10 years...

It's been a great ride so far...looking forward to what the next 10 years bring.

Lego creations

I am thankful that Santa only brought Gavin and Liam ONE Lego set each this year. It has been a much more peaceful few days after Christmas without Lego messes everywhere. Here are the pictures of their finished Lego creations.

Harry Potter/Diagon Alley. He built the whole thing himself!

Pirates of the Caribean/the Black Pearl. Nate built this for Liam. It was little too advanced for Liam and he doesn't really have the patience to sit and build for hours. :)

Christmas 2011

Gavin begged and begged to get up at 6:00am to open presents on Christmas, but we lucked out and all the kids slept until 7:30am. It was great!! We had a great Christmas. I enjoyed being able to go to church for an hour and take the time out from all the gifts to think about Christ. Santa dumped plenty on us, so the kids have kept themselves busy while I try to dig out of our house mess.

Looking at stockings stuffers.

Opening presents.

I didn't get any pictures of our yummy Christmas dinner Nate made. We had prime rib and parsnip mash. It was delicious!

Christmas Eve 2011

As I stated in my earlier post, we had to play catch up all last week, so we didn't get to do our Gingerbread Houses until Christmas eve. We also ate some pizza with Grandma and Grandpa Hess and watched a movie. It was a nice day and evening. Here are some pictures of our day.

Ashlyn with her gingerbread house.

Decorating.

I just had to add this picture because Ashlyn expression is hilarious.

Gavin with his finished house. Nate made the cool tree.

Liam with his house.

Gavin's

Ashlyn's

Liam's

As usual the Christmas Elf brought us new pajamas.

Another pic with Gavin and his scary face. He was pretty hyper at this point so we were lucky to get one good picture. :)

Hess Family Christmas Party

We had another great Hess family Christmas party. There was tons of food, some fun games, and a great Nativity. It was nice to all be together although we missed my sister and brother-in-law who stayed in Tennessee for Christmas. Here are some pictures from the party.

Enjoying all the food.

The shepherd and Shepherdess.

My sweet angel.

The wise guys, I mean, men.

Playing games.

Eating...again.

The rest of December...

So once again I am playing catch up. We have done plenty in the last two weeks, but it all sort of got interrupted with a stomach bug going through the whole family the weekend before Christmas. Since that weekend I feel like we have been trying to catch up and be ready for Christmas. Now that Christmas is over we are finally relaxing and have been able to breath a little easier. So now for some posts to get us all caught up. First is a few pictures from our sugar cookie decorating. The kids ate more cookies than they frosted and Ashlyn kept licking the knife after frosting her cookies, but other than that it was great!!!

Gavin's Piano Recital

Gavin started piano back in September after we purchased a piano. So far he has loved it! He has done really well and had his first recital last Saturday. He was one of only a few that played all their songs memorized. We are sure proud of him!!! (and I'm proud of myself for actually posting a video. This is first for me!) :)

Liam's Christmas Program

Liam had his Kindergarten Christmas program tonight. It was short and sweet. They just sang a few traditional Christmas songs and then a few in Spanish. I had to video some of it for Nate to see since he is gone, so I only got one picture. Liam is right in the middle of the pic. The other two I took when we got home. I thought he looked cute in his Santa hat!

Christmas Time is Here Again...

So I am a little behind again with blogging. It is "the busiest season of all"! Both of our Christmas trees our up. We got most of our decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving and then we got our 'real' tree last weekend. It smells divine and makes it seem like Christmas time. The kids are constantly giddy and Ashlyn keeps asking me when Santa is going to come. :) We really just had to get through this week because Nate has been gone since Monday and flies home tomorrow (Friday). Then we have no more travel for the rest of the year! (I know that is only 3 weeks, but we'll take it!) I didn't get any really good pictures with us in front of the tree. Guess we'll have to try on Christmas Eve. Enjoy your holiday season!

The 'real' tree

The 'fake' tree.

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving this year. Nate's brother, Jordan came and also my parents. Nate did most of the cooking as usual (I married a superb cook). I only made pumpkin pies and rolls and he did the rest! Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the actual meal so you will have to take my word for it that it was delicious!! I only took a few pics that day so here are a couple.

Watching football and relaxing.

The feasting table. (wish I got a pic with all the food. There was tons!)

Liam's 6th Birthday

I realize I am behind again with my posting, but at least I'm getting to it now. We had a little celebration on Liam's birthday (the 23rd). Uncle Jordan, Aunt Shelley and Uncle Rob came up to help us celebrate. We had some football cake and then Liam opened a few presents. I think he had a great birthday and enjoyed celebrating it for days before and after the actual birth day.

The football cake.

Liam requested "real" balloons that float, not just ones we blow up, so I left that task to Nate and I think he got a little carried away. :)

Opening Presents

Our wonderful guests who made the long drive just for Liam! Thank you! (Great pic, huh!?)

Liam's Birthday Party

Liam is turning 6 years old tomorrow (23rd), but since his big day falls so close to Thanksgiving we decided to have a birthday party for him last Friday. Liam chose to have a Football themed party. We played games such as, Hot Football, who can pin the football player closest to the end-zone, how many footballs can you throw through the hoop, and we had a football training course for the kids to race on. The party ended with all the boys playing a great game of football in the basement. It was a fun party. At least that's what Liam thought! :) Here are some pics from the party. Happy 6th Birthday Liam! We love you! (pics are out of order)

Opening presents

Pin the football player. (Nate created the football stadium, I love my artistically talented husband)

The hoop to throw the football through. Ashlyn was being adventurous and hid in the bucket while the boys threw the balls through.

Liam and his friend Porter.

Getting ready for the football training course.

Playing hot football!

Start out game of Bingo!

Nate's artwork.

The goody bags.

The next few pics are of the house decorated for the party.

Football cupcakes.