Christmas

Christmas was very bittersweet this year. We had a wonderful season - we made such wonderful memories celebrating - Jesus, family, etc. However, in that same season we lost our sweet, dear sister and Aunt Marie. She was relieved of such suffering. We are so thankful she is experiencing such sweet fellowship with our Lord in heaven. But she is missed dearly here on earth. 

Decorating cookies

Abigail's Christmas program at school. She did great! :)

Extended Gudeman Christmas at U. Mike & A. Donna's

Christmas at M&D's

Sleeping bags and sleep wear for their American Dolls. 

This year my parents gave the boys riding trackers with wagons. Oh my goodness - what a huge hit!!!!

It was a little crazy in the garage as all the boys were trying to learn to drive the tractors in such a small space. :)

U. John playing the Frozen soundtrack for the kids. 

Christmas Morning! :)

We all staying in our Christmas pjs nearly the entire day. It was awesome! :)

Jackson and Lila

Grace had Jackson's name.

Thank you, Lila!

Grandpa gave all the kids $20 for singing…pretty easy $ I'll say!

American Dolls

This year for Christmas my mom took the girls to the American Doll store in Chicago to pick out their look alike American Doll. It was such an awesome day full of such sweet, amazing memories. We had so much fun. It was a day we will cherish for many years to come. 

Abigail with her doll, Nicole.

We had lunch in the tea room - oh my goodness - what an experience.

I think this look is "Mom, I'm hungry and tired." :)

Our Sweet Pilgrim

Abigail's class dressed up as pilgrim's for their Thanksgiving feast at school. So sweet.

Birthday

This is awful, but I just realized I never got Jackson's birthday party posted! August was a NUTTY month - moving and all really did us in! I say that as I'm looking at some boxes that still need unpacking - ugh.

So Jackson is crazy about Purdue - especially Purdue Pete. In fact, this past Sunday his Sunday school teachers told John that the only song Jackson wanted to sing in SS was the Purdue fight song (by the way - he knows the entire song by heart, along with the National Anthem, God Bless America, and any other song that might be played at a PU game). Ahem...needless to say, we had a talk about this little "obsession"...

All that to say, this year the party theme was a no-brainer. It was so much fun.

Here he is doing Purdue Pete. It's hilarious how well he can impersonate him.

Jackson's birthday is one day after Grandpa Sprunger's. We actually had the party on Grandpa Sprunger's birthday this year.

Yummy!

Jackson also loves construction, so Daren & Marie nailed the gift with a CAT excavator or bulldozer (I can't remember which type of heavy equipment it is exactly - though Jackson could tell you, guaranteed).

Birthday morning - and the celebrations continue...:)

Trying out some of his lawn care equipment. :) 

Fall

We had a super fun Halloween. The weather was iffy, but it held out perfectly for the kids to do some quick trick-o-treating.

Jackson had a little Halloween party at his school. So cute - they set up different rooms to be different "homes" so they could practice trick-o-treating and most importantly, saying "thank you!" In the same building that his preschool is in, there was a large class being held in the auditorium, so they did a parade in the class. I guess the kids were a huge hit. :) It had to have been ADORABLE.

All ready for trick-o-treating!

We joined up with the Gudemans and walked their neighborhood. They have so many young families in their neighborhood. It was perfect and fun for everyone! Kids had a blast, and the adults got some good talks in while walking! It was great!

How stinkin' adorable!?

Cute little beggars :)

So this will sound crazy to most but we did this with Abigail. It was a huge success so we did it with Jackson as well. And frankly, we will probably do it with #3 because it went great with Jackson as well! We had a paci going away party with our friends (did it at small group actually because frankly they are our closest friends - and Jackson's closest friends!). I let him pick out the theme of the cake and all. We got a huge bouquet of balloons (because it takes a ton to get a paci in the air - who knew!?), and sent the paci to another baby in need. Jackson is REALLY hoping that God sent the paci to our baby in Ethiopia...not sure but God is great! Actually, Jackson kept telling us to call God to tell Him to give his paci to our baby in Ethiopia. We kept explaining that we don't call God we pray and just talk to God. I don't know why the request for the paci required a phone call in his mind...

Ready for send off!

The poor kid - I forgot to feed him dinner before small group so he was just hungry. Really all he wanted to do was eat popcorn. Look at him chowing. :)

Bye bye friend!

You might think he is crying over the paci but really he is crying because he had to send away the cars balloon and the spiderman balloon. I had gotten a bunch of just plain balloons - hoping they would get the paci in the air. I promised him he could keep the cars and spiderman balloon, but they were needed to get the paci in the air. I promised him I would get him new ones which actually I don't think I ever did! How awful is that!?

So we were scared to death how he would do at night - we seriously hate sleep deprivation in our home (which frankly is why we have waited so long to get rid of the dumb thing). Well, he did awesome. Didn't say one word - fell asleep right away and slept through the night!!!! What!? We were blown away. He did wake up QUITE early that whole week and didn't nap (which I expected), but he did great. What a champ. Why can't I break bad habits like that!?