Isn't She a Beauty?

Guess Who Lost His First Tooth?

Christmas 2018

Christmas didn't quite go as planned, but we have a lot to be grateful for.

Reading Christmas stories with Grandpa on Christmas Eve

The kids' joyful faces on Christmas morning: (By Christmas Day, everyone except for Owen was displaying flu symptoms.)

Opening presents in our hotel room ("the Penthouse") with Grandma and Grandpa. Bonus points if you can spot a puke bucket and a kid wiping his nose with his hand. (There aren't many pictures of Owen because the dude was too excited to stand still, and Emma was asleep the whole time.)

Christmas dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's apartment. Grandma and Owen played Nerf guns while all the other kids rested:

We spent the last 6 hours of Christmas in the ER with Emma. The on-call pediatrician insisted that Emma's fever was an emergency that needed to be addressed immediately. She also insisted that we couldn't give her any Tylenol. So we reluctantly took Emma in and sat around forever, because the hospital personnel obviously didn't think it was an emergency. This is the only picture we got--of the dirty floor in our exam room. So yeah, our experience at Children's Medical Center Dallas wasn't great:

Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to watch the other sickies while we were at the hospital, which was a huge blessing. Otherwise (sick) Emily would have had to go to the ER with the baby on her own, or else all seven of us would have had to go. That would have been miserable.

And hey, we're blessed that Emma's fever immediately went away once they *finally* gave her Tylenol. And her symptoms have been very mild otherwise. We're very blessed to live in a time when the flu is mostly just annoying and not widely fatal like it once was.

And we're lucky that we got to spend the holidays in a nice hotel room, and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. :)

School Christmas Parties

Heidi and friends (plus a William photo bomb)

Liz came home wearing this elf hat

Grinch Party

There was a Grinch night at the library yesterday. The kids ate snacks while watching the original movie, made a craft, and had their picture taken with the Grinch!

(Gotta love the random photo bomber.)

Catching Up

Our annual tradition of visiting Santa at Bass Pro

2nd Grade Musical... Heidi had a small speaking part.

After the musical, with her friend Rose. (They've been in the same class for 3 years in a row.)

At a birthday party for Jase. Jase is in Owen's class, and his older sister Jayla is in Lizzie's class.  

Making sugar cookies for preschool.

Christmas shopping at the school's holiday shop.

Emma in her Christmas dress. 8 weeks old.

Scott helped one of his ministering families chop down a tree this weekend.

With one of his former young men (and ministering companion in the background).
Brendan is getting ready to go on a mission in 2019.

We love our library! The Teen Space has a lot of Harry Potter cut outs, and Liz got a kick out of this festive Snape.

Emily's Birthday

Scott took Emily and the two younger kids to lunch at Grand Lux Cafe while the three older kids were in school:

Free dessert

6 Weeks Old

I know it's cliche, but this kid needs to stop growing so fast... She's getting so big! She's half an ounce away from 10 pounds. At today's check up she was 37th percentile for weight, 83rd percentile for height, and 37th percentile for head circumference.

Trimming the Tree

Goofball

Daddy-Daughter Date

At the Domain (a fancy schmancy shopping center by Dad's work):