Happy Christmas Eve!

We are enjoying a very nice Christmas Eve today and hope you are too! We just finished having lunch with some of my high school friends. Now, the kids are napping and Mark and I are relaxing. Then, we'll be heading to a Christmas Eve service at our church. During the service, Ella is singing with her children's choir and I have the honor of filling in as the director of the group. Hopefully, I won't lead this little group of singers astray! They are really so cute when they sing and I am hoping that they know the actions better than I do!! After church, my parents will come over to have dinner. Before bedtime, we promised the kids they could open one present. Ella claims she is going to stay up all night to see Santa. She has been so anxious for him to come and she says she has been trying to be good.

Ella asked Santa for a princess vanity and all the dress up things that go with it. James asked Santa for some num-nums (candy) and a blue tractor. Hopefully Santa will deliver! James wasn't too fond of Santa when we went to his workshop at the mall. He finally sat on his lap and did a quick smile....but he didn't stay there for long. Ella, on the other hand, took the time to give Santa a very detailed description of the gift that she would like to receive. Santa stopped by our house last Thursday evening to check in on the kids and make sure they were being nice. He arrived at our house in a nice Ford pickup. Ella asked about this and was told that the pick-up was on loan from a local car dealership and Santa was happy to use it since his reindeer were resting up for their big trip on Christmas Eve.

Our holiday plans were changed a bit by the weather. We started out on our trip to Mark's parents' house yesterday. Once we were out of town we realized it would not be a fun trip. The visibility was horrible and the roads were getting slick due to very high winds and blowing snow. Mark didn't enjoy driving through white-outs and we were happy to get back home and watch the snow from inside. We'll make our trip up to Grandma & Grandpa O's later this week.

We are looking forward to celebrating all the joys of Christmas tonight and in the in the coming days. To steal a famous line, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!!"

The kids visit with Santa.

Ella is explaining the details of the gift she would like while Santa listens with care.

Ella and Santa

Merry Christmas to All...

Little Helper

We've had several snowing mornings lately. Thankfully, we have an eager little helper on our hands. Even dressed in her Sunday best, Ella begs to help daddy clear the sidewalks! Can't turn her down!

James' Birthday

Here are some pics from James' Birthday party from a few weeks ago...

He was thrilled to get some birthday balloons and enjoyed them for many days after the party. The theme for James' party was a combo of his two favorite things....tractors and Elmo! James was so super cute and excited when everyone sang to him. He covered his mouth and just giggled with delight while looking around the room.

He blew out his candles speedy quick....didn't get it captured on film!

In our family, we always light the candles more than once so the other kids can help blow out the candles too. James didn't blow fast enough the second time and was upset that he didn't help blow out the candles... He burst into tears, so we lit them a third time and made sure that he was ready to blow them out with the rest of the kids.


James had lots of fun and lots of help with opening presents. He finally got the hang of it by the end. He is all geared up for Christmas presents now. I think Ella will be upset that she can't open all of James' presents this year.

Many thanks to all our family and friends who celebrated with us or sent James birthday wishes!

Harvest Time

Recently, each time I have tried to upload some new pics, I have run into problems....Blogger seems to be acting goofy. However, I did manage to get these pics uploaded after a few attempts. They were taken several weeks ago when the kids went out in the cornfields to check on Grandpa's harvesting. He had a rough time this fall as there were many wet spots in the fields. He had to leave patches in several fields and come back to them later when the fields had dried out a little more. James inspecting an ear of corn.

Ella, James and cousin Trenton watching Grandpa unload. Ella was waiting not so patiently for her turn to ride in the combine with Grandpa. She combined twice with Grandpa and James took one ride. They both enjoyed riding in the bumpy field.

James and Grandpa Jim in the corn field with James "Best of Show" awards that he won with Grandpa's corn at the county fair. Grandpa Jim was an extra big winner...He won this Mule this fall via a drawing from Producers Hybrids! He has been enjoying driving it around the farm and all the little ones have been excited to go on rides with Grandpa.

My Baby is Two!

Our baby is two years old today. I can hardly believe it. At this exact time two years ago, we were sharing news of James' arrival with family and friends and getting to know our sweet boy. Since I'm feeling nostalgic, here are a few pictures of James first days.... The very first picture of our sweet baby boy...he's a minute old!

A happy Mommy and Daddy

All cozy and asleep.

A kiss from big sister, Ella.

Brother and Sister!

I wanted to add more pictures....but blogger is having trouble uploading today. As James would say, "Oh my!".

Our Cute Little Tricksters!!!

Here are James and Ella right before we left to go trick or treating on Halloween night. They were so excited to go out and by the end of the night James had trick or treating down to an art form. I'll post more pics later!