Anna's Preschool Christmas Program

Getting ready for the handbell performance. Anna had two colors of bells to remember and she did great!

Singing Jingle Bells, ringing little bells at just the right time!

Anna greets Mom, Caleb, Grandma and Great Gram!

Anna's class performs Silent Night on handbells.

Christmas Cookies!

Eric's turn to bring "Friday treat" to his first grade class was on Dec. 11, so on Dec. 10, our good friend Sara came over to help us make these adorable personalized Christmas cookies! What fun we had!

One with everyone's name!

A plate of cookies for the Townsends, our neighbors who came through with an extra bag of powdered sugar when we needed it most!

Eric's awesome reindeer!

Caleb shows off his decorated star cookie.

Fun with sprinkles!

Thank you, Sara Cupcake for all your wonderful help!

Eric shows off his handiwork.

Anna's beautiful gold star

Little bakers

Cutting the cookies out

Happy helpers

Sneaking bites of dough - those rascals!

Thanksgiving with the Baumgartners

We all had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Baumgartner's house for Thanksgiving this year, with ALL 12 cousins together! Here are a few pics with 10 of the cousins, before the last 2 arrived!

Emma (9) - turkey chef extraordinaire!

Heidi (4), in a turkey coma before dinner was even served!

Caleb (3): "Where's the food, dude?"

Maddy (2), being a little shy, or maybe a little hungry?

James (9), Wyatt (4) and Caleb (3) waiting so patiently for their plates!

Four happy boys: Eric (6), Jake (7), James (9) and Wyatt (4)

Three little turkeys - Emma (9), Anna (4) and Charis (6)

The whole bunch, minus Trent and Holden :(
including Aunt Amy!

Pics of baby girl B!

Little hand beside her face

Hardly still for a moment during the ultrasound

You can kinda make out her leg/foot here

She was so SQUIRMY!!

These clips are so short... you should have seen her flip over!

Even Steven

Pics to follow soon... however, we have big news!

It's a GIRL!!! Everyone here is so excited that baby #4 is a girl, and will make our family "even steven" - 3 boys and 3 girls. Even the boys are glad about this fact. When Anna is 12 and the new baby girl is 7, she may not be so thrilled at having to share a room with a pesky little sister, but hey, the family is even!!!

She is now due Feb. 23, 3 days sooner than they thought. Who knows about these dates anyway? She's going to come when she's good and ready. Mom, you better just get here right after Valentine's Day!!!

Stay tuned... baby girl B doesn't have a name yet, but we'll let you know when she does!

Baby #4 Update

Just a quick update... I had my 16 week prenatal visit today and all is well. Heard the heartbeat at 150 bpm, and everything measures just fine. I will be scheduling an ultrasound in about 2 weeks and hopefully we will get to find out the sex of baby #4! Thank you for continuing to pray for us and for the health of this little one. We are only starting to think about names...

Love to you all and happy weekend!

The Wonders of a CD Player

After Eric got this little personal CD player for his birthday, I quickly learned that the thing must have magical powers!!! Eric AND Caleb have both sat down to listen to music on the couch and were SNOOZING in a matter of minutes! You better believe I am getting these for the other kids too! Amazing... instant nap inducers!

Caleb lulled to sleep

Eric snoozing after school one day