New Years Eve

We began our New Years celebrations with what has become quite a tradition - bowling with friends. Olivia and Spenser were both eager to prove themselves at the alley.

Thomas and Connor

Zach's enthusiasm for the game was unfortunately short lived. After this picture was taken it all seemed to go downhill. Quickly. He became upset when the Beardsley's turned up on the lane next to us. That meant that he would have to share his favorite ball. He then became upset that he was having to take turns with anyone. Then it was the shoes. He refused to wear them. Deciding that no one wanted to hear Zach cry and scream I took him outside and sat in the car. I'm not proud to admit it, but I lost my patience with him. He threw himself back into my face and that's when he got a little spank. That's when he completely lost it. I heard cries of 'mommy hurt me' and 'my arm' for about the next 5 minutes or so until he finally fell asleep. Peace at last.

While I was enjoying a fun time outside, things were definitely happening in the alley. Spenser had the game of his life and bowled a 191. Of course there was photographic evidence to prove it. Just in case he would need back up in the future.

It was then back to our house for our traditional ice cream sundaes

The it was time for some 'Just Dance' I was glad that

the Werners had decided to bring it

Everyone found it pretty entertaining

Everyone wanted to take a turn

The kids who stayed at the house pretty much

did this until almost midnight

Sadie and Ryan

After the princess movie was over and the popcorn gone, the Johnson's left just before midnight. We made our way downstairs to watch the celebration at the Needle and drink some apple cider.

Thomas was on the countdown.

Sadly, there were no sparklers left this year since we had used a bunch on bonfire night. Now off to bed. Happy New Year!

Olivia's Birthday

I can hardly believe it, but my sweet little girl turned 6 today. 

The day started off with cinnamon muffins like she had requested. 

Then it was on to opening gifts.

Thanks Grandma Elaine for the Tangled book

and the Strawberry guys (neither of which 

she knew she had purchased!)

Zach was also interested in the new lego addition. He thought that it was his and that Christmas had come all over again. He even went to look in the front room to check that nothing was hiding under the Christmas tree.

Olivia enjoyed playing with her cupcake set. She has wanted it for ages. To be honest though after she managed to ruin one of my favorite shirts of hers, I wish I hadn't bothered. I guess that I just thought that a kids toy would have contained a washable marker and not a dry erase one. Thanks Melissa and Doug for failing to think that one through!

Olivia didn't really have too many expectations for the day, which I found difficult since I was worried if she was enjoying herself the whole day long. She was very specific though about what she wanted to eat. She told me that she wanted Red Robin for lunch, followed by a trip to Panera for dinner. So that was what we did.

Waiting for their food at Red Robin

She wasn't very happy about what she had to do to get

her ice cream sundae though

Later in the afternoon I convinced her to go with me and use  the gift
certificate that dad had given us for Christmas to go and get our nails done. 

Olivia went with purple this time

It was then time to head out to Panera

Here she is enjoying her bagel

We all feel like winners when someone wants to go to Panera!

Since Cold Stone is right next door, Olivia convinced us to go in and get some of her favorite sweet cream ice cream. 

A smile of joy

Everyone lucked out

And that certainly wasn't all. The night was still young!

There were cupcakes

And then Olivia wanted to finish the night off with us all playing games together. We put Zach to bed and then pulled out the new games that we got for Christmas.

'Sorry' isn't always fun when you get sent back to home!

We finished off with The Game of Life. We played until way too late, but we all had fun. Olivia lost interest part way through, but then wanted to join in as she saw me add more and more babies to my car. All she wanted to do was have some babies! I have never seen that side of her before and it made me smile. Thomas ended up with a pretty great job and just one child. He had the opportunity for a 2nd, but decided to pass. He later decided that he regretted his decision! Thomas and I worked well together to take as much money from Spenser as we possibly could. By the end of the game, Spenser ended up at Millionaire's Mansion married, but without kids. He had laughed at me when I had to pay for my 4 kids to go to college, but he said that it actually made him a little sad to not have anyone at the very end. Maybe he thinks that his real family isn't so bad after all!

We had a fun day together as a family. We love our sweet Olivia. She can at times be demanding and a little emotional and she still likes to suck that thumb, but we certainly love her to pieces. I love that she walks to the beat of her own drum. She doesn't care too much about what others say or think. It has been a joy to see her blossom in school and make friends. I love to see her with her brothers. I know that she loves them. She is especially good to Zach who often demands that she play with him. I have often watched her go off and do something with him when I know that she would rather be doing something else and I love her for that. Olivia, keep being you!

Christmas Day

The kids must have been pretty tired since they slept in until 8:00 a.m. Once everyone was up they were allowed past the barrier. The barrier has been a permanent fixture in our house since the time Thomas crept downstairs before anyone else and saw everything that Santa had left.

Passing the 2nd obstacle

Santa decided to leave his offerings by the fire this year

Santa kind of struck out this year. I heard Thomas say 'dang it!' under his breath. While Thomas was glad to have a bike he had wanted a huge Star Wars carrier more. Unfortunately, Santa sometimes has to be practical.

Santa always gives bells to the kids (like in

Poar Express) since they still believe in him.

Zach liked the Twitch he found in his stocking

Everyone was really good about taking turns to open gifts

Spenser made out with a Garmin watch to run with

The aftermath

The kids pretty much stayed like this all afternoon

Thomas did go out and ride his bike. He didn't care for it a whole lot (can you see the face). He said that it was too big. I think that he was just upset that Ryan had got a  Razor ride on which was pretty cool that all the other kids in the neighborhood wanted to ride. I tried not to get frustrated when he seemed totally unappreciative of the things he had been given.

We then set the table to eat

We pulled some crackers and wore party hats

We then got to eat desert

After a relaxing day I caught this shot of Spense reading to Olivia. 

She loves her new "Olivia forms a band" book.

Thomas got lots of legos that we enjoyed building today. 

He has quite the collection forming!

Christmas Eve

I decided to spend time this morning getting food made so I could relax a little more tomorrow. Spenser kept the kids entertained by making some decorations for the Christmas tree. 

Decorations

Olivia was definitely the most into it.

We had hoped to be able to walk around the lake again like we did last year, but there was a lot of rain around. We opted to go down to the Children's Museum instead. Thomas always likes to complain that he doesn't get to go there anymore since he's in school full day, so I thought that would be fun for him.

Thomas entertained us with a little puppet show.

After getting home we decided to get going with the fondue since it always seems to take a while and we end up having to rush the rest of the night.

Everyone was ready for a bit of cheese

Thomas ready to dig in

 Olivia couldn't care less about the cheese. She's all about the chocolate!

After our bellies were full we dressed for the nativity. Thomas decided that he didn't want to be Joseph this year and opted instead for the shepherding role.

 Here he is with his sheep (animals?!)

When Zach saw us all dressing up he immediately went and found out his Buzz costume. I thought that it would be best if we didn't fight him on the issue and assumed that he would just join in. He did end up making the nativity a little difficult since all he wanted to do was put on his shoes and go out and collect halloween candy. Luckily, Thomas was good enough to fill in for his Joseph role.

 Mary and one of the angels

The whole cast

Even though the older kids are quite aware of the fact that our Christmas eve gifts are always pajamas they were still very excited to open them.

Olivia loved her Tangled PJ's

Thomas was happy with Star Wars

Once everyone was ready for bed we drove out around some nearby neighborhoods to look at the lights. There were a couple that were pretty impressive. This was something that Spense had done growing up, and we had also done when we lived in Ohio so it was nice to do it again.

We came home with an asleep Zach (which was one of the aims of the trip) and a couple of other kids who were also ready for bed. They know that the sooner they go to sleep the sooner Santa can come! After they were both in bed I realized that they hadn't left a note or milk and cookies for Santa. When Spense went upstairs to tell them they said they didn't mind. The magic had died already! Santa's helpers then got to work.