Christmas Party!

We had a really fun Christmas Party at NTBI tonight! They really did a great job with it--everyone went to a ton of work setting it all up. Our kids had a blast! Halle was so excited for a chance to wear her favorite dress...it is perfect for spinning, which is one of her favorite things to do:)

Here are all the girls, ready to go. It was fun dressing them all up!

Here is my princess Halle, standing in front of the entrance:

The gym was decorated so pretty! Tons of Christmas lights...our kids loved it!

Everyone was supposed to dress in '40s attire (which we didn't do! A lot of people did, but we didn't:) ). Anyway, someone was randomly dressed as a snowman. It was really funny! Kaine and Halle were not too sure about this guy, but they still wanted to be in a picture with Frosty.

Such good buddies!

Layla and Aunt Jill:)

One really great thing about living in a building with tons of single college students is, there are always so many of them who want to help us out with our kids! We have had so many people entertain our kids and offer to babysit that we couldn't list them all. But here is Camilla, who has been a good help to us! Our kids love her:)

And Jessie, who sat and did a craft with Layla tonight. It was so nice of her! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Lanna, another friend of ours who ended up holding and entertaining Layla for almost the whole rest of the night... Lanna is Layla's teacher in her childcare class and Layla adores her! So, but anyway, here is Layla and Jessie. Thanks, Jessie!

Halle insisted on taking a picture of me and Daisy...Daisy wasn't liking it too much, though:)

What a fun night! Thanks, Campus Life department...you did a great job!

kaine and halle's photography skills

So, I think Kaine and Halle are getting pretty good at taking pictures, don't you think?

This is Kaine's...I'm not sure how he achieved this lighting effect!

And here is the one Halle took:)

Hmmm...I guess maybe they need some more practice:)

birthday festivities...

So...I know it is a week late, but it has been busy around here! We had fun celebrating Layla's 2nd birthday...Nathan started her day with some birthday pancakes:

She's pretty excited!


So her actual birthday was last Wednesday, but we celebrated it the next day (Thanksgiving!) when we went down to Bluffton. We had a party for her at my parents' house, and it was lots of fun! Here are Daisy and Israel (good friends!) pumped and ready for the party:


And these 2 were excited, too! Surprise, surprise, huh? I love these crazy kids:)

I usually try to make some kind of cute cake, and as our kids get older it is more fun, because they can choose their cake. But...Layla is too young for that, so I just found these fish cupcakes online and I did this school of fish:)

Layla loves blowing out candles! She's pretty good at it, too!

She is ready for presents!

Layla got some cute things...here is a "wiggle car" that she got from my parents. The school here has these wiggle cars in the gym that the kids use, and they love them. So we thought it could come in handy since she doesn't have a bike or scooter like Kaine and Halle do.

The last present that Layla opened was a note that said, "Give this to great-grandpa." So we told Layla to take it to my grandpa and the note said, "You are going to be a great-grandpa again for the 10th time!" Here is his reaction:

I think he is sternly looking at me in this picture--that was his first reaction: he was appalled because he thought I was the one who is pregnant! But he was wrong...my sister Jill is pregnant!!! How exciting! We are praising God for His goodness. It was fun to see Aaron and Jill tell everyone the good news over Thanksgiving:) Check out Jill's blog for more details:

www.hut-sweet-hut.blogspot.com/



Some of the guests:

My aunt Susie playing with Daisy. Our kids love Susie!

My grandma Leona holding Israel...such a cute picture:)

Jill and Ivy--I love this picture!!

Nathan's parents were just getting home from Florida that day, so we went to their house on Saturday to celebrate. Here they are with our kiddos after supper (notice Kaine's crossed eyes? He always does that for pictures lately!!)

Uncle Kyle helping Kaine with his legos...

I couldn't believe this...I found Layla like this. She had taken off her diaper and found the wipes in the diaper bag, and she was wiping herself! She is so funny!

An update on Daisy...she is now sitting up pretty well! She still falls over all the time, but she is doing so much better! Nathan is such a great dad...he has been working with her a lot on this!

And....she is finally starting to like food! Tonight she ate some squash and she actually liked it! This is a big step for her:)

So...that is my update! We are starting to get ready for Christmas now...and it snowed today! It looks so pretty outside:) Dad, I know you hate snow, but I am kind of excited about this:) I love snow at Christmastime!!!

Happy birthday, Layla!!

Layla is 2 years old today!! Is that even possible? Wow. Our lives are flying by.

Layla has changed so much these past 2 years! She has gone from the little baby with tons of spiked hair...

(this is Layla at about 4 months...can you believe her hair??)


...and now she is an adorable, fun and so loveable 2 year old! (One thing has not changed...she STILL has a ton of hair! Crazy hair, a lot of times!)
Layla loves baths!





She loves them so much that, when asked if she is ready to get out, says, "Noooooooooo!"

Layla, you are such a sweet girl:)

We love you, Layla! We thank God for you all the time. You are a little bundle of personality and you make us laugh so much! Happy Birthday to our sweet Lay-love!!

(by the way, Layla's birthday is actually the 23rd even though it says I posted this on the 22nd...grrr. I started it last night and posted it this morning, so for some reason it is listing it on the 22nd. ) :)

3 things...

Well, it has been a long time since my last post! I need to catch up a little, so there are 3 things I want to post about...

#1

Kind of random, but Layla's teacher (Lanna) french-braided Layla's hair the other day! I think it is so cute. I do not know how to do this, but it is one of my goals to learn. I have 3 daughters, so this will be an important skill to have, I think! Lanna offered to teach me, so I will have to take her up on that:)

#2

Happy birthday to my adorable niece, Ivy! Her birthday was actually back on November 7, so this is a little late...sorry Ivy! We had a lot of fun celebrating her birthday--my mom and dad came up for the weekend and we had a party for her.

She had fun opening her presents...

...while her adorable brother, Israel, watched her. Isn't he so so so so cute? I love looking at him:) He has the most adorable facial expressions!

Kaine and Halle picked out this little duck that makes quacking sounds for Ivy. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but I think she really likes it now:)

Ivy LOVED her cake! Jill made really cute cupcake/ice cream cones. And as you can see, Ivy loved them:)

Layla loved it, too!

Also that weekend, my parents took us out to eat to a really neat place. I thought this was cute of Nathan and Layla during the prayer (I don't usually take pictures while I'm supposed to be praying!)

The lovely McCormick family:)

I just love this little girl:)

#3

Updates on Daisy! A couple of days ago I discovered she has 2 teeth! I didn't even know she was teething...what a sweetie:)

it's kind of hard to see in this picture, but we let Daisy chew on an apple slice that was soaked in lime juice:) She actually loved it!

Lately I am trying to put Daisy on her tummy more...as the 4th child it is sometimes easy to just lay her down in the bouncy seat, etc, while I am doing other things. So poor Daisy is almost 7 months old and she doesn't have very strong neck muscles yet! So she is doing better at it now:

...but she does this pretty often:)

...and it eventually leads to this:( Poor little girl!

So...those were my 3 events to update you on. We are excited to go to Bluffton next week for Thanksgiving!! I love the holiday season:) And just for the record, I don't know why my blog posts have all these extra spaces between pictures...I don't think it used to do that to me...oh well, just so you know I don't do that on purpose:)

Happy half-birthday, Daisy!!

Well, this is a few days late, but our precious Daisy Grace is now SIX MONTHS OLD! How can my baby already be 1/2 of a year old? It is hard to believe. Daisy continues to be such a sweetie, and a delight for us all:) Just look at this sweetheart! We love her:)

And here is the whole group. What a loveable but crazy group of kiddos:)

On another note, last week was Spirit Week here at NTBI! It was kind of fun--it reminded me of homecoming week in High School:) Difference is, now I dress my kids up instead of me! The other NTBI (located in Waukesha, Wisconsin) traveled here to Jackson this past Saturday to compete against us in some sport events. (I shouldn't say "us"...I did not participate:) ). So that week leading up to Saturday was Spirit Week.

Monday was "Heroes vs. Villains"

Tuesday was "Twos-day" (or Twin Day). Kaine and Halle dressed as twins...

Daisy and her good friend Sophie dressed as twins...

...and also, Jill and I dressed as twins. I don't have a picture of that, though:)

We skipped Wednesday (hippie day...wasn't sure what to do with that one). So Thursday was Mismatch Day. We had fun with that!

Friday was Blackout Day. I think Kaine and Halle look like little ninjas:)

We are continuing to enjoy our classes so much! We are learning a lot. We just finished Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, and we have just started Numbers. They do chronological teaching here, so we won't start any New Testament books for awhile. I am super excited to start those, to start tying everything together. I am especially wanting to study Hebrews since we just did Leviticus...I think it will be amazing to see how they fit together.

Have a great and God-glorifying week!!