Happy 6th birthday Thad!

 Thad is 6 years old! We had a party for him at the Home Depot.  They actually host birthday parties where the kids each get to build something.  It's really fun and the kids loved it!

After they all built their project we had cake.  I love Thad's face in these pictures.  He loves the attention everyone gives him and was just beaming from ear to ear while we were singing to him.  

He wanted a Ninja Turtle cake.

He got a lot of fun presents.  He got a really neat microscope that you can hook an iPhone or iPad to it and see different slides, lots of ninja turtle stuff and legos! 

This is one of his buddies from school.  

Chloe, Thad and Jesse went to daycare together when they were babies and now look at them.  They are all grown up.  They don't see each other often but when they do, it's like old times again.

A couple friends from his old school.

Our sweet boy is growing up.  It seems like just yesterday he was a little baby and now he is 6.  Thad is such a sweet boy.  He is so thoughtful and always worried about the people around him.  He is a great brother and is turning into a little man.  

When he grows up he wants to be a cowboy so he can shoot a gun! At least for now, that's what he wants to be.  Every cowboy needs a hat so we went and picked one out.  Of course Ollie needed one since his brother was getting one! He also got a cool gun with a holster.  When we were picking out his hat, he said to me "mom, when I grow bigger can I shoot my gun in the desert?" then he asked me "When I become a cowboy and I move away, do cowboys miss their momma's?" I told him cowboys always miss their momma's and can come home anytime they want! 

 He didn't have school the day before his birthday so Thad and I had a date! We went to see "Free Birds" and it was so cute! He loves getting his own pop and popcorn.  

The day of his birthday, Adam and I woke him up by singing happy birthday and giving him a doughnut cake! He thought that was pretty neat.

It was very bright and this is the best smile I got :) 

For his birthday, I surprised him at school and came to eat lunch with him.  He was so excited and I had a great time even though I ate the cafeteria food. 

It almost brought tears to my eyes how grown up he is at school.  I don't get to see him everyday at school and it just amazes me.  

To finish off the birthday we went to Red Robin for dinner.  They sang to him and gave him an ice cream sundae.  Of course he loved it and was smiling the whole time.  

Thad amazes me everyday.  He has had his struggles but is so full of life.  He is so caring and polite and always tries to do the right thing.  Of course he has his moments but it makes him who he is. 

Christmas

We had a great Christmas.  We went to my parents house for the weekend before Christmas and then came back home for our first Christmas in our house.  It was great! 

It was good seeing all my family for Christmas and the boys love going to Grandma and Papa's house.

We only had to take a few self timer pictures to get the whole clan.  Everyone is growing up and the cousins have so much fun playing together.

One night, this whole crew was at Grandma's house! We sent most of them downstairs to play and I think a few of the boys got dressed up in princess clothes! 

I loved being home for Christmas this year.  It was nice to wake up Christmas morning and have Santa come to our house to leave presents.  We had a nice day at home.

Andrew loved his first Christmas.  He got some fun toys and of course liked the wrapping paper the best.

Santa brought this really neat robot for Thad.  This thing is pretty neat, it walks, talks, burps, yawns, picks things up and so much more! Thad's favorite thing of course is to make him burp.  Andrew goes up to the robot and swipes at him! I think he's a little scared of him.

Ollie loved his presents and his favorite is a moon in his room.  He loves the moon and it makes a great little night light and goes through all the moon cycles.

Thad is such a handsome boy! He wanted to wear a suit like Daddy for church.  

Ollie and his cheesy grin :)

We had a nice day at home and played lots of mouse trap! The boys got a few games for Christmas and this is one of their favorites.  

It's beginning to look like Christmas!

The tree is up and the stockings are hung! We have had a week of very cold weather and lots of snow.  It has been in the negatives at night and 4 degrees during the day.  With all the snow, Thad got 2 snow days and he was thrilled! Adam even got a day off of work so it was fun to all hang out.  

We always save the tree topper for Thad.  He likes putting it up each year.  

I was a little worried about Andrew and the tree but he's been pretty good so far.  He likes to flick the ornaments at the bottom and then look at me and shake his head no with a big smile on his face.  Ollie is the one that put most of the ornaments on the tree.  He loved it!

I finally got new stockings this year! I have wanted nice ones with our names embroidered for a few years and finally broke down and got them.  They turned out so cute! (several people have wondered where we got them- online at Walmart)

Happy boy for a snow day! 

We did a few crafts.  Thanks to Pinterest we came up with these.

This is Thad's snowman hand

Oliver's

Andrew's

They turned out really cute and the boys had fun painting their hands and the faces.

We also did reindeer foot prints.  

It was a fun to have Thad home during the week.  I miss him during the day and he is such a big helper. 

Thanksgiving

We have much to be thankful for.  We headed to Kansas for turkey day.  Matt and Jena were brave to have everyone over for lunch.  It was great food and fun to be with family.

This little guy turned 9 months old on Thanksgiving.  

Andrew is growing up.  He is crawling all over the place, puts everything he sees into his mouth and is saying momma and dada.  He watches his brothers every move and you can tell he wants to do everything they are doing.  

Thad loves playing with his cousins.  Josh, Maddix and Josh are all about the same age and have fun playing together.  

Zekke and Andrew :)

Grandma Kathy and Papa Wayne

With all those kids and the energy they had they needed something fun to do.  Jena has this bouncy house and it was perfect for them.  It was cold but they had fun jumping and burning off energy.

Then there is this! Matt and his dad built this insanely big fort.  

The kids had fun playing on it but not as much as they wanted because it was so cold.

We did manage to get a picture of the siblings (minus Jason) and all the cousins.  I think we took 30 pictures and not one picture has everyone looking! It was cold and kids were crying! 

We spent a few days in Goodland and then headed to Tribune for a few days.  

Ollie and Jude playing games on the iPad.  

Poor Tatum with all these boy cousins around her age! They all like to chase her and Thad really likes to try to kiss her while he's chasing her around.  

Beth- he even told me when we got home he wants to marry Tatum! 

Thanks to Matt and Jena for hosting Thanksgiving dinner! 

All Aboard the Santa Express!

Last year we went on the Santa Express and had such a fun time.  We went this year again thanks to the Starlight Children's Foundation.  The boys were so excited to put on their Christmas pj's and go see Santa.

 It was so cold but well worth it.  Adam and I joined in on wearing our PJ's too! 

Thad of course was the most excited.  

He loves going on the train and telling Santa everything he wants for Christmas.  

Oliver had fun this year and was excited to go on a choo choo train.  

Thad's favorite part is the cookie and hot chocolate.  

You can also buy dinner and the servers dress up like elves.  

Oops, sorry Andrew! 

The train takes you to the North Pole where we get to pick up Santa.  

They have it all decorated and Santa stands outside and waves to all the children passing by.  

Santa visits with each child and asks them if they've been naughty or nice.  He gives them a neat little bell.  Thad gave Santa an earful of everything he wanted.  I don't think Santa understood most of the conversation but he just shook his head and said if you're a good boy! 

Andrew didn't cry but he studied the old man very closely.

I thought Ollie would cry when he saw him but he was excited to see him (I also might of bribed him with a game of angry birds) Ollie told Santa he wanted a dinosaur.  

The weather was a little crazy coming home and all 3 kids fell asleep shortly after we left the train station.  It was such a fun night of making memories.  I love living in a place where we can go and do all these fun things.