Fun Times!

We had such a great time in Cincinnati over the holidays. It is always so hard to say goodbye at the end of the trip...and the end came much too quickly. In the 10 days that we were there we tried to stay busy doing all the usual activities: painting, running around the basement, walking through the woods, talking to deer, Chuck E. Cheese, seeing "The Tale of Despereaux", reading Dorrie books, playing games, and enjoying every minute we could with the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.


Once again Savannah and McKenna put on a show for us and Noah joined them.


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Cute little Ashlyn with the wild hair! She cracked us all up with her love of her "grammy", only when she said it, it sounded like she was calling her "dummy".





Funny Grandma!

These three had so much fun together though there was some fighting between my two as to who got to spend more time with McKenna. Savannah and Xander sure do love her!

Undefeated!

So, I know I'm behind on my blogging but you guys didn't actually think that I would just skip over the Utes' Sugar Bowl win, did you? Go Utes! The only undefeated college football team in the nation!

We Went Hiking!?!?

Okay, so I guess you can't really call it hiking; more like a walk through the woods. However, in my book, walking through any nature-type setting constitutes hiking. Every time we visit my parents' house, we always have to take a stroll through the local nature preserve. Unfortunately the kids are a little loud so seeing any kind of wildlife is out of the question. But the setting is peaceful and calm and the kids enjoy walking on the logs, seeing the bugs, and being outdoors. This time each child insisted on having his or her own walking stick, even Noah and Ashlyn.



What a mean mom I am. When Xander fell off the log, what did I do? I took out my camera rather than immediately help him up. My poor kids!

Xander was really impressed that David walked up this log.

All the cute cousins.

Christmas Recap

We spent Christmas this year in Cincinnati with my parents and Bryan. We had a wonderful time, as usual.

Savannah got to decorate Christmas cookies with Grandma.

Savannah and Xander made these wonderful posters for Santa.

We always have the best Christmas Eve dinner: steak, cream corn, Caesar Salad, rolls, and shrimp cocktail.


The traditional Christmas Eve readings...

and new jammies. Noah was sooo tired so he missed the picture taking of the new pjs.

We always leave food for the reindeer...

and cookies for Santa.

Christmas morning. Santa certainly delivered this year. Each of the kids got exactly what they had asked for. Xander got his Star Wars guys;

Savannah received her Barbie Diamond Castle;

and Noah got the Imaginext Jungle with animals.

The kids also received some great presents from their Grandma and Grandpa Schaeffer. Noah got this lawn mower that he can push around to his heart's content;

Savannah received the Barbie Diamond Castle Carriage and Horse;

and Xander got this Star Wars voice-changer helmet. "Spaceballs", anyone?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! We celebrated the New Year in Cincinnati and, being the party animals we are, it was quite a fun evening. We started with some delicious dinner from Montgomery Inn. We then sat around watching TV or reading. At midnight David was asleep and I was reading. Thank goodness the neighbors went outside to bang pots and pans and set off firecrackers or I wouldn't have even realized it was midnight. Yeah! Another exciting New Year's Eve for the Pierce family!

Visiting With Santa

Saturday night the kids got to tell Santa their Christmas wishes when the big guy paid a visit to our church's Christmas Party.
Of course all Xander wants for Christmas is Star Wars guys.

Savannah wants the Barbie Diamond Castle and all the barbies that go with it.

All Noah seemed to care about was the candy cane that Santa gave him.


It was a fun party other than the horrible stomach flu bug we unknowingly brought home with us.

Finally!

Yes, yes, I know...it's been awhile since I last blogged. But here I am, getting back into the swing of things. There is no way I'm going to try and catch up with all the many things we've been doing over the past few weeks. In a nutshell, David's parents came out for 10 days and we had an absolutely fabulous visit with them. The kids loved spending time with their grandparents: going fun places, being read to hour after hour, being tied up (yeah, that was a strange activity but evidently I have a few potential Houdinis living with me), playing games, and the list goes on and on. Thanksgiving was nice and relaxed, the weather hasn't been too bad, and except for the horrible stomach flu that's hit several of us, we're doing pretty well and looking forward to Christmas.

Yesterday Xander had his Preschool Christmas Program and Party. Because I was still down with the flu, David got to attend. Not only did David take some really great pictures of the various activities at the party, he also captured all the wonderful songs and recited poems the kids did for the program on video. I was able to convince Xander to wear his nice Christmas sweater although he didn't want me to style his hair. Oh, well...he still looks cute. Here he is painting an ornament for the tree. Although the paint didn't dry until today (we're talking preschool gobs of paint on this thing...I'm surprised it even dried at all), it's still really cute with his picture in it. Well, the picture is a little obscure, being covered with paint and all.

His cute reindeer hat.

Decorating Christmas cookies.

The future Mrs. Xander Pierce, Miss Cutie-Pants Dominique, as we like to call her.

Sitting on Santa's lap. On the video, while Xander is sitting on Santa's lap, Santa asks all the kids what they are going to leave for him to eat. The kids start mentioning different kinds of cookies and milk but one little kid replied, "And wine." The parents initially thought it was Xander who said it...pretty funny. If Santa likes wine, he's sure going to be disappointed when he comes to our house.

The book Santa brought Xander. Does Santa know Xander or what? Xander was pretty excited and some of the other boys were jealous of the "cool book" that Xander got.