Christmas at home

We had a super special Christmas this year. For the first time in almost 18 years all three of us kids were home together. Words cannot express how good it felt. For once, we are all living in the same state instead of spread out all over the country! As we were leaving for home I told Brad I think that this Christmas is one of the best Christmases I can remember. Forget the presents, the food, all the hustle and bustle...family is where it's at for me.

Here's Oma (german for "Grandma") in her element, making cookies for Santa w/ some of the older grandkids!

I love her new Christmas rolling pin...

Well, I love everything! The measuring cups and bowl are pretty stinkin' cute too!

Uncle Brad sledding with Josiah and Mallory.

The bunch who braved the cold!

Cutie-Pie Cousins!

Have I mentioned Madelyn LOVES Bob the Builder! She was digging through Opa's toy bin and found this hat! She walked around the entire time w/ a big grin on her face!

There were so many people over Christmas w/ our whole family, and my brother-in-laws family in town, that the kids had a designated "kid table" to eat meals at. It worked out great!

Games are always a hit at our house! The kids loved them! They got some pretty cool ones this year: Operation, Hungry hippos, and Uno Moo! It was nice having something to keep them occupied so the adults could carry on a conversation!

New coats from Great Grandma Mallory...Josiah and Reagan both slept in theirs the first night, because they didn't want to take them off!

Reagan's new coat and new scarf

Josiah saying, "WooHoo!" for monster trucks! =0) Love my little boy!

I didn't even realize we captured a picture of Madelyn opening presents. This must have been the only one she opened, because the rest of the time she was off in the other room scooting around a train she was obsessed with! She did get some pretty cool stuff though!

Phew! Glad I got this thing caught up! We're moving this week, and don't know when I'll have time to blog before the new baby comes. Just a few more weeks! Starting to get excited! Brad and I actually sat down and went through some names last night. It actually worked out pretty well, he was already at the computer so I had HIM google baby names. This time he actually read them to me, and I was able to say, "Yes", or "No"... loved it! Nothing is really popping out to either of us. So far we kinda like Chloe, Grace, Emily, Reese, Kennedy, and Macie. Neither of us are sold on any of them. But at least we're starting to talk about it! Hopefully we'll come up with something so we won't be in the hospital discussing names like we have with all the other three! =0)

Christmas Dinner w/ Family

My grandma invited my cousins and I over for a Christmas dinner on December 22nd. It was so fun! I can't believe I've been over here for almost a year, and haven't seen my cousins even once! We've called each other, and tried to set up playdates, but for some reason or another our plans have always fallen through. One of my cousins has two little girls that are almost the exact same ages as Reagan and Josiah. They had lots of fun playing together, and my cousins and I had fun catching up. We also vowed to get together MUCH more often! =0)

The Girls

A couch full of crazy, but cute cousins!

The kids loved this blooming flower w/ candles

l
My uncle is a chef, and made this amazing dinner, I had never seen anything like this before!

A crown roast or something? My grandma said they have it every year for Christmas. Whatever it was, it looked pretty cool, and tasted even better!

sledding

Here's a quick clip of the kids sledding in a neighbors driveway over Christmas. There was no hill really, but they still got some pretty good speed, and could easily run back up to start over again.They had so much fun! Reagan said it was one of her favorite memories of Christmas this year. It's a pretty cute clip, and I love that it recorded Mallory plowing over Gaston and Josiah! =0)

The blessings keep coming...

Praise God! Thought I'd share some super exciting news with you all! God just keeps surprising us with awesome blessings one right after the other! Here's the story...We originally wanted a six month lease with our apartment, but because we signed the papers July 2nd, and not July 1st, they gave us one more whole month. Apparently they don't pro-rate days (even one) AT ALL! The sticky situation was this: I'm due with our 4th baby January 29th, and our lease ended with our apartment Jan. 31st. Since I actually went into labor on my due date with Madelyn, and had her 2 days later, I told Brad, "Well, lucky me, I probably will be having this baby on the 31st, while you're home packing the house with all 3 kids! Fun, Fun!!!"

In the meantime we found a super adorable house! Brad and I both loved it the minute we laid eyes on it. It has an awesome layout, really high ceilings, 4 bedrooms, and what's even more unheard of is that it has an amazing fenced backyard! We've noticed that in Seattle you either have a really nice house with absolutely zero property, or you have an older home with a nice chunk of land. This had both! And it's in a cul-de-sac so there will be no traffic except for the people that live there. Across the street is a reserve that's owned by all the home-owners, so nobody can build on it... it's absolutely perfect! We knew it wouldn't last another month and a half, so Brad went into talk to our apartment manager. At first the lady was absolutely firm on not being able to move out early, even when Brad told her that it was going to be really stressful, because our baby was due at that exact same time. Finally at the end Brad said, "Is there really nothing I can do to get out of our agreement? Can I bribe you? There's got to be something..." The lady laughed and said, "Well, put in your 20 day notice, and I'll see what I can do." We didn't hear anything for 3 or 4 days and figured that we had our answer. Finally on Friday they called us and said we could move out Jan. 2nd!!! Woohoo!

We met with the home-owners and signed paperwork this Saturday, we actually are moving New Years Eve (31st), and will spend the other two days cleaning out the apartment. It will be an insanely busy couple weeks, we have Christmas parties, New Years Eve parties, and all kinds of events every single day until we leave for my parents. Then when we get back, we'll use the next four days to pack and clean! I'm soooo incredibly excited to unpack stuff that has been boxed up for 9 months! I have a feeling it will be a little like having 2 Christmases in a row! ;0) God is good. I'm so glad that He cares about not only our needs, but also our wants. We could have found another house, and moved after the baby, but He knew the desires of our hearts, and worked it out perfectly so not only are we getting the house we both loved, but we're getting into it in ample time to have things semi-organized before the baby comes! Awesome.

Christmas Cards

Okay, so I'm being super thrifty, (aka "cheap") this year, and I'm only getting 50 Christmas cards. Which means, they are pretty much going to family. Soooo... here's a sneak peak of a couple pictures that are on the card, and I'll email you all out the newsletter that went along with it. It's ridiculously long (I have a lot of family, I don't keep in contact with that well)... so you may not want to read the whole thing! But, if you have the time, enjoy! =0)

Hiz Kidz Choir

Reagan and Josiah joined Hiz Kidz Choir this semester. Reagan did awesome, and Josiah well...he just wanted to hide under his shirt the entire time. He did awesome when he was practicing at home and would belt it out, but he froze when it came to crunch time. We heard from a friend that during the first service, he and his buddy stood in the middle and just covered their ears the entire time. We noticed during the second service they seperated the two...it didn't change much, instead of playing with his friend, he just played with his shirt! I did find a clip of him singing a little bit and added it at the end... hope you enjoy! =0)

Fox Family Updates

Well I'm pretty darn proud of myself! I've almost caught our blog up to date! Woohoo! For those of you who are tired of reading all these posts...don't worry, they'll be coming a lot less frequently (especially with a new baby coming next month!) I can hardly believe it! I remember seeing a post a friend of mine wrote about how fast she felt her pregnancy went, and I specifically remember thinking, "What?!? I feel like this pregnancy is dragging on sooo long. But here I am, in the home stretch! Which is why I knew if I didn't hurry up and get caught up on our blog, I would be overwhelmed with how much I had to do, and quit all together (kinda like my scrapbooking, which I hope to get back into someday)!

Here are this years pics of the kids. They're growing up fast!

Reagan is six and in first grade. She's had the most changes occur this year. She's losing her roundness, (although her cheeks look pretty round in this picture!) and turning into a long, lanky little girl. Her schedule is filling up, and I told Brad I don't know how mom's of teenagers keep up with all the activities. I'm wiped out with only one going here and there. She joined Hiz Kidz Choir at our church (I'll post a cute video soon), and also started JBQ, basketball, and is loving her new Daisies class. Whenever she walks through the door all the little girls come running to her with hugs. Her teacher pulled me aside one day, and said, "All the girls just love Reagan. She's so sweet and always gives them all hugs." Awww.. proud mommy moment. Now if she just treated her younger brother with that same love! =0)

Josiah is such a fun little guy! Every day he never ceases to bring a smile to my face. Most times, it's completely unintentional, although he is his Daddy's son, and told me not too long ago, "I love to make people laugh." =0) Josiah still loves trucks, trains, cars, and well... pretty much anything with wheels. He is the only one of our kids that will go into his bedroom and be completely content playing by himself. He is by far the most cautious of our 3 kids, and doesn't like to be out of control. A steep slide, a big hill, getting tossed in the air... are all things that he has no problem telling you, "Don't do that again." Most recently he started learning how to read. He blends his letters together really well, and started pointing out signs, people's t-shirts, and reading the words, so one day I sat down with him and asked him to read me a page, and he did almost the entire thing by himself!

Oh goodness. Where to start with Maddy... Madelyn is in a league of her own. Seriously. She's very independent, and often stuffs her hands in her pockets so nobody can hold her hand, or guide her where she's supposed to go. Within the past month, she's recently turned a new leaf and will actually sit down and watch a movie, but the only movie she will watch is, "Bob the Builder." If it's not, and one of the other kids want to watch something else she cries non-stop yelling, "Noooo! Bob! Bob! Bob"! She has no problem voicing her opinion, and gives it quite freely. When I'm putting her in a dress for church, she always tries to rip it off, or she'll trot over to her dresser pull out a pair of jeans and say, "No. I wear pants!" Oh man. She's going to be a handful. We've never had a child with such a strong will. I told Brad over a year ago, that if I had to guess at which one of our kids was going to be the athlete in the family, I would guess Madelyn. And I agree with myself (nice to pat yourself on the back every once in awhile...) even more so now. She very active and physical way more so than any of the other kids. In fact, she does things now at 2 that Josiah still won't do at 4. Most recent news is she is potty training herself. I don't even remember how it started, but one day she just said, "Mommy, I go potty!" Then promptly sat on the toilet and went. I sang her a little "pee on the potty song" that I made up with the other kids, and gave her a piece of candy, then went on my merry way. I fully expected it to be a one time thing (I am in no hurry whatsoever to start potty training), but every day she'll come up to us and tell us she has to go to the bathroom, or sometimes we find her on the toilet by herself yelling, "Treat! Treat!" =0) She still has wet diapers, and I'm not about to go gung-ho and potty train her with the holidays and a new baby coming in a few weeks. But who knows? Maybe if I wait long enough, she'll figure it all out on her own, and I won't have to do anything at all! =0) The other new news is we took her binky away. We couldn't find it after we went to Billings for Thanksgiving, so we thought we'd see how she responded if we didn't buy her another one. It didn't even phase her! She asked about it a few times, and we shrugged our shoulders and said, "I don't know? Where is it?" And we weren't lying. We really didn't know! We were amazed at how much more verbal she was, when she didn't have her plug! There are days when she walks around the house crying and whining non-stop that I am seriously tempted to buy her another one, but so far, so good!

Halloween

It seems like every year I forget about needing to find the kids costumes for Halloween until the night before. I don't know what my deal is! Thankfully a friend let me borrow a costume for Josiah, and I rummaged through the girls' dress up box and came up with random things for them to wear. Madelyn would have loved it if I had completely forgotten about Halloween all together. She threw a complete conniption getting into her costume! I don't know where she gets her stubborn streak, but oh my, does she have one!

Not happy.

Trying to rip her costume off! At this point she started saying, "Owie! Owie!" So I figured the costume itched and took it off to put a onesie on underneath. As soon as I got her dressed in her onesie, she ran to the dresser...

And triumphantly picked out a pair of jeans, and said, "THIS!"
What can I say, the girl knows what she wants!
After another long battle, I managed to get her in her costume...

And she actually made a pretty cute little bride! =0)

Josiah was a brave little pirate

Reagan was a cheerleader

She even performed a little cheer for people when they asked her to! Very cute.

Our church had a carnival, so after we went trick-or-treating at a few houses, we headed to the church where the kids painted pumpkins, played games, jumped on inflatables, and even won a few goldfish!

Maddy getting her face painted! I was impressed the she stood still for so long!

My favorite line of the evening came from Josiah. Brianna and I were trying to get him to get his face painted. We suggested a patch, a mustache... all good pirate-y sorts of things, but he firmly shook his head and said, "Nope. I don't want nuffin. I just wanna be plain ol' me!"

The Pumpkin Patch

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch this year... note to self, next year go to the pumpkin patch for pictures, then buy the pumpkins at a grocery store! Holy Moly were they expensive! They don't charge by the pound, they start at $15, 20, 30, 40 and go up! Later I learned that several of my friends just take pictures at the pumpkin patch and buy their pumpkins elsewhere...now we know! =0)

Here's a picture of us starting out...

It had rained the night before, so it was a little on the muddy side. Oh okay, a LOT on the muddy side! But that was half the fun! ;0)

Getting ready to cross the Great Divide!

Madelyn was the smart one and stayed in the wagon!

Josiah's pumpkin (or so he thought), once we got up to the cash register we exchanged it for a hand-sized pumpkin! When he got home he didn't even notice the fact that his pumpkin was less than half the size... gotta love four year olds! =0)

Reagan's pumpkin

Our shoes when we left the pumpkin patch. =0)