Christmas 2011

Before we left for Iowa the kids (minus Timmy) and I made a gingerbread nativity. It was our own little Christmas miracle. The miracle was how well the 4 kids got along as they decorated the gingerbread. I couldn't believe how well it went. It was a wonderful early Christmas gift.


I had to include this picture of Henry and Oliver. Don't they look like great friends? This morning they were,but most of the time we were together they fought about everything! We're hoping they'll grow out of it.


Although we had a lot of fun at the Steffen family Christmas, I didn't get many pictures. But here's Grandma with her grandkids that are 3 and under. (l-r) Brayden (3), Oliver(3), Parker (1), Marshall (<1), Grandma holding the newest addition George (<1), Danielle (3), Henry (2)- he's under Timmy (1) and Ethan (2)- he's making a break for it.:)





I'm not very smart and somehow I've put Christmas before Christmas Eve, you'll have to forgive me. Anyway the pictures are of Christmas morning some of us, Sara (Randy's sister), Randy, Henry, Timmy, Parker, and Oliver playing with the Geo-tracks set Timmy and Henry got from Santa, as well as other fun toys they got that morning - Eric and Grandma are in the background, there.
Also you see Sophia with her doll that drinks a bottle, and wets. Thanks to Aunt Sara her baby now has cloth diapers (Sara made them).
Alex and Max quickly dug into their new lego sets and Mario k'nex race track. What to build first?
And you see our reindeer pancakes, thanks to Aunt Sara!!
There is a picture there sitting down to eat the reindeer, although I'm pretty sure the adults ate more than the kids, the kids had stuffed themselves on candy from their stockings.


This picture and the next should be flip-flopped. This is Christmas Eve night right before bed. Our kids exchanged gifts with each other, their cousins, Oliver and Parker, and had one for Randy and I and Grandma. Uncle Dale, Aunt Audrey, (cousin) Madison, Uncle Bob and Aunt Wendy were there for our little celebration.

Here we are at my dad's house, with all 10 grandkids. (l-r) Kale(5), Hunter(9), Caden(7), Henry(2), Brady(2), Addison(5), Sophia(5), Max(7), Timmy(1), and Alex (10). They always have a great time together.


We had Christmas at my brother's house this year for that(my mom's) side of the family this year. It worked out really well. We had a lot of fun opening gifts, hanging out, eating too much and staying up late. That is my brother's family, Joni (his wife) holding their son, Kale and Nick (my brother)holding their son, Brady.


On the left is my cousin Sarah, holding Max. And then is my younger cousin Emily and her husband Matt.They announced they're having a baby in July!! Woo-hoo! We're so excited!


We celebrated my aunt's birthday together. (It's officially Jan.2, but we figured the end of Dec. was close enough).


These 4 kidos played and played. They even were able to get outside in the sandbox for quite a few hours, here they are listening attentively to Aunt Joni read them a story.

We were lucky enough to be there to celebrate Parker's birthday with him. (He's my godson, and) We were so happy we could watch him smash his cake and enjoy his birthday party with him.



Unfortunately we ended our time in Iowa sick. It started with Sophia and Timmy on Friday. Then Henry, then me, Alex got sick in there somewhere and Max was the last of our immediate family to be sick. Somehow Randy never got sick. But alot of our extended family on the Steffen side also got sick and some on mine. Thankfully none of the 7 of us were sick for the drive back to New York.

November was busy and December, of course, was even busier. In the middle of all that fun busy-ness our old computer died. So we were without a computer for a little while. So I'm saying all 3 of those things are why I hadn't posted Sophia's birthday pictures or our fun week long visit with Nick,Joni, Kale and Brady (my brother and his family). Sophia's birthday was November 18 with her party a few days later. My brother, his wife and kids came all the way from Iowa to spend the whole week of Thanksgiving with us! It was great! Poor Randy missed a lot of the fun, he had to work. But he was able to be here on turkey day. Joni, Kathy (Randy's sister) and I were able to do a lot of black Friday shopping, before that we were able to take the kids to some fun places and just hang out laughing and enjoying each other's company.


Sophia on the morning of her birthday. With her first birthday present in the background - snow!

The birthday girl and all her brothers. Look close even Henry's in there.


Sophia and her Rapunzel cake.


Sophia and all her friends with her at her birthday party. She was so excited for the party, especially since her friends and cousins would be there!

Alex showing off his cake ball turkey. On Thanksgiving we made these little goodies. After Joni or I dipped the cake ball in chocolate, all the kids took tuns putting candy corn feathers and beaks on our little turkeys. Oh, turkeys, making turkeys!


Even though it's sideways I had to include it. Max and Kale are both so excited as they play Sliders Sorry.

Pig piles on Uncle Nick were common place while they visited. Kale, Brady, Sophia, Aunt Joni and Henry get in on the fun.


Henry and Brady in their superhero capes.

Timmy's first steps

Sunday (Nov.6) Timmy started taking a few steps!

Halloween and some other stuff

Sophia was our pumpkin carving queen. She proudly scooped out the guts of her pumpkin and Max's. He was very greatful!! And couldn't believe she would touch the guts with her bare hands. She loved that it grossed him out.

Henry and his jack-o-lantern. Henry looked at pictures of pumpkins and pointed to the kind of eyes, nose, ect. he wanted.


Alex cleaned, designed and carved his pumpkin almost entirely on his own. I helped a little but not much.


Max and his jack-o-lantern.


Our traditional Halloween pic on the couch before we trick-or-treat pose. Left to right, Timmy as a dragon (thank you Aunt Kathy), Sophia as a fairy princess (thank you Jensen/Heathman (sorry if I spelled that wrong) families, recognize the dress?), Henry as Bob the builder, Alex's friend Anthony as Shortround from Indiana Jones, Alex as Indiana Jones, and Max as a Ninja.


Ready to trick - or- treat.


Well you might only appreciate these pictures if you watch Dora, but I know some of your kids do and so you do too. Anyway, Sophia made her own Backpack (Dora's Backpack that talks.). If you look closely you might be able to see Backpack's face, and you see Map (also Dora's friend) on the side of Backpack. The construction and plans were all done by Sophia, I helped with the straps a little, but she had the idea how to make them. Now squint really hard and you see Boots (Dora's friend who is a monkey) with a back pack and Dora holding Backpack. The two of them went on many adventures that day, stopping swiper and ending saying, "WE DID IT!"
(When I showed Sophia this picture. She said, that looks like Backpack but I don't look much like Dora, really.)



Here's Timmy's latest trick. Isn't he proud? (This is Timmy standing on his own. I couldn't get it to play for me, I'm hoping it will work now. Sorry if doesn't.)

Alex

Alex has been busy the last few weeks. A little more than a week ago he had , Jeffery, a buddy from school spend the night. I don't always take pictures of freinds spending the night, but this time I did. The boys had a lot of fun, mostly playing video games. The other kids love it when someone new is over! Alex also



baked his first loaf of bread, almost all on his own,



and got glasses! He said right away it made a big difference. All the kids were/continue to be very interested in his glasses. Max has said numerous times he wants glasses too and likes to make sure Alex has his case and cleaner with him. :) The glasses must help a lot because Alex almost always has them on.

Flower Girl and Birthday Party

Two weeks ago we went to Iowa to see Randy's niece get married, it was a very fast, crazy but very fun weekend. We were so glad we could be back for the occasion.



Sophia got to be a flower girl and she loved it!!!!!! She got to wear blush and eyeshadow and had her hair done. She loved her dress, loved dragging the ringbearers up the aisle and she got to carry the bride's lipstick in her flower purse, which was wonderful! She had a great day, I think she was as excited as the bride. :)


There they are Amy and Cody, getting married. Sophia couldn't wait to see them kiss. She asked more than once when it would be.



Here's our crew at the reception. Alex and Max ended up at the water park in the hotel with their cousin, Madison. They had a blast! We all played at the water park the next morning. It was pretty cool. I of course didn't get any pictures! Opps! Sophia played with her cousins and collected the rose petals off the tables, at the reception. And Henry covered his ears - too loud for him and then went to bed with his little brother, Timmy (we didn't leave him in the room alone, Eric's parents watched them - Thank you!). Randy and I hung out visiting and watching everyone dance.





We celebrated Timmy's 1st birthday at Aunt Coco's and Uncle Chris's. It was a nice party. Complete with cake, opening gifts and best of all so much of our family.