Home Sweet Christmas

In my memory, this was definitely my favorite Christmas ever. Except for the disappointment of our Christmas Eve services being canceled at church and subsequently our decision to skip driving around to look at lights...I was filled with joy.

We were blessed to have my MIL snowed in with us for the two days...and since we didn't have plans to go anywhere we weren't stressed or disappointed with being house-bound!

I worked Christmas Eve until 2 pm. When I got home, the girls and I snuggled in for a short winter's nap together!

On the way home from work I picked up a cake and ice cream and we celebrated the birth of our Savior, Christ Jesus. We let the kids open one gift and read two Christmas books about Jesus before we all snuggled up on the living room floor to watch movies together.

We played Connect 4 and Bingo, the gifts they opened.

Kennedy got a keyboard and microphone.

Reading about baby Jesus; so cool to have Kyndal read this year!

The kids slept under the Christmas tree!

Christmas morning we were shocked when we actually had to wake the kids up at 9am! They opened their stockings and then we had a filling breakfast. After they tore through their gifts we spent the rest of the day playing with our new toys. I was a lucky girl this year! Casey hooked me up with a new lens for my Nikon camera so I can get up close and personal with the kids now, and I got a new smoothie machine which will work overtime in our house! Thanks babe!

Eager to get started!

Kyndal's new wheel'sCorbin's ready to hit the snowKennedy's in heaven with her babies.Corbin gets more tracks for his Trick TracksA new pony for Kennedy!Finally, an Easy Bake oven, Kyndal's been asking for one for 2 years!A new 4 wheeler racing shirt...Playing with all the Trick tracks.A family surprise--Casey got a deal on this little 4 wheeler for the kids.

We know who will the most miles (and smiles) on this one!

Christmas with the Cooley's

Each year my sister's and I rotate who hosts Christmas for our family. This year we headed southwest to my hometown, Scott City, KS the first weekend of December. Which meant, I had a lot to do beforehand....all the shopping, wrapping and baking. Which also explains why I haven't been blogging!

We had a wonderful time as always, playing games, catching up with our siblings and parents and watching some Husker games too. I was able to share something fun with my family in person (stay tuned blog friends!) too. Here's a few pictures of my sweet family...

My sisters, Casey and I and my BIL's

Owen and Mom

Sweet baby Lizzie...too much excitement!

Mom and Austin playing UNO

Ashlynn, Marissa, Nikki, Kyndal, Corbin, Kennedy (and Austin's arm!)

Lizzie's first Christmas!

Corbin goofing off...

The kids and my Dad watch as Owen opens a white elephant gift, another family tradition

My sister came up with a great craft idea for the kids, an advent calendar. That and the brand new park (and 60 degree weather) kept them entertained for the afternoon!My beautiful sisters!

Candyland and Grandma

I have started a new tradition this year with my family (hopefully I will stick with it!) I purchased a journal and intend to post in it each year five things that each family member is thankful for at Thanksgiving time. I loved each of their responses, they were genuine, sweet and unique. Below are my children's responses, I hope you enjoy them as well!

Kyndal is thankful for...
the holidays
food (she is definitely mine!)
her home
her posters in her room

Corbin is thankful for...
Candyland (maybe because we were playing it when I asked him?!)
his stuffed bunny
his Curious George stuffed animal
for Kyndal giving him several books

Kennedy is thankful for...
(I thought her response was intriguing, that she thought of people after listening to her siblings!)
Grandma
Lora
Grandpa
Mommy (yes, I was 3rd on her list!)
Daddy

I won't list all of Casey's and mine, but I will say I am most thankful for the God I serve and for all that He has blessed me with. May you each remember your blessings all throughout the year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Simple Joys

I adore when my children do or say something that amazes me....and I'm so thankful for how often it happens! Lately, Kennedy has taken me off guard several times. Her vocabulary continues to explode and she picks up things from the older two daily, so it shouldn't surprise me, but it still never fails to.

I'm starting a tradition this year, a book of "Things We're Thankful For". Look for a separate post later once we have them all down....but here's a preview. While playing our favorite game (Candyland) Tuesday night, I popped the question to get a few initial responses from the kids. "What are you thankful for, what makes you happy?" The two oldest weren't really into it and mentioned a couple objects, but Kennedy got really excited. I was assuming she wouldn't understand what I was asking, but I think I was wrong. She mentioned specific people in her life (and I wasn't the 1st one either, haha!) I was pleasantly surprised!

Two other things that have given me goosebumps lately with her. One day, I barely missed getting on videotape this incident. She loves to read and it's a nightly ritual to read together. I heard her repeating almost word for word one of her favorite books while turning the pages all by herself in her room. A few days later during the afternoon (supposed to be napping!) I heard her sweet little voice singing "climbed up in a tree......YOU COME DOWN!.......going to your house today!" She was singing "Zaccheus was a wee little man..." I haven't been singing that with her so again, taken off guard with her little memory. Two other songs she's been singing recently, "He's Got the Whole Word in His Hands" and "Jesus Loves Me". One last thing, last night she wanted to be the one to say the bedtime prayer. I think Jesus is working on my little girl's heart. Instead of the typical "Thank you for the food, amen" that she always says (before a meal and at bedtime), she rattled off several things and people that she was praying for. Thanks to God for helping me slow down enough to enjoy each of these moments!

"Holy Jeans"

I learned an interesting lesson last night. Well, maybe a few lessons......

1. Don't pick out Corbin's clothes in the dark.
2. Make sure you at least take a quick look at him after he gets dressed.
3. Purge any jeans with holes.

I had an early morning meeting so Casey dropped Corbin off at daycare. Last night I saw the evidence of what I had chosen for him to wear that day. His jeans were completely shredded down both sides of the front! Apparently they had holes to begin with (Casey noticed but I obviously didn't because I would have thrown them away!) So when I dropped him off this morning at daycare and apologized/admitted what happened, I heard the rest of the story.

The girls giggled as they said throughout the day Corbin kept ripping his jeans further and further. My saving grace is that Casey is the one that dropped him off and guys can get away with things like that happening LOL My only regret is I don't have a picture of Corbin in those Hulk style shredded jeans; but I think your imaginations can take over here, and see him grinning from ear to ear with those big dimples, proud of his "holy jeans"! Have a great week!

Halloween

I think this says it all. And we have way.too.much of it in our house!

Checking out their loot after trick-or-treating

Pumpkins that were carved at the Whitmore's party.

Kennedy and little Lizzie-bug. Have we mentioned she LOVES babies?

Corbin has a fever today and I just picked up Kyndal, she threw up at school! So I'm watching cartoons, playing Candyland and blogging. I love Mondays!!!

Finally, here are our Halloween pics. I'm keeping it to one post, but we did several Halloween events this year. We went to the Fall Festival at Corbin's daycare, Boo at the Zoo, our church's Trunk or Treat, a friend's (Whitmore's) pumpkin carving party and of course traditional trick or treating. Initially Kennedy was going to be a unicorn, but she was pretty disappointed when Kyndal and Corbin were dressed as a cowgirl and cowboy/horse. So literally 3 minutes before we left for our 1st event, we made her into a cowgirl too. She already had the boots, and the hat we plucked off a scarecrow decoration. It was a little small so we tied a string to it and she wore it on her back.

I made these adorable horses out of socks for the girls mid-week. Now it was Corbin's turn to be disappointed. He quickly shed his actual horse costume and begged for a horse on a stick of his own. If only I'd known that Halloween costumes could have been FREE this year. Everything we ended up using was items we already had or borrowed!
Before we went out on Saturday evening we enjoyed some warm chili and cinnamon rolls at Grandma Hudson's house, a tradition of ours. It was a perfect night for going out here in Lincoln!The Guernsey's (above) Whiting's (below) and Whitmore's went out with us to T-or-TA whole family of cowboys/girls! I had to twist Casey's arm into joining us, I'm sure it'll be the only year we have a common theme of costumes! Thanks to Erika for hooking me up!Cowgirl up!

Bump, set, hit!

Yesterday was Kyndal's last day at the YMCA 1st grade volleyball clinic. I love how they have them set up. They are four weeks long, Sunday afternoons for 1 hour. They work on skills the whole time. Much better for our family than the 8 week seasons that have an hour practice and an hour game each week (on different days). They divide them up by schools too, so all the Roper girls were together which equals lots of giggly little girls. So we're not sure exactly how much they learned :o) But they definitely had a good time. And that's all I expect at this age! We celebrated afterwards by stopping for ice cream with some of the other girls and their Mom's. What's her favorite thing? Serving!A passing drill (standing, right side, red shorts)

Attempting a left handed hitNext to the coach, working on her left handed attacking approachHer favorite, serving. She got all but one over the net!

Pooh, Mickey, Einsteins and More!

All week long Kyndal had been pointing out commercials for the Playhouse Disney Live show that was going to be in Lincoln last weekend. I ended up scoring some free tickets and we didn't break the news to the kids until a few hours before the show. Our friends the Leader's and Pair's joined us for the good time!

Usually at least of the kids tuckers out midway through events like this, but we were pleasantly surprised that they all 3 stayed engaged the whole time! We actually all enjoyed the show! Kennedy wouldn't take her eyes off the set and she only got up to dance with the characters.

Handy MannyCorbin digs the show...Casey took out his stitches before we left!Pooh, Tigger and DarbyKyndal chows down on some Skittles during the showLittle Einstein's running to RocketKennedy "pat, pat, pat, pat", giving the Little Einsteins some power to blast off!Micky and the gang taking a bow

Grooving to the music