Morning Joy (part II), Snow Day, Happy Birthday Grandma Barker

Saturdays usually start with an attempt to sleep in, but our three little ones make it very difficult. One by one, they join (aka interupt) our attempt  to catch a few more minutes of shut eye!  Their desire to be close and cuddle with us melts our hearts and we know this won't last forever,  but we do wish that we hadn't taken our past days of fully rested bodies for granted!  Who could resist these 3 little bright eyed baby faces (and one very tired daddy face)?  This is my Morning Joy!

Today we got our first real winter snow that actually stuck to the ground.  When we woke up, the fluff was falling from the sky, such beautiful bedside scenery.  We bundled the kids up quickly and ran outside before the snow melted. 

Our little polar bear (aka Jacob)!

Kyle wasn't so thrilled about the snow clothes...

But once he realized he could eat the snow, he was on a mission to eat as much as he could find...

....That is until the snow started to turn into grass!

Want some?

Josh mostly enjoyed running around, too fast to capture with my camera!

As you can see, our snow was very short lived... But look, Kyle is still eating what he can find!

This evening we celebrated Penny's birthday with dinner and cake... Happy Birthday Grandma Barker!!! We hope you had a wonderful time! Doesn't she look beautiful?!!!

Joshie and the Sword

With his new found love for the movies Peter Pan and Tarzan, Joshie has taken up the hobby of fighting off the 'bad guys' around our house.  He is very creative in that just about anything can be turned into a weapon, you name it, markers, spoons, tinker toys, lincoln logs, train tracks... Basically anything with a pointing part.  The other day we had some cardboard scraps laying around after a project, so we tied them together and made a couple of play swords.  The excitement built up in Josh as I finished cutting the shapes out to make it look real and when it was completed, we had sword fights all evening long and our backyard was certainly clear of 'bad guys'!

1/2 year... where did the time go?

Jacob turned 6 months last week, half of his first year has already come and gone?!  Sitting up, rolling around the room & watching the craziness of our household are his favorite daily adventures.  Eating is true enjoyment for him, both nursing and simple solids... He even has the cute baby pudge to show for it! This is one of my favorite stages, he is so lively and thirsty to learn new things.  He just got a new tooth and talks all the time!

His hair is turning blonde and his eyes are turning green/blue

So Happy!

Silly face, I think he was gumming his new tooth

Very Active, he will be crawling in no time!

Uhhhh, Ohhhh!

He is so interested in the little things

Hummm, what is over there?

Talking

Bye, Bye! 

dishwashing 101

I have never had such an appreciation for an appliance until it broke on me... 3 times that is!  Our dishwasher (newly purchased less than 2 1/2 years ago!!) stopped working around Thanksgiving and was fixed once only to run a complete cycle 2 times.  It was fixed again and then the day before Christmas Eve it stopped working again.  I guess we got to see how our grandparents used to entertain because that week we just so happened to have 5 large family/friends gatherings, all with no dishwasher.  I certainly have the dry hands to show for it.  Yesterday when I was able to load the dishwasher for the first time, I have never been so grateful to have such a simple chore! 

farewell to drying dishes on the breakfast bar!

Jacob will miss the bird's eye view of all the comotion; he is seen here eating a banana in this handy self feeding invention.

 

Cousins, Great Grandma Poach & Auntie Connie

We were blessed with the visit of my brother, sister-in-law and 4 kiddos for five days!  Yes you heard that right, their 4 kids + our 3 kids= 7 kids all 8 and under and the 6 younger ones are all boys!!!  Our kids had a blast playing with their cousins and suprisingly everyone played very well together!  Things got a little noisy and messy, but it was all in good fun. 

Our first attempt at getting a picture with everyone

The four older boys, so handsome!

Another group attempt, there was a funny theme going on as we took many of this same pose...  The 2 older kids looked very poised, Nathanial kept getting watery eyes from the flashes, Josh and Luke had some kind of argument going on (look at Luke's expressions!), Kyle screamed the whole time, and Jacob was happy as can be!

It was so cute to see how Cari reading to the boys, calmed them down so quickly- Thank you Cari!

During their visit, my Grandma Poach & Aunt Connie came to visit from CA.  It was so nice to them and have them meet the 3 littlest great grand children from my mom's family!  Here is a picture with Great Grandma and all of the kids except Jacob. 

Thank you all for coming to visit, we enjoyed all of your company!  We can't wait to see everyone again ;)!

Christmas Morning!

Merry Christmas and let the world rejoice for the best gift of all, the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ! 

Our family festives continued on Christmas morning with my parents coming over to watch the kiddos open their presents and to later welcome my brother's family with brunch. 

Let the ripping begin!

Kyle liked to look at everything so closely before moving on to another gift.

Josh was excited about all the new toys!

The post-presents quiet bliss to take it all in ;)!

Fire stations/trucks seemed to be an ongoing theme

O, boy--- New Toys!!!

Aragon Family Pictures

With most of Mike's family here this year for Christmas, we took the oppurtunity to take some family and generation pictures:

Mike's Grandparents, parents & family

his mom, grandparents and kiddos

 Mike LOVES his little grandma!

 His grandparents and their 4 kids

 Grandchildren and great grandchildren (minus 1 grandson and 1 great grand son)

 Uncle Donnie's family

 Auntie Lori's family, minus uncle Monty

Christmas Eve with Mike's Fam

Traditionally we have a family gathering with pasole and tamales at Mike's grandma's house for Christmas Eve and this year was no exception except we enjoyed pizza instead of the traditional New Mexican food to keep everything simple after the long weeks following his uncle's funeral.  We had a special visist from Santa (aka Uncle Donnie) for the little kids and we also celebrated Uncle Donnie's 50th birthday.

Mike and Kyle watched from a distance-

Josh was a little timid, but was willing to pick up Santa's hat to get a present.

Josh loved his Buzz jammies with his name embroidered on it!

And Kyle LOVED his life-like stuffed dog!

Jacob enjoyed chewing on the wrapping paper and he got a great blanket wrap with his name on it.

I was so fun to see Mike's teen & preteen cousins interact with our yougsters... It seems that they were just the babies and we were the teens!

I think Kyle might just be our musician, he was a magnet to uncle Adam once he took the guitar out and to Papa Barker when he took the drum out.