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!

Christmas Letter 2009

Here is my blog version of my Christmas letter.  This way I get to add more pictures! 
(You can click on any of the pictures to see larger versions)

Merry Christmas from the Patton family!

Here I am, once again, wondering where the year has gone! A decade ago I was pregnant with Ali and the hot topic in the news was the Y2K bug. I can’t believe how quickly it has all passed by!

We’ve had a good year and have kept very busy. Back in March we added to our family again when we got our sweet little pooch, Bella. She is a lab-boxer mix with one brown eye and one blue eye, and she has been an angel.

At the end of May, Aaron and I celebrated our 10th anniversary (Where did the time go?) We took our first real vacation since our honeymoon – a 5 day trip to Riviera Maya! It was heavenly! While we were gone, Ali and Emma enjoyed their first plane ride (that they can remember, at least) when their Grandma and Grandpa Klarner took them and their cousin to Disney World. That was quite a treat! While the rest of their family was vacationing at exotic locales, Meg & Julie enjoyed a vacation at the Alligood Family Resort in exotic Eureka, MO. They might have had the most fun of all of us!

This summer we bought our first pool (a 16 foot quick set one). That was quite a treat when you have four little girls and no subdivision pool. It was also very handy to cool off while we sweated away building our new fence. Yes, this project began in May, and was FINALLY wrapped up in mid-October. Better late than never, I suppose.

In August we pulled out the old tent again and discovered that our kids are old enough now that camping is great fun! We enjoyed two weekend trips: one to Kirksville, MO (where we enjoyed visiting our old college haunts) and one to Lake Charles State Park, Arkansas.

Also in August, I kicked off my third year of home schooling. This is my first year schooling three, and I assure you, that has been quite an adventure. Our fall was also busy with three little girls enjoying their first experience on organized soccer teams. Thankfully, Ali & Emma could play on the same team, and all three girls practiced in the same place, at the same time. Julie was just happy kicking a ball around, and was often heard telling anyone who would listen, “I played soccer once!”

Well, that pretty much sums up our year as a family. Now on to the highlights for each of us . . .

Ali turned 9 in April and just started the 4th grade. She is my creative little one, who really isn’t so little anymore. (I recently bought her new socks, and she now wears the same size as me!) She is in her 3rd year of piano lessons with Grandma Patton and her current favorite piece to play is “Alouette.” Ali’s all-time favorite hobby is reading. If you ever wonder where she is, it’s probably safe to assume that she’s curled up with a book somewhere. I (seriously) think that she reads faster than I do. Ali enjoyed her first year of soccer, but let’s face it: she’s mostly there for social reasons. Running and getting sweaty really aren’t her thing! : )

Emma turned 8 in August and is now in the 2nd grade. The highlight of her year was playing soccer. She has endless amounts of energy and is definitely willing to be aggressive on the field. It was so fun to watch her grow during the season. She was seriously bummed any time practices or games were rained out (which was TONS this season.) While Ali was glad for the extra reading time, Emma was disappointed and felt like she was being robbed of her time to improve her ball skills. Another new addition to Emma’s plate this year is piano lessons. She’s been very eager to get started, but I wouldn’t let her begin until 2nd grade. Her favorite piece these days is “Away in a Manger.”

Megan turned 5 in July and she began Kindergarten this year! She is so excited to FINALLY be doing school with us. She loves to write, and can often be found with her Magna-Doodle, copying book titles onto it. She is giddy about the fact that she’s learning to read (really Meg is giddy about pretty much everything.) Two other rites of passage for Meg this year: She got her first American Girl Doll (Kit) for her birthday, and she got her ears pierced! She also enjoyed her first experience on a soccer team this year, though she tends to “enjoy” it more like Ali does: fun time to be with friends, but not so crazy about the running and sweating.

And last but not least we have Julie. Oh Julie . . . what to say about her?? : ) Well, she turned 3 this past April, but she thinks she’s 10. She could talk to a brick wall (and convince it to talk back). She has an infectious laugh (that is often more like a witch cackle) and spends most of her waking time jumping. If I could bottle her energy and sell it, I’d be a bazillionaire! Right now, her goal in life is to be just like her sisters. If they’re doing it, she wants to as well. She did get her ears pierced this year also, and is itching for an American Girl doll. At church, she graduated out of the nursery and is now in the 3 year old class – which she LOVES! She is a relief to her teachers because she actually responds to the questions they ask!

I guess that leaves Aaron & me. We aren’t nearly as interesting, but we are certainly keeping ourselves busy! Aaron has now been working for Boeing for 6 years, and is still enjoying that. He was one of the assistant coaches for Ali and Emma’s soccer team, which was right up his alley. He is still working in Student Ministries at church. When he’s not busy with one of those things, he enjoys down time with his girls (all 5 of us!)

It’s really pathetic that I can look back on my year and wonder “What did I do?” Silly, I know. I have been involved in all of the above mentioned items. School has kept me very busy, but for the most part, I love it. It’s very satisfying to teach your kids and watch them learn. I have also been involved in the leadership team for our Friday Morning Ladies Bible Study at Church. Being with those ladies is, without a doubt, one of the highlights of my week. I also acted as the team manager for both soccer teams this year. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed that – it seems that I have more administrative gifts than I was aware of. All in all, it has been a joy to serve in the areas where God has put me.

Well, I guess that pretty much sums it up for the Pattons. It’s such a treat to look back on this year and see God’s faithfulness to us. I love being able to come to the end of the year and celebrate the birth of Christ. I’m so thankful that His birth was just the first step to his death on the cross that paid the penalty for our sins.

Rejoicing is His Birth,

Aaron, Andrea, Ali, Emma, Megan & Julie Patton

Picture Perfect Princess?

Yes, this is a T-shirt that has been worn and loved in our family. It's getting small on Julie, so today we had an opportunity to put it to good use!


Poor Bella! She's such a champ! But this morning we noticed a bleeding sore on her chest that she kept scratching with her hind leg. Since we can't exactly put a band-aid on it, the vet recommended that we put a t-shirt on her. In general, I think it's ridiculous when dogs wear human clothes, but in this case I think it's ingenious!

Thankfully, Bella is the world's greatest dog. She stayed still while I shaved around her sore and treated it with peroxide and neosporin. Hopefully she'll be better in no tim!

Christmas Party!

This year for our school Christmas party, we took the kids to the Painted Zebra to paint Christmas ornaments. They thought that was awesome!


Ali painted a gingerbread girl


Emma chose a gingerbread boy


Meg's choice was just an old fashioned Christmas bulb

Julie painted a Christmas tree.

Combine painting ornaments with Christmas tree cakes and Capri Suns and Amber and I get the "Coolest Moms of the Year" award! : )

An Unexpected Vacation!

Really, is there anything better than being able to suddenly take an unexpected vacation? The only thing better than that is when that vacation is FREE! : ) Yeah!

After a long semester, I REALLY needed a vacation. SO when the Callans called offering us 5 free days at their condo at the Lake of the Ozarks, we jumped at it!

I barely took any pictures . . . I was on vacation . . . and this time that included not having to tote the camera! I did snap a few though. Here's the view of the lake from our condo:

Aaron & the girls

Yep, that's it for pics.

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But it was so nice to be somewhere where we could just relax. No school to do (we busted a move to get ahead so that we could take the week off!) No house to clean. No laundry to do. I even brought frozen meals so I didn't have to cook dinner!

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We slept and watched movies and took baths (in our HUGE jacuzzi tub) and shopped. You get the idea. We even had Papa John's for lunch one day (a treat for us b/c we don't have Papa John's nearby here.)

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The kids thought our place was better than Disney World. It had 3 bedrooms, and Ali & Emma even got to sleep in a king sized bed.

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There was a pool that we tried once. Not such a great idea. It was an indoor-outdoor pool and it was 20 degrees outside! We were cold just sitting on the pool deck fully clothed. I don't think we'll be trying that again!

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Well, all in all we had a great time! It did feel good to be home, but we are so thankful for our week away!

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Thanks John & Carol!

Christmas Crafts

I've really slacked in the craft department with my little ones. So, this week for art we did a Christmas craft. They loved it!



Julie, Meg & Aubrey making Christmas tree magnets.