Happy Birthday, Dear Bella!

Okay . . . so maybe we're a tad bit pathetic!  : )  But we do love our pooch, and she turned 1 today!  : )  (The hat was home made by the girls! . . . and in case you were wondering . . . she hated it!)

It's been a fabulous year!  I don't think we'll ever be able to own another dog.  She'd make them all look like they were possessed by the devil.

Here's the before and after:

Baby Bella:

1 year old:

Here's hoping for many more years with our sweet girl!

Made for Orphans

I just wanted to post this quick to spread word.  Our church has a new ministry supporting orphans and adoptive families.  Check it out here.

Must Read

Great article by our Associate Pastor (and dear friend) Jason.  Click below to read

http://jason.doogilla.com/2010/01/08/the-trivial-pursuit-of-a-once-upon-a-time-cultural-america/

Must Read

http://jason.doogilla.com/2010/01/08/the-trivial-pursuit-of-a-once-upon-a-time-cultural-america/

Braces for Ali!

Today was the day for Ali!  She now has a mouthful of braces!

Here's the before pic:

And here's the after pic:

Isn't she cute?  I'm surprised at how good they look!

She did a great job!  So far, I'm very impressed with our orthodontist's office.  They were very kind and very thorough. She only has brackets on her front 4 teeth, top and bottom.  She is expected to have those for about a year, then she'll wear retainers until she loses all of her baby teeth.  After that she'll do one more year of braces, followed by more retainers.

She isn't hurting yet, but I remember the pain . . . vividly!  We're headed to the store for a supply of soft foods and Motrin to get her through the next week.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve is probably my favorite night of the Christmas season. It's definitely the most relaxed of our get togethers and we get to hang out with our good buds, the Alligoods. The kids were SO excited about this . . . you'd think that we only see the Alligoods once a year by the way the kids were talking! Jonah said "Mom, since we get to stay up until midnight, we get to be with the Pattons for 8 hours tonight!" Very cute!

Because of our insane schedules at Christmas time, we started combining the Patton-Alligood Christmas and New Year's parties in to one night. I didn't take any pics of the Christmas part, but I did get a few snuggle shots while we were waiting for everyone to join us for presents.

They aren't complete family shots, but they're still cute!

This year I decided to be "cool Mrs. Patton.  I bought a box of New Year's Ever paraphernalia.  It was a hit!  (With the kids, at least.)  That box included blowers.  They were NOT a hit with the adults!  : )  It sounded like we had a gaggle of dying geese in the basement!

Are they a riot, or what?

Ali

Emma

Meg

Julie

This year was the first year that we let Jonah and Ali stay up until midnight.  This was a big deal to them!  Emma and Karis still had to get in bed at normal time, but we let them lie down and watch The Princess Diaries 2.  We had also promised them sparkling grape juice before they went to bed.  Well, we forgot about it until after they were in bed, so they got room service!  : )  They thought it was pretty darn cool!

Once the kiddoes were in bed, we decided on a game of Phase 10 with Ali & Jonah.  Of course, it ended up being the WORLD'S LONGEST GAME, so we decided that 10:30 was the time limit on it.  After that, Ali & Jonah enjoyed some DS time while the grown-ups played Trivial Pursuit.

When it was time, Jason put the clock on his iphone, and we counted down to the New Year, sparkling grape juice in hand.  Ali & Jonah thought that was really great.  Then we had to get all of our "First New Year's Eve" pics.  Poor Ali & Jonah.  They tolerate us so well!

Drinking with arms hooked!  That takes some coordination!
 

Happy New Year with my Honey!
 
Strangely, we were up REALLY late this year.  These past few years we've had to prop our eyes open just to make it to midnight!  Ali & Jonah went to bed after all of our toasts, and the grown ups enjoyed some more play time.  We left the Alligoods' house at about 2:30.  It's been a LONG time since we had such a late night.  It was great fun!  We're so thankful to have such awesome friends!

Happy Birthday Karis!

If you ever ask my kids "Whose birthday is it today?' on Christmas day, you won't get the response that you would expect them to give you.

First of all, they know that Jesus wasn't actually born on Christmas day.

Secondly, they know that Karis was actually born on Christmas day!

So, thier answer will be "It's Karis' birthday!"  And they're right!  : )

Karis, our sweet Christmas baby!

So, on Monday Dec. 28th, Ali and Emma got to spend the night at the Alligood's house and they enjoyed the coolest birthday party ever!

They enjoyed tacos for dinner.  They went to Kohl's where they all got matching shirts, that came with stuffed puppies.  The shirts say "Best Friends Forever."  I mean really, does it get any better than that?

Aren't they cute?

They got to frost and decorate their own cupcakes (Mrs. Alligood made custom colored frosting for each kid!)  They got to watch the American Girl Samantha movie.  They enjoyed smoothies during their movie, and popcorn, and chocolate after that!  Mrs. Alligood even slept downstairs with them.  Is she the best, or what?  While they were being tucked in, Ali even told her "Mrs. Alligood, you're like my second mom!"  It's a miracle that Mrs. Alligood didn't melt into a puddle right then & there!  : )  The next morning, Mr. Alligood made pancakes and a little while later they were chauffered home.

"And the Mom of the Year award goes to . . . Amber Alligood!!!"  Thanks for giving my girls such a magical night!

Christmas '09

Well, we officially made it throught the 2009 Christmas season!  : )  Here's a recap:

We started on Dec 23rd.  One of our family traditions is that the girls each get to open one present the night before Christmas Eve.  Every year, that one present is new jammies.  Ali & Emma have caught on to the trend, but Meg & Julie are still young enough that they were surprised by their new jams!  This year we had an animal theme going on.

Ali got frogs.

Emma got monkeys.

Meg got penguins.

And last (but not least) Julie got panda bears.

The girlies sporting their new jams on Christmas Eve morning.  Bella wandered in to the picture and we decided to let her stay as long as she was willing to behave : )  I must say, I'm impressed!  They are all looking at the camera . . . even the dog!

Christmas Eve is our "Christmas Morning."  We started this tradition when Ali was a baby.  We wanted to have a day to hang out at home and celebrate together (as opposed to "Great!  I'm glad you love your presents!  Now hurry up and get dressed so that we can run off to Grandma's house.  You can play with your toys when we finally come home in 3 days!")  We don't do Santa, so we had no calendar restrictions.  It's really awesome.  We hang out in our jammies all day long.  I put a pot roast in the crock pot in the morning and we have a yummy dinner (yes, still in our jammies) without any work!

This year I kind of slacked in the picture taking department.  It was so fun watching the girls pass out and open their presents, I kind of forgot about the camera.  The girls shop for each other at the Dollar Store, and they LOVE opening all of those presents.  They also love picking out something that their sisters will love!  Emma said "Mom, it's more fun to hand out my presents than it is to open presents myself!"  It was very cute.

The "big" gift that we bought for the girls this year was a Wii.  It was a hit, and I did manage to get the camera out for this one!

After our lazy Christmas Eve, our Christmas day included celebrations at Grandma House's house and Grandma Klarner's house.  I didn't even bring my camera to Grandma House's house, but thanks to Uncle Wayne, I have a few to post.

Here is the entire Pete Patton family (minus 2).

At Grandma House's house we do lunch and then presents.  We had about 40 people there, so the house was very FULL!  : )

Here was the "BIG" present at Grandma House's house.  To Aaron from Uncle Mike.  It's homemade.  My first thought was "Oh my goodness.  Where are we going to put that?"

I pretty much dropped the ball as far as pictures go at my mom's house also.  I did bring my camera (a step in the right direction) but I only managed to take our annual posed pictures.

The Klarner side cousins

(L-R:  Julie, Emma, Ausin, Ali, Meg, Kevin.)

Another Klarner cousins pic.

Every year, my maternal grandparents come in town from Wisconsin.  This year we were lucky to have Uncle Gary as well (Did I get any pictures of Gary?  Ummm . . . no.)

My girls with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Rother . . . and of course, Winnie and Pooh!

All of the Great Grandkids with the Rothers.

We spent the evening of the 25th and all day on the 26th at the Klarners.  The kids played.  We played lots of cards (we even taught Ali & Emma to play cribbage, so they got to join in on that this year.)

Sunday Afternoon we went to the Grandma Pattons house at lunch time. 

Leave it to Aaron and Joel to be the stupid ones.  They were joking about having to squeeze in so tight on the couch, which naturally progressed in to them "snuggling" together.  At least I was ready with the camera for this one!

Joel and Laura (Julie actually took this one!  Not bad!)

A rare family picture!  Thanks Bekah!

The Thebeaus

This year Grandpa asked for a volunteer to read the Christmas story, and Ali offered to do it.  We also had some "interesting" conversation as Grandpa dialogued with the kids.  He was asking about how Mary was "in trouble" (being pregnant and unmarried) and why that would bother Joseph.  I don't think Grandpa was aware of how well informed Ali was.  It was awkward, yet very funny!

We snacked for lunch, played some games, etc . . . Then on to presents and dinner. Before we knew it, it was time to head home!

Needless to say, it was SO nice to spend Monday at home!

Overall it was a good Christmas - a great time to worship our Savior whose birth we were celebrating!