HIM to sleep!!
















Can you tell how excited the boys are in front of their tree? The boys have been so great with the Christmas stuff...they haven't gotten into the tree or the stockings and have been very careful. They are so excited for Santa to come with his reindeer (they've already told me which kind of cookies I am to make for Santa and he must have chocolate milk, not white milk) and then celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus the next day.

Kids Christmas Musical

Kathryn had a speaking part and a solo at our church's Christmas program this weekend. She also sang in the choir. I was so proud of her up there! She's getting to be so grown up on her own.

4 months old

My sweet baby girl is 4 months old day. She has entered that stage of wanting to try to stand or sit up, so she is a squirm-worm all of the time! She loves her exersaucer, her floor mat, her brothers and sister...anything that will entertain her! And she is starting to notice that everyone else is eating regular food but her. We'll have to start rice cereal soon! She has such a great disposition...smiles from the moment she opens her eyes. I rarely hear a peep out of her. God blessed me with such a great, easy baby, and I love her more than I could have possibly imagined!

5 years ago today.....

.....I married my soulmate......





















......Happy Anniversary Mike, I love you.....

O Christmas Tree, Part 2

Today was Christmas decorating day...first inside, then outside.






















The boys were a huge help this year and really enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree.
















We got the mantle all finished. (Seriously, look how many stockings there are! NO MORE KIDS...there's no more room on the mantle!)




















The finished tree












The boys playing with the train and the cars under the tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

So, I took my camera to Thanksgiving dinner and didn't take ONE picture! How awful! But we had an absolutely fabulous dinner with family and friends.

Today we decided to get our Christmas tree since the weather was absolutely perfect.














We went with our friends Tom and David to pick out some trees. The boys all had a great time running around through the trees.

I had to have Kathryn stand against a tree to show how big she's getting!!!
















Hide-and-seek

















Wow, this stump is REALLY interesting!

The whole group around the 'chosen' tree




















Kylie's first Christmas Tree experience





















Haulin' Tree #1 back to the truck












Geez, Mike is almost as tall as some of the trees!

















And check this out: a family photo with yes, ALL seven of us and look....ALL seven are looking at the camera! I am positive that this will never, ever happen again!

Photos of the decorated tree to come soon....

My new little talker

Miss Kylie is doing all sorts of new tricks. She can very easily hold her head up now and with a little help, can sit up pretty good! She loves her Bumbo seat, and this week she started playing in her exersaucer too.

She has also become quite the little talker. I'm not sure who talks more: her or Zach! It should be very interesting when she gets old enough to really talk...I'm sure she and Zachary will go around and around for hours! Anyway, she laughed out loud for the first time yesterday! It was so precious!!! I didn't quite catch it on camera, but I did get a few of her little laughs and some babbling.

Brother/Sister Love

When I found out I was pregnant, I was worried that the boys would be really jealous of a new baby. Boy, was I wrong! Not once have they displayed any jealousy towards Kylie. In fact, Tyler has become quite the little protector of her. Zachary loves her to death, but he is content to say hi and then move on to what he was doing. But Tyler's whole world seems to focus around Kylie right now. He picks out her jammies every night, he gets me diapers for her, he helps me get her dressed, he helps prep her bath, if she even makes so much as a peep, he runs to me and tells me she wants to eat. When she gets up in the morning, he races to her and kisses and hugs her. Now that she can hold on to rattles and small toys, he always makes sure she has one handy. Last night, she was on my lap and was holding on to one. Tyler was sitting next to us. She dropped her toy and I picked it up to give it back to her and Tyler stopped me, took the toy from my hand, and told me that it was Baby Kylie's toy, not my toy, and that I had to give it back to her right away. I was cracking up! It was so cute! I just absolutely love that he is her little guardian. I hope it stays that way!

Come on, hubby....Share!!!

I love being married to a man who is so tall. EXCEPT for this reason. He is so big that if he gets to the bed before me, he sleeps diagonally on the bed, leaving me a tiny little corner to which I would only fit if I were a cat! All I wanted to do this day was take a nap....poor, poor me! : ) If only they made 'husband gates' like they do baby gates and I could divide the bed in half and keep him on his side!
Seriously though...despite his diagonal sleeping habits, I am very lucky to have married this man almost 5 years ago. Thanks for 5 years babe...looking forward to many more!

Potty Party

I promised the boys when they started potty training that I'd take them to Chuck E. Cheese once they were trained. Well, they've been potty trained well over a month now, and I have been putting it off! We finally went on Friday and the boys had a great time!!!

My beautiful baby girl....

Food Wars at our house...

So, as I'm sure you can imagine, a LOT of food is consumed at our house. Primarily by Matthew, who is 6'3" and 235 lbs. at the age of 14, and Michael who is 6'7" with an undisclosed weight. Michael only eats out of serving dishes and platters. I'll make a beautiful dinner and give him a normal plate, and he'll get a serving bowl and fill it up. I have given up on trying to correct this behavior because I don't think it will ever change.

Michael and Matthew constantly have contests on who can eat the leftovers the fastest. Mike usually wins because he gets home from work at 6am and gets it before Matthew gets up at 6:15am. If I ever want anything, I have to wrap it up in foil and hide it in the cheese drawer or something.

So last night, I made a huge homemade pizza with tons of toppings and cheese. There was a ton left at 7pm.

And notice that our fridge is not lacking for food. So, last night at 9:30pm, I opened the fridge and found this note taped to the shelf. Matthew wrote it to Mike, so that he would find it at 6am this morning:

'Ha ha no pizza for you!!'

Seriously!?! My house is like a 24 hour eating contest! I can only imagine how bad it will be when the boys are both 14!!! : )