Reading.

Nathan has always been a pretty quick learner. At 20 months I remember him singing his ABC's and telling me the numbers and letters on licence plates as we were driving in the car. When he was 3 he knew the sounds that the letters make and how to spell common, simple words like his name or cat, dog, etc. So, just before he turned 4, we decided he was ready to learn how to read. A friend recommended this book:

We set some goals, and would do 2-4 lessons a week. This decemeber he was getting towards the end of the book, so we set a goal to finish before the end of the year. The prize: movie night with his cousins (Nathan loves most anything on t.v., and a full-length movie is pretty much the biggest motivator for him). On December 30 he completed lesson 100! He is now an excellent reader and can read almost anything it seems. Teaching him and watching him learn has been one of my biggest joys of parenting so far. What a blessing to be a part of...we're so proud of him!

As promised, movie night followed. Nathan's choice, Toy Story 3.

baby bears.

All year round, but especially in the winter, the kids love to play a game invented years ago by Matt and Nathan. The game is called Bears...or Baby Birds, or Koalas, or Tigers, or Skunks...you get the idea. It involves pretending like you are whatever fore said animal and then either taking apart the couch to build your cave, or hiding under the covers of my bed, which too is a cave. This year it's taken a twist and usually whomever is not participating between Matt and myself becomes the enemy of the animal. (for example, while playing skunks the other day, I was a coyote). In the summer, I would usually encourage some outside play instead since this does make a slight mess of the house, but it's a good way to pass the time in the winter. It also involves lots of snuggling, a favorite of everyones:)

Here is Nathan and Ella peeking out of a fort they created from the couch. I believe this time they were baby bears, eagerly waiting for some berries or looking out for a hunter of course.

Wii New Year Celebration.

For New Year's Eve, we decided to brave it and head over to the Kearns'. It was cold and snowy all day, but by dinner time it was just really cold (our car thermometer said -6). We had lots of yummy, bad-for-you goodies, but then danced it off while playing "Just Dance" on their Wii. Matt even danced to 2 songs (one by the Beastie Boys, and one by Katy Perry:)

The kids were entertained later by watching a movie. They all have a blank stare because we started the movie at 9:30. Usually they would have been in bed for an hour already!

Amy got festive for a little while.

Nathan also learned a new game...Ants in my Pants!

Addie went to bed at about 9:30 but the rest of the house, including Micah, stayed up until midnight. Our family did the countdown with our coats on, ready to leave at 12:05. This is what Ella looked like at midnight. Here eyes were open during the countdown, but not about 10 seconds later.

Here's a video of the kids dancing to a Michael Jackson song on the Wii. It's bizarre but cousin Mayah is infatuated with MJ, so she picked this song. This also highlights Addie's newest accomplishment: walking!

Thankfully everyone (including Matt & I) slept in the next day! We had a lazy morning and even made homemade doughnuts for breakfast...yummm!

Christmas with the Widmans.

My dad's extended family always celebrates on Christmas Eve. Since this is often the only time we all get together all year (though most are in SD, and I think all are in the midwest), it's always a "must attend" event. In the past few years, there's been a slight baby boom, so we've resorted to celebrating at a church, or this year's venue: the American Legion in De Smet. Here's a grouping of the 2nd cousins hanging out. If you count there are 8, and I think that this is about half of the actual total!

Here's Ella and her cousin Kendon. Ella stayed attached to the chocolate-covered dried blueberries from Harry & David most afternoon...she loves blueberries, and it doesn't hurt when they are covered in chocolate with a candy shell!

Nathan, Ella, and Mayah loved to play restaurant at the counter. They would "write down" your order and then hand you a raffle ticket.

Following a delicious lunch, lots of snacks, and a gift exchange, our family went to church in De Smet. Nathan was very proud that he got to hold his own candle during the singing of Silent Night. Ella "helped" my mom hold hers, and I did all I could to keep Addie away from mine!

Following church, we went to my parents to celebrate. All of my sisters and their families were able to make it this year.

Here's a group shot of the gang. This is kind of how photos go when trying to get everyone. Mayah's showing her undies, Katlyn is anti-conformity and refusing to smile... poor Micah got put in the corner. My children are of course sitting perfectly well:)

Micah, Ella, Braden, Mayah, Katlyn, Nathan, Adeline, and Kendon

After trying to photograph 8 kids, 3 should be easy right?

This was the best I got!

Ella.

Here's Adeline on a rocking horse she got from cousin Mayah. This picture shows a small glimpse of the maddness that occurs on Christmas. Lots of people, lots of presents, lots of food...but I must say that it is organized chaos. All of the childrend did a good job of waiting their turn and saying thank you (though usually after prompting).

Christmas morning the children woke up and got to open up 1 more present, from Santa. We've tried teaching Nathan about Saint Nicholas and that Santa is just something we do for fun, but he still believes that he's real, and will usually ask a question like, "but, what about the reindeerr?" It probably doesn't help that my mom gets them gifts from Santa and everyone else tells him that he's real. We're not too concerned about it though.
After breakfast we got ready and did our big trip to the Cities. We are all pretty sandwhiched in and filled to the brim with suitcases and presents. None the less, the kids are all troopers in the car. Usually it's just Adeline that might need a little extra attention to stay happy.

We had a great Christmas in the Cities with the Thompsons. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted soon. (we fogot the camera in the car, so are just waiting to get some pictures from Angie).

Baby Micah.

Before Christmas, on December 20, my twin sister Amy had her second baby, a sweet little boy! He is a little blessing and we love our newest nephew/cousin.

Micah Emmanuel Kearns

8 lbs 5 oz

21"

I love the little baby burrito!

Amy is looking great and doing well...though she is greatly looking forward to the day when he will not be awake ALL night and she can get some sleep.

Our Family Christmas.

We celebrated our family Christmas on December 23-before the business of travel and extended family activities. During the day, Nathan, Ella, and I decorated some gingerbread cookies (taken out of the freezer from Baking Extravaganza). They had different requests for each one...happy, sad, silly, crazy, etc.

Here they are with our little Gingerbread Family. After the cookies were decorated, it was on to dinner. Since the kids are little, and this is a birthday party after all, we decided to make homemade pizza (with Root Beer of course).

Ella also got her haircut this day (her second). I said I wouldn't do it, but she's got bangs!

We then let the kids open their gifts from us-we definitely kept it on a small scale since we knew they would be getting lots of gifts from their grandparents. Their joy, however, was still was big. They were all fun to watch, but everytime after Ella opened a gift, she would exclaim, "It's what I always wanted...Thank you, thank you...I need to give you a hug!". Here she is giving me a hug after opening something, I think it was either a box of fruit snacks or CandyLand. It made giving gifts a lot of fun!

The "big" gift of the night was a sled. Though Nathan has a sled of his own, Matt thought we should be a 2-sled family. He has big plans for our yard. Hopefully soon they'll get to take it for a test drive in the snow, instead of just through the living room!

Baking Extravaganza!

Last week was Christmas Baking Extravaganza...2 adults, 4 kids, 5 1/2 hours of baking, and 10 different types of goodies!

Unfortunately the day started out with a sprinkle spill...my kids know how to clean them up, though it eventually got a little out of hand and had to be put to a stop.

In general, the kids were more about playing in the basement then baking, but certain jobs were worthy of their time. For example, here is Ella making peanut butter balls.

Auntie Amy and the kids mixing up something. It's subtle, but if you look at Nathan, you'll notice that his hand is in the jar of brown sugar.

"Gingerbread boys" or "Gingermen" as Ella calls them, ready to go in the oven.

Here's a display of some of the tasty treats!

The puppy chow and the caramel puffcorn didn't last long, but at least I had the sense of mind to put all the cookies in the freezer (and send a big plate with Matt to work).