Sophie's first loose tooth

My tooth fell out and left a space

So big my tongue can touch my face,

And every time I smile I show

The place where something used to grow.

I miss my tooth as you can guess

But now I have to brush one less!

My sweet Sophie girl lost her very FIRST tooth last week! She's been waiting and waiting and waiting for for that baby to fall out, and FINALLY it DID! 

She was absolutely over the moon! 

I don't think anyone has EVER been prouder about that little gap than she is! 

She didn't want to put her tooth under her pillow that night though, but instead insisted that she sleep with it in her hand. She was hoping to MEET the tooth fairy, and thought if she held the tooth tightly, the tooth fairy would have to wake her up to get it. 

Thankfully, our tooth fairy has had quite a lot of practice retrieving teeth, and managed to do so without waking this new toothless girl! 

Weekend Fun!

We enjoyed such a fun weekend! It wasn't too busy, but filled with lot of fun and family time.
 Exactly as weekends should be!:) 

Saturday, my niece Kaitlyn turned TWO! My sister-in-law hosted a "Princess" themed party and my girls got to dress up in their favorite princess costume! 

Dressing up is always so much fun!!

I love my sweet "Sophia the First" and my adorable "Sleeping Beauty"!

After church on Sunday, we headed to Corban's soccer game. 

Cor's been playing indoor soccer this winter to keep him in shape during the off season.
He's really enjoyed it!

After the game, we came home and had a bonfire in the backyard. 

Building a fire usually means it's hot dogs and s'mores on the menu for dinner that night! 

And THAT makes for some HAPPY kids!!

Really REALLY happy kids;)

I love weekends like this! 

And I truly treasure sweet moments like this with my family!

Sunday Morning Cinnamon Rolls

Growing up, my mom always made Sunday mornings special. You could pretty much count on waking up every Sunday to the aroma of a sweet treat baking in the oven! 

To this very day, she still does the same thing for my siblings at home. 

Sundays are considered special around here! It's a day for worship, and a time to be together as a family! Sunday's should feel a little different and stand out from any other day of the week! 

And just like my mom did for me, I enjoy getting up early and baking a sweet treat for my family on Sunday mornings as well!

Yesterday, we had our very FAVORITE...EASY Cinnamon Rolls! I love these bad boys just as much as my kids do. They are soooo good and soooo simple to make! There's no yeast, so there's no need to plan ahead. You can whip these babies up in the morning, pop them in the oven, and devour! 

Recipe:

Dough

 2 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup milk
1 egg

Filling:

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup brown sugar

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

~Preheat oven to 300 degrees

~Spray baking pan

~In a small bowl, combine softened butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon to form a crumbly mixture

~In a LARGE bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

~Cut in soft butter

~Stir in milk and add the egg to form a soft dough

(I've found like mixing the dough with my hands always works best!)

~Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface

Dough should be about 1/4 inch thick

~Spread the filling on to the dough

~Roll up the dough, and with a SHARP knife, slice into 1 1/2 inch pieces

~Place in a buttered pan

~Bake for about 25-30 minutes. 

Take them out as soon as they start to brown on the top. 

~I like to melt about 2 tablespoons of butter and brush the tops immediately after they come out of the oven!

~ Let them cool for about 10 minutes and then drizzle with glaze.

For glaze, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in bowl until smooth.

~SERVE WARM.

Now call your sweet family into the kitchen and ENJOY!

A family who plays together...

stays together!!!

With the kids off of school, and Shane home for most of Christmas break as well, we have certainly done our fair share of playing.

 And we have enjoyed EVERY.SINGLE.MINUTE!!!

It's been absolutely WONDERFUL!

Most of the days, the kids were just content to hang out at home. 

We did a lot of baking, game playing, reading, and movie watching. 

However, every now and then, the natives would get a bit little restless, so we would venture out for some fun.  

One afternoon, we took the kids to see the new Annie movie! 

We ALL totally LOVED it!

 It's the same great music and story as the original, but with a new, updated twist. 

Even the big boys said it was MUCH better than they expected.

Another afternoon, we decided to take everyone skating. 

My kids LOVE to skate and are actually getting really good at it. The boys, especially, have become pretty proficient skaters! I love watching them fly around the rink!

But as much as the kids enjoyed skating, they would definitely say (hands down) Sky High was their very favorite outing.

Sky High is this GINORMOUS trampoline, jumping, kind-of place. 

And one things for sure, it was definitely a GREAT place to burn off some of that bound up, restless, Christmas energy.

After two hours of non-stop bouncing fun, everyone was exhausted. 

This week, the bigs are all back in school, and we are falling right back into our usual routine. I am thankful for the awesome time we enjoyed over break, but also look forward to our normal winter schedule to resuming once again. 

Happy New Year, 2015!

I cannot believe it's January already. 

2014 absolutely flew by, and now here we are, welcoming in a brand-new year.

I love New Year's. I love a fresh start, a clean slate, a new beginning.

I am one of those people who like to make New Year's resolutions as well!  I love setting goals for myself and as a family. This year, Shane and I sat down and chose a verse that will be our theme verse for the year. We also chose verses for each one of the kids too.

Our family verse is Colossians 3:17 "And what ever you do, in word or action, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him!" 

We've committed to put this verse to memory AND practice this year! 

The verses we chose for the kids are personal and apply just to them. Shane and I prayed and thought through specific areas in our children's lives where we would like to encourage them, as well as see spiritual growth. We chose verses for them accordingly.  

It's been a blessing to see our kids put their verses into action already. 

And even though I love New Years, I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Eve! I'm an early to bed--early to rise kind of girl, and will actually turn into a pumpkin if I stay up too late;)! Thank goodness for friends who feel the same way! 

For several years now, we've gotten together to celebrate New Years with our sweet friends, the Robinson's! 

Most of our crew can't make it to midnight anyway, so we usually pick a country that will be ringing in the new year at 9pm and party hard with them. This year, we celebrated the arrival of 2015 with the people of Rio, Brazil!

We had so...much FUN! We played games, had a piñata, let off fireworks, enjoyed a balloon drop, and toasted the new year.
What an amazing night!

Here's to a wonderful and BLESSED 2015!
 I have no idea what the 2015 holds for my family, but I'm so thankful to know the ONE who does!

Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas morning dawned bright and early at our house. I think Corban came into our room around 4:00am that morning and said he couldn't sleep anymore. He was just too excited. We told him there was NO WAY we were waking everyone up yet, and he had to try to go back to sleep. Fortunately for him, he didn't have to try very hard because by the time 5:00am rolled around, at least four out of the five kids were wide awake and ready to celebrate CHRISTMAS!!! We had to wake a sweetly snoozing Addy-Kate, but it didn't take long for her sleepiness to wear off and soon she was bouncing around anticipating the fun ahead just like her siblings.

Like I said in my earlier post, I don't have very many pictures from Christmas day. Most of these are the "pictures of the pictures". 

Anyway, we had such a sweet morning together. 

The kids were so excited to open their presents and see all the fun things Santa brought for them.

Sophie was so excited to find that the doll she so desperately wanted was waiting for her under the tree. 

She was OVER the MOON!

But just as thrilled as she was to receive her doll, she was just as equally excited to give her gift that she made for us at school. 

It was a beautiful ornament with her sweet hand print on it. A treasure for sure.

And speaking of treasure, Hudson gave us an ADORABLE calendar.

 Each month shows off a different piece of his artwork made out of his sweet little hand print.

It's PRECIOUS!!!

After presents were opened, we sat down and enjoyed a yummy breakfast. 

We had sausage casserole, monkey bread, and fresh fruit.

We gathered around the table, put a candle in the monkey bread and sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus!"

The sweetest moment of the day, for sure!

After breakfast, the kids couldn't wait to get some of their new toys out and PLAY!

We stayed in our jammies most of the day and just enjoyed our time together. 

 Later that evening, Shane's sister and her family joined us for dinner...

and of course...more PRESENTS!

What a wonderful Christmas it was and such a special time celebrating our dear Savior's birth together!

Christmas Eve

The last few weeks have been AWESOME!!!! Our family has thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful Christmas season! We've had lots of time off from school and a nice break from just the busyness of life in general. It's been simply wonderful! Shane was home for about ten days too, so that made this time of year especially sweet.

Christmas Eve was spent with our sweet family. 

Unfortunately, I only have a few pictures of our time together because my new computer deleted all my pictures from Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day! 

It's a long story, but we've done several thorough searches, and they are indeed gone.

Really really GONE! I was so incredibly sad about it, but you know that verse in the Bible about Mary treasuring all things and pondering them in her heart? 

Yeah, well that took on a whole new meaning for me this year:/

We were able to recover a few pictures (like 4 out of the 200 I took), but the software that we used to do it wanted to charge us over $100 to save them again. UGH!

And we would have gladly paid it too, if we were able to recover more than just FOUR pictures!

We opted to just take pictures of the pictures though. Sigh.

The pictures I do have are from my family or my phone...and there aren't many. 

Oh well...

Back to Christmas Eve...

The evening began as we joined my family for the candle light service at church.

Here's Miss Sophie Lu getting her "curlies" on for Christmas Eve!

Love my girly girl!

And here is my sweet crew all ready to go!

There is something so breathtakingly beautiful about worshiping the Christ Child by candlelight.

It's such a special time to be together!

After church, we headed over to my parents house for dinner, presents and FUN!

Appetizers and desserts were on the menu for the night.

It's tradition and it's the BEST;)

We had an absolute blast! 

 Christmas is such a fun time with so many sweet little ones around! 

And, like always, precious baby Emery was the star of the show! 

I love this picture of the cousins tracking Santa.

My sister, B, gave us this book and movie about Gladys Alyward, a missionary to China;)

(And just as a side note, the kids and I are halfway through the book and they are totally LOVING it. It blesses my heart so much to see my kids get so excited about anything China related.) 

As the night came to an end, it was time to put on our 

 Christmas jammies and head home to get ready for Santa!

Once home, cookies and milk were placed in just the right spot, 

and the reindeer food was scattered through out the yard.

Finally it was time for that so called "long winters nap".

And a "nap" it was as Christmas morning dawned very VERY early in this house.

Next post...Christmas day:)