Christmas Tea

I took the older 2 girls to Christmas tea with my mom last weekend.  I love doing one thing like this each Christmas season that is special and allows us to dress up and spend time together.  I am so glad we did it.  It was just beautiful.  

Gingerbread House

Some friends invited us over to their house to make and decorate gingerbread houses.  We had a wonderful time, can anyone from college that read my blog recognize the children?  The mom made all the gingerbread from scratch and we had a great time putting the candy on the houses, eating dinner and watching a Christmas show with them.  I will never buy a gingerbread kit again - she inspired me.  The house has smelled delicious since we brought our house home.

Nutcracker!!

The Nutcracker... up close!

Grace and Rita

So thankful for these two girls.

December Happenings!

Happy Birthday to Nate and Ellen on Dec 10!  

Nate is 35 and Ellen is 3.

 Sammy helping make Christmas gifts!

 I love Mondays when he comes home early!

Welcome to the White House

Nate went to the White House with some of his coworkers on his birthday this year.  It was part of a "thank you" to government employees and a few got chosen.  We have gone through the White House before at Christmastime and he said it was very similar.  

The highlight was seeing Obama's dog Bo run through the party.

There he is!  

Nate said he stayed right with his handler and was trained not to stop for ANYONE.

 The ultimate gingerbread house!

Kids Christmas Choir

 The older three kids were in a church Christmas Choir this year.  It was really fun for them to dress up and perform.  Grace was a queen (that came to see baby Jesus), Rita was a chicken (in the stable) and Sam was a "sleeper" (since Jesus was born at night).  We hear so many Santa and Rudolph songs that it was nice to actually hear some songs about Jesus being born.  After all, HE is the Reason for the Season!

At Union Station in Washington DC before going outside.

I thought the angels looked darling.

This was where they sang.  It was so beautiful to hear children's voices outside on this mild Saturday morning.  Many people were eating lunch outside and there were a lot of people traveling on the Amtrak but coming up on the Metro escalators   The children were facing the escalators so I enjoyed watching the travelers faces to see the kid.  Very very cute.

Later that week, the kids performed in front of the White House.  That was really beautiful as well and so many tourists were there looking at the state trees.  To hear Christmas songs and hymns is rare these days!

And there I am with the freezing happy baby watching the show!

Grandpa's Funeral

Nate's grandfather passed away a few short days after Thanksgiving.  We flew up to Michigan to attend the funeral with Clara.  Two wonderful friends of ours (Thank you Candi and Beth!) watched our other kids at home - they had a wonderful time.  It was a whirlwind trip.

This is Noah's ark that Grandpa carved.  He was a wonderful wood craftsman.  I could write so much about how neat Nate's Grandpa was but if you have some time, listen to the clip of his funeral here.  You will have to scroll down.

 These were the flowers from the grandchildren.

 I took this photo because the casket was so beautiful.  It was a deep wood and the flowers around it were so beautiful.

 And there is Lindsay again - still holding Clara and pregnant!

Christmas Concert

I took Ellen out for a special morning to a local concert.  They had all of these different cartoon characters there.  She loved it and loves to look at herself in these photos.  

Happy Birthday Rita!

It seems like we have been celebrating Rita's birthday for months but that is only because we had her class birthday party early.  Here are some photos from her actual day.

 I'm 7!

Lindsay Pregnant!

On Thanksgiving Day, we went to downtown Grand Rapids to burn some energy.  We took some impromptu photographs of Lindsay and Marvin together.  They are expecting their first baby and we are SO SO excited for them.

 A full disclaimer on this photo - I made them take this!  I always wanted Nate to do the "heart on the belly" photo and he wouldn't.  So I asked my brother-in-law to do it and he agreed!

Great Grandma Grace holding Clara.  

Grandma was in the hospital with Grandpa Marvin on Thanksgiving.  We named Clara after Grandma Grace's sister that died in her 20's.

 This shows how READY Lindsay is getting at 35 weeks!