Opening Gifts

 The lump of Coal... too bad you can't see Emma's face.                 The phone in the bottom of the stocking.

 James light sabers and Marianne and Emma texting each other on their new phones.

 Clara

 James Thor hammer, made by Emma.

Christmas Eve

 A few pictures of our Christmas Eve tradition.

Mary and the angel

James the super hero sHepherd.

Mary and Joseph

                                                     

Merry Christmas 2012

The annual news letter, on the blog:)
Anthony continues his employment with BKD.  He has had several different positions this year in security and special projects, but is now back on the Network team.  He serves the ward as the financial secretary and takes care of the kids who are home in the evenings.

Jessica keeps busy keeping up with the 5 (soon to be 6) kids.  She serves as the ward organist and helps out at school occasionally.

Emma is a junior this year and thinking ahead to college.  (I don't know if we are ready for that.  She is growing up too fast!)  She is very active in school:  ITS officer, school plays, chamber choir, show choir, color guard, NHS, FCCLA, Junior class president . . .  This summer she participated in Missouri scholars academy, EFY, and remodeled her bedroom.

Marianne is in eighth grade.  She was also on the color guard this year and ran cross country.  She is enjoying playing the clarinet in band and singing in choir.  She continues to love to read and has been sharing her books with Grandpa Maughan.  He is found with a book almost as often as she is.

Clara started middle school this year!  She participated in basketball this fall and loved it.  She also sings in the honor choir.  She enjoyed taking a few trips to St. Louis with her Grandma to see the cousins over the summer.

Lea just turned eight and was baptized last Saturday.  She is working hard in school and improving her handwriting.  She loves to read and will talk about her books to everyone who will listen.  Her favorite author is Tony Abbott.

James is a busy active boy.  He LOVES Star Wars, dinosaurs and Legos.  He wants to name his baby brother Anakin or T. Rex.  He is pretty cute, smart and spoiled.

Baptism

Baptism pictures, finally:).  She was baptized by her Grandpa and comfirmed by her Dad.  Marianne started a tradition:).

Thanksgiving

The girls took some pictures at Grandma's house on Thanksgiving.

 They tried to get James to join them. 

 He was not a very willing participant.

Basketball

Clara's first game.  She is enjoying playing ball.

 Both games they have only had 5 players there so they have to play the whole game.  They all look tired:).

Color Guard

Emma is second to the end on the right and Marianne is second to the end on the left.

Fall Colors

New Glasses

Clara's new look.  She wanted a picture this morning with her outfit that matched her glasses but I forgot and had to use the one from last night.

Newborns in Need

This summer Clara and Marianne made hats and quilts for Newborns in Need.  Marianne used it as her good works value project. We went and donated them yesterday.  I brought home some sleepers to make for them and both Clara and Marianne want to go in and volunteer.  We were quite impressed with their operation.

Puss in Boots

 James standard apparel.  He often carries a sword as well.  Everyone in a while he says he can leave his hat home.  Puss in Boots is cool because he does lots of jumps and leaps.  James tries to do them as well.  He is my only child who has done flips on the trampoline at 3.

MSA and EFY

Emma went to MSA and EFY this summer.  I asked her to make her own post and she didn't want to so if you want to know about her summer you'll have to go check it out on facebook.  :)

Happy Birthday Clara

Clara turned 10 and will be starting middle school in just a few days.  For her birthday we painted her bedroom, greenish-bluish brownish paneling . . .  

to yellow.  We are happy with the results.

Clara worked hard on it for two days.  She did most the painting herself.

A new Do

Lea has been growing out her hair for a year and a half to cut it and donate it.  We have been almost there for a year and I finally convinced her to just do it and cut her hair a little shorter than she wanted.

A Visit with Southards

 Our friends the Southards came to visit us for a few days.  We had fun hanging out at home with Nintendo, trampoline, bonfire, etc and going swimming.

  At the pool we all tried to time going off the diving board and slide so we'd enter the water together.
Clara and Trevor were always the best.  They got it every time.   The rest of us had fun trying--even when it ended in a belly flop.

Happy Birthday Marianne

Another teenager (offically). 
Marianne was a good sport and let Emma dress her up in all her birthday gifts (and school clothes).

Happy Birthday James

Our little boy is getting big.  He says things that let us know he is thinking and planning and growing up.  (Like on Thursday when he said he wanted to stay at Grandma's house and I could just come pick him up later.)

Recent Additions

The newest additions to our place have been some honey bees.  Grandpa Maughan likes to bee keep and has been teaching Clara and Marianne.

Happy 60th

We had a picnic and hike for Grandpa Maughan's 60th birthday.  We ended in this dry river bed and everyone had fun playing on the fallen tree.  It was a fun day.

Kaleidoscope

We went to Crown Center while in Kansas City last week.  We took a trip to Kaleidoscope.  It was (and still is) one of the kids favorite activities there.