Muddin'

We have been having some crazy weather this year in the Panhandle! 2014 started out with lots and lots of rain. A few weeks ago when we had a break between showers the kids got their bikes out to ride. They were very excited when they discovered some large puddles on our street.

 Sam was driving through them like crazy....

 Maddie was a bit more cautious, but still enjoyed a little splash.

 By the time Sam was done, he was covered in mud....

And Happy!

One

This sweet girl turned one on the 7th. We had a small get together with friends to celebrate. 

She wasn't too sure about all the attention at first, and daddy had to help blow out the candle.

But once she got a bite of that cupcake she realized that birthdays were alright!!

Maddie, Sam and Megan worked together to make her cupcakes and decorate for the party. They are so in love with their little sister and so are we. Happy first birthday little one!

Home

We spent the Christmas Holidays at home. It was a great week spent with friends and family. We made lots of great memories and the kids, as always, cried when we left. My major failure of this trip was that I only pulled my camera out once. Yes, ONCE. And that was because my mom asked me to. So big fail on my part. So no pictures of the pottery we painted with our Teipen cousins and the Christmas we spent with them. No pictures of the great time we had with my Grandmothers whole family. No pictures of a girls day out with my mom and sisters. No pictures of the boys on their squirrel hunt. No pictures from Man Day...but that might be a good thing!

But I did manage to capture just a little bit of this chaos.

It all started with these two, and we love them for it :-)

Momma made all of us girls these fun scarves.

 There were 6 girls missing from this picture and we missed them a lot! We were glad to get to spend time at home. 

Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone. We survived :-) It seemed like a blur of activities, traveling, planning, wrapping. opening, cooking, singing and fun this year. It definitely left no time for blogging, but I'll fill you in now since the new year has slowed our pace a little.

On our Christmas Eve (the week before Christmas) We went Downtown PC to enjoy some of the sights and fun activities.

A favorite of the kids is ice skating. They have fun Christmas music playing and even a snow machine. It really gets us in the mood for Christmas even though the temperatures here are still warm and muggy.

The kids also look forward to the horse rides each year. Meg had a good time, I think....She rode the pony and Maddie and Sam rode the big horses. There are also carolers to listen too and we got some yummy kettle corn. The kids saw Santa in the downtown antique store and gave him their special requests. 

Then we all headed home so the kids could open one present on Christmas Eve. They all got new pajamas and got dressed so Daddy could read a special Christmas book about Love Coming Down at Christmas.

 There was a lot of excitement, but they finally fell asleep and stockings were filled, 

 presents were placed and one tired mom and dad fell into bed!

 Early in the morning excitement broke out as gifts were found and opened.

 Even underwear is exciting on Christmas Day!

 Maddie got a horse for her American Girl dolls.

 Megan got a two wheeled bike.

 Later that morning we all headed out to St. Andrews Park to participate in the Reindeer Race 5 k and 1 mile run. It was a lot of fun even though we got caught in a rain storm....the kids actually thought that made it more fun! 

We spent the rest of the day playing games, riding bikes, and watching new movies. So blessed to be able to have a special Christmas with these sweet kiddos!

11 Months

 Marla Grace turned 11 months old at the beginning of December. She is really starting to act like a big girl :-) She pulls up all by herself and keeps us all entertained with her facial expressions. She self entertains well and loves to play in the kitchen set and with babies with her brother and sisters. Her new trick is pulling up to the train table and removing all the track....

 She has been a good girl to stay away form the Christmas tree, but does like to look at it. She loves our dancing snowman as well and she dances along when the music is playing. 

 She has also been working hard on getting some teeth. Her current total is 4. She is getting more verbal and can get most of her wants across with some sign language we have been working on. She is being a little lazy with her sippy cups and still prefers for us to hold it for her. She likes to sit in her high chair and feed herself and refuses all baby food or "baby food consistency" food. She is definitely our smallest little one and can still wear some 9 month and 12 month clothes.

We are so blessed to have this little happy girl in our lives!