"12 Days Of Christmas" Countdown, 5 Days

Most of the kiddos. The two year old was wary, so we might have to photo shop her in later!

Firstborn, beautiful H is growing up so fast. At age 8, she's "Little Mama" and loves horses, cozy blankets and requested her very own coffee mug for Christmas. She was baptized this summer and just played in her first piano recital.

Big boy S is 6 and likes all the things that boys like, especially sword fighting, Nerf gun wars and Legos. He was a wee bit sleepy by the time I took this shot! A long ride in the car will do that to a boy.

A is 4 and have a flair for the dramatic. He broke a fingernail while visiting and "Dr. Dad" had to set him up. He loves to role play and his mommy thinks there may be a stage out there for him.

I wanted to keep little J. Oh my, isn't she just the cutest? She is 2 and loves to play with her baby sister and her dollies. While she was here she got to adopt some of "Aunt H's" twin dolls. Precious little one!

And the baby is...Little "Bo." S just turned one and is the most precious baby girl! She loves her big sisters and brothers and is going to be well cared for as she grows up. It's hard to only see the kids once or twice a year, they change so fast!

We woke up and hit the ground running. Having company motivated us to get some of those "dreaded" chores out of the way...Like scrubbing the shower (D's job), purging the boys' room (again...didn't we just do this?), washing sheets and making the beds (not an easy thing to do, as the boys have lofts and I usually bang my head on the ceiling or fall off the ladder...are you picturing this?), reorganizing the toy closets to prepare for new goodies, and cleaning out the junk drawers. No, I didn't do it because I was having company, but it seemed like a good time to hit it hard! Now it's done!

One of the highlights of our holiday season was a visit from the M family. We had planned to go visit them in November, but they had a few little ones who were ill and at the last minute, our J became sick. We choked down huge lumps of disappointment and hoped they would be able to stop in while traveling to NY for Christmas. Many prayers were said and vitamins swallowed, and this time we were able to see them. They arrived in the afternoon, hung out, ate, played, visited and we all crashed pretty early. We thank God for this family. They are so dear to us and we are grateful for the friendship/kinship He has allowed us to share over the past nine years. We love you Ms!!