Christmas fun

A calendar made by Shari with love. It's a daily reminder for me of our times together.

Shari, Stephen, Alivia and James drove up on Christmas day and stayed until Monday morning. I thoroughly enjoyed the many times we were able to get together and we were able to interact with her beautiful family. She will always be the highlight of their visits here for me. Not knowing when we will see each other next just makes the visits more precious. I have the best sister in the world!

Daddy displaying Ashlynn's gift, chosen especially for him at the school Christmas shop.

My girls could hardly wait for me to open their gifts that they chose at the school Christmas shop. I got a beautiful necklace from Elizabeth and an exquisite magnetic bracelet from Ashlynn. It's so fun to watch their excitement in giving.

The Tower grandchildren did a great job acting out the Christmas story at our party. Luke and Ashlynn are about 2 months apart and Lauren and Bryan are close to 4 months apart. It make family get-togethers fun for everyone.

As a gift to our dad's parents, the cousins all contributed pictures and letters which Shari compiled into a calendar for them. They were delighted.

Bryan using his creativity to decorate a Christmas tree with stickers.

Alivia and Bryan could easily pass for twins with their close height and identical hair color. They're playing with a music box as Great Grandpa looks on.

Bryan ready to go.

Getting a good picture with this crew is not a simple task. James loves his cousin but not is not fond of being held down and sitting still is torture for Alivia and Bryan is well. You get the picture.

What a blessing to be able to enjoy Shari and her family for several days!
Thanks for coming, Stephen and Shari. As always we will look forward to our next visit.

As you can probably tell, we have had a week packed with about 6 different parties. The kids did great through all of the excitement but I think we're all ready for a little bit of normalcy.

We wish you and your family a Happy New Year!

A Week of Fun!

Ashlynn is quickly becoming a master cookie baker. Look at these beautiful cookies!


Of course, Bryan had to get in on the action as well.

His sisters' doing. For all of you who are worried about poor Bryan with two big sisters; there is good reason, but I still couldn't resist taking a picture.

All three of the kids excited to see Santa.

Bryan with his list, made with help from Elizabeth.

Our visit to see Santa is always fun.

We spent this past weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City with Eric's family. This was a second annual trip for us and is quickly becoming a very fun tradition. The kids loved the water and as you can see here, Bryan was very anxious to get the life jacket on and get to the fun.

Ashlynn practicing her swimming. She was one tired girl at the end of each day.

Elizabeth is enjoying freedom as she has become a fairly strong swimmer. It's a bit hard for us to believe as we watched her cry through her first 4 sessions (or about 32 lessons) of swimming lessons a few years ago. Miracles do happen!!!

We discovered that Bryan is a little fish. While he clung to us the first day as if his life depended on it, the second day he was swimming all over the pool and we were chasing him. I think swimming lessons will be in his near future.

What a wonderful time we had as a family. Thank you, Mom and Dad Tower, for a wonderful weekend. It's a gift that we cherish as a family. It was very hard to pack up and head for home.

The girls have spent many hours this December memorizing Luke 2:1-20. To make it even more meaningful, I made the kids costumes so that they could act out the story together.

The children are nestled all snug in their beds..... Have a very Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

What a week!

Here is Bryan enjoying his bathtime. He really is having fun throwing water in his face. I cherished the laughter as it has been a rough couple of weeks with sickness in the Tower house. Ashlynn and Bryan both had the stomach flu last week and are now battling a strep infection and a "bulging ear" as the doctor put it. As of today, Eric is also sick in bed. We're very thankful for antibiotics at our house this week.

Smiles in the midst of sickness are priceless and a balm to an anxious mother's heart!

Taking a break to enjoy the snow dumped on West Michigan this past weekend.

Elizabeth arrived home from school and requested that I get Bryan dressed to play outside with her. Ashlynn was taking a much needed nap. Bryan promptly tackled Elizabeth to the ground and then...

pelted her with snowballs.

May your weekend have many moments of laughter. We're hoping to head to Indianapolis on Saturday morning assuming we are in a little better shape.

We're Thankful that Christmas is Coming!

Bryan trying out his hand at cutting the fringe around the rug under the Christmas tree. No, I never would have let the girls have a scissors at this age.

I'm not sure who was the most excited to get out the Christmas decorations, Mommy or the kids.

Our Taylor friends, the Wileys, blessed us with a visit while they were in town for Thanksgiving. The girls thoroughly enjoyed our generous selection of dress-up clothes, while the adults had a nice chance to visit. It's fun to see our children enjoy our time together as much as we do. For some reason, Bryan was the only one who couldn't quite get the pose for the picture. Curious, isn't it?

Notice the looks of distress growing as you get to the bottom of the pile. Thanks for taking the time to visit, Wileys. We love you, guys!