Merry Christmas!

We're busy with Christmas preparations, dressing up like ponies, recovering from colds, getting work projects done, teaching at church, singing at church, and enjoying the treats & lights & warmth of this season.

Cora and Oliver visited Santa with me at Bass Pro Shops last week

The kids had a great time at their classroom holiday parties......

all except Aaron who spent most of his in the nurses office because he hurt his finger. :(

We spend a lot of our time following in the wake of this little Destruction.  

He loves to get into anything he can find!

Timmy and Aaron are grateful for some fun school friends who they can be silly with!

Scott has been working all year on finishing this basement room.  It's amazing!  We're so grateful that it's almost done and to have a rec room/playroom now.

I'm happy anytime I can get out in the woods behind our house and hike.  

Oliver and Cora are great hiking buddies.

A notable year:

Aaron had the first broken bone of all the kids (finger)

Cora had her first visit to Disney World!

Oliver had his first words

Scott did his first home finishing project

Timmy won a prize for Reflections for his first time! (videography - 3rd place in state)

Katie - took all 4 kids to a ski resort alone for the first (and maybe last) time! :)

We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Winter Solstice, and any other holiday you and yours might be celebrating this Season.

Love, 

The Stapletons

Family Day

We had a nice family hike last week with our friend Luke

The boys had a great time smashing ice!

We enjoy seeing the machines and building progress up the road.

Oliver at 21 months

We love having Oliver around!   He always has something new and cute to say these days!

The past few weeks, he's been big on the toy helicopter that Scott has.  

He's been saying "Heh-cah-cah!"  His first 3 syllable word.

He also surprised me today by saying (without any prompting)

"Macha!" and a moment later "Papa!"

He must have been thinking about them and their visit a few weeks ago.

At that time he couldn't pronounce Macha yet.

His first word that I would count (besides Mama and Dada) was "BYE!"  And he said it so clearly right away.  Bah-eee!   Then, a big one was BUS.  Then Air-pane. (airplane) Then TIMMY.  Now Heh-cah-cah (helicopter) is his favorite.  

 He said "mow" pretty early on for more, but it has morphed to "my" now.   He's very good at saying "Ah done!"

He made us laugh at dinner by saying "Dous-dee!" (thirsty) and "Goo-bee!" (milk), which is now a much more clear "Miwk"

I thought this picture of him looked so much like Kent as a baby with the
100 photos of him in a cowboy hat. 

 He loves it when his siblings play with him....

....and make him do silly things

He's growing up so fast!

Happy Birthday Timmy!

Happy 11th birthday Timmy!

For Timmy's 11th birthday, his birthday wish was to see Ralph Breaks the Internet in the theater with a few of his friends.   Every theater in the area was booked for holiday parties or something, because they were only playing specials of Polar Express or such things on his party date.  

We compromised and went to the movie with just mom and the kids on Timmy's actual birthday, and then had a party at home with Timmy's friends on the party date. They had a great time!   

We had a short "Treasure Hunt" for Timmy's gift on our trail out back.   The kids played Ping Pong, Air Hockey and Magic the Gathering in the basement.   We had pizza, fruit and lemonade, and then homemade Butterbeer (Harry Potter recipe), lemon chiffon cake and vanilla ice cream.

Timmy got Magic cards and a Laser Tag Game from his friends, and they enjoyed playing some rowdy games of Nerf and Laser Tag for the last hour.  We sure enjoyed having the basement area for this party!  It was our first time using it, and it was amazing to be able to have the kids down there to play and be loud & proud. :)

Thank you to the family for your emails, cards, and gifts to Timmy!  He really appreciated your thoughtfulness! 

Happy Birthday dear Timmy!  We sure love you!

Thanksgiving 2018 and other memories of Fall

Thanksgiving 2018

We enjoyed the rare treat of having family for Thanksgiving.  Mom and Dad Stapleton flew out from Utah for the Thanksgiving break, and we enjoyed a true New England Thanksgiving.  

Scott played Turkey Bowl with friends at church in the morning in the coldest temperatures New England for Thanksgiving Day since 80 years ago.  It was an 11 degree HIGH, and they played in the morning before it was even that warm.  

We had a Thanksgiving meal with homemade Turkey, gravy, stuffing, sweet potato souffle, rolls, cranberry sauce, salad, Grandma's Brown's 7-up Jello, as well as (non-homemade) Klemm's Bakery blueberry and pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream.  To drink: sparkling grape and apple juice.

 We braved the 11 degree weather for a hike to the Beaver Pond, and then watched Wonder Woman.

On Friday, the men-folk worked their tails off installing flooring in the basement 

Meanwhile, Janice and I took the boys for a hike around the Robert Frost Farm, which is a beautiful piece of property including his restored farm house and plaques with his poetry.

This was my favorite video of Oliver.  He's talking a LOT more!   He can say "airplane", "game" and "jesus" and a lot of family names.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qUqg5mfHRynW4vuaA

On Saturday, we took a trip out to the beach to see Crane beach and Castle Hill.

Earlier this month......

 We celebrated Cora's 5th birthday

 She chose to go see The GRINCH at the theater together

Opening Gifts and Cards

Every time we go to the grocery store throughout the year, Cora asks for a balloon, and I say "On your birthday I'll get you one," so here's proof that I made good on my promise.

 We saved ice cream for the next day because we were so sugared out.

Luckily Cora chose the "Skinny Moo" ice cream, because after all the cupcakes, we needed that. :)

November 16th, we had our first snowfall of the season, and it was a fairly big one.  School was even delayed 2 hours.  Scott was highly motivated to finish the basement and clean up the garage after this so we could get our cars back into the garage.  Scraping cars from snow and ice is no fun. 

 We enjoyed a visit from our friend, Dennis, who was in town for work, and enjoyed reconnecting with him after last seeing him when we left Germany.

 We really enjoyed the Fall and the beautiful colors and hiking.

Runoff in our backyard after a rainfall.

Scott and I run off on a hiking date here and there.  We made it behind the high school on this one.

Scott teaching Cora to wear his PJs as overalls 

 Bedtime is the best time of the day

 Our trail

 Our friends, Nate & Laura came to visit for lunch and a hike. 
The rain did not stop us from a hike to the Beaver Pond.

 For Halloween, Aaron was an inflatable Dinosaur Skeleton, Timmy was Quittich Harry Potter and Cora was a black cat (AKA: a witch with a black cat emblem on her dress)

Scott took all 3 older kids to the Father/Son Ward Campout.


Another Sunday evening Hike

It's been a busy and great season!   Not pictured is lots and lots of work.  Homework, papers and proposals, work around the property and house, and a scary hour with Scott teetering on the roof to foam holes in the ridge vent to prevent mice from getting into the attic.