Monday, January 27, 2014

4:52 Motivational Monday

Never, never, never give up.
-Winston Churchhill

As frustrating as reading can be while just learning,  my thoughts echo the quote above.  

I'm linking up to Rachael again.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Christmas...

Our Christmas was a busy one!  My Mom and Dad and their babies came from Phoenix.  Everyone celebrated Christmas Eve and day together at Bud and Joans.  The two days were what you would call, controlled chaos. :)
An artsy view of the christmas tree, and ornament. :)


Christmas Eve....




Someone was a bit sad about something.

We sang songs.

The little guys lined up and waiting for their turn to whack the piñata.   

The spectators.

The girls waiting for their turn to hit the piñata.  We did 2 this year, one for the boys and one for the girls.  The boys are a little more rough, figured this way they would actually get some goods from the piñata.
Looks like Clarke scored.   


He had just been shoving that straw up his nose. His expression absolutely cracks me up!





Santa came!


One of my favorite pictures from the night.  Little 1 yr old trying to figure out who this person is.

Comfy in Grandpa's lap.

Can you tell she lives in Phoenix?!   It was a very comfortable temp in the house, I promise!

Balloons kept these kiddos busy for the entire evening!




Christmas morning...

Reading the Christmas Gospel.

I took only a few photos of the morning.  I would rather take part in the festivities than be behind my camera.


Someone was a bit fired up about Christmas! 

Family photo. We definitely match the house with our green glow. :)

My Mom.   Love her!

My Mom and Dad with the single kids.  Only 3 of them live at home.

It was a beautiful day!  The kids spent hours on this sledding hill.


After sledding the clan moved down to the ice rink in town.












A few nights after Christmas...
our family rented the GW ice rink for a couple hours.

Everyone had so much fun!



If my sister was making that face at me, I think I would be scared too! :)

They put a divider on the rink.  The guys and older kids played hockey on one side, the littles were on the other side.

So cute!

The boys had plenty of down time with Dad.  He was able to take the whole week off between Christmas and New Year!