Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Patton family!  

Another year has passed, and we are so thankful for the ways that God continues to bless our family.

Julie is now 5 and we jokingly call her our shy one.  She is always talking and definitely keeps us laughing.  This year Julie began kindergarten, and she is definitely a smart little cookie.  She has recently discovered that she can breeze through her chapter books very handily, and she thinks that is pretty awesome.  This was also Julie’s first year to play organized soccer.  She has been waiting for her turn for two years now, and really loved it!

Meg is now 7 and is in 2^nd grade.  She is my girlie who greets the world with a smile.  She is full of laughter and never in a hurry (for better or for worse!)  She is also still our “skinny minny” who is perpetually pulling her pants up.  Unfortunately, Meg’s year has been full of tummy pains that we are still wrestling with, but it seems that we are making some progress in that area and we are very thankful for that!  One milestone for Meg this year was that she scored her first goal in soccer!  She was super excited about that one!

Emma is now 10 and in the 4^th grade.  She continues to be our athlete.  Given a choice, she will always choose playing outside or helping dad out in the garage over reading or crafting.  This year she celebrated her 10^th birthday with a Hawaiian themed pool party, and she loved that!  She would happily swim every day during the spring, summer and fall.  (It doesn’t bother her if the water is too cold – or too hot.)  Right now Emma and I are reading through the Percy Jackson books together, and we are both enjoying that! 

Ali is now 11 and is in the 6^th grade.  She continues to be our bookworm and our artist.  This year she took a fashion design class at a nearby church, and that was one of the highlights of her week!  The other highlight of her week has been youth group at our church.  We welcomed a new youth pastor and his wife this fall and Ali is crazy about them both (So are Aaron and I!)  It has been such a joy to watch as Ali absorbs and applies the teaching that she is sitting under on Wednesday nights!

Aaron and I celebrated 12 years of marriage this spring!  (I’m not sure where time has gone.)  At the end of May we took a family vacation with our good friends (the Alligoods) to the mountains of North Georgia.  It was such a treat to vacation with some of our favorite people!  In September we were also able to take a week and go to Wisconsin for a visit with my extended family.  I continue to home school our girls, and (most days) I really love that.  Aaron has now been working at Boeing for 8 years.  This year has included a lot more work-related travel for him.  That’s definitely not his favorite (or mine) but it should be a few months before he has to go again.  The Patton family was in 7^th heaven with the sporting world this year!  A Packers Super Bowl and a Cardinals World Series were the perfect package!

All in all, it has been a great year, though I’m not sure how it managed to fly by so quickly.  As we are in the middle of Christmas craziness, we purpose to focus on what we are truly celebrating.  "Fragile finger sent to heal us, Tender brow prepared for thorn, Tiny heart whose blood will save us, Unto us is born, Unto us is born."  May your Christmas be a true celebration of our Savior!

Aaron, Andrea, 

Ali, Emma, Megan and Julie Patton

School's Out for Summer!

Yes . . . It's that time of year again!  I'm singing Alice Cooper : )  It feels GREAT to be finished and enjoy a summer off!

Papers are graded, grades are tabulated, hours are logged and everything is bundled up and ready to be put away!

Recital & Project Fair

Our year is finally coming to a close! We finished up last night with our Spring Recital & Project Fair.

Ali played:

"Malaguena"

"Clementine"

"Tango Staccato"

"Hedwig's Theme"

Emma played:
"Grandpa's Clock"

"When the Saints Go Marching In"

"Harp Song"

"Edelweiss"

This year we studied Missouri history and each of our kids did a presentation on a famous Missourian.  They did their oral presentations on Wednesday night, then after their recital they stood by their presentation boards and answered questions.

Karis as Laura Ingalls Wilder

Aubrey did her presentation on Walt Disney and dressed up at Minnie Mouse

Ali as George Washington Carver

Bekah did her project (and website) on the Salem Witch Trials

Megan as Laura Ingalls Wilder

Emma as Daniel Boone

Jonah did his project on Mark Twain and dressed up as Tom Sawyer

Blake did his project on airplanes

They all did a really awesome job!  They worked SO hard and we are so proud of them.

Happy Birthday Dear Ali!

11 Years ago today I met my first little girlie . . . who really isn't so little anymore! 

Saturday night we had the Alligoods over for dinner - it was great to just hang out for the evening!  Ali & Julie wanted a High School Musical cake  : )  Great fun!

Last night we celebrated Ali's birthday.  She invited Karis to stay the night and it was a fun evening!

Instead of cake, we did a sundae bar.  Yum!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Fun girls!

Karis is always good for a great silly face!

Emma with bunny ears (courtesy of Karis!)

Meg eating . . . ice cream soup??

I made HSM jammies for all of the girls and put them in their PJ drawers as a surprise.

Julie found hers and came running out in excitement!  I love this pic b/c Meg didn't know that she had jammies waiting in her drawer as well.  She thought they were just for Ali & Julie (b/c they're both having birthdays this week).  I think the excitement for her sister is super sweet!

Meg, after a trip to her drawer!

The squealing and jumping that came from Ali and Emma's room was hilarious!

What a crew!

"Can we do a 'Wildcats' pose?"  Nutjobs : )

(btw . . . Julie is saying "I'm holding a basketball."   That's an awfully LARGE basketball babe!)

Ali LOVED every birthday present this year!  I got some great faces from her!

Karis brought the favorite gift.  (Can you tell??)  The High School Musical Soundtrack and Karaoke Track.

Drawing pencils from Julie.

Body spray and lotion from Meg.

Lipgloss and nail polish set from Emma.

Karoake time!  Unfortunately, the real microphones didn't work.  However I had bought inflatable microphones for them to use and they were a HUGE hit!  And, that way they could all sing together.

Singin' their hearts out!  : )

It's a Win!

It was an awesome game, though a little too close for comfort in the second half, if you ask me!  We had 2 families from church over to our house for the game and had a great time hanging out with them.

The girls were SO excited for the Super Bowl.  Are they interested in football?  Not even a little bit.  They were excited for food, friends, decorations and cute clothes.  : )

On Saturday, Aaron and the girls made a super sized snowman.  (Her name is Snowbell!?)  Warmer temps caused Snowbell to shed a few pounds.  She won't last for long, so we decided to have some Super Bowl fun with her!

The balloons were the favorite decoration of the night.  I love this pic!

All in all, it was a great night!!

New Glasses

Patton kid #2 needs glasses . . . no shocker there! 

We noticed the problem when she was leaning forward to read her piano music.  Thankfully, here eyes really aren't bad.  These are just reading glasses (or "piano glasses" as the case may be.)  She is very excited to have them (Though that will certainly wear off shortly.)  You can't tell from this picture, but they are brown in the front and teal blue on the inside . . . so they match her bedroom and she thinks that is pretty awesome!

Go Pack!

Admittedly, I watch very little football.  I really do enjoy watching it, but if there isn't a team playing that I care about, I'd rather be doing other things.  I'll root for the Rams if they're playing . . . they're Aaron's favorite team and our home team.  But let's face it, I'm from Wisconsin.  If the Packers are playing, I want them to win!

We went to my parents' house to watch the NFC Championship Game.  I have a Packers shirt, but none of my girls have anything.  Julie wore a green sweatsuit with a yellow t-shirt over it.  Meg wore black pants with a yellow sweatshirt and a green t-shirt over it.  Ali wore a green long-sleeved t-shirt of mine (a tad bit big.)  Emma was unwilling to participate.  Aaron tried to convince her to wear navy and orange.  I suppose I should be glad that she didn't do that.

I decided that all of my Packers fan family has let us down and failed to provide my children with appropriate paraphernalia.  How dare they!?  : )  I had to take matters into my own hands for the Super Bowl.

Aren't they cute??  Home made by mom using freezer paper and shirt paint.

Julie looks a little drugged here : )

This is what I got when I asked for a "football pose."  Actually, that's not entirely true.  The first thing I got was four girls looking at me with faces that were cleary saying, "You're kidding, right?"  Once they realized that I wasn't kidding, this is what I got. 

This is what I got with a little coaxing from Dad.  I love this picture!  Julie looks like she's going to kill someone!  Meg embraced it as well.  Ali isn't so sure about this.  Emma is reluctantly obeying her Dad. : )

Hoping for a win tomorrow!!

Losing the Hardware

Brace face.  Fence face.  Metal mouth.  Tin teeth.  No more!

My big girl is now flashing a bright new smile! (and a new haircut that she is super excited about!)

Before:

After:

Needless to say, she is beside herself with excitement!  We celebrated tonight with a fun dinner:

popcorn

corn on the cob

almonds

cheetos

doritos

celery

carrots

milk duds

sticky candy

GUM!

Not so healthy, but fun!

Emma even made us place cards

Fun times!

Ali & Emma's New "Tween" Room

Like it or not, my girls are growing up.  We decided to redecorate Ali & Emma's room for them as part of their Christmas present this year.  We agreed to go with a light blue and brown theme.  Still trendy and girlie, but not pink.  (Emma is not a pink kind of girl and has had a pink room for 4 years now.)  They picked out the bedding.  They got to help paint the walls blue (I hope they enjoyed that because it will be YEARS before they touch a paint roller again!  I'm STILL finding blue paint on my floor.)  After the blue was done, the doors were closed and the rest was a surprise. 

Here are the before pics:

And the after . . .

They love it!  (And so do I!)