School Pictures

I meant to post these last fall when they were actually taken, but, well, you know how it goes....

Here are my handsome school boys.

Mikey, 1st Grade:

 Luke, 2nd year of Preschool:

So grown up! I can't even stand it! :)

Elise 8, 9 and 10 months

Well, I've done it again. I've been terrible at keeping up with my little lady's first year so again I do 3 months at once. Our little Elise is doing wonderfully. She is so happy and the most loved little lady, what with her three older brothers. She finally got her first two teeth a week before her 10 month mark. Yay! She's a champ at walking along furniture and has even started to climb stairs a little. She's also had a few tumbles down our stairs :( Those were sad moments, but she recovered quickly with lots of cuddling. We love our little lady!! I don't know what we ever did without her!

10 Months (Jan. 14th):

 Elise with her BFF! You would not believe how many pictures were taken in order to come up with these few pictures of these two little ladies together with both their faces in the shot and kind of smiling. Or maybe you would believe it if you've ever tried to photograph 9- and 10-month-olds. (And by the way, I must give photo credit to my friend Suzanne and her awesome new camera. The photo quality goes down from here. Especially since most are from my iphone.)

Gettin' clean!

 

 (I know, blurry iphone shots. But you've gotta seize the moment when it happens!)

 

 It's hard enough to get her to sit still enough for me to put her hair in one pigtail, let alone two. But I give it a shot every now and then because she's so cute with the two!

 She did NOT want to go to sleep. So she fell asleep sitting up. Thank goodness for the bumper!

 Just hanging out with the fam. I love her face in all of these. She was just being funny.

 Not great pictures of me, but she's so cute, I couldn't resist :)

 Just waking up. I love her little sleepy face!

 

 She loves her highchair!

 These two pictures are kind of my faves even though she's so serious. I still love them!

9 Months (Dec. 14th):

She LOVES the bath!

Cheering for Mikey's Basketball team!

So pretty and ready for church

I know, so many of basically the same shot, but her little face is just so cute in all of these. I couldn't choose!

8 Months (Nov. 14th):

Just for the record, guess who bought those super cute, white, fluffy boots? (I'll give you hint--it was not mom... ;)

2012

Before we get too far into 2013 I wanted to just give a few final words about 2012 for each of my kids. Mainly for journaling purposes and things I want to remember.

MIKEY:
For Mikey 2012 was a great year. At the beginning of the year, Mikey was able to start playing basketball, which he thoroughly enjoyed. So much so that we are doing it again this year. He also started football this summer. He loved football as well (as did mom and dad--watching a sport with a little more organization, in addition to him being a little older is great. :) He loves, loves, LOVES school. He loved kindergarten and made so many new friends, but was also thrilled to get to move on to first grade. It was a banner year for him in that he finally lost his first tooth. He has been waiting and waiting for this. (And he really was one of the last kids his age to lose a tooth--he didn't get his first tooth until he was almost a year old so this was expected). He has yet to lose a second tooth, but at least we've over come the first hurdle.

LUKE:
Luke finished up his first year of preschool at Challenger and started his second. He enjoys school okay, but honestly, not always. He is very, very excited about going to "Mikey's school" next year so I'm hopeful it will be a little better.  He sure is a happy and active kid. He loves to play with Mikey and he loves to play with Joey. He is crazy about Elise. His nickname for her is "Pretty." He finally got to start soccer this year. After watching Mikey play sports for years, he was ecstatic to have it finally be his turn. He is still a little bit of a "mama's boy" and I love it. He loves to cuddle with me and sit by me and have me do things for him. I kind of love it :)

JOEY:
Oh our little Joey. We are so crazy about Joey, I can't even tell you. He is at the cutest age and has such a personality. At my gym's daycare they always tell how he has the most personality of any kid! I know, we have told many a crazy story about our little Joe and all the mischief he manages to get in, but man is he a cutie. He never stops bouncing around and laughing and yelling and giggling. (Which is darling except in those moments where he needs to be quite...like church :) I just love hanging out with that kid all day. I wish I could freeze him in time! He is so sweet. There are so many "favorite things" of mine that he's been doing. Whenever anyone is sad, he sings "Twinkle, twinkle little star." I mean, with the littlest cry from Elise, he comes running and stands right by her and starts singing. Even if Mikey or Luke are upset about something, he comes running and starts singing. It's so cute. He also cheers at everything you say. I mean arms above his head while screaming "Yay!!!!" He asks for juice, I say, "yes" and I get a "yay!!" I tell him it's time for lunch, "Yay!!!" I ask him to get in the car to go someplace, "yay!!!" It just makes you feel good. And I love his responses to the common questions to toddlers. If you ask, "how's it going?" He responds, "I Joey!" And if you ask, "how old are you?" He responds, "I big boy!" Every time. I could go on and on. Man I love that kid.

ELISE:
And last, but definitely not least is baby Elise. Of course it was a fabulous year for Elise, it was her very first birthday! We are so grateful to have our little Elise. The boys absolutely love her. Her first 9 months have been fabulous. Her dark complexion and massive amounts of ponytail-ready hair almost right from the get go have garnered non-stop "oos" and "ahhs." She has been the absolute perfect addition to our family. She's been a dream baby. She just sits back and watches the action. Everyone comments on how laid back she seems. She has probably been my best night time sleeper (which is blessing since she's the fourth!) I never really trained her. She's just been doing it for months. Every in the house is non-stop trying to make her smile and she loves it. Oh man, I love that girl.

I have the greatest kids ever! I'm so grateful!

Santa!

I meant to include these in the previous post, but I forgot. You might have seen them on our Christmas card.  The only thing that would have made these better would have been if we could have gotten a smile out of Elise. But clearly she was more confused/afraid than enamored. Well, we still think she's darling and the boys definitely didn't disappoint :)

Christmas Time!

It's Christmas time! And of course it started with a tree :)

 The Angel on top

 Oh how the kids love to decorate the tree! (And oh how I spend the rest of the evening after they go to bed re-decorating the tree :)

 Elise enjoyed the decorating just as much, but in a different way.

Luke's preschool Christmas Program

 Santa!

 (Or as Joey would say, "Sansa!" He also went around saying "Happy Holidays!!" instead of "Merry Christmas." I'm not sure where he got that, but clearly he's very P.C. ;)

We managed to squeeze in a little date night :)

And the top photo of the season goes to...ELISE! This is our favorite picture ever! She was so funny! She was smiling away as I held the camera, but when that red light would flash right before the picture, she would make this face. I guess she wasn't so impressed with the light. I love it. :)

 This was the closest I got to a smile. These pictures get included in the Christmas post because of her cute Christmas bow :)

 Family Christmas Eve party singing Christmas carols. 

(Caroline, Olivia, Anna, Luke, Ben, Mikey, Kate, and Amanda)

  

Christmas Morning!

 

 Stockings first:

 (It's morning after a Christmas Eve that lasted until 2am--give my sleepy face a break)

 Superheros...

 ...and princesses. We're so stereotypical ;)

 Elise was sick :( Poor thing. Luckily we could spend plenty of time sitting around holding her.

After a long and painful breakfast the kids finally made it to the tree:

 A cuddly dog was just what she needed :)

 And thanks to the many snow storms we're enjoying, conditions were perfect for sledding. That's Joey in the mask. The snow was flying up into the kids faces while blazing down the hill so Lance pulled out his old wood working/cutting mask. Worked like a charm.