Christmas Eve- First snow of the year!!

Jeff woke the boys up late on Christmas Eve when the snow started coming down heavily... the first snow of the season... what a beautiful sight!  It's been so many years since we had a good snow here, the boys barely remembered what snow was like.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Our family tradition continued this year with our tree selection and purchase in the Gator Golf parking lot.  After stringing the lights, the boys and I started with the decorations. 

I was reminded again of the differences between boys and girls.  Decorating the tree was a much different experience with these boys than I remember as a youth.  For them it's all about "how quickly can we get them up and get the job done?".  When I have decorated it by myself, I spent time with each decoration-- taking a little trip down memory lane.  This year, it was done in about 10 minutes!

Finished tree

Now it was the boys turn to decorate their fake tree downstairs.  They get to use whatever color lights and decorations they want to use.


This year, blue was the light color of choice:

The boys got a little distracted:

Matthew's Christmas Play- 5th grade

Yes, our son is a dancing elf in the 5th grade Christmas play... and he wore a Christmas Tree skirt as his costume... there, I said it!

It was actually a very cute play and Matt did a fine job dancing... it was a flashback to the Bee Gee era watching his disco moves (John Travolta, move aside!)

Ah Ah Ah Ah Staying Alive, Staying Alive
can you hear it?

Note that Matt is the only elf with a constume besides a hat... Matt's not afraid to be original!

You'll have to ask Matt why this picture is included :)

Christmas pictures-- 2009 Christmas Card

Once again, the Seiter family sat in front of the hearth, while Daddy clicked the button on the camera, and ran to get into the pic before the self-timer went off.  This year, the difference in picture quality is the camera.  Jeff and I bought our Christmas gift for each other ahead of time this year... a nice camera with multiple lenses.  YEAH!  Once I get over the fear of breaking it, I might actually use it :)

Below are some of our more serious pics followed by some goofy pics.  We took many many pictures this year and only a few turned out because Noah has developed a blinking disorder... everytime the flash went off, he blinked or was captured in mid-blink! 

See the pic below... would have been a good one except for Mr. Blinky!

His eyes are wide open here!

Thanksgiving 2009

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year.  The Davis family, Papa, Gramma and Michelle & Jordan were all part of our celebration.

We continued our "Thanksfulness Board" tradition...

Cath and Michelle adding their thoughts to the Thanksfulness Board

The kids get involved with adding what they are thankful to God for this year...

The men relax after a big meal

Gramma takes pictures too...

Michelle and Jordan

Halloween 2009- Tulsa Zoo

On a whim, Jeff suggested we go to Tulsa for Halloween... the zoo had Halloween events scheduled that night after they closed.  So we loaded up and went to the zoo... see that pictures below

the Seiter family of monkeys...

Matthew Monkey

Taylor Monkey

Napping Lion











After the zoo closed, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Macaroni Grill, and ate dinner. 
When we got back to the zoo for the evening Halloween events, the line was so long, we couldn't have gotten in before it ended, so we went home, satisfied after having a great day and dinner.  Who needs Halloween candy anyway?

Pumpkin Patch pics- 2009

Yes, it's that time again... time for the annual pumpking patch pictures!  This year included the Seiter family, the Davis family (minus Kev), Gramma, Papa and Connie.  Jeff was able to make it after school for pictures this year!

Aud and Jeff (don't see too many of just the two of us)

Mom and boys

Dad and boys

Dad and boys again

Papa joins us

Gramma and Connie get in the pictures

Cath and her clan

Matthew turn 11!

Matthew invited 4 boys from school but Bryce couldn't come, so only 3 spent the night:  Quinn, Ethan and Charlie.  Morgan and both brothers were also among the crew!

I picked them all up from school and then we picked Morgan up from home.

They voted to go to Fun City, so, after they ate pizza and chocolate cake & ice cream, Jeff took them to Fun City for an evening of fun!

The next morning they had nerf wars and played until about 11am.

Check out all the goofy pictures from the party!

Parent Teacher Conf Sept 29, 2009

We got great reports from the boys teachers tonight.

Matthew:
Matt is doing great with all A's in class. He qualified for the Advanced Math class and he's studying the Stock Market in GT. His teacher said his behavior is great. He got a 98% and 99% in his Benchmarks at the end of last year (we reviewed the results with her tonight)! Very Awesome scores!

Taylor:
Tay is in the "technical" class this year and loving it. He has the same teacher as last year, Mrs. Hickman, and she loves him (we love her too!). He has all A's and he got Above Avg on his testing last year. Mrs. Hickman wrote the following excerpt about Taylor:
" Taylor is a great kid who is really feeling more comfortable this year and coming out of his shell. I enjoy his funny personality and his ability to work hard and do his very best."

Noah:
Noah's teacher, Mr. Mueller, said he didn't know exactly what to do with Noah this year. He's so far advanced in every subject, so going to move Noah to the first grade during reading. He's going to try to challenge him in all the other subjects. He said usually when a child is so bright, they are lacking is something else like social skills... but not Noah. Mr. Mueller told us all the kids like him- he's very popular (whatever that means in Kindergarden) and that he's great with all the kids in the class. He said he wanted to ask us for parenting tips (ha!). We told him that's just the way Noah was made!


Lord, Jeff and I are so very grateful for the wonderful boys you've given us to raise. Please give us wisdom to do so. Also, thank you for such great teachers that care about our children... bless them this year!

Taylor Turns 9!

Taylor had 2 boys from school come to his party:  Koby and Cole.  Cole spent the night.  The picture below is the morning after, with all the boys eating waffles.  Jeff took the boys to Fast Lanes for laser tag and video games.  Everyone had a great time!

Sept Group Birthday celebration

On Aunt Cathy's b-day (Sept 26th) we headed out to visit the Davis fam and Gramma who were camping out at the lake. The occasion was a group Birthday celebration for Audrey (Mom), Aunt Cathy, and Taylor.



It was warm but had been cold recently, so the water was NOT so warm. The kids lasted longer than I thought they would!






Then it was time to play in the sand for some:

And time to knit for others:

Then we retreated to the campsite for food and cake. It was a nice relaxing day!