Christmas Pictures 2011

I had a friend from church take these pictures of the kids in their Christmas outfits.  I still love dressing them for Christmas and trying to coordinate them the best I can.  I couldn't stomach visiting Portrait Innovations again this year.  The waiting and watching them put the kids in the same exact poses they do every year all in 15 minutes seemed crazy when I had another, less expensive option.  The photographer did great.  Beckett was only cooperative for about 5 minutes and we are still working on Sawyer and Eden having natural smiles.  What I love it that she just gives her clients the disk and now I can do what I want with the photos.  Today is Christmas Eve.  We are all pretty pumped!  Having the kids out of school with no homework and minimal activities is a great Christmas present for me.  The kids have really enjoyed being home. 

So...I never finished this post on Christmas Eve but...we had a wonderful Christmas break!  On some days we were in our pajamas for most of the day.  Kyle was home for most of it as well.  We love that!!  We saw several movies, did lots of shopping and just enjoyed being together.  Faith had 3 different friends spend the night on three different nights.  Sawyer and Eden also spent time with friends.  Sawyer had the stomach flu the day after Christmas (while he and Eden spent the night at my parents house) but it didn't last long.  Faith and a friend from school also enjoyed a very fun and well-organized NYE party at church.  Kyle returned to work yesterday and the kids went back to school today.  I will post pics. from Christmas day in another post.  It is hard for me to believe that the school year is already half over!

Catch Up...

Since I am months behind I am going to attempt to catch up using photos with short captions...we will see how this goes.

 On a beautiful day in mid-October we enjoyed a visit to Radar Pumpkin Patch!

 The kids had a blast and we found some pumpkins!!!

 Trick or Treat...This is Faith P. with Faith B.  These two were in the same 1st grade class but Faith B. went to a different school for the remaining elementary years.  They have reunited in jr. high :) Since Faith P. is a little bit too cool to trick or treat with her family she opted to go with Faith B.

 Faith with Emma at a band/choir concert.

 Faith with Grace and Emma at the concert re-enacting "Charlie's Angels."  Cute!

 Beckett took intro. to hockey in October for 6 weeks.  I decided that was enough at age 3 but we will probably pick it back up in a year when he is a bit more mature :)  He got really good on the ice though.  It is amazing at how quickly a 3 year old can pick things up.  He now puts on Faith's roller blades and skates around the house.  Maybe Santa will bring him some roller blades in his size.

 Eden's 8th birthday party at Artful Designs.  She had a "Shake it Up" birthday cake.

 The painted pottery before being "fired."  The girls were all great and had a ton of fun.  The dolphin is Eden's...she LOVES dolphins and it is her dream to be able to touch a real one.

 Faith with her birthday party posse...minus Grace who had to leave a bit early.

 Eden with the boot/shoes of her dreams on.  She has a crazy sense of style which is hard for me at times but I am trying to let her be independent in the clothing department.  The shoe/boots are from her favorite show "Shake it Up."  The style on that show is kind of "eighties gone crazy."  She also got the skirt...she LOVES sequins.

 Halloween 2011.  Sawyer is a phantom (very hard to find a costume for 10 1/2 year old boy), Faith is Cookie Monster, Eden is Sponge Bob (see what I mean about her fashion sense???) and Beckett is Mater from the Cars movie...and very proud of it!!!  I think he told every single person we ran into during the month of October that he was going to be Mater for halloween!

 OOps....repeat picture...cute though...aren't they????  They are enjoying a little hot chocolate :)

 In November I had the pleasure of chaperoning Sawyer's 5th grade class to the Challenger Learning Center where they did a spaceship launch simulation.  It was very cool and very fun!  Their mission was a success!  Here is Sawyer hard at work to make the space mission happen.  I really enjoyed this and am happy that Sawyer likes me to come.  He is in 5th grade now and a big boy.  Next year is jr. high and I won't have very many opportunities to nose into his business at school.  I am also one of his room parents this year.

 Sawyer with some friends eating lunch afterwards.

 Beckett with his pre-school class at his "Fall Gathering."  He did a very, very good job performing songs and dancing around.  He LOVES pre-school this year.  He has changed so much in the last 6 months and is such a big boy now!

 Posing behind one of the trees his class made.

 Eden and Faith with Delaney and Grace waiting to get an autograph from the girl in the picture below.  Her name is Zendaya Coleman (Rocky) from the Disney show "Shake It Up."  She was signing autographs at a minor league hockey game here in town.  The line was annoyingly long!  They just shoved the girls through so it was a tad disappointing.  We had printed photos of Zendaya at home and Eden had "bedazzled" hers for the signing.  Zendaya did make a comment to Eden about the glitz on the picture.  Eden is still talking about it :) 

 Here is my paparazzi shot I took of her with my long lens.  This was after the signing was done and she was watching the hockey game...she looks pretty excited..doesn't she?? 

 Sawyer brought Patrick to the hockey game and here they are enjoying their dip n dots :)

 Eden was baptized on November 26th, 2011!  It was a great day and we had lots of friends come and support her on her special day!  My brother and his family was also here to help us celebrate!

                                                         Our family!!   Look how big all our kids are getting!!!

 Beckett with my niece, Teagan!  They played so well together and had so much fun over the few days we were together at Thanksgiving!

 My kids and 3 of my nieces!

 Eden in the dress I made her for her baptism day.  Yep...you read right...I made it.  It was hard, it stressed me out and I made several mistakes but overall it turned out pretty good.  Most importantly, my super picky daughter loved it.

                                                              Faith and Kalista....the big 7th graders. 

 The kids had an open house at their school in November.  Here is Eden at her desk proudly showing off some of her school work!  She loves here teacher and her class this year. 

Here is Sawyer in his classroom.  He also loves his teacher and class this year.  Sawyer's teacher is a very , very funny lady.  The mannequin in the background is the "student teacher."  Sawyer said she is very funny every, single day. 

-In other news...we have just been really, really busy!  For the last few months I have been working with the 12-14 year old girls in Young Womens (which is our youth organization at church).  I teach them twice a month on Sunday's and help at our Wednesday night activities.  It is a lot of work but so much fun!  It is really great because I get to be with Faith.  The girls are all great and it has been a huge blessing in my life.  The kids have an activity/or activities close to every single night of the week.  I am thankful they are involved in stuff and enjoy themselves.  Sawyer started playing the trombone in 5th grade band.  He enjoys it but doesn't love it.  He will finish it out this year and see after that.  Faith made choir ensemble this year again.  It was a much tighter competition this year...last year they accepted 40 kids and this year only 16.  They hired a different teacher and she shrunk it way down.  Faith had to try out singing "The Star Spangled Banner," alone, and sight reading music.  I was really relieved she made it because it is her favorite activity.  She also finished out her 2nd year of Cross Country.  Sawyer has now started chess club and floor hockey club after school.  Eden is only doing piano right now but starts basketball in January.  Now that she is "8" she also gets to go to church on Wednesday nights twice a month for activities.  I know I don't mention Kyle much but that is because he basically works really long hours!  On the weekends he is very attentive to all of us and we usually try and do something fun.  He and Sawyer enjoy hours and hours of football on Sunday afternoons together.

Eden is "8!"

I didn't want the day to pass without writing about Eden on her 8th birthday.  Eden is a great blessing to our family.  She has a great sense of humor and I will never tire of those big, brown eyes or that huge smile!  While I was pregnant with Eden we decided to have her gender be a surprise.  I was sooo happy that I was blessed enough to receive another daughter.  Her delivery was my easiest and she is a great kid.  From the time she was very little she has always entertained and kept herself busy.  She has entertained herself so well over the years that it actually makes me feel guilty that she doesn't receive enough attention.   Now she entertains Beckett for me ... A LOT!  She is a huge help and a great playmate for him.  She is also the only person in our house that picks up our cat, Zoe.  Zoe loves Eden and it is always a shock when Eden is carrying her around because she is not very friendly or tolerant of people.  She sleeps on Eden's bed every night.  Eden now carries her around in a basket and she actually stays in it.  Here are some current facts on our girl!

1.  She is going to be baptized next month and is very excited about it.
2.  She is currently obsessed with dolphins...Kyle told her we had a dolphin in our bathtub for her for her b-day and I think she almost believed him.
3.  Her favorite show..that she is obsessed with is "Shake it Up."
4.  She loves clothes and anything with sequins right now is a must. 
5.  Her best friend is Delaney.  They have been in the same class since kindergarten and have a lot in common.  They both have 5th grade brothers and 3 year old brothers.
6.  She has feathers in her hair.
7.  She loves having "shorter" hair.
8.  She is highly opinionated.
9.  Eden is a great student and is excelling in math.
10. She loves to dance around the house.
11. She is a "mommy's girl."  :)
12. She chose "Taco Bell" for her birthday lunch.
13. She is in the 2nd grade and her teacher is Mrs. Woodard...she loves school.
14. She is taking piano lessons and will start basketball in January.
15. She loves American Girl Dolls and she currently own 4.

Beckett's First Day of Pre-School!

Beckett is going to pre-school this year 2 afternoons a week.  I purposely put him in the later time so we could be lazy in the morning and so that the mall would be open when he was in school :)  I also thought I might be able to eat lunch with Sawyer and Eden every once in a while.  Another big reason was so he would have his same teachers from last year.  He had his first day yesterday and was VERY excited...this is a huge change from last year.  I think he cried for the first 3 weeks last year.  Yesterday he was a pro...didn't even look back at me.  Although he is still a handful, he has made some big improvements lately.  I used to have to hold him down screaming while trying on shoes or getting his hair cut..now he loves to do both!  He is WAY better eating out and now responds to my threats :)  There are still sharing issues due to the fact that his siblings still give into his every want...  this is why I send him to pre-school..so he can learn to share and take turns!  He is also quite outgoing!  My other kids still will barely speak to adults or strangers...Beckett won't stop talking.  If anyone makes eye contact with him he says "I'm just Beckett!!"  He is VERY into Cars (the movie) right now.  He loves his new backpack for school.  My baby boy is growing up!  He will already be 4 in January!!  One year and 11 1/2 months til kindergarten...but I'm not counting. 

Starved Rock

In the 10 years we have lived here (minus the 2 spent in England) this is the first time we have ever visited Starved Rock. It is not far from our house and FREE so not sure why we waited so long. After going...I am sure we will go back. It is kind of surprising that a place like this exists in Illinois. We did a ton of hiking...like for hours!! I was seriously exhausted! I have even been going to the gym pretty regularly since school started but I don't think it has helped. The kids had a great time. Faith and Sawyer especially really enjoyed the rock climbing and hiking-they are serious daredevils. I don't think I heard one complaint from any of the kids the whole time. Beckett spent a fair amount of the time on Kyle's shoulders so he was quite happy. It would have been that much better if it wouldn't have been so crowded....that is what you get for heading out on a holiday. There were also a ton of tourists. I couldn't believe how many accents I heard..it was like being at Disney...weird. The pictures I took don't do this place justice...it really is beautiful.

First Day of School 2011

Sawyer...my big, bad, king of the hill 5th grader!!

Eden...2nd grader.

Faith....7th grader.

Oh summer...why did you have to go so quickly? We weren't done with lazy mornings and going to the pool to work on our tans. There were only 75 days of vacation. That is not enough. A great summer was had by all. Sawyer went to scout camp and basektball camp. Eden went to a little cheerleading camp and played softball. Faith attended band camp, softball camp, played softball and started Cross Country at the beginning of August. Faith also attended girl's camp for our church a couple of weeks ago (that will be for another post). It think overall the kids were ready for school to start. Faith was happy that she got on the "K" team at school. Sawyer and Eden are thrilled with their teachers as well!! Beckett starts pre-school in a couple of weeks and can't wait!!!