End of December into January!

We got a nice "wet" snow and built the heaviest and leafiest snow-reindeer!

We took a mini-getaway to Indiana...

Adina & Madison got some wet & wild fun at a hotel in Portage, Indiana

Genevieve got to look ADORABLE in her first swim suit

She also met GG (Donovan's grandma) for the first time
And Donovan & George got to go freeze their fannies off at the Bear's Game!!!

This football game is what initiated our visit to Indiana. Men will do ANYTHING for football, I guess, and their wives go along with it!

And Genevieve got to meet her Grammie for the first time!
LOOK I'M 7 MONTHS OLD NOW!!!

She has now learned to go in reverse and that darn couch always gets in her way!!!

Yes, I am still here!

My deep apologies! Christmas hit, then new years, then valentines day and now it is the beginning of March. Decided I better get my act together. Life has been crazy busy. We are all trying to stay healthy and caught up with school work and work. Just because the blog has not been active it does not mean my camera has not. So......Let's see what we have been up to.

LOOK AT ME! I'M 6 Months old!!

We have a fantastic small group we are part of and our kids love each other! We are very blessed that they enjoy going to small group just as much as the adults. They all were in the nursery together Christmas weekend! Only because 2 of us moms happened to be working in there, otherwise the oldest 3 would have been in the service, so we took the picture opportunity!!

Our Christmas Beauties!!!!!!!!

It was hard keeping her from eating the POISONOUS plant, but we did it!

And then, what we realistically had to deal with...

Genevieve's 1st Christmas!!

In our case, old veterans at this Christmas stuff!!

We really did enjoy our Christmas time together. We of course spent time focusing on the true meaning of Christmas as well. We read the Christmas story out of the Bible on Christmas eve. Madison even made me re-read it to her before she went to bed. She then told me all about an evil man named Herod who wanted to kill Jesus! Yay, Sunday School. She has a fantastic Sunday school teacher who really makes the Bible stories come alive for her!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

Now when I get real ambitious I will download the music like you guys (Kathy and Rachel) because then I could have it playing as you open this entry, wouldn't that be nice....Well, anyway we are dreaming of a white Christmas and it actually may come true this year! We got a nice snow the other day and everything is finally white! Donovan, Adina and Madison went to work and shoveled our sidewalks and the church's sidewalk. It required quite the cocoa warm-up when they were done! The most exciting part for them was that daddy went to Wal-mart and got them their very own shovels -- just their size!

Just a helpful hint

My aunt sent me an e-mail recently telling of ways to save money when shopping on-line. When placing an order open another screen and google search PROMO CODES Crocs enter name of product, like I just ordered some crocs. It will give you a long list of sights. I have used retailmenot.com twice and so far saved $20.00! Free shipping makes a huge difference. There are other discounts too, like % off, etc. If you have any last minute shopping it is helpful! Thanks Aunt Janie!

better watch out, better not pout...

Adina, Madison, and Genevieve all got to share their Christmas wishes with Santa! This is the first year I have not had to beg them to take a picture with Santa! Madison even climbed right onto Santa's knee. Adina quietly told him she wanted a Seal Webkinz and a Betty Spaghetti doll. She even told him that she wrote him a letter at school! This was huge for her. Madison wanted me to tell him what she wanted, because she was too shy, a reindeer webkinz (have to be like big sis!) And then when I said that was it she quickly corrected me and said ..."No, I want the breathing dog (long story), the Disney baby nursery, and..." at this point Santa and I both explained that his sleigh was not that big and that he had to fit lots of toys for lots of boys and girls! He then said "I'll surprise you!" Yay, Santa!

Our friend Kevin is our local Santa! We had the Christmas parade last weekend and the girls didn't really want to talk to him because they knew it was Mr. Glover. However Madison became very concerned, to the point of her "almost" tears when Santa went by in the parade and said "now there's a naughty boy!" and pointed at Donovan. She asked if daddy had really been naughty! So, Santa and daddy made peace and Santa reassured her that her daddy was a very good boy!

Helping daddy study??

Donovan is back to school full time and this day Genevieve and the dog were helping him "study." He loves to Ham it up for the camera. When he knows I am taking a picture he makes all his best faces!

Santa Claus is coming to town

Our Christmas tree has been up since the day after Thanksgiving but most of the pictures of us decorating are on a disposable camera as the digital camera was spending some quality time in Donovan's office...Anyhow, here is Adina and Donovan putting the star on and a couple cute ones of Adina and Madison in front of the tree. When we bought this tree, we lived in a much smaller house with much lower ceilings, so we try to compensate as much as we can on the size. We still like it.