Jacob's first swim meet!

Jacob started swim team in September and I was surprised to see how motivated he has been!  The coaches have them swim for an hour almost non-stop and he works his little heart out.  It's so much fun to see him in the pool because that is where I spent most of my childhood and adolescence!  I would basically live at my high school... I went to school during the day, swam for the high school team after school, and lifeguarded/taught swim lessons at night!  

So here he is at his very first meet!  Since it was in December, it was called the Candy Cane meet and they got a candy cane for each event that they swam.  Jacob did 2 relays, 25 breaststroke, 25 backstroke, and 25 freestyle.  (Thankfully, he was still 8 so he only had to swim one length!)

His very first event was a relay, which happened to be the very first event of the meet.  I could tell Jacob was SUPER nervous.  For a minute, I thought he just might not do it.  But he DID!  I think my heart was beating faster than his was!

 His first individual event 

(I was mostly taking video, so I don't have many pictures :)

 Cheering on his team for the last relay!

You make me so proud buddy!

 (AND... he happily went home with five candy canes!  ;)

Christmastime is Here!

Oh, how I LOVE the season of Christmas!!  I love all the tradition it brings.  I love seeing wonder and excitement light up on our kids' faces.  I love finding fun ways to count down to this special day.  This year, I put a slip of paper in twenty-five little stockings.  Some of them were fun traditions, some of them were new ideas, some of them were serving others!  They all are riddles that rhyme, so the boys love trying to figure out what we are doing that day.  

Ella in her Santa hat

 She says, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"  It's so cute!!

 Building legos and saying HoHoHo with Daddy!

 Ella and her sweet baby

 Casey and Ella before his Christmas program

 These programs are so stinking cute!  I love them!  The kids are hilarious and Casey was pretty animated himself.  ;)

 I found Christmas ornament Shrinky Dinks at Target!  

I remember these from when I was a little girl... so fun!

The Santa parade!

Hot chocolate with friends :)

 Making cards for some elderly people at a nursing home

 Gavin worked especially hard on his cards... he said it was because he wanted them to have the merriest Christmas!

 This year one of the dads played the guitar!  It really was the perfect touch to the sweet voices of these kiddos!

As we were passing out cards and cookies, one man said, "Who is Gavin?  I'd like to talk to him."  As Gavin shyly walked over, the man said that he noticed how hard Gavin had worked on his card and how much he appreciated that.  I'll never forget the look on Gavin's face... he was absolutely beaming.  My heart was bursting as my middle guy found out how just how much meaning and joy there is in giving.

Our Christmas Tree!

We were all so excited to go get our Christmas tree!  

Ella didn't know what we were doing, but she loved running around with her brothers...

...who had a big game of tag going on amongst the trees!

My lil' Case

Gavin!

Jakey!

We found our tree!

After Daddy cut the tree, the boys helped Daddy push it down... TIMBER!

Ella saw daddy's airplane in the sky

Me and my kiddos!!

Candy canes in the car!

Then we went home to decorate the tree!

Ella was excited to find an ornament that Grammy made for her last year.

I've never seen the boys so excited to help decorate!  Over the years they have collected quite a few ornaments with their names and couldn't wait to find a special place for each one.  :)

Daddy hanging an ornament with Ella that we bought in Russia.

Jacob put all of his ornaments up as high as they could go!

Even Sy was trying to get in the Christmas spirit!  :)