Congratulations Victoria!

3rd Place in her Doggy Obedience Class....

"And I didn't even have to bite the teacher!"

Good Job, Victoria! We love you!

Hello? Anyone there? Someone?

Well, for my own viewing pleasure, here's a quick flash back at the Holiday season.......

The season began appropriately enough with the church Christmas program. Sam had one of the major roles and he pulled it off quite well.

Christmas Day is spent at my brother's.
I think it's the first time in forever that my entire side of the family is in one picture.

Remember the days when you were so excited about the presents you received? It's kind of fun to watch the transformation as the kids become excited about what the OTHERS are receiving rather than themselves.



Besides giving gifts, the best part was just hanging out......

Sophie is always right there in the kitchen trying to soak up as much Martha -ness as she can from her big sister. I don't possess the Martha-gene. I don't even know what the tool that A2 is using is called. I'm sure Sophie does though.

Christmas tradition requires that at Auntie Tricia's we play charades.

It's really kind of cool to look back over the years and to see how much the kids have matured though the year (do you think that's fair to base maturity on their charading abilities? I think it's actually a pretty good indication. Maybe I'll expand on that in a future blog post).

New Year's we spent at Pokagen State Park enjoying the final celebration.

I remember the days when this toboggan run would have been the cat's meow. Now, I'm just glad the kids are old enough to go down without me.

This is much much bigger than the picture shows....trust me!

A4 was shocked to see how much her baby brother had grown since last we met.

Sam is now officially taller than all of his sisters.

It seems like just yesterday we were at Hilton Head for the wedding.......
It was great spending time with them over the New Year.


Sophie was able to express her true inner nature.

This is the real Sophie. (above)

I think this is pretend. (below)

Happy New Year Everyone!