Lets Remember December cuz its been one CRAZY January

Just call our house Germ-Central. Pick a virus, any virus...and its been comfortably living in our house since January 3rd. Its a miracle that I only have one sick child at the moment, but I'm starting to get a sore throat. Thats just how January 2011 has been. Jealous? Then come on over to Germ-Central and we'll share.
So today I'm posting pics of a better time. Way back in Decemeber when no one was sick, not even during the holidays, so we could go and do things like this........





And it was SO fun too!!!

Christmas 2010

Gene started Christmas morning at 4:00am. He heard 2 little boys downstairs rummaging through presents! :) Sheri was sound asleep in her warm cozy bed....
Gene finally convinced them to go back to bed by promising more back scratches. What a GREAT Dad! By 7:00am everyone was up and havin-at the presents!
Here are Audrey and Isaac...


Audrey BEYOND excited (which is why she is blurry) about her new camera!


William LOVIN his tennis raquet and walkie talkie watches!




Isaac is hoping he got the DS game Scribble-Naut...and he DID!


The teenager (Austin) trying to wake up..

And here he is with a hat he BEGGED for, and got...so funny! He LURRRVES it!


Mom got some SASSY boots! THANK YOU Santa!...pic was taken by a wee-child...hence the blurry-ness, but thats okay, because Mom was actually feeling a bit blurry herself!


Dad got the BEST foot massager from Santa! He was nice and shared it with all of us!


Dad made us omelets for breakfast, then took the kids to this cool park to go sledding. No pics of that because Mom didn't go. Mom still needs to get appropriate outerwear for snow...maybe Santa will bring that next year.

After sledding with one of our favorite families, the Meschoulam's, they came over to have cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa for a bit. Then Dad made us another FABULOUS dinner...and we put the kids to bed. THE END. :)

Christmas Eve 2010

We have a tradition of eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve! This year we went to PF Changs (so Audrey & Mom could get gluten free) and the Izu's came with us! It was YUMMY!
Here is Rachel Izu with her sweet Jonathan...Rachel is Gene's cousin and we like her...ALOT! :)

Here is as much of the dinner party as I could capture...

Mom and Audrey!


After dinner we went back to our house to play and decorate cookies!
Jonathan didn't want the icing on the cookie...he wanted it in his mouth!


Is he CUTE or what?? All the Izu children are beautiful!!


Here are Isaac & Audrey


And William is concentrating SUPER hard...can you tell? His tongue was just a waggin...too CUTE!


After the Izu's left, we opened our exchange gifts and Christmas jammies....
Here is the crew with their jammies...Mom's not wearing jammies, but the pink shirt she has on makes her face look sunburned?!

Then we read the Christmas story and put the overly-excited-for-Christmas children to bed! We had to scratch a lot of little backs to help sleepiness set in. :)

Austin the TEENAGER

Austin has been having get-togethers with his friends from school alot lately. These
gatherings have started to include girls....CUTE girls. This is how we KNOW he is officially a teenager! ;)
Here are some pics of the "get-together" decorating cookies...


Gabe likes making funny faces...its what he does...

Gingerbread House Dec 2010

Gene went to Isaac's class this year to help the kids make a gingerbread house for their teacher, Mrs. Hickey. They had LOADS of fun! And William even got to go!
Here is Mrs. Hickey and Issac with the finished gingerbread house.


Gene (such a GOOD Dad!) and Isaac

Thanksgiving 2010

We had such a fun Thanksgivng this year! Gene's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Robert Ahlborn
came from Oklahoma and their daughter Rachel Izu (who they really came to see) and family (live in Dayton 40 mins north of us) came to our house for the feast. We ate GOOOOOD food and had FUN conversation. Debbie and Robert have the BEST stories to tell....but I guess anyone with 12 children might have a story or two! ;)
Here is Gene with his Aunt Debbie and Uncle Robert.


Here are Brent & Rachel Izu....TOO CUTE!


The kids had fun too...but they were always in motion so it was hard
to take pics of them!




Mom & Dad on Thanksgiving, courtesy of Audrey....

Officially an Eagle Scout! Nov 2010

We held Austin's Eagle Scout Court of Honor Saturday November 20th. It was a nice meeting....and of course Mom and Dad got teary. We are so proud of Austin and his dedication to earning this award. But mostly we are just SO proud of the person he is all the time! He is such a thoughtfull, considerate, smart young man who really goes out of his way to be good and to do good. We LOVE you Austin!!


Brother Mark Johnson helping Austin put on his new Eagle Scout garb.




Gabe West (Austin's good friend from school), Austin and Scott Johnson (fellow scout and friend from church)


Austin's WONDERFUL teacher Mrs. Fifarek came to the Court of Honor. She is the most feared teacher at Hopewell Junior, but Austin enjoys her challenging class.

Halloween 2010

Since Halloween landed on a Sunday this year, our church group decided to do a "Trunk or Treat" in the parking lot. The kids loved it and amazingly enough it wasn't too cold.

Here are Alexa (Audrey's friend & neighbor), Audrey, Isaac, Mira (William's friend & neighbor), and William.


Mom joined in the pic on this one.... :)


Here are Mira & William in the costume parade they did around the church building.

It was a GOOD time....how could it not be with all that CANDY??!! ;)

Daddy (Gene) has a BIRTHDAY!

Its the big #41 for Gene this year. Last year he got a tennis raquet...and this year he got a tennis trainer...the man LOVES tennis (and every other known sport). :)
Here is the man himself with one of his birthday pumpkin pies!


Goofball Gene...Daddy!! He knows better than to put a pie in MY face! ;)


There we go....he CAN be narmal! lol! LOVE you Love!

PS...DON'T mind my messy kitchen!

Isaac's Baptism Oct 9, 2010

This was a very special day for Isaac, and for the rest of the family too. We are so proud of Isaac for choosing to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Here is Isaac with Dad on the left and Mom on the right just before being baptized.


Dad and Isaac

I should mention that Isaac's "Ahlborn cousins" from Indiana also came as well as the Izu family (Rachel Ahlborn Izu is Gene's cousin) but we neglected to take pictures of them.

Isaac's #8 Birthday Party Sept 18 2010

It really is hard to believe that our sweet boy Isaac is 8 yrs old!!! We are SOOOOO glad he is ours though. He is so kind and thoughtfull and a peacemaker...and a good friend...I could go on and on....

Here is Isaac at his birthday party (held at home, mostly in the backyard) with the cake Daddy made, and his buddies Ethan and Blake.


They played MANY party games...this one they had to see who could make a standing structure using marshmellows and toothpicks the fastest.


Isaac has a messy face because they played a game where they had to put their face into a plate of whipped cream to find a piece of gum...and whoever found it the fastest AND blew the first bubble with their gum won! :)






The entire group of Party Animals! ;)

First Day of School Aug 2010

For some reason I just haven't found my groove with the First Day of School pictures. Hopefully my children will forgive me! I got one decent shot of Isaac and Audrey on their way out the door...but not a one of Austin. Alas, I will keep trying.... :)