This year was a first for our family -- the whole Christmas day all to ourselves!  We spent the day at home, opening presents, eating lots of food, playing games and just hanging out.  It was awesome, I could definitely get used to it!!!

Ashten's first Christmas....she wasn't sure about the presents, but she enjoyed the gifts inside and all the paper flying everywhere!

Brayden modeling his new belt

All 4 of our wonderful blessings! 

(Preston was in this kick where he didn't wear shirts to bed, hence the topless boy)

Brayden opening presents!

Logan picked out this ornament for Chris by himself!

Preston being all silly

The boys relaxing on the couch and playing dragons in their new matching outfits

The boys' Christmas play

The Kidz choir at our church had their Christmas program last Wednesday.  It was so cute, but aren't all kids programs?  It's also such a good reminder of why we have Christmas in the first place, both for the kids and for us as adults. 

Brayden had a speaking part

Logan held the "J" in Jesus

Logan was also a wise man

Preston's 3's & 4's choir sang, it was so cute.  Most of the time they were off beat and off key, but that's what makes it so cute!

 All dressed up!

Ashten - 9 months

I remember last Christmas, when I was six months pregnant and feeling huger than I probably was, saying to myself "next Christmas, we'll have a 9-month-old".  What I didn't plan on was that it would feel like this past year has gone by in an instant, so quick!  Ashten is growing up so fast, it's unbelievable really.  She's our last baby and I am trying to savor each and every last baby experience I get, but it seems like everyday she is more and more toddler and less and less baby.

For example, she is crawling very quickly now, getting into all kinds of stuff.  She is pulling herself up on everything she can get her hands on.  Just the other day I caught her pushing her piano around the room and walking behind it.  I have seen her cruise around the coffee table a couple of times.  None of the boys walked before their first birthday, I think Ashten is trying to beat their record.  She's starting to talk too, but she mostly only says the "da" sound.

She is definitely, 100% a mama's girl right now.  I could be sitting right next to Chris on the couch, but if he tries to hold her, no way.  She's gotta be in my lap or down on the floor by herself.  There are a few times where she'll let Chris hold her, but I've gotta be out of eyesight.  She'll let my sister, Monica, hold her a little, but even then she's usually crying and looking around for me.  And the grandmas.....forget about it.  She wants nothing to do with them holding her.

She's finally growing a little hair, but still no teeth.  Her hair is at that cute, fuzzy, sticking up all over the place phase!  She's been sick a lot this past month, poor girl.  Even with being sick (and probably teething, I mean she's gotta be at least working on them, right?) she's still been a great sleeper.  She goes to be at 5:30ish and sleeps till 7 or 8.  She gets up usually only once around 5 to nurse, so it's a pretty nice schedule! 

Tune in next month for "Ashten - 10 months".......(*sniff, sniff*).

Logan lately

Out of all the boys, I would say that Logan is the one that is most into doing crafts and making things.  Not drawing pictures, that's Brayden for sure, but making crafty things.  Like here is a mosaic he made, he probably sits down to do one of these 4-5 times a week.  And he's getting really good at following the directions and patterns on the sheet that comes with it. 

And the other day at school, they had a gingerbread house making party.  He was so excited, it's all he talked about all morning before we left for school.  He was so proud of it.  But he was also so nice and shared it with his brothers when they tore it apart and ate it.  YUM!

Lego house

See this.....?

It took me 3 hours to build.  Yes, that's right - 3 hours!!  I was up till midnight one night.  In hindsight, I probably should've just given up and gone to bed, but at that point I was in too deep, I just had to finish.  You know what I learned? I am definitely no pro at building Legos (which probably explains why it took me so long).  I think that's why Legos are marketed mostly to boys - something in their genetics just makes it easier for them to find the one, itty bitty, tiny piece needed to finish and have fun in the process.

All said, Preston has played with it almost every waking minute since, so that makes me happy and I suppose it was a good time investment.

Christmas letter

We have decided to "go green" and conserve our paper and ink by not mailing out our Christmas letter this year. Instead, we thought we'd just use our blog (gotta love technology)! Hope you enjoy reading our letter online, and please leave us a comment to let us know you were here!

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Merry Christmas everyone!! I really can't believe this year is already almost over, even though it shouldn't really catch me by surprise because I seem to have that same feeling every year. They say time flies when you're having fun. Well if that is true, then we must be having a blast!!!

We have had a busy year, here are some of the highlights of 2010:

• We welcomed the 6th (and final!) member to our family in March. Ashten Briar was born March 21st, a day before her due date. It is a lot of fun to have a daughter, and the boys really like having a sister as well. She is a very busy girl, always trying to keep up with her brothers. She is a wonderful addition to our family!
• Chris and I celebrated 10 years of marriage in July! It's hard to believe it's been that long. We have grown so much over the past ten years, as individuals, as a couple and as a family. We are so happy with the way our life has turned out thus far; we are truly blessed.
• We both turned 30 this year. I guess it doesn't really feel that much different except that we can't say we're in our 20's anymore and saying we're in our 30's just sounds older!
• Logan started full-day kindergarten in the fall and Brayden is now in 2nd grade. They both really love school and are learning a lot. Logan is doing great at reading, after getting an early start this summer when he pretty much taught himself. Brayden is excelling at writing stories and math. Preston gets lonely without his brothers home to play with him, but I think he also enjoys a little more attention from me. And I somehow still manage to stay very busy with just the two younger kids at home during the day.
• Brayden learned to ride his bike without training wheels! Whew, we feel it was as much of a parenting accomplishment as he feels it was a personal accomplishment.
• Preston started Cubbies this fall. How is he already old enough for that? He is doing well with memorizing verses and is really starting to learn some key Bible truths! Brayden and Logan are continuing to do well in AWANA as well.
• Brayden started taking piano lessons this fall. He is doing really well, and seems to be learning quickly. He's even made up his own song already!
• Chris has had a student teacher this fall semester. While he had enjoyed the experience, it has made him a lot busier with the extra work he has to put in.
• We took a week-long vacation to NY this summer to visit some of Chris' relatives. We hadn't been there since Logan was a baby, so it was neat to be able to introduce everyone to Preston and Ashten. It was our first experience flying by ourselves as a family and first time renting a car, so something new for Chris and I as well!
• We attended the Versaw family reunion this summer and had a good time visiting with family and enjoying the mountain air. Brayden and Logan were excited (and a little nervous) to do the zip line, and they had so much fun they wanted to do it again.

We invite you to poke around on the blog more and see what else has been going on this past year in our family. Have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful start to 2011!

I found this dress the other day when I was going through some of my niece's old clothes looking for a Christmas dress.  Luckily I found it just in time, it probably won't fit Ashten much longer.  I can't believe my sister was hoarding it!  (JK, Monica)  Apparently my great-grandma made this dress for my sister when she was little, so it is probably at least 25 years old.  Ashten wore the dress to church last Sunday and got so many compliments on it.  I'm glad that my mom kept it all these years, how neat for Ashten to be able to wear something that her great-great-grandma made!

Reading buddies

One of the nice things about Brayden being pretty fluent in reading is that I can delegate some of the reading responsibilities around here to him.  The other day, I was pretty busy, but Logan had to read his book for his book report that was due the next day.  I sent Brayden and him into the room and Brayden read to him.  Plus, it kind of kills two birds with one stone - Logan gets his book read to him and Brayden logs minutes towards the reading he has to do each week!

Plus, aren't they just so cute sitting there reading together?

Can you tell we have boys?

We mostly only have pink and purple markers left, the rest are all dried out!  Maybe when Ashten is big enough to color she can even things out a bit?

Fun with goo

One of the reasons I think the boys like school so much is because they get to do fun, messy things that I don't let them do at home.  I really should just let them have fun and ignore the mess, but I think it must not be in my genetics or something.  I'm just not a fun, crafty mom, we've just gotta face facts here!

Logan got to make goo (slime) at school the day before Thanksgiving break and then they had fun making a mess playing with it for the next 5 days they had off from school.

I still have dots of stuck-on pink goo on the floor, but oh well.  They had fun with it and I'm not in the mood to get down on my hands and knees and scrub them off.  At least I didn't have to deal with the making-of-the-goo mess that probably was a bear of a clean up at school.