Brooks' Birthday Bash

We were joined by many of our family members to celebrate Brooks turning 1 the week before Christmas. 

He enjoyed opening presents, smiling at everyone while they sang "Happy Birthday," and of course he devoured his birthday cake!

Christmas Cookie kind of weekend

Our snow is melted and gone...and we are all disappointed.

This family loves snow and we want some more!!!

Anyway...we still are in the Christmas spirit and have been busy preparing. 

Wrapping gifts, making candy, and of course baking cookies.

On Saturday the kids and I drove to Sheldon to help the rest of the Van Beek family decorate sugar cookies.

It was a mess but very delicious and so much fun!

We also decorated our own sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies back at our house.

Our kids probably ate the equivalent of 1 can of frosting each this weekend!

 
Marie took her time and did such a good job decorating cookies a different way each time.

 Some cookies had more frosting and sprinkles than others. 

I'm confident that Bennett frosted 1 cookie and ate said cookie...then just proceeded to eat frosting and sprinkles.

 Brooks ate frosting and shared with the dogs.

Marie's Christmas Program

Marie participated in her first Christmas program with her school this year...she even had a solo!

Somehow Marie and her 2 best friends were chosen to each have a little time with the microphone during one of their songs. She was thrilled with the opportunity and did a great job!

After the program, we grabbed some ice cream with Aunt Keri, Grandma Nel, Papa, and Grammy.

Visiting Santa

We lucked out this year because the big guy visited a Christmas party we were invited to last week.

Bennett and Marie were the first ones in line to share with Santa all their hopes and dreams for Christmas. 

Bennett requested a Hulk toy and Marie would like a jewel necklace. 

Brooks was a bit suspicious but tolerated the tradition (his 2nd time already in his little life) just the same. 

snowed in

Our Thanksgiving break was extended due to a big snowstorm which cancelled school!

I have to admit, I was excited for another big storm. 

We decided to spend the morning swimming at the Y before it got too bad outside to drive.

The kids and I played in the snow, made cookies, and even made a felt Christmas tree for Brooks to play with...however he still prefers the real thing.

Van Beek Thanksgiving

We all gathered at my mom's house on Saturday for another Thanksgiving feast. 

As I write this, that day seems even more meaningful as she has had a rough day today. 

There was a fire in her attic this morning. She is safe and the house will be fine, but it was very scary and upsetting nonetheless. It is just a house, but the memories in that house are worth so much to us all.

Mueting Thanksgiving

Disclaimer...I got a new camera for an early Christmas present and I now have a problem...picture taking overload!  I am making up for lost time I guess. 

This Thanksgiving, Andy was on call for part of it so we had not 1, not 2, but 3 Thanksgiving celebrations!  

Thursday night we hosted for a soup and sandwich dinner with plenty of fun. 

We played Minute to Win It games and they were a hit! Both the kids and adults really enjoyed the activity!

 Lots of laughing and awkward moments for everyone who played along! 

 On Friday we enjoyed turkey with all the trimmings in Spencer. Our kids absolutely adore their aunts and uncles and we had a nice day of just playing and spending time together.

 One really special event was finding out that Liz and Andrew's twins are a boy and girl!!!!

We were all so excited to hear the news!!!!