Christmas is Here

We stayed here in Illinois for Christmas and things were pretty low key, but very nice.  Here are some pictures from our Christmas.  This is a picture of the kids on Christmas Eve in their new jammie pants from Grandma Guptill.  Emma had hers on too, but didn't sit by the tree.
Grant had a goopy eye that day, which we found out later was from a cold.

Our annual Christmas program.  In this scene Anna is an angel and Matthew is a shepherd (with a touch of Luke Skywalker).  Off to the left is Ariel the dolly (the understudy for baby Jesus).  The kids really wanted Emma to be in the play, but she fell asleep when it was time for her big theatrical debut.  Read about Anna falling asleep for a past Christmas performance HERE.  And right in the middle is Grant.  He didn't want to participate...or wear clothes.  And couldn't be bothered to move off our stage area either.  :)

Here are the kids Christmas morning looking in their stockings.

We ate some breakfast and took a quick family picture.  Anna wanted to hold baby Emma in the picture, so she was making a mad face for most of our pictures.

And here are just a few kids pictures

Matthew helping people get gifts

John got a truck!

Grant opening a gift

Matthew looking for gifts

John reading a new book he unwrapped

Scott opening some gifts.  He has been good this year.  :)

And here's Emma in her pajama bottoms enjoying her first Christmas.  She missed the Christmas Eve program, but made it for Christmas day.  It was fun being together on Christmas!!

Photo Session

Way back before Thanksgiving my friend offered to take some photos of Emma (and a few pics of the other kids).  Here are some of my favorites.  Emma all bundled up.
Note:  These pictures were taken November 21st, so Emma is lots bigger now.

 And with a flower

 A cute little hat

 I was amazed how much she slept during this photo shoot

 Then she woke up and cried

Grant and John were test subjects while my friend found some good light in the house for a full group shot.

 And she snapped a few of the kids by themselves as we got everyone rounded up.

Here's Grant - 3 1/2 years old

 Matthew - 7 1/2

 Anna - 6

 John - 2

 Getting a group shot is always a challenge

First we tried Matthew holding Emma

 Grant cried and wanted to hold Emma - so we let him have a little turn

 He felt better after that

Anna wanted a turn too

And all five kids looking in the general direction of the camera, eyes open and mostly smiling.  It's a miracle!!  Thanks to my friend for the beautiful pics!!

Sometimes We Wear Matching Clothes

Before Emma was even born I bought some things for us all to wear to be matchy matchy at Christmas.  I don't usually do that, so I don't know what I was thinking.  I bought Emma a size 0 to 3 dress.  That was before I realized she would be so tiny (she is still in newborn sized clothes), but the dress kind of fit.  Maybe a little big.  I had bought her some little shoes, but they were way too big for her.  She couldn't even fill out her tights (Scott said they were "looses").  And I'm not a big hair bow person, but I found one for Emma that I didn't think was too girly.

Here are Anna and Emma in their sort of matching dresses.  They both looked so cute.

 And all the girls together

This was sort of in the middle of getting ready for church
Matthew took the picture for us
Emma's dress was lace all over and Anna and I had lace on just the bodice of the dress.

Everyone (minus me).  The boys all had matching ties.  And I realize you can't see Scott's tie, but he had one too.  Getting John and Grant to wear church clothes can be a bit of a challenge sometimes, so I was just happy to get them in the ties at all.  You can see John's socks don't match.  I'm not ashamed.

 And I swapped out with Scott

And all the girls again.   I think Scott took this.  Anna always wants to hold Emma.

Here's Emma after church.  She was a little fussy at church and Scott ended up carrying her around a lot.  But he got lots of compliments on her cuteness.  When she got home she was ready to get out of her cute clothes though.

And here's a special bonus photo

Emma with a huge flower on her head.  Like I said, I'm not a big bow person and my friend, who is a professional photographer, offered to take some pictures of Emma for free.  I just let her do whatever as far as props and she took a few huge flower photos for me.  I like the w/o flower pics better, so this may be the girliest you ever see Emma as a baby.  :)  She looks cute.

Santa and His Reindeer

We went to a local nursery to see some real reindeer this weekend.  Scott heard about it from a co-worker and it seemed to be a well kept secret.  It wasn't very crowded, which is nice.  Here is Matthew saying hi to one of the reindeer.

 And Grant saying hi to one of them

 I don't think I've ever seen real reindeer before so it was fun.

 Everyone enjoyed seeing the reindeer

 We also got to see Santa there with the reindeer...and no line!

Anna told him she wanted a bike and bike helmet.

 Matthew told Santa he wanted a computer.  Oy!!

Grant wouldn't go near Santa at first, but then saw that Santa was handing out lollipops and had a change of heart.  He told Santa he wanted a train.
John wouldn't go near Santa period.  But he had remorse later when he realized he was the only kid without a lollipop.  :(
We had fun, it wasn't crowded and free!  Beats the mall any day.

Christmas Break!

Friday was the last day of school before Christmas break.  The kids were very excited for their school holiday parties and to give their teachers a Christmas gift.  Anna wrote this on the outside of her Christmas card for her teacher.  She drew pictures of things her teacher likes:  Charlie Brown, the Cubs, and Diet Coke

The kids had a half day at school that day so I told them I would take them to Burger King for lunch after a trip to the library.  Here is Emma in her fuzzy bear suit, ready to go.  She could breathe in it.

John was checking on Emma

He is the most sympathetic to her crying.  When she cries he will run over to me and say something like, "Uh oh!  Emma cry.  UP!!"  Most of his communications with us are one or two word phrases.  But I can understand a lot of it.  His language skills are really improving.

After a trip to the library we went to Burger King, as promised.

Matthew had pajama day at school and I let him wear his jammies the rest of the day.

He loved it.

After kids meals had been mostly eaten, we got ice cream cones.

The kids thought it was the best day ever.

John dropped his ice cream cone on the ground but after scooping off some of the floor-dirtied ice cream we were able to salvage it, and all was well.  I wish they made ice cream cones that were about 1/3 as big.  That would be a better size for this crew.

Emma slept through the trip to the library and Burger King, but cried a lot on the way home, as is her custom.  At home we finally rescued her.

Library day is fun because the kids usually sit quietly and read the new library books for a while after we get home.  And then they even worked together to build a giant block tower, with only a little fighting.  That's me steadying the tower while holding Emma in my jacket.  Her little polka dot feet are peeking out.

Emma was just looking cute.

We're ready for Christmas now!!

Extreme Close Up

 Anna and Matthew have been eager to take pictures of Emma with my big camera.

So I had to take pictures of them taking pictures.

 John offered up a car for her to play with

The camera they are using does take better pictures.  I should probably use it more often.

Here is a picture of Emma with my not as good camera.

 And here are the pictures the kids took

Very close up and such a clear image.  And they caught her right as she did a little spit up

 You could even see her tears and eye goopies

 Extreme close up

She looked cute.  Good picture taking guys.