putting the presents to use!

Bean bags were our children's main gift and they are used non~stop! They even have their names embroidered on them! The boys love to stack all 4 of our bean bags and take a running leap onto our li'l trampoline and land on the tower of beans. Parker has also gotten a little adventurous and learned to do a front flip into the pile of bags! This is not my fav site but Kep assures me it's "safe" and to let my boys be "Wild Warriors" not "Nice Guys", there's a little Eldridge that I've been trained to believe! hehe!A dollhouse is much more fun when you have someone to pretend with you, so here is Savannah proudly sharing with Cousin Ella!Kit and Savannah~ I love her expression, could she be any prouder or more in love with her dolly!?! Savannah frequently changes Kit's outfits to match her own~ it's jammy time!
And, here are the two~some cuddling in for a movie!

dollhouse and more Christmas memories

Great Grandpa Hal surprised us with an extremely special dollhouse for Savannah! He built this gorgeous thing from a kit and then he added all the custom painting, wallpaper, wood flooring and baseboard trim. This is no small doing for an 88 year~old with giant hands! My goodness, I got all teary because I can only imagine how much time he spent on this for our daughter. And, Savannah loves it, to say the least!Talented Great Grandpa Hal with the new proud~owner of a dollhouse!Our boys loved having Uncle Tills home for Christmas!
Perfect ending to a sweet, sweet Christmas... cuddling with Mo~mo!

epic Christmas for Uncle Teag

Our children are so fortunate to have family that spoils them with tonz of love and plenty of gifts. Well, this year Uncle Teag wanted to go BIG for his nephews and niece, and they were completely surprised and grateful for their amazing gifts! Thanks Teag for making this a memorable and exciting Christmas!Parker and Noah had never seen such humongous LEGO boxes and they could hardly wait to put them together! I love that Teagen researched and made several visits to his nearby LEGO store in New York, to ensure he had the perfect set for each of them.This Kingdom is amazing and Parker loves every piece of it!Noah was thrilled to have all these new cars and trucks with his own garage to make repairs!Then, there's Savannah's sweet gift... she probably is one of the youngest girls to own an American Girl Doll! Teagen also spent a TON of time researching the best doll for Savannah, he read reviews and visited the AG store multiple times. Teag, she loves her Kit and we have already had so much fun changing her outfits and fixing her hair into different "dos"! We will always remember Savannah's first pronunciation of her new doll, "T-i-t"! hehe! Fortunately (but a little sad) she has learned to say K-i-t!

Christmas morning

We love Christmas time, just like any other family! Our children are always so excited to do the last activity for each of our advent traditions. It's so cute to watch them run up the stairs in anticipation of what "Santa" left behind in their stockings!
And, this year we loved having our favorite "Jesus Storybook Bible" to read the passage about the wisemen, before they could open their 3 "wisemen" gifts.Another new tradition we started this year was to have Donut King donuts for breakfast, it made for li'l prep, li'l clean~up and excited toddlers and uncles!

cousin time at Alyeska

Yay for cousin time! We got to head up to Alyeska this Christmas and start a new tradition with the Kroon cousins. It was so fun to be altogether for more than a few hours and leave all the mess at the hotel! Fun times at the pool and playing in the snow!Here's a pic of all the men taking the toddlers for a ride on the "magic carpet". It was Ella's first time on skis and she was quite the trooper, especially since it was 0 degrees~ slightly colder than her California home!Noah skiing with his Uncle Teag. He was one happy li'l guy to be showing off his new skills to his uncles and cousins!And, the princesses playing with Ella's well~loved Tinkerbell fairies, where it's warm! On super cold days like this one, I was happy to have Savannah as my excuse to hang out, with a mocha, in the lodge!!!But, Parker will not let cold temps keep him from the slopes. The "plan" was for Parker to head home with the ladies and toddlers BUT when his dad offered to let him stay, he was pumped to be with the men! I was amazed that my li'l 6 year old could go to the top of the resort and outlast all the Kroon men,he skiied until the lifts were closed! It won't be long til my boys outdo me on the slopes! Wow~ they grow up fast!

li'l momma

Savannah is a true li'l momma... she adores babies and loves to help out! She was so excited and proud to be able to feed Baby Gabi her bottle when they came over for a playdate! Now, anytime I mention a baby she questions, "Gabi, I go see Gabi?" And, just recently when we were trying to squeeze on a pair of black shoes to match her Sunday dress, I finally gave up and said we will just have to think of another li'l girl to give your shoes to... "Baby Gabi???!!!" Sure, Baby Gabi it is!!! ;o)

Savannah's personal reader!

Parker is becoming quite the little man around our house and I have to be careful not to take advantage of it too much! Savannah loves story time and at moments when I am busy making breakfast, it is very handy (and super sweet) to have Parker read her a story!

Noah's a skiing machine

Kep has been pumping Noah up for his first ski at Alyeska ski resort all Fall and Noah was more than ready to DO IT! Kep, "Popeye" and Mr. Tom gladly took a day off of work so they could make a whole day of skiing for Thomas and Noah! And, Parker benefitted as well! I could not believe that our men were taking these little guys out on a sub-zero and super windy day but Kep said all 3 of them were troopers!



They had a great time and I know there are many more sub-zero days of skiing to come!!!

WiseNOAHman

Noah, Noah, Noah! This little guy never ceases to amaze me- you just never know which personality you will get and I feel like I've been walking on eggshells for 4 years! Well getting him in a wiseman costume was no different! Let me explain...

Our church does this sweet thing of dressing the 3 year~olds in costume to set up a live Nativity up on stage while the congregation sings "Oh, Holy Night". I always love seeing the little guys up there and it just makes the song that much sweeter! So, I was looking forward to having my Noah be up on stage dressed as a wiseman BUT he was NOT sharing my same sentiments! So, for two weeks prior to the Nativity Sunday... I was prepping Noah and I was seriously considering giving up- which is a BIG achievement for myself!!! But, the night before Noah realized it would be fun to be a wiseman! Go figure! So, on the way to church... we jammed to Go Fish's version of "We Three Kings" and Noah cheerfully marched on down to his classroom and willingly put on his costume! I'm thinking, "what in the world is going on... and who is this boy!?!" So, here he is in a blue (because blue is his fav color!) wiseman costume!

But, the poor li'l guy was not prepped for the rest of his wiseman mission, I purposefully did not tell him that he would need to stand in front of the whole congregation! So, when the gym doors opened and his class started walking forward, Noah inched backwards only for his awesome teacher, Miss Tammy, to grab his hand and coax him down the aisle. Sweet Miss Tammy carried Noah up onto the stage and hid with him behind the other brave 3-year olds!

Oh Noah- my little dream of seeing you up on stage did not turn out the way I had hoped but it made me wonder... when will your silly and adorable personality be revealed to everyone else! I often think about my kids' futures and wonder how they will shine to others. And, I'm very slowly realizing that all I can do right now is be patient (not my forte), encourage the socks off of them (I need to focus on thier positive, more) and pray that God will direct them down their perfect paths!

So, all that to say... you were a very cute wiseman and I am thankful that you were a quiet wiseman! I love you! ;o)

more Christmas randomness

We had so much fun watching these 2 little guys one night and our kids thought it was so fun to fall asleep (well, some fell asleep!) next to our tree!
Our 3 kids are like any others... they love to be crafty! So, I have been trying to do one or two crafts with them each week! It's fun to have them all be independent crafters!!!

We are so thankful our kids have such loving grandparents... Great Grandma Elmer was so excited to have them over to frost her butter cookies! We are blessed!