New Year's Eve...........

We had family over for New Year's Eve this year. We played games and had a good time. We were given a new game for Christmas that the kids just loved so we played that with everyone. PIE FACE!

 Spin the wheel and then click the handle that many times you spun. You might get pie in the face or you may not. If not, it's the next person's turn. The anticipation is KILLER!

 Lots of food and dancing. Hats and beads. Pj's and posing. It was a party! It was a fun night!

 The countdown with the bubbly.....A toast and a cheer 

to bring in the New Year! 2016!

Christmas with the Cromwell's

We literally packed up Santa's sleigh and took it to Preston with us to spend Christmas with the Cromwell side of the family this year. . The chaos, the mess, the noise, the happiness, and joy, family and memories we make are well worth it!

Christmas Eve is the wonderful dinner with a little program and then pj's are presented. Sherry and Phil put on a lovely song and dance number for us that will go down in the history books!

Christmas morning is always crazy. This year we had the twins with us and I don't think they have  experienced anything quite like that. We also brought up the presents my mom and dad would have given us at their house so we had a ton of stuff to open but the kids had a blast. The twins were a bit overwhelmed and really didn't know what to do at first after a few presents they got the hang of it.

 Julia was happy to get her footie pj's, some new lotion, and her very own Star Wars bedspread. She was a bit jealous when she saw Christian's.

Christian got a lot of Star Wars action figures, some nerf guns, a new scooter and they kids both got new roller skates that they wanted. Its so fun to watch them on Christmas morning. Just the joy and happiness that you see on their faces. I love Christmas time and seeing family and just the traditions we have and renew each year. Merry Christmas.

Christmas Outfits.........

All the kids and their Christmas outfits. I saw the blue dress for Julia first and loved it. Not the traditional color but still pretty and she loves blue. Then I found Christians outfit a little later and thought that would go perfect with Julia's so they looked so cute together. The twins look stylin in their new shirts. And they are doing better with their smiles.

Update on the twins:
Longer unsupervised visits have been granted to dad. And the twins were able to have their first overnight last weekend and just had another overnight and have Christmas with dad on  Monday and Tuesday. Since dad has had stable housing for a month and is following the courts directive along with DCFS they are allowing the boys to go home New Year's. So that is good news. The boys are doing well and have improved so much under our care. We know it's best for them to be reunited with their family. We just hope they can continue to improve and get the help they need to overcome the difficulties they will continue to face in the future. It's been a long, hard road, a lot harder than we expected with these 2 but we know that while they have been here we did our best and they were loved and cared for.

Picture of the Day..........

Layne has a few 'jimmy caps' and decided to share one day...........

Christmas Spirit...........

We all have the photo's we look back on as kids and go "What in the world........?" Well, here it is........the things we make our kids do!

The Big 5.....

Christian is 5! He was so excited about his birthday this year. He kept asking and asking how many more days is it until my birthday. I said we had to wait until after gma Mott's bday and then Jane's bday and then it will be your bday! But he still kept asking.

Started off the day right with powdered donuts and Fruit Loops.....like he needs a sugar rush with all his energy! Anyway........He wanted both Lego's and a Star Wars themed party this year. Again, the kids are obsessed with Star Wars right now and Christian is all about Lego's. He discovered them at gma Mott's house. She has some old Lego's lying around and he just pulled them out one day and just went to town and that's all he has talked about for weeks.
So I did my best to accommodate!! Dark Vadar pj's and slippers to start off.  He also got a big box of Lego's, I think his face says it all! He is holding over his head a new Star Wars bed spread...he was pretty excited about that too. The shirt he is wearing is new so he could wear it to school. He was pretty excited to bring a birthday treat to school and have the kids help celebrate his birthday with him at school too! He got a few other things to but I believe it was all Lego or Star Wars related.

 A Lego Cake!

ABOUT CHRISTIAN:

He loves the color red and blue

He still likes chocolate milk and peanut butter and jelly

Christian likes going to pre school because of his friends

He is really good at writing his name and he knows all of his letters and the sounds they make...he is pretty proud of that

He considers himself an UNO master

Christian still keeps us on our toes. He is a high octane ball of energy! From sun up to sun down.

His favorite things right now are Lego's and anything Star Wars. He likes Dark(Darth) Vadar as he calls him and Luke the best

He is very creative when he builds with Lego's or draws, he comes up with he own masterpieces. He can look at the directions himself and put something together with little help

His teacher at school says he is really well behaved and is very quiet and very rarely talks "Is he like that at home too?" If she only knew!

He loves to be outside and play

He loves to pretend he is a Ninja.........he is very sneaky

We love Christian and all his energy and creativity. He is funny and makes us laugh. He is stubborn and wants to do things his way and when he wants to do it. He is a risk taker and all boy! We are so happy he is a part of our family, it wouldn't be the same without him! Happy 5th Birthday buddy!