Wolter Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with G&G Wolter, Uncle Keith, Aunt Leslie, and Brooke on Christmas Eve.  The kids were of course spoiled too much!  The highlights were muck boots for Bradley, pampered chef stuff for Kimberly, Taylor Swift calendar for Lauren, and a hand made work bench for Blake.  Grandpa put many hours into his work bench and it turned our fabulous.  It was truly a labor of love! 

After Christmas eve service we took some official Christmas pictures of everyone dressed up.  Then enjoyed eating delicious food and then off to bed for Santa's arrival.  I had to laugh at Lauren because on our drive home (the whole 3 miles) she said she was just so tired she had to go straight to bed.  She didn't even bother to leave out cookies and milk for Santa!  Good thing her mom took care of that for her! 

Gingerbread House

Our first experience with making a Gingerbread house!  The kids had so much fun.  Notice our version compared to the professionally made one that was sent to us as a Christmas gift!

A Very Buggy Christmas

Lauren's school Christmas concert was a bug theme this year.  It was so good!  It was very obvious how much time and effort the music director and the kids had put in the production.  Lauren was a bee and did a great job of singing! 

Voss Christmas

Breakfast with Santa

This year we tried something new and had breakfast with Santa with kids.  Bradley was out of town so the kids and I went with the Gaines' family.  We went to Eckerts and had a great time.  The kids got to spend a lot of one on one time with Santa telling him their wishes.  Then they got to decorate sugar cookies and have their hands or faces painted.  The meal was awesome too!  I think this may become a new tradition for us! 

Christmas Cookies

One of our Christmas traditions is to make sugar cookies.  This is always a big project that I could not do without the patience of my mother in law.  The kids and her cut them all out, while I work on decorating.  Lauren is the chief sprinkle applicator and Blake is the chief icing tester.....

Blake's Christmas Concert

 

Blake's first Christmas concert was so cute.  He was in tears when I dropped him off because he was nervous.  However by the time it came to perform he did really good.  I had to chuckle because when the boys walked to the front of the church all of them had their shirts untucked.  Of course that was not the way I left him!  I think they all were playing too hard before the concert to keep their shirts tucked in.  Blake did a great job! 

Polar Express

We celebrated Thanksgiving but as usual I have no pictures of it.  Maybe because pictures of people stuffing themselves to complete misery do not make good pictures!  Well that's my excuse.....  Anyways, Thanksgiving came and went.  We are very thankful for the many blessings we have, more than I can ever count or express gratitude for. 

The highlight of Thanksgiving weekend for us was riding the Polar Express.  We had to purchase the tickets back in June!  The kids got geared up in the pjs and we boarded the train in Monticello.  It was so much fun and really got us excited for Christmas! 

Needless to say, the movie was played more times than I can count this Christmas season. 

Outstanding Young Alumni

Bradley was honored with the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the College of ACES at the U of I.  He was honored at a reception and ceremony on November 18th.  Bradley's parents attended with us and it was a great event.  The next day we attended the ACES tailgate where he was recognized again as an award winner.  Aaron, Brekin and the kids joined us for the tailgate and game following. 

It was really nice to see Bradley be recognized for his accomplishments and to spend the weekend at our alma mater.  The only thing that would have made it better was an Illini victory!