Christmas 2011: The Whirlwind Tour

I’m going to attempt to get all of the Christmas season into one post!  We’ll see how it goes!

Christmas Event #1: Putting up the Tree

Every year it is a challenge to put up the tree.  The kids are SO EXCITED and they want to rush to open everything and hang everything, but I get nervous about ornaments being broken and boxes getting lost.  Alas.  Somehow we managed.

The kids did a pretty good job of spreading the ornaments around, although Thomas in particular liked to hang ornaments in tight groups, sometimes hanging them on each other rather than on the tree branches!



Every year the kids get a little taller and the ornaments make it a little further up the tree!

Reagan got to put up the star this year.

We LOVE this snowman!

Event #2 Christmas Card Pictures

I wanted to do pictures outside this year, so of course we waited until the coldest day ever to take them!  It was SO COLD that day which made it hard to get a good picture with the kids NOT looking like they were freezing, but they were real troopers and we ended up with a great picture!

We took this picture at Victor Ashe Park on a great big boulder.  Love it!

Event #3 Christmas Eve

Making cookies for Santa

The HAUL

The Batcave was a big hit!

So were the soft, cushy blankets!

Event #4 Memphis Trip

Lots of presents and lots of cousins!

Baby Graham and Kallen

Zachary playing with Baby Graham

Loving on Kinley

So much fun!  Can’t wait to see them again SOON!

Event #5 Indy Trip

We left Knoxville right after Christmas and drove to Memphis, and when we left Memphis we drove to Indianapolis (Indiana-apolis, as the kids like to call it).  So much travel made for a BUSY break from school, but it was worth it to get to see so much family!  We see them so little during the school year!

Tyler’s light sabers lit up and made for some cool pictures!

Tyler

Avery

The entire Christmas season had a few more events, but I have no pictures of them.  These give a pretty good impression of our Christmas season!

Merry Very Belated Christmas everyone!

FlufferNutters

The kids came home from school one day talking about having FlufferNutters for their snacks at SHADES (their afterschool program), so we made some at home too, and for whatever reason I took some pictures!

(Just in case you don’t know, FlufferNutters are basically peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches.  I think they are generally made with marshmallow cream, but we just used marshmallows.)

Zachary helped me make them.  It was the first time I ever let any of the kids spread their own peanut butter.  It was a little messy, but he was so proud!

And when it was all over, they all spread out in the floor and colored together!  So sweet!

Backyard Fun

So, for those that don’t know, we’re currently between houses.  We’ve sold our old house, but not yet found a new house, so we’re living in an APARTMENT right now.
It’s very…cozy :)  And there’s no back yard, a major loss, I assure you!  So here are some picture of the kids in the backyard of the old house back in November. 

I can’t remember exactly which kids could swing proficiently at the beginning of Kindergarten, but I do know not all of them could.  By the end of Kindergarten, however, they were ALL swinging with ease and fighting with each other over who got to swing first (4 kids + 2 swings = trouble!)

Wow!  I have beautiful children!  What a great afternoon just having fun together in the back yard.
I really miss having a back yard.

May the Force Be With You

Wow, I’m really ashamed to discover I never posted about Halloween.  I really should have.  Apparently, the Force was not with me!
Here we are picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch:

Jonathan

Reagan

Zachary

Thomas

Ready for the Fall Festival at church with cousins Tyler and Avery:

At the Festival:

Visiting with Pocahontas (Lily)

Princess Reagan

Jedi Master Jonathan

Darth Thoms

Storm Trooper Zachary

Ready for Trick-or-Treating!

Jonathan was originally Master Yoda, but had to switch to Obi-Wan when we couldn’t find his mask.  I don’t think he minded much.  The masks were kind of annoying, and the other boys didn’t keep theirs on very long!

How much longer am I going to be able to convinve the kids to wear coordinated costumes?  This may have been the end.  Alas.

If you have any interest in past Halloween pictures, check them out here:

Halloween 2010 Three Musketeers

Halloween 2009 Fairy Tale

Halloween 2008 Pirates

Halloween 2007 Bugs

Halloween 2006 Candy Corn

First Ever Trip to Cades Cove

For the kids, that is! 
So, it’s summer and this is what I do in the summer.  I try to update the blog with all the pictures from the previous year that I never posted.
Last October, Bud and KayKay came to visit and we all went to Cades Cove.

Zachary

Jonathan

Reagan

Thomas

We even saw some deer, although not as many as we have seen on other visits!  It was a lot of fun!  We’ll definitely go again someday!