I'm still here!!! I promise. We've just been busy getting ready to move. Painting, painting and we still have more painting to do.

Quick updates:
Madilyn's Baptism Dress came in the mail this week.

Andrew last his first tooth this past Sunday and then three days later, lost another one.

Eliza made her own bed this week.

New Year's!

Happy 2011!
The funnest way to ring in the New Year is with
good friends, yummy treats and fun games.

Showing off their crowns that came out of their poppers.

Girls vs Boys
(Tim's taking the pictures and I wasn't thoughtful enough to get one of him.)

Yes, this group stayed up until midnight and then as soon as the ball dropped, they started too as well.

Christmas

Cookies for Santa, a carrot for Rudolph and fun Christmas jammies.

In case you can't read it:
"Dear Santa,
I have bin an angel all year.
Santa Andrew & Eliza have bin one too! How are you doing?
I've bin good. Merry Christmas!
Love,
Madilyn Winter
P.S. Mom & Dad too!"

Madilyn with some comfy new sweats and Felicity.

Madilyn helping Andrew set up his Webkinz account. His Webkinz' name is AhAh. So now he has a monkey named FuFu and a dino named AhAh. Love it! :)

Eliza received LOTS of dress up this Christmas and she loves it!

All the kids enjoying Melanie's Christmas Tree cake.

Christmas dinner was a feast that we were able to share with the Henrich's and Buckwalter's.
(Thanks for hosting us Melanie!)

Madilyn and Ella showing each other their American Girl Dolls that Santa brought. Madilyn got Felicity and Ella got Rebecca.

Gingerbread Houses

"Gingerbread" Houses
Every year we gather lots of friends and lots of candy for a fun afternoon of creativity and sugar overload. One of these year's I'm actually going to make gingerbread instead of hot gluing grahm crackers together.

(Eliza's house tipped off her plate right after this picture was taken. Amazingly enough there was no drama and no damage to the house.)

Grandpa & Grandma Came To Visit!

My parents came for Kristen's graduation from OSU-alright Kristen!
Conveniently, it just happened to be two weeks after my ACL surgery.
Huge, Ironman leg brace+physical therapy 3 times/week+pain killers=
very few pictures.
These are the only ones I got of a very fun time together (one I even stole from my mom.)

My poor mom was recovering from oral surgery too. Eliza made sure Grandma's mouth was treated as prescribed by the dentist. She even "treated" her own.

Our little mouse.

Another neat thing about the timing of their trip was that they got to be at Madilyn and Andrew's class Christmas parties. (Sadly, I have no pictures of Madilyn's class party because Jacque and I were busy hot gluing 25 second graders' figurines for there "Snowglobes.")

Andrew's class did a special musical Christmas program before their party. So fun! Here he is with friends from school.

The night before my parents had to fly home, the girls had a beauty night. We all did each other's nails and then Madilyn and Eliza did our hair. Lovely!

We're so proud of you Kristen!

Fall Soccer

Pink Lightning

Sadly, this was Madilyn's team's last season together. Moves, changes to Academy soccer and other such reasons summed up to this last fall season.
But it was a great one. The girls have learned so much and had so much fun together.
Amelia, Ella, Emery, Madilyn and Sarah we are so proud of you!

I love this picture!
Madilyn started doing some technical training this fall and she is amazing!
If I do say so myself.

She's making her break! ...(this one didn't make it in)

but this one did! GOAL!!! :)

(Sadly, I lost the pictures of her team party from my phone,
but they were a bunch of fun, giggly girls at their pizza party.)



Striking Lightning

I've coached Andrew's team for two seasons now and I can't imagine anything quite like Under5/Under6 boys soccer. The pictures pretty much sum it up.
It's crazy, silly, rowdy, sometimes tearful, but fun.

Andrew never got his hoodie under his uniform so he is the kiddo in navy blue with red sweats-it was COLD that morning.

I love that he lifts off the ground when he kicks the ball.

He is the blur in the corner running for a goalkick. 'Cause he's so fast. :)

See, I told you it was a lot of silly.

Huge team hug after an awsome final game.

Donut and trophy party after the game.
(The only things missing from all the festivities were Coach Lori & one of our teammates, Zach.)

Halloween

Part 1: Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin

Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin is one of our favorite Halloween books, so this year we decided to carve our pumpkin to look like the naughty pumpkin from the book. We all had lots of fun with it.

I love the illustrations in the book.
(And the cuties showing it off for the camera.)

Eliza's first time carving a pumpkin.
Fortunately Daddy came to help so I could get pictures of it.

Andrew's rare and hidden talent is pumpkin carving-who new?
Apparently its one of the few things he can be patient with.
Maybe it's because he's born in October-for the longest time he thought Halloween was just an extended celebration of his birthday.
He loves the holiday!

Madilyn was a little afraid of the pumpkin carving knife this year but was plenty happy to yank that top off and see all the seeds inside.

Voila!

Part 2: Celebrating With Our Super Heroes

We had a Halloween weekend instead of a Halloween night.
Friday was Trunk or Treat at church-lots of candy and fun games,
Saturday was Trick or Treating in Glenpool with lots of friends and lots more candy,
Sunday was passing out candy to the neighborhood.

(I love that our kids think it's just as fun passing it out as it is getting it.)

Eliza-Supergirl

Andrew-Ironman

Madilyn-Batgirl