January 30, 2010
Sam's 3rd Birthday Party

Diego Cake - the orange frosting was much more
difficult to make than I had thought it would be.

Mater the Greater set from his aunts and uncles and cousins

Diego Adventure Doll from Grandma and Grandpa

What he really wanted - Geo Trax Airport

Blowing out the candles

January 25, 2010

Happy Birthday Sam!
3 years old already

Foldable fire and rescue matchbox car set.
We figured this would be great to keep in the trailer this summer.

Sam kept asking for Diego toys whenever we would walk through the toys department.
His wish finally came true.

He'll have to wait until his birthday party to get his birthday cake.
For today - it's a candle-topped brownie.

January 10, 2010

Kamikaze Sam (as Aunt Catherine likes to call him) strikes again.
This time we escaped stitches but barely.

First - a few days ago he bumped his left eye leaving it nicely bruised. Then he was at Lowe's with Paul and hit his right eye on a metal shelf and split it right open. I was able to pull it back together with some steri-strips and it appears that it will heal up OK.

Apparently, we can't take him anywhere.

January 6, 2010

Once again a crazy kid. You never quite know what Sam will be up to on any given day.
On this particular morning, Sam spent the entire morning walking around the house in his pajamas, his winter hat, and his scarf. When will this child cease to amaze me?

January 3, 2010

Since Gabrielle has been learning how to read,
she if very quick to climb up into Paul's chair with a stack of books and read to Sam.
It doesn't mean every word is correct, but she sure enjoys doing it.
I figure the more she tries, the better she'll get
and she definately isn't getting any complaints out of Sam.

December 31, 2009

My parents have been coming out to our house for New Year's Eve and spending the night the past couple of years. It has sort of become a take off of spending every New Year's Eve with my grandparents when I was growing up.

This year, they brought my grandpa's old carom board.
The kids really enjoyed learning how to play this new game,
and it was a bit fun trying to remember all of the rules.

December 28, 2009

Sam decided today was the day to be Woody from Toy Story.
Don't you love the pink cowboy boots?

December 26, 2009
Koorndyk Christmas

As tradition holds, we get together with my extended family sometime over the holidays. We have outgrown everyone's homes, so we have been meeting at a church. This has been wonderful as it gives the kids the ability to run around and be kids. My best guess is that there were 21 kids under the age of 10. This year they had a great time on the floor scooters.

Even Matthew had to get in on the action.

Aunt Barb has double trouble - Joshua and Eli!

Owen caught taking a break - what a cutie.

A little brother/sister bonding time.

Getting ready for the longest train of the day.

Who can resist that face?

Gabrielle gets a great ride from Papa!

December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas

We had a busy day on Christmas, like many other people.
We started opening a couple remaining gifts at home and then we went to
Aunt Melissa's house to celebrate with the Van Wesep side of the family.

Allison cuddles with Papa before lunch.

Gabrielle opens her present with Aunt Melissa

Allison thanks Uncle Bob for her Christmas money

Sam says thank you too.
Uncle Bob was constantly asking which one was "Samuel Robert".
I think he really loves having a name sake.

After lunch with the Van Weseps, we headed over to my parents house to celebrate again
with the Hager side of the family. We had already done our big Christmas last weekend.
On Christmas day, we have a light supper and exchange the gifts that the cousins bought for
each other after drawing names.

Aiden absolutely LOVES Allison's braids.
He would grab them and just squeal with delight.

The girls showing Aiden how Grandma's bear works.

Opening presents....

....and saying thank you

Van Wesep Christmas

We like to spread out our gift opening for Christmas every year. We usually open one or two presents at a time and then the kids are given the opportunity to play for a while before we open any more. It helps Christmas feel like it lasts longer and at the same time doesn't seem like such a mad house.

This year, we really spread things out. We opened stocking on the 23rd. One or two presents Christmas Eve morning, one in the afternoon, one before bed, and then again Christmas morning.

I took a lot of pictures - but mostly video.
So - here are a few shots of the kids enjoying the holiday

Opening stockings

The tree - when the kids woke up on the 24th.

December 19, 2009
Hager Christmas

This year, Christmas was at Shawn and Erin's house. We did a breakfast themed, pajama party. Although, I was originally a little apprehensive about wearing my PJs all night, it turned out to be a wonderfully fun evening that was very relaxed and laid back - exactly what they wanted.

Apparently, Sam didn't like the new Elmo toy he got as much as I thought he would, because he kept taking Owen's jack hammer to his new friend.

Gabrielle's new doll

Allison's new doll

Apparently, Nicholas really liked opening this present.

This is one of those - "going to show up at the High School Graduation Party" pictures - that our kids will be embarressed about in the future. Tradition is that Grandma buys the kids new PJs for Christmas. Well, the minute they all had their's opened - they stripped right down to change their clothes.

Group Picture in their new jammies.

December 17, 2009
Christmas Parties

Nicholas' class combined their Christmas party with a good-bye party for their student teacher - Mr. Zeitlow.

Gabrielle opens her gift bag.