holiday fun

Thanksgiving started on Wednesday at our house, according to Jennifer anyway. The girls and I did a little baking to get ready for the busy days that were ahead. We made some Red Velvet Cookies and the girls looked pretty gross after licking the beaters. But they thought it was great, especially Mikayla. ( As you can see Jennifer cannot be left out!)

 We spent Thursday with Bill's family, sorry no pictures, not sure why, I'm going to blame it on that there were a lot of kids, and they were just too busy to take any pictures! Friday we were off to celebrate Thanksgiving and an early Christmas with my family. Jennifer loves spending time with her family, especially her cousins. 

 The girls were very excited to get in a little swimming over Thanksgiving break. If you ask Jennifer about what she did over Thanksgiving she is quick to tell you she went to a hotel and went swimming. 

 Papa even went swimming with us!

 Braving the cold to look at the pretty Christmas lights on the house.

 The great-grand kids showing off their new Hawkeye shirts. They were all pretty excited about their new shirts, well Mikayla wasn't as thrilled as the other three but they all look pretty cute.

 Jennifer was loving Molly this weekend. She would not leave her side, in fact I'm sure she would have gone home with Brandon and Molly, we kind of had to talk into coming home with us.

 And as always a family picture before the weekend is over.

 And after a fun filled few days spending time with family it was back home. And it was time to get out the Christmas decorations. Jennifer was very excited, I think if she had to she would have brought up each branch for the tree one at time from the basement. Lucky for her, her dad was just as excited and helped a little bit.

the final pictures

A few days ago we had photo session number two at our house. And I am happy to say that it went much better than the first! We finally got some good pictures of the girls. So here is the finish product. Not to brag or anything but these are some cute kids! 

I have to say I "love" this (no pun intended)! Now to be a little sappy and share my heart a little bit... I love to look at these four faces, seriously love these four kids to pieces. November is National Adoption Awareness Month and I do believe today is recognized as National Adoption Day. Those facts kind of make me smile all the more when I look at these pictures. Without adoption only the girl holding the L would be in the this post. And because of that sweet girl holding the L the sweet girl holding the E is there to finish the word. And without adoption those handsome boys holding the O and the V would not be there to make the middle of the word complete. I love how uniquely God has formed our family! Without adoption the word LOVE, for our family, would not be complete!

say cheese?

Sunday after church we tried taking the girls' pictures. We are going to give my grandparents a frame with the kids pictures in it for Christmas (never fear they don't have a computer so they won't see this!). We are going to spell the word LOVE, which is why the girls are holding letters, my nephews will be holding the other letters. So... not really sure that any of these are frame worthy, we may have to try again...

Jennifer started out not to be bad...

Mikayla on the other hand was in prime form! She would not sit or stand still for anything. This picture makes me laugh because the flash was being funny so the picture sort of looks like it is from the 80's. 

And here is the smile we get from Mikayla right now when she sees the camera. 

Just checking to make sure Jennifer sees her being silly!

Of course they both think they need their picture together, notice Mikayla's little arm around Jennifer's waist, she worked really hard to make sure her arm was around Jennifer!            

 So we could have gotten a few of Jennifer's pictures to work but she wouldn't hold up her letter and those darn glasses glare sometimes!

         And then we have to make a funny face!                                  

  Not to be out done by her sister!

And then there was this face...

Mikayla did end on a good note, she actually looks really cute in these last two pictures. If she would have held her letter up and my arm was not in the pictre! 

Or if she had not completely covered the letter up.

Looks like we will be back to the drawing board for cute pictures for the gift! I'm hoping Ben & Conner did a little better for their parents!