Winter 2009 Family photos

Here are our 2009 Family Pics. My friend Erika Rebstock Degraff took them. She is becoming quite the natural light photographer. Aliyah did not have any interest in standing still to take pictures when she had a whole park to explore.

Crew joins our family!

Yes, Loren and I, mostly I- Loren remained unfavorable, gave into the kid's plea for a guinea pig. Mishonne and I went to pick it out before she left for Wa for Christmas. A new shipment of 6 week old guinea pigs had just come in. I put my face up to the glass and this adorable guinea pig comes right up to the glass and stares at me. I told Mishonne I liked that one but she could have any one she wanted. After holding several of them Mishonne also liked Crew. The name comes from his cute hair do. Instead of have a furry head he has a Crew Cut sort of hair doo. So Crew is short for Crew Cut. He is very cute and friendly. I make our own little petting zoo area for the kids. When it was Dentons turn to play with Crew he started Giggling. I turned to see what was so funny. Crew had cuddled up in between Dentons legs next to his furry Pajamas. It was so cute. So We now have Roxanne the turtle and Crew the guinea Pig. Absolutely no more pets!

Snow in Louisiana!

The girls were excited to get snow two years in a row. Unfortunately the snow did not stick on the ground to build a snow man this year. We like having the one time snow fall as long as the 70 degree weather comes back within the week like it always does.

Christmas Morning

We got to have Heidi and Joe for Christmas this year. It was nice to have a one to one kid to adult ratio. Aliyah has Uncle Joe wrapped around her finger. If I tell her no she goes to Joe and puts her finger tips together which means “more” in sign language. Haley wants to cuddle or play games 24-7 with Aunt Heidi. Logan and Mishonne mostly love Heidi for her ping pong skills. It is nice to have family here during the Holidays. Wish it could happened more often.
Mishonne actually went to Washington for Christmas. She saved up her money and we told her once she was 12 and she was allowed to fly alone that she could go. She is having fun seeing her new baby cousing and getting Grandma all to herself.

Christmas Sunday Ideas

I had this really great idea to take the kid’s pictures on the Sunday before Christmas since they would be in their cute Christmas clothes. Aliyah had other ideas. She thought we were playing a game of “Catch me if you can.” You can see her dashing away at any chance she got. Mishonne tried to herd her in and we finally just gave up. The only picture she was still in the other kids were doing their own thing. It is a good thing she is so darn cute.

Here are some fun Christmas celebrations from December. Aunt Janel sends the kids a new personalized ornament every year. They love getting to put them up on the tree. Each year our church has a Christmas party. The Primary aged children got to sing for the party this year. Denton decided it would be more fun to play airplanes and make airplane noises instead of singing. It was quite comical.

Mishonnes Birthday Celebrations

Mishonne got a big Birthday hug from her siblings and help from Aliyah opening her presents.



We always have a family party and a friends party for our kids birthdays. Every other year they get an organized party with their friends. This was Mishonne's year so we had a Pajama Party. The girls has a ball. They had toilet paper and duct tape makeovers, matress stair sledding, smores, and home made pizza along with other games. There were 10 girls so it got a bit loud at times.

Cute Kiddos

Here are some fun pics of the kids this past month. Denton and Elizabeth dressed up as Pilgrims at pre-K.
One day I was trying to keep Aliyah up until noon so she would sleep longer. She got so tired that she crawled up on Denton and fell asleep.
Aliyah likes to follow Haley around so I took a picture of her posing with Haley.
Too cute!

Thanksgviving with the Thompsons

We had a wonderful time for Thanksgiving. Our good friends the Thompsons who we met in Delaware came up from Tennesse. They have three little kids the same age as our youngest three. We are so thankful for good friends that we have met along the way especially with our family so far away.

Aliyah loved having little Elissa to hug and hang with.