New Year.. New Family

Our new family on New Year's Eve

Dylan's birthday

There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than with a banana football player cake!  When deciding what sort of cake to make for Dylan's birthday I asked the kids... and Magnus said to make a banana football player cake!  I think it had something to do with the fact that Dylan was wearing a shirt with a banana on it at the time and they had just gotten done playing a round of football in the living room.  Nonetheless that cake was yummy and enjoyed by all!

Additionally, the night prior Dylan and Deborah had a birthday eve date night and enjoyed some great food a Chimas Brazilian Steakhouse
 

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve photo of the kids, all dressed up for Church.

Christmas Time



The older kids are actually BoTH looking at the camera!

We are ready for Christmas.  We visited with Santa (twice now), and decorated... not only our house (please note that as requested by Magnus even Harry the fish had a stocking this year, who as a pet, IS A MEMBER of our FAMILY according to Magnus), but we also helped decorate Arlington Cemetery when we participated in Wreaths Across America and placed wreaths on the tombstones. 

Stocking for Harry the fish

Stockings for our new family of 5





Arlington Cemetery Amphitheatre

Reading Arlington Tombstone

Every December since 1992, rain, snow or shine, volunteers have joined the Wreaths Across America organization and placed wreaths on veterans' graves.

In 2010, 6,000 volunteers put down about 24,000 wreaths, emptying 5 semi-tractor trailers.  2011 was a special year. It was the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the 20th anniversary of that first wreath laying at Arlington, and the 10th anniversary of 9/11. That year, the effort ballooned to as many as 10-15,000 volunteers who placed over 80,000 wreaths and unloaded 20 trucks. Last year it grew to 33 trucks, over 110,000 wreaths, and upwards of 15-20,000 volunteers. Thanks to a last minute surge, Wreaths Across America expects even more trucks and wreaths than last year - as many as 40 trucks and over 130,000 wreaths.  (Arlington conducts funerals 6 days a week and can block off only 1 day for this event. In other words, there is no rain/snow/make-up date - it must happen entirely on this single Saturday!)

Some more Christmas/Winter time fun...

This is not the beach, put your shoes on!

Snow angles

GO MIZZOU

We put on our Mizzou (University of Missouri-Columbia) gear for the SEC championship.  Unfortunately that didn’t bring the good luck we had hoped for, to the team.  Missouri was a 2.5-point favorite at kickoff, but in the end, Auburn won 59-42.