February Gymnastics Meet at Legacy

It worked out really nicely that the same weekend as McKinley's birthday Reagan had a gymnastics meet in town for Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chuck and Aunt Julie to come too. Jordan and Ally also got up early Sunday morning to come and watch Reagan do her thing.

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Sweet friends! Thanks for the support Ally! :)

 Reagan has the best sportsmanship I've ever seen. She is so excited for her friends every time they win, I love her sweet little heart!

 Miss Reagan excited and saluting for a medal she won

 A picture of our little gymnast and IL cheerleaders

 Reagan thought she was pretty funny stealing Uncle Chuck's hat

Thank you to Grammy and Kelly for staying home and riding herd on all the little guys so the rest of us could enjoy and watch the meet! :)

McKinley's Minnie Mouse 1st Birthday Party

Since we frequently call McKinley "Minnie Mouse" we decided that would be an appropriate theme for her 1st birthday party. That, and of course our family just loves Mickey and Minnie and all their friends! :)

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Look at this amazing cake my best friend and McKinley's godmother, Kelly, made for her to celebrate with. It was so super cute!!! :)

Our little Minnie Mouse and a pretty decent picture of our family at the party too! :)

  McKinley with her Godparents, Kelly and Charlie

McKinley received lots of love and attention from her grandmothers for her birthday

 Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Julie and Uncle Chuck came to celebrate McKinley's birthday with us.

 How sweet is this picture of McKinley laughing with Grandma and Grandpa?

 Grandma, McKinley and Aunt Julie

These two always take such great pictures together! I sure love them both! :)

  Everyone loves Uncle Chuck! :)

Such a good picture of Reagan and Grandpa! :) 

 Missy K being silly with Grandma...

 and sweet too... :)

 McKinley with Grammy meeting her new little buddy, Anna Leigh  

 These two definitely need to make a trip to Disney World together! :)

 McKinley enjoying her super cute and yummy cake! :)

 I can't believe how much fun McKinley had opening presents. She was a hoot! :)

 What more could a little girl want than a Minnie Mouse chair, a big friend like Chaz, and lots of presents and love? 

I'm not sure how we didn't manage to get a picture of all the kids at the party together. I'm sorry we missed pictures of Anna, Heidi, Holden, Ally, Cooper and Spencer but they were of course a big part of the fun! Thank you to everyone who helped to make McKinley's 1st birthday so special!

Christmas 2013

Our children are blessed beyond measure with all the people who love them and all the gifts they receive each year for Christmas. As I shared previously we celebrate an early Christmas with Aunt Arla and Uncle Scott when they visit us in November for the girl's violin recital.

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This year Aunt Julie and Uncle Chuck brought Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa which the kids were more than happy to open and enjoy Thanksgiving weekend. I can't possibly post pictures of everything, but here are a few of my favorites of them opening up some of their gifts. 

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Each of the girls received a box filled with numerous American Girl Doll accessories. You can tell by their faces that they're just a little excited. :)

Grandma gave each of the kids their very own 6 pack of Puffs - I cannot tell you how excited each of them were to receive these! lol :) 

  Jackson was in heaven with an arsenal of new guns (these are only a couple of them). :)

 McKinley certainly wasn't left out either! My favorite gift she received was this number flower garden - it is soooo cute! All the kids love playing with this and it is such a good learning toy!

 Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for all the wonderful gifts! We truly appreciate them and love you lots!

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It has been our tradition for the last several years to open up Christmas gifts with Grammy and Grand-Dad on Christmas Eve morning. I was impressed with how well the kids cooperated in getting a group picture taken before opening gifts. :)

 Kennedy with Grammy and her new Molly doll and Reagan with her new doll, Kit

 Grammy and Grand-Dad gave McKinley her first American Girl Doll which was the doll of the year for 2013, Saige.

 

 McKinely enjoying a Godchild ornament for Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jen

Jackson must not have been in the mood for pictures that morning because this is about the only decent picture Grand-Dad or I caught of him. At least it's a cute pic of all the kids with Grammy and Grand-Dad! :)

 Thank you Grammy and Grand-Dad for all the beautiful and amazing gifts and for all you do for us throughout the year!

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And of course Santa may have brought the kids a couple of gifts. :) I once again tortured my crew with taking a pic with the presents before letting them opening their gifts. We especially had to get a picture since they were all wearing their super cool camouflage jammies from Grandma and Grandpa! :)

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I have to tell one story about Jackson, especially given how excited he is in this picture. Jackson has come such a long way in loving McKinley since she was born and he refused to even be in the same room as her. Christmas morning he came down the stairs, walked straight past everything under the tree to come and love on her before he did anything else. It was so sweet! My children can certainly be a challenge at times, but they really do have good hearts when it comes to loving each other and other people. :)

Reagan sporting a new bike helmet while opening up doll furniture for the new dollhouse

Jackson's two favorite gifts were his Big Wheels and a new set of Disney Cars

 

 As has been our tradition for the other girls, McKinley received a Bitty Baby for from Santa for her 1st Christmas.

 Kennedy helping McKinley open and read a book from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jen

 We gave the grandparents Santa ornaments made from the kids handprints. I have to say they did turn out pretty cute and the girls sure were proud of their efforts!

Thank you to everyone for being so generous to our family. We feel so incredibly blessed each year by our wonderful family and friends and appreciate you more than you could possibly ever know! We are especially thankful to God for sending us His son that we might all have eternal life. That by far is the most important reason for all of us to celebrate and share the joy of this blessed season! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year as well! :)

Southern Lights 2013

Another of our holiday family traditions is visiting the Kentucky Horsepark's Southern Lights display. As well as the beautiful lights, they have an awesome petting zoo and Santa. Because we generally visit Southern Lights Thanksgiving weekend (which also included Kennedy's birthday this year) we were able to include the Stiriz family and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Julie in this tradition as well as Uncle Dan, Aunt Dorothy, Heidi and Holden. It was a beautiful night and we had a wonderful time as always!

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McKinley's 1st visit with Santa - she did a great job and I think this picture is so sweet! Part of the reason she did so well is because she had her favorite bear from Aunt Arla to keep her company. 

 Jackson wasn't in the mood for pictures or cooperation (a real shocker, I know...) so we just got this super cute picture of the three girls with Santa. :)

 2/3 of the LaBar/Lueker clan

 Aunt Julie and Uncle Chuck with our sweet girls :)

 I love this sweet picture of Aunt Julie and McKinley looking at lights together

 The girls had the opportunity to pose with Frosty and the Nutcracker too :)

 Such a cute picture of Chaz and McKinley - he is so awesome with all my little guys! 

 The four big girls waiting for a train ride

 I'm not sure how it happened, but Tim ended up with basically all the kids in an itty bitty train car. The kids had a fabulous time singing at the top of their lungs and I'm sure Tim enjoyed the ride as much as they did. :)

 Charlie, Kelly, Aunt Julie and McKinley had a slightly less crazier train car (and probably ride too)

 Off they go! :)

 After the train ride we headed to the petting zoo to feed a wide variety of animals

 The kids also took turns on the adult camels

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Anna and Reagan

 Chaz and Jackson

 Kennedy and Heidi

 And Jackson finished off the evening in his usual delightful manner... Kelly just scooped him up and carried him along as he screamed at us. Oh how I love this challenging little boy! ;)

Thanks to the Stiriz, Cox and LaBar families for making our 2013 Southern Lights outing a memorable one! Looking forward to doing this with some or all of you for many years in the future and we especially can't wait to include our new cousin, baby Cole! :)