Church Christmas Party

Anna and I pulled together our church Christmas party in two weeks.  We kept it simple and low-key, but it was a definite success.  The kids were thrilled to see Santa and Bridget and Max proved to be adorable little trouble-makers. 

 

Crazy kid.  Thank goodness this was empty when he got his hands on it.

A blurry Bridget making a run for it on the stage.  She and Max decided to hijack the primary singing and put on the elf hats and run around the stage yelling, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" 

Despite some laughter from the primary kids because of Bridget and Max, they kept it together and sang their song.  Marshall was the first one to hold up his sign and he did great!  He sang so loud and we were so proud of him. 

The mischievous elves.



Benson and Marshall.  Still "drinking" out of the soda bottle.

Suddenly so shy.



Random Pictures

Love this little family of mine, despite the crazy moments that make me want to pull my hair out.

 

This is what happens when Richard helps decorate for Christmas.  He swaps out decorations for "more appropriate" ones.

We set up our tree in the middle of November.  We kicked things off early this year. 

Richard and Bridget have been bonding over the dishes lately.  No complaints here.

Marshall and his pear friend for a day.  This kid has quite the imagination.

Bridget and her pout.  Becky bought this dress for Bridget last year for Christmas.  She just grew into it this winter.  Richard and I had been begging her for weeks to put it on, but she would have nothing to do with it.  One Sunday we were finally successful, but she refused to have her picture taken, hence the pout.  This has now become Bridget's favorite dress as she refers to herself as Princess Jasmine (she says it Jazzem though and I love it) whenever she is wearing it.

This was the day before Thanksgiving at 8:00 am in quite possibly sub-zero temperatures.  They didn't last long, but they sure had fun. 

Sweet Marshall made a "tent" for Rachel and spent close to 30 minutes reading to her.  It did my heart good to see this.  Love them both.

Lunch antics. 





Comparison

It has pretty much been decided around here that Rachel looks just like Marshall.  I finally decided to compare the two in baby pictures.

 

 

Some definite similarities.  Their hair is much more similar than I thought, both light at the beginning, and while Marshall's hair remained lighter than Rachel's, they both have fluffy baby hair.  I think they also have the same squishy cheeks, which I adore.

 

MARSHALL

 

2 months

3 months



4 months

4 months

5 months, and one of my very favorite pictures of him

 RACHEL

 

2 months

2 months

3 months

3 months

4 months

4 months

 

Definitely siblings. 

 

It was just confirmed that Rachel has way less pictures than Marshall.  That is to be expected by child number three I guess.  We had taken 800 pictures of Marshall by the time he was five months old.  Rachel will be five months old on Tuesday, not sure if I even have 100...



Exceptional Playgroups

We have had some exceptional playgroups as of late.  We are lucky to have such wonderful friends during this Milwaukee experience.

Thanksgiving playgroup at Stone Fire Pizza.  We had the place to ourselves!

Milwaukee Domes for Christmas.

It was so festive!

I am only posting these next pictures so that I can remember how crazy this boy could be at age five.    I laughed out loud when I loaded these pictures on the computer and saw this picture for the very first time.   What is he doing?!

 

Oh...and Rachel was there too.  :)  Love those blues.

 

Christmas Playgroup Party.  Anna went all out and arranged a visit from Santa Clause.  Huge hit.

On New Year's Eve we decided to be adventurous and have playgroup at the movie theater to see "Frozen".  It was a success!

The youngest movie-goers:  ages 2-6 months.  Actually, I just realized they are in order, youngest to oldest!

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

2014 and still not caught up.  :)  Oh well, it is what it is!  Let's back-track a little shall we...

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  Richard played in a three hour game of Turkey Bowl.  He had the time of his life and spent the next three days of his life very sore.  It was worth it though.

Richard's team.  The boy in the Packer's beanie is only twelve, believe it or not.  Later on he told the Hassells that Richard is quote:  surprisingly athletic.  :)  Richard is flattered.

Later on that day we enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast at the McAllister's home.  This was our fourth Thanksgiving in a row with them.  They move to D.C. this summer.  I will be lost next Thanksgiving without them.  

The Bradfords and the missionaries also joined us.  It was delightful.

Two of the three babies that were present.  Rachel is over two months older than this little man.  They are practically the same size!

The kid table and the goofy faces that accompanied them.  Note Cole sleeping on the bed.  :)

Our best family picture of the evening.  This was the last of seven and this was as good as it got.  Marshall has been a real stinker lately in pictures.

I just realized Richard looks like he's 16 in this picture.  Apparently he doesn't age.

 

The BEST picture of the evening!  Eliza snapped this on her phone.  So glad she did.

The dads and their new babies.  So sweet.