Celebrating Sam's Birthday at Craigs Cruisers

Thanks to a bunch of gift cards among family that were won at a church "Downhill Derby Race" along with Toni and Paul's willingness to have Sam's birthday party at a venue we were able to celebrate Sam's birthday with family at Craigs Cruisers.  The cousins had a great time together and I am pretty sure Sam had an unforgettable birthday party!  We rode the go-carts and the kids played lots of games for those stupid silly prizes.  What a fun night together as family! 

 Most of the cousins wanted to ride the frog hopper ride.  Matthew was excited when he got on, but once it went up high and started to bounce he started to scream and cry.  We rescued him and let the other kids enjoy there ride void of the screaming and crying. 

 Shooting water at the target with daddy was way more fun for Matthew.

Lots of the cousins, along with Uncle Shawn and Uncle Paul tried out the bumper cars.  Joshua opted out of this activity though saving his activity ticket for the go carts.



Joshua and Gabrielle had a great time playing games together.

First snow day of 2012!

Joshua was thrilled to finally have enough snow to have a snow day on January 13.  We had to celebrate the snow day by playing in the snow of course!!  We spent quite a bit of time outside playing, having a snowball fight and building a snow fort.  With rosy cheeks we headed back inside for hot cocoa and lunch.  Thanks to Pinterest we tried to make our own snowflakes using pipe cleaners and borax dissolved in hot water.  The kids really enjoyed the project, but they snowflakes didn't turn out as cool as the ones shown on Pinterest.  Besides the throwing around of a little attitude from a certain 6 1/2 year old, who received consequences for his attitude,  we had a nice day relaxing and playing together.

Snowball fight!!

Hanging out in the snow fort we built together.

Chillin'

Making Borax snowflakes.

Starting the New Year off with a Little Bowling

Since Joshua had school off on Monday we decided it would be fun to go bowling as a family. Erin ended up having her meeting cancelled so their family joined us. The boys had a great time! Joshua used both the ramp and bowled by himself and enjoyed both. This was Matthew's first experience bowling and he mostly used the ramp, but at times enjoyed pushing the ball down the lane - oh and yes he did throw it at one point, oops! It was a fun, cheap way to entertain the family!

Matthew took delight in watching his ball S.L.O.W.L.Y roll down the lane after pushing it!



Joshua tossing his ball.

Matthew decided to toss the ball too, it created quite the noise. 

The matching cousins!

Gift Exchange with Cousins

Every year the cousins names go in a bowl and then the kids each get to pick a name and buy a gift for that cousin.  This is so much fun for them, especially as they are getting older they know their cousins' likes and can really put some thought into what would be a good gift.  Christmas night they did their exchange.  This year Joshua picked out a gift for the baby girl Hager which he was very excited about.  Matthew picked out Legos for Sam.  Joshua loves his Lego game from Nicholas and Matthew loves his Uno Moo game from Aiden.  Creating memories with their cousins is a special thing I am sure my kids will cherish when they look back.

Captured these boys at a rare quiet moment, love it!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Day

We were fortunate enough to be able to gather with extended family over the course of the afternoon and evening Christmas Day.  We spent the afternoon at my Uncle Steve and Aunt Cher's house where we got to catch up with relatives we don't see enough.  It was a good time.  The boys were blessed with a few presents as well which they were tickled with.  (Excuse the delay of this post (blogger seems to have issues lately posting pictures) and and the poor picture quality - apparently my camera was on the wrong setting and I realized it too late.

Rachel and Joshua

My grandparents and Matthew.

Uncle Steve and Aunt Cher totally surprised Joshua with a die cast Nascar car signed by the driver!

Clifford and Clifford books for Matthew!

Matthew hugging Clifford.

Uncle Steve and Joshua checking out the Nascar.

A new Lego set for Joshua and Duplos for Matthew - Thank you Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy!

Matthew shows off his Santa diaper :)

Shannon, Matthew, Joshua and Rachel.

Baby Pierson's first Christmas.

The boys made ornaments for some of the special people in their lives and Joshua snapped this picture of Aunt Cher just after she opened hers.

Matthew plays with his new Duplos with Uncle Phil.

We don't believe in Santa at our house, but when my Uncle Paul arrived Joshua said, "maybe Santa is real". 

Matthew, Pierson and Joshua with "Santa".

Christmas Morning

This year, like every other year, we tried to keep the celebration of Christmas all about the Christ Child instead of it being about everything else you could fill Christmas time with.  We did our Advent wreath all throughout the month of December and even Matthew could help tell the Bible stories that went along with our Advent wreath!  We really enjoy preparing our hearts for Christmas this way every year. That being said we did have our own small, relaxing family celebration with presents of Christmas morning before the busyness of the rest of the day was upon us.  The boys loved their presents and were thankful for each one of them.  

The ornament Joshua made for us in school - can you see his picture inside of it?!

 

Opening the little gifts they got each other.

A new game for his Mobigo.

More Duplos for his ever-growing collection!

The look I got when Joshua realized I had tricked him by wrapping his gift and hiding inside another wrapped box - apparently it wasn't as amusing as I mom thought it would be :)

Super Mario Bros. for the Wii!

 

Matthew playing with his new Playmobil bus.

 

Another game for his Mogigo, this time it's Scooby Doo.

 

Castle blocks for the boy who LOVES to build.

 

The one and only item he requested for Christmas, a Playmobil fire boat.

 

Matthew opening his big present.

 

His own keyboard!

A new game for Matthew.