January

Sean started walking at the very beginning of the year.  Here he is, after only one week of walking.  He was really wobbly for the whole first month or so, but now he's a pro!  I can't get a video to upload, so I'll try again later.

For the last 9 months or so, we've been involved in a babysitting co-op.  It is the best thing ever!!!!  Every Friday we take our kids to one of 5 family's houses.  They spend the evening there playing, having snacks, and watching movies while John and I get to go on a date.  Then every 5 weeks it's our turn to babysit.  There can be up to 18 kids including our own, but it is so worth it every other Friday when we can go out and spend quality time together! 

This is John and some of the kids on our babysitting night.

Erin loves to take pictures, especially of Sean!  They had a great time taking these ones together. 

Also in January, Devin's Chinese class put on a program for the Chinese New Year.  It was really fun to see the kids sing and recite in Chinese! 

They made these Dragons for the occasion.

December '11

December brought Christmas programs, parties, and preparations.  Erin was in 2 programs at the school.  She was part of the Christmas choir, and she learned to play the recorder with the rest of the 4th grade. It's great to see kids involved!

John's work had a Christmas party at a fun bowling center this year!  They rented the whole place out for the evening and had bowling, unlimited laser tag and plenty of video arcading included!

The kids loved the bowling, but their favorite was the laser tag! (No pictures of that.)

There was also a very nice Christmas Dinner and lots of cash prizes!!!  John got to give out cash for a while too since he was on the party planning committee.

Christmas was very nice this year!  We had a quite Christmas eve at home with a turkey dinner. 

Then in the morning we opened part of our presents, went to church and then came back again for more presents! 

My favorite part of Christmas this year was the kids' gifts for each other.  I took them shopping at the dollar store and they bought presents for everyone with their own money.  They were more excited about those presents than they were for the ones from Santa!

Christmas afternoon we drove down to Mom and Dad's house. We saw all 3 of my brothers and their families.  And we found out that my youngest brother Richard and his wife Callie are expecting a baby!!! How exciting!!!  Congratulations guys!  We stayed the whole week there at Grandma and grandpa's house and had a great time. 

We spent New Years eve there too.  We celebrated New York style! We let the boys stay up until 10:00 when the ball dropped in NY, and the they went to bed.  Erin got to stay up later with the adults.  We played games, ate great food and had a great celebration!!! 

Christmas

Here it is half way through January and I'm finally getting around to writing about Christmas. It was a great one! We went to my Mom and Dad's house along with all three of my brothers and their wives! With the missionaries that are now living in my parents' basement, we had a full house! Christmas morning was exciting, and chaotic! Imagine 12 adults and 4 kids all ripping into their gifts at once! This is the kids before they saw what Santa brought. This is after.

This is what Christmas for 16 people looks like!

The kids were so excited! Some of their reactions were priceless! Here are some of my favorite that I actually caught on camera.

John got a little jewelry box, and when he opened it up it had a picture of a treadmill in our basement! He's wanted his own treadmill for ages now! It was good for him to finally get one.

We got Ryan and Jocelyn's names for Christmas this year and it was awesome to see they loved what we got them!Thanks Mom and Dad for a great Christmas!

After Christmas weekend, John went back to work, but the kids and I stayed for the week. On one of those days, Grandma taught Erin to sew! She made a baby blanket. It's pretty cute! She was so excited! That's been a big thing lately: "Mom will you teach me to knit?" "Mom will you teach me to sew?" "Mom will you teach me to crochet?" She wants to do it all! Thanks Grandma.

Well, we had a great New Years too. John came back to Mom and Dads and the Moons came too! On new Years Day, we all decided to go sledding. What an adventure!

Devin took to it like a fish to water.

I love this little thumbs up he gives everyone on the hill.

Colin liked it, but not the snow spray he would get in his face at the end. Erin was so excited to go, but after a few short runs decided that she was tired. She stayed up until 12:00 for her first time the night before, and it wiped her out. She was brave enough to take on the really steep hill though!!!

When she hit the bush at the end, she was done sledding for the day. She had a great time hanging out with her cousin Jana though.

Mom was not interested in sledding at all. She wasn't feeling that great, and she just wanted to watch everyone else, but we talked her into going just once. Well, I hope she doesn't kill me, but I couldn't help but post it! It was good to see her dive in and have fun with us.

What a fun day of sledding! We had a blast!