Christmas 2011

We had such a great Christmas this year! The kids were at such fun ages! They enjoyed and were so excited about all the gifts, but they aren't at that greedy, want, want stage (yet).

Abigail was so much fun this year. It was just such a blessing to be able to celebrate the birth of Jesus with her. We talked about Jesus and His birth all month long. It was so good for me to celebrate Him with a child-like faith.

Christmas Eve Eve went spent the day/evening with my Gudeman family.

For some reason this year Abigail, to thank her cousins for the gifts she received from them, would start with a gentle hug but end up pushing them to the ground for some good, old fashioned wrestling. We've always known wrestling was going to be a part of our Gudeman get-togethers (with 3 boys all within 6 months of each other). However, I didn't expect the wrestling to begin with the girls!

Finally something my size!

Why in the world we try to get these poor boys to pose together in pictures is beyond me...lol ;)

Christmas day this year was spent with the Sprungers in Bluffton.

Jackson hanging with Grandpa

Though Jackson looks less than impressed, he really did like his gift. :) Thanks, Sammy!

Abigail and "Luc"

And more wrestling...

We spent the night in Bluffton then had one more Christmas in Francesville with my extended Gudeman family. I have to say though it was a lovely evening, my kids were done. We managed to squeak out of there without too much catastrophe, but we definitely made a lot of noise! :)

The morning after we arrived home and were settled a bit we awoke to this beautiful sight...a White Christmas. :)

Christmas Program

Abigail did wonderful performing in her preschool Christmas program. This was the first "program" she has performed in, and I was so proud of her. She had quite the audience to watch her! Grandpa and Grandma Sprunger, Grandma Gudeman, Braylyn, Morgan, and of course, John, Jackson and I were all in attendance. I could tell when she first got on stage that she was a bit nervous, but she gutted through the nerves and sang perfectly. It was so much fun.

I was there early to save good seats. This was during practice. 

Her class was getting ready to go on stage!

Standing perfectly still...

Getting warmer...

"We wish you a Merry Christmas!"

AWANA and BSF

Abigail gets a heavy dose of godly teaching between Wednesday-Friday. She has preschool Wednesday and Friday mornings. Wednesday evenings she has AWANA, and Thursday mornings she has BSF. It's such a blessing - she is learning so much.

Today after BSF we brought Morgan home with us. Braylyn and Lincoln both had doctor appointments, and we were thrilled to have Morgan come play. Both Abigail and Jackson loved it!

Last night at AWANA Abigail learned about Joseph. 

Abigail and Morgan doing Abigail's favorite activity - dress up! What beautiful princesses!

Even poor Jackson was "strongly encouraged" to partake. :)

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend! It was a jam packed schedule, but the kids did GREAT overall. By the end we started to fall apart (the kids and me!), but they really did impressively well. We started in Francesville (Thanksgiving day), then traveled to Bluffton (Friday), then to Indy (Saturday) to cheer on Bishop Chatard football at state, and finally home Saturday night.

In an attempt to get the boys to smile - Cara brought out "props" and stood, acting silly, behind the camera to provoke good smiles. However, instead of provoking smiles - she just created weird and confused looks. It was so funny. :)

1st Birthday

We celebrated Tuckers first birthday. It was a fun party - we all sported our favorite teams' apparel. Jackson had a blast playing with Tuckers new toys!

November

My intention with our family blog was NOT to post a monthly post. However, here lately, that's what it's become - sadly enough. I've been thinking a lot about my life and the business of it. I'm naturally a busy-body, and sadly, this means that the times of reflection get shoved out of the too packed schedule. This is something I am forever wanting to change...

Late October, early November I went to work with John again to help out with some employee turnover, cover for a maternity leave, and help with some of the overflow pile that was getting far too large for John to manage. One way in which this experience was a blessing was it made me soooo grateful that this is not typical for us! I don't know how working moms do it quite frankly. It's ridiculously hard. I didn't feel like I was doing anything well, and I was forever feeling guilty - was always sacrificing something. Also, what it taught me was no matter how much I loved or love my job working with John (I really do love that job - the role and the work is just so fun for me), I'm thankful I get to be home with my kiddos.

Now - you readers of our Sprunger blog - you mind me of this when I am entrenched in the long, winter months (Jan, Feb, Mar) - stuck at home with sick kids day in and day out. :) You remind me of how thankful I am to be home, ok? :)

Bathed and ready for bed!

Prepping for her very first hair cut!  We finally did it! I finally worked up the nerve to trim her hair. It was pretty much necessary for as tangley as it was getting.

Trying to figure out "what is going on!?"

First birthday cake picture you may think? Nope - just enjoying some banana, chocolate chip bars (made with whole wheat, cauliflower, lots of bananas and low fat - oh and chocolate chips :))

October

We are just loving this weather in the Sprunger family! We've been eating outside for dinner every chance we get. We've been trying to savor every last morsel of this warmth. It certainly does not seem like it's October that's for sure. I can't believe it's the 11th already!

I feel like we are in the swing of our fall schedule pretty well with BSF, preschool, work, etc. etc. We are struggling a little bit keeping up with AWANA. It's a late night for the kiddos (especially Jackson!). I can't come up with a good system for getting Abigail there but being able to get Jackson to bed in decent time. Plus, he's been plagued with viruses lately! It's been a bit of a tough fall for us as far as sickness goes (and I've been the sick one at times too!). Crazy! Hopefully we can get it out of our system now and then remain healthy through the winter (hah!). :)

One of the very few Saturdays we were home. It was a lovely, lazy morning for us. When I finally managed to get the kids changed out of their pjs (and myself as well!), I happened to glance at the clock at it was 10:45! It was awesome! :) 

The kids and I enjoying dinner outside. I think I'll take that look as a, "Good dinner, Mom!"

Or as Abigail says when I make something she likes, "Mmmm...Mom, you're a good cooker!" Music to my ears. :)