Meet Nibble

We got a new addition to the family. Douglas got a pet hamster for Christmas. We got Douglas the necessities for his gifts to open up on Christmas then he got to go and pick out the hamster after the holiday. So this is Nibble. He is a Black Bear teddy bear hamster. Douglas wants you all to know that he loves Nibble VERY much. He is having a good time holding him and watching him play in his cage, on his wheel and run around in his ball. (And one of the best parts, Douglas hasn't mentioned Pokemon all day long) The cats aren't so sure about him yet though.

Christmas 2008

We had a very nice Christmas. James was off both Christmas Eve and day. We did gift opening Christmas Eve morning at home. Then headed up north to spend time with James' family. But first we went to my (Pamela's) moms house and spent some time with my mom and went sledding. On Christmas Day We had a nice time of family, fellowship, and fabulous food with James' family. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the Lord's birth. And then we came home Christmas evening because James had to work early the next day.

Stockings @ home

Baby's first Christmas

The three boys all got computer games
Time to start a band. Phillip got a guitar and Evan got some drums

Our little rockstar

The Little Drummer Boy

Turkey, anyone?

Ho Ho Ho!

Sunday School Christmas Program 2008

This is Evan, He is on the right side in the red shirt. He looked so cute up there doing the actions and singing. It's hard to believe my baby is already part of the program.

The boys had their Sunday school Christmas program on Sunday Dec. 21st. Evan's class sang, "Happy Birthday Jesus" and "Away in a Manger". Phillip sang, "When the King Comes" and "Hosanna" and Douglas sang a few different songs. I feel bad for not remembering all of the names of them. It was a very nice program and it is so fun to see and listen to all of the young ones in our church.

This one is Phillip, he is on the top left side in the red shirt.

And last but certainly not least, Douglas. He in the middle with glasses. He was part of the group that ranged from 1st. grade up to 6th grade. Their group did music, narration and scripture reading that built up the navity scene.

Our boys Christmas 2008

This is the picture we used of the boys for our Christmas card this year.

This picture was a few days before Christmas. Boy, they're cute! :)

Brayden on the verge?

Brayden turned 8 months old last Friday and now he has started to pull himself up and stand along objects... furniture, toys, carseat, bathtub... So I wonder how long it will be before he's walking. If I had my guess it will be sooner than we care for.

Beautiful smile

Family Christmas

We celebrated with most of my (Pamela's) family on Sunday Dec. 14th. Due to inclement weather my brothers were unable to make it. We had a nice time together.

Kid's table

Adult's table

Presents

Brayden's first present to open

Decorating Cookies

The three older boys had a good time decorating sugar cookies for Christmas. They did pretty much all of them by themselves while I worked on the gingerbread men.

First Dance

This is Evan having his first dance with a girl. She is our good friends daughter, Anna. They were having so much fun. These two are only 6 weeks apart in age... She's older :). It's hard to hear any words clearly but you get the best part. You can see them smiling and just being happy. And Evan even has cowboy boots on, he looks so cute.

Stitches

Boy was I happy this morning that I took the pictures of the boys for our christmas card right away in the morning. By 9:30 a.m. Evan was being brought into Urgent Care to have three stitches in his forehead. Apparently he was chasing Douglas with the light saber and fell and hit his head. I think we may have to worry about this one as he grows up. I wonder how many ER visits are in our future.

Pictures

Brayden
Evan

Phillip

We have so many people ask us if Phillip and Evan are twins. They do look a lot alike.

Brayden crawling

Brayden has now started to crawl. He is learning how to get into everything. His big brothers are realizing that they had better not leave anything on the floor in our living room or Brayden will soon have it and it will soon be soppy with baby drool. (He loves to chew on things)

Brayden's 6 month appt.

Okay so we had Brayden's 6 month appointment a week and a half ago. Here are his measurements.
18# 2 ounces and 27 inches
The time is going by so fast. He rolls all over the place and gets into a lot. He's had one tooth pop out and another on the verge. Before we know we will have a baby no longer.

Halloween 2008

Here's our little trick-or-treaters. They brought home a good haul of candy and it was a beautiful night to be out walking around the neighborhood.

Evan as Tigger, Phillip as Raphael (ninja turtle), Brayden as a hunny pot, and Douglas as Darth Vader

Brotherly love

These two really love to play together. Actually all three boys really enjoy entertaining Brayden. Sorry the video is a little long.

Fall fun

What is fall without playing in some leaves.

Over MEA

Over MEA break we went up North to see family. James took the week off so it was a nice amount of time. We started out by going over to my (Pamela's) dads house and spent a few hours with him before he had to go to work. Then across to James' parents where we stayed. We spent a whole day with my mom and went to the big park there. The kids had a blast. We ended up dealing with some sickness overnight. The three older boys were up throwing up for one night. Not a fun night. We even were able to go and see James' sisters new house. It was a nice little vacation. We hardly ever get that much time when we go to just relax and visit. We had 4 days compared to the normal 2. Now we have been dealing with all kinds of illness. James has been sick with some stomach issues, we have colds circulating and Evan has had a fever. I feel like it has been never-ending. That time of year, I suppose. All those first that I mentioned a while back, well, we haven't worked with Phillip on the bike, Brayden is now on veggies too and Evan has stuck with potty training. We still have occasional wetting issues and he doesn't always stay dry overnight. But over all it has been going quite well. We are happy with the results. Considering he has started this 7-8 months earlier then the first two boys.

Evan

Phillip climbing the rock wallDouglas, he's king of the worldBrayden, stayin' warm

6 months old

Brayden turned 6 months old on Saturday. He is getting so big so fast and he is such a sweet little boy. His Dr.'s appt won't be until the end of next week so I will update his stats then.
And in other news, we have put our house on the market. For the last couple of weeks we have felt God leading us to do this. We spent these 2 1/2 weeks doing a lot of cleaning and decluttering to get the house ready. And as of last Friday we are officially on the market. We have our eyes on a bigger house (we are starting to feel a little crowded :). But it is in God's hands whether or not that will be our house. We are trusting Him to lead us where we are to go. Prayer for this journey is greatly appreciated.

We've got a monkey in the family!

I don't even know if you will be able to see him, but if you look closely at the middle top of the tree, you should see a white shirt. That would be Phillip, our 4 1/2 year old. We have come to discover that he is quite the climber. Have to say it scares mommy quite a bit.

New things

Well, things have seemed busy since school started. But we have been trying some new things. Phillip, Evan and Brayden have all done something new. Phillip we have started to work with him on learning to bike on two wheels. Evan we started potty training four days ago. That is going pretty well, hopefully it sticks. Brayden started cereal, but I have not been consistant with it. I think I will have to start to do it regularly. So I will try to keep you updated on how these things go. Brayden's first solids.

Not a baby anymore:(

Douglas turned 7 years old on Sept. 3rd. It makes me sit and remember when he was a baby, seems like only yesterday. But you can definetly tell he's growing up. He's got the "I can do anything" attitude and he has a tendency to wonder off when we are out shopping or out having fun. Like he doesn't think he has to ask or let us know what he's doing. I think he wants to grow up too fast in some respects. For his birthday it was just us. He got to decide what he wanted to have for supper. So we had personal size pizzas on the grill and did presents after supper. Then we had cake. He has been back in school for almost two weeks now and he loves just as much as he did in Kindergarten.