The pictures uploaded out of order. I will do my best to add a line or two to each one to explain, but maybe not all ;)
Jazzy spent the night the other night and most of the day. She had a really fun day. I took them to the park for a few hours, and then we went Christmas shopping in the toy section only to give them ideas for their Christmas lists, and then we went to Bahama Buck's to get edible SNO. She had a blast until she hit a wall of exhaustion, which was fairly all of a sudden and out of nowhere. I took a picture of her to send to her parents (Nick and Bethany McAvoy). It is a blessing having them next door. I really enjoy seeing my nieces so often.
I found my seventh grade cheer picture to show my cheerleaders. And I found my eighth grade picture. I thought I looked a little like Joshua in the nose and eyes and so I took a picture of the pictures to show JM. I'm not sure he thought so. Most of my kids don't look very much like me at all. Joshua does look a lot like Jm, but maybe there's some of me there too.
JM took this picture of Joshua and Luke playing quietly together. Luke doesn't "play" with imaginative toys very often at all. Cub, Mer, and J do, not so much H and L. So, when it happens, we take pictures.
JM takes his daughters on dates during football season since the boys get so much of his attention. He took H and M to breakfast on two sepparate occassions. I don't know if I posted M or not on her date.
This is Cub staring in awe at our new tree. He's at a fun age for holidays right now. He gets it. I loved watching how mesmerized he was by the tree.
Joshua took it upon himself to sweep the floor.
The church has these giving machines where you can select various items such as goats, chickens, socks, sewing machines, etc. The money that you give goes to help the less fortunate get those items. There are only 5 in the world and Gilbert has one of them. So, last Friday we went and stood in a long line to buy some of those items. The children were really into it! They wanted to spend their own money buying something for the needy. We bought, fish, clean water, socks, children's books, and we tried buying a goat but it didn't work, so we bought more water. What a special way to light the world. We've been trying to serve Jesus every day.
A doodle I drew of Mer on her folder. LOL
Mercedes, Hannah, and Caleb like playing on the playground while the boys play football.
We made gingerbread houses.
There was a time when Joshua would make me jewelry out of toilet paper rolls while he sat on the toilet. It was a special way of showing me that he loved me. This was the last one he gave me. I think he was 5 or 6.
Caleb really got into the trains that I took down from the top of the closet. He looked so much like Joshua that I took a picture.
This little girl loves it when I curl her hair. She is so cute!
Me and my cheerleaders before the QC parade.
Some teacher Christmas presents that I made.
Luke was absent for football pictures so we improvised and they photoshopped him in.
I love his tough guy look. The other day he told me that his coach got on him and called him a knucklehead. Mercedes felt bad for him and told him that his coach wasn't very nice. Luke said, "football is a very violent sport and sometimes your coaches get mad and they're allowed to call you names like knucklehead."
H wanted a photoshoot with me.
Luke's team won their championship. Joshua's team made it to the championship but they lost :(
At the giving machine.
Joshua was trying to invent a new color.
He believes it was a success!
