Christmas program ~ lalala

Our Christmas cuties.

Jingle bells!

Lollipop, Lollipop!

Mmmm, lollilop!

Away in a Manger.

Lucas and Santa.

He loves the magic of Santa.

 

Me, Hannah and Santa. 

She didn't love him.

birthday celebrations

Birthday boy.

Lucas hasn't had an official "friend" birthday party... we keep telling him he can have one in Kindergarten.  In the meantime, we've been appeasing him with having our very special friends, the Vander Wilts, celebrate with us.  Then he gets Jacob, Josh and Jonah! 

 

I love the joy in these next photos.  

So happy.  So sweet.  So perfect. 

Sister {loves} sweets!

 

 

 A family birthday party isn't complete to Lucas without his cousins.  We have always celebrated his birthday with cousin Abby's birthday at Thanksgiving.  For some reason, this year it clicked for him that all of his cousins get to have a birthday party at their own house.  So... Aunt Jen to the rescue and they came to celebrate with Lucas, again.  :)

Lucas picked his cake theme, helped frost, and put the cars on (after driving them all over and smooshing the frosting.  I didn't even care...it's his cake!)

 

 

The best part:  Putting him to bed the night of his birthday he told me, "It was a great day, mom." 

Happy Birthday, Lucas Mitchell!

Our perfect FIVE year old! Happy Birthday, sweet boy!

 

He loves: his Hot Wheels cars and race track, the iPad, anything Cyclone sports, spaghetti, snuggling, ANY time he gets to play with friends.

 

 

From this:

 

To this, in FIVE SHORT YEARS:

We've loved you every single minute, buddy!

 

Birthday festivity photos to come!

Thanksgiving

 

I was in Belgium when my side of the family celebrated Thanksgiving. 

Brent enjoyed the company of my family and sent me a couple of text pictures.

Lucas and Abby get to celebrate their birthday at Thanksgiving - a special cupcake treat!

We spent Thanksgiving day with Brent's family.

Hannah was most excited about the m&ms at our beautiful place setting. 

Football time.

"Where is your hair, Pa?"

I think she was searching for just the right deal prior to Black Friday. :-)

Even Papa knows how to fix a little girl's hair.

 

 

We skipped the Black Friday shopping and hung out at Gramma's instead.  Steve, Brent, Brad and Brian went to the Iowa State vs. West Virginia game and we made Christmas cookies. 

A little green sprinkle goes a long way.  :-)

Frosting everywhere - even on the nose!

Yum, yum goodies!

 

preschool - Halloween & Apples

 

Halloween Party for preschool.

Mya or Mea (?), Lucas, Maci.

 

Don't peek!

 

 

 

 

Apple Juice fieldtrip.

 

The kids each got to feed the apples into the grinder.

 

And another turn to mush the juice out of the apples.

By the way, "mush" is a technical term. 

 

 

Since we were visiting Miss Deb's farm, we got to see their tractors, pigs and chickens, too. 

Lacey and Nick (in the background), Amber and myself are the consistent parent fieldtrip drivers this year.  We do have our own laughs and memories. :-)

to my prayer warriors

Thank you for the continued prayers for my sister, Ann.  She has had seven of nine chemotherapy treatments.  Just as expected, there have been ups and downs in the treatment thus far. Adjusting medications has made a difference on how she feels, but most frequently tired is the biggest issue.  She will have a CT scan one week after her last chemotherapy treatment.  Then we will wait to hear what the doctors recommend next. 

Please continue your prayers.