Merry Christmas 20009!!!!!

Christmas at our house was wonderful this year. We woke up to a white Christmas in Texas!!!! The kids didn't get up too early and Grandma Bergen even had to send them down to get up Mom and Dad. That might be a first for a Grandma to have to send the kids in! Part of that may have been because Paisley was already snuggled in bed with us and didn't realize it was a day to wake up early and open presents. We opened presents in our traditional family way were one person gets a gift and we all watch as they open it then that person gets to pick a gift for the next person. This makes Christmas morning last so much longer and we all get to enjoy seeing what was given. It was a very merry Christmas with Grandma and John joining us. But the best part this year was that the kids all wrote letters to eachother and they did a really fantastic job, said the sweetest things, and made eachother so happy.

The kids all lined up being tortured while waiting for Daddy to give the OK

John's elbow had a run-in with Luke's eye the night before

Three of John's favorite things.... KIA and The Tigers and Korean socks

Phoebe was soo happy to finally get her own set of scriptures

Paisley LOVES Tinkerbell

You should have seen the joy on Ethen's face when he opened this warm hat from Nana and Papa. A perfect replacement to the one he lost while in Korea after only having it a few days.

Luke Skywalker!!!

The cutest hat and gloves EVER sent from Korea!!!

Sheer joy in those eyes after asking for a DS for 4 years

Can't believe Santa brought an Ipod Touch

hopefully not Kia's last Christmas

Christmas Eve, Eve

We had our annual Christmas Eve, Eve party this year with good friends. Santa and Mrs. Clause came and delivered pajamas to all the kids. The nativity was a hit again and went very smoothly even though there are sooo many kids :) Phoebe was Mary this year, Ethen and Luke were shepherds, and Paisley was an angel/fairy!

Happy Birthday to Daddy

Scott celebrated 37 this week! We had a little family party with just us.

Angel

Phoebe was an angel in our wards christmas program. She did a great job singing and being on stage.

Tis the Season...

Started decorating. Here is a little preview.

Thanksgiving 2009

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year and had a total of 16 people with lots of yummy food and desserts. I was too busy cooking and eating dinner and forgot to take pictures but here are a few funny/cute ones.

Luke building a tower with the stuffing bread

Paisley eating mint ice cream for dessert

Michelle gave Paisley this great idea to use a straw

Luke's dessert plate (Don't worry he didn't finish it)

Wrestle Bonding

Some good bonding time between Scott and Ethen. It won't be too long before Ethen can take him!

Cheer Fest

Well the cheer season is officially over. It was so fun to watch Phoebe this year. She is a great cheerleader and loves being in front of the crowd. Here are some pictures from cheer fest.

Luke's Preschool Feast

Luke had his preschool Thanksgiving feast. They dressed up as Indian mighty hunters :) So adorable. I was counting and realized this was my 6th one of these to attend. All of the kids have gone through the same GREAT preschool.

Luke with Carson (2nd cousin) they are lucky enough to be in the same class!

I LOVE how "my mom" is one of the things he was thankful for :)!!!!!

Cheeks full of lunch feast already

closeups of Ethen

Here are some closer pictures of Ethen. Isn't he aswesome!

that kid is not getting past Ethen. Perfect tackle

Ethen with the ball #25

Chocolate Wrap

Paisley thought it was more fun to use a piece of chocolate to smear all over herself than to eat it. I find it slightly ironic that there is no chocolate on her face. It must have already been slightly melty and she just couldn't resist herself. I must say that it does look like fun!

Halloween 2009

Thankfully Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, because we didn't get around to carving pumpkins this year until the day of Halloween. That usually is the best way to do it here in TX because it is usually pretty warm and they shrivel up if you carve them too early. 4 kids = 4 pumpkins. All of them wanted scary faces so we did our best.

There were a few more spooky houses this year and Paisley was done trick or treating after 2 streets. She did not like the scary houses, but kept grinning at her bag while saying she got candy! We did the traditional trunk-or-treat at the church and then came home for house to house hunting. The kids have soooo much candy and the little ones are already having meltdowns from too much sugar.Our glowing pumpkins

Star of the month X2

Ethen was awarded the star of the month for the core value of individuality! The really cool thing about it was that he got the award twice!!! One from his homeroom teacher and one from the P.E. teacher. That almost never happens to get it two times in one month. I will brag on Ethen a little here and just say that he is an exceptional student and good kid. Recently a friend of mine wrote me an email to tell me what a good kid he was. She happened to be in his class one day to observe another student and noticed how he kept his eyes on the teacher while another student was trying to distract him. I haven't seen this friend of mine in awhile and thought it was really nice of her to send me a note just to tell me about how great a kid I have. So there you go. Ethen is our Star of the Month!!!