Christmas Day 2008

Christmas morning was much more relaxed for us than usual. We started at our house where we read the Christmas story and got to watch the kids open their gifts one at a time. Then we went to my mom's to open stockings (since we opened the other gifts the night before). We spent the rest of the day there and were joined by my aunt and uncle. It was a good, long Christmas for us.

Joey's first real Bible.

High School Musical...

Jon was excited to buy him his first glove.

He got a Larry Bible cover to go with Katherine's Bob cover.

Joey got a lot of 'big boy' toys this year. Many of them were sports themed.

My mom has had this American Girl doll, Kit, for several years. Katherine got to take her home for Christmas this year. She also got a bed and a table with place settings.

This is typical Joey.

Wrestling with Grandpa.

Joey thinks it's fun to play dead.

Christmas Eve 2008

On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's house to open the presents except our stockings. We usually do it on Christmas morning, so it was nice to have more time to enjoy it and watch the kids. Joey really got into it this year. He would cheer and clapped when he opened something and said 'thank you' after almost every one.

Joey got a cape with a J on the back and must have thought he could fly, but instead he just fell off the couch into the rest of the gifts.

School Christmas Party

The kids had a party at school. Santa came and everyone took turns talking to him. Katherine doesn't believe in Santa, so she wasn't sure how to act.

Decorating for Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving, we spent the evening at my mom's decorating her tree and taking pictures. The kids got to open one present. Katherine get her own digital camera. She says it the best present ever!

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving Day, we spent the afternoon at my Aunt Evelyn's house. Two of my cousins were in town with their families. In the evening, some of us went to my mom's house and played WII until late at night.

When everyone was together, there was a total of 9 kids there. They played together really well. Unfortunatly, we didn't get a picture of all of them together as we usually do.

Zoo Day

The day before Thanksgiving was beautiful, so Mom and I took the kids to the zoo for the afternoon.



I had to get a picture of this. Joey was determined to read the map and tell us all where to go.

The school had a Thanksgiving lunch and the kids gave a short program dressed like indians. Katherine sang, but Joseph wasn't very happy about being in front of all the parents. He looked like he was going to cry through the entire thing, and he never really moved.

Branson Trip

Last weekend, we went to Branson with my parents and my niece, Kyler.

We went down into the Talking Rocks Caverns.

We spent one day at Silver Dollar City. It is decorated for Christmas and was beautiful.

We saw "Noah - The Musical". It was a very elaborate production with real animals. Joseph slept through part of it, but the girls loved it. This is the Christmas tree outside of the theater.

We spent some time shopping at Branson's Landing.

Halloween 2008

Like we do each year, we took the kids to the Night of the Living Zoo.

The kids had a party at school. They got to go in their costumes.

We went trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

Birthday Party

We had a birthday party on 10/18 to celebrate Katherine turning 6 and Joseph turning 3.

School Field Trip

On Oct 17, I went with the kids on a school field trip to another pumpkin patch. They had fun. Joey really liked the slide and Katherine loved the zip line. They both picked out pumpkins from the patch. It was pretty muddy, but the kids didn't care.

Walter's Pumpkin Patch

On Oct 11, we went to Walter's Pumpkin Patch with our friends. We were there for about 4 1/2 hours and never even made it into the actual pumpkin patch. The kids loved it (and so did the adults). It was a bit of a drive but certainly worth it.

We all went down the underground slides on trash can lids.

The kids jumped on a large balloon-like thing barried in the ground.

We all shot baby pumpkins in the sling shot.

Jon took each of the kids on a ride around the race track.

We all tried to find our way through the corn maze. It took us much longer than it should have.

We got the kids to pose together for a picture after finally making our way out of the maze.