Jaden Turns 3!!!

Jaden turned three this past weekend! For our kid's third birthdays we allow them to have their first "friend party". Jaden decided he wanted to invite his friends to Kidzoodles. This is a place that has a bunch of bounce houses. (With a January birthday we needed to find an indoor activity...) He also chose a sports theme for his decorations.

Jaden has been waiting a year, longingly playing with this #3 candle for the day that he would get to blow it out!

Jaden, Siena, and Dylan kept sliding down this slide as a group.



Here a group of kids try to climb the wall. I can say not many kids made it over without some help!

It's a long way down Dylan!

McKenna tries the forward approach to getting down.

Cody and Kylie stuck together for a lot of the afternoon. Cody is a good big brother taking care of his little sister!

Makayla even joined in the fun. (See the previous post for the low down on the bandage over her eye...)

Jaden made it over the wall!

I think Braedon was about to break out in dance in this picture!

Bouncing fun!

Oh the fun we could have with this soccer ball in our basement!

I think Taylor needed a break!

Happy Birthday Jaden!

January Events

This is one of our favorite winter activities. It is the "Annual Kitty Drop". Every year once there is enough snow to make it worth while, Daphne gets dropped in the snow. This year it took until January for us to have enough snow for the drop. I can tell you this is one of Daphne's favorite events! ;-)



It took me a minute to figure out why Makayla kept going back in this corner. I kept calling her out and she would just look at me funny. I decided to follow her over to see what was so attractive. Come to find out, she was picking little pieces of paper off of her headband and throwing them away in the trash. Makayla is crazy about cleaning up, keeping things in their place, and following her bothers around to put their toys away. It make Joe laugh that I am learning how to clean up from our 1 year old!

Here is a picture of our little bruiser. Makayla decided to take a header the morning of Jaden's birthday and ended up with 5 stitches above her right eye. While she did not do well at all during the actual stitching, she really has not shown any discomfort since then. I really hope that is truly how she is feeling! We'll see how the suture removal goes in a couple of days...

Christmas 2009

I know I promised that I would post to this blog more regularly...However, I ended up having an appendectomy the day after Christmas, so I have not been venturing downstairs often these days to get on the computer. I was actually feeling much better this week, but had a bunch of things to catch up on upstairs before I could take some time to post. So, let me get you up to date!

We finally got enough snow for the boys to play outside in it! This past December I think they said we were about 17 inches down from our normal amount of snowfall. I can tell you the boys were VERY excited when I told them they could play!

Now when I say it snowed enough for them to play, this is all we really got...It didn't matter to the boys though. All they knew was they could go outside and play!

Here is Makayla longing to be out with the boys.

The boys really enjoy making cookies for Santa. Of course they have to lick the beaters!

I think Jaden got more icing on himself than he did on the cookies this day!

Jonathan was trying to show Jaden how to use the popsicle sticks to spread the icing.

Jaden then decided it was just better to eat the cookies!

This is our third day of making cookies for Santa. This time Makayla was able to join in the fun!

Jonathan shared his tray of cookies with Makayla. He is such a great big brother!

Two-fisted sprinkler!

On Christmas Eve Joe's Aunts always host a dinner for all of the family in town. They always go overboard with the gifts for the kids. Here are Jonathan and Jaden trying to figure out where to start!

Makayla was able to open her own gifts this year. She really enjoyed tearing the paper.

After the dinner we tried to take our annual Christmas Eve picture. It was quite an event this year...

I think Jaden had a little too much sugar and gifts this night...

Makayla seemed to enjoy it better when it was just the two of us!

Surprisingly, the boys slept in until about 8:00 on Christmas morning. They were very excited when they saw that Santa had stopped by while they were sleeping!

Jonathan could not believe that Santa knew how much of a Colts fan he is!

Makayla was a bit overwhelmed and just wanted to play with the first gift she opened. We thought that was a good idea and Joe and I opened the rest of her gifts for her.

More chaos occurred Christmas night at Joe's parents house. We really try to teach the kids about the true meaning of Christmas and Santa only brings three gifts for the kids, but when you add all of the gifts from the grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, etc. things still get out of hand. We really appreciate the generosity of everyone in our lives!

We hope that everyone had a Christ filled Christmas this year and that you continue to follow Him in the new year!

Hallelujah Night 2009

Every year New Creation Academy holds a Hallelujah Night This is a positive alternative to halloween. (Joe and I have chosen not to have the kids surround themselves with all of the negativity of halloween.) This event allows the kids to dress up, play games, get candy, and praise God at the same time!

The school sets up a "photo booth" and this year we were able to get all three kids in the picture. They were able to get one where all of the kids were looking. Of course Jaden was playing with his tail in all of the pictures I took.

Jonathan was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle this year. He still dresses up and wears the costume around the house!

Jaden was the cutest Triceratops around!

I was sure excited to have a little girl to dress up this year in a girlie costume. Makayla was Snow White.

There are lots of games for the kids to play. Jonathan was really good at this one. He made the ring over 4 pop bottles!

Jaden thought this game was pretty neat too.

There was bowling there too.

This "game" is always a hit. The kids get to "dig for gold". The swimming pool is filled with popcorn and gold wrapped chocolate. I think Jaden could have stayed at this spot all night!

This game was interesting and Jaden ended up "winning" two pieces of candy. The kids had to drop Life0Savers into cups on the ground. One of the Life-Savers Jaden dropped made it into a cup and bounced out and into another cup!

This year the school decided to have the kids "fish" for plastic ducks. In the past the kids fished for real fish. We have lost quite a few gold fish over the years...

Jonathan has been pretty good at putting the golf ball. Poppy has been letting him play with his golf clubs in the backyard during the summers.

Poor Jaden was trying to figure out how to use a right-handed golf club with his left-handed brain! (They forgot to bring the left-handed golf clubs this year.)

I think this was Jonathan's favorite station this night. He had a lot of fun riding the bull. The men bouncing the bull did not take it easy with him either!

I think the men were a little hesitant to have Jaden up there, but he did great. He came off laughing, so we all called it a success with Jaden!

Jaden was showing off his soccer skills at this station. He actually made more than one goal! We always thought he would be our football player, maybe he will surprise us and be a soccer player.

Makayla was too little for the games, but had a great time with Poppy!

Well, it is just a couple days until Christmas and I am just getting my Hallelujah Night pictures up. I will try to get the Christmas ones up a little quicker!

Joe, Jonathan, Jaden, Makayla, and I all wish you a Blessed Christmas with the love of family, friends, and Christ surrounding you!