Christmas at the Krebs' home

So we got to stay home for Christmas this year. It was the first time ever and it was a lot of fun. We kind of started some traditions or did a couple that we have grown up with or wanted to start. Hopefully next year if we stay home again, we will be able to do more or plan better at least. Here is our pathetic tree. The top broke completely last year I think. We have been using twist ties and pencils to hold up our star in the past. This year I tried a bow and it still didn't really work. We had a wonderful Christmas starting with a video from Aiselyn down at the bottom. Then we had a big breakfast and waited for Gabe to wake up to open presents. We didn't get around to opening presents till like 10 or 10:30 or maybe that is when we finished. I don't remember. I just remember the 10:30 part and thinking that was pretty good.

Aiselyn and Abby are holding up their little Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty dolls that they got in their stockings. They have loved these little dolls/figurine things.

Here I am passing out the presents. We each take turns opening one present at a time so that everyone can see what the others open. We really enjoy that!

Here is some of the terror. I have most of everything cleaned up and some put away but not much. The kitty found solace in Gabe's train box. He always likes curling up in boxes, stools, plastic grocery bags and other odd places.

The girls are playing with Gabe on his train. They all love this riding toy! Thank you Grandma Pinkard! The girls also got scooters and they thank you for those as well.

Later, or actually I think it is the next morning or something but anyway, Abby is looking at the computer with Daddy and Chloe, our dog, is very relaxed in an odd contorted way! I thought it was an interesting picture! This puppy enjoys laying around and snoozing!

And here is the kitty resting and snoozing. He as deemed under the tree "his" spot. The velvet tree skirt bore witness to it. It was covered in kitty fur...and it wasn't all that easy to get off, but he loved sleeping there so I let him. He also enjoys curving his body around and upside down and every which way he can. He is an odd cat, but very friendly so who can complain I guess!

Here the kids are in their Christmas outfits. Aren't they adorable?!

Here are some cute videos of Aiselyn on Christmas morning and of Gabe riding his train. This video of Aiselyn doesn't do justice. She came in soooo excited about all the presents so I had her say it again for the video but her reaction isn't nearly what it was. Oh well!

Finally...our Thanksgiving pictures!

I have had the hardest time getting my pictures off my camera lately. I know...it's no excuse right! well, Tommy showed me a new way and it is waaaaaay easier than what I was doing so lo and behold...our vacations recently (our christmas pictures will be up this week as well--hopefully tomorrow---well, maybe). So we drove up to Maryland for Tommy's grandfather's 95th birthday party. It was a lot of fun especially for the kids. I got to make the cake and let me just brag a little bit...BUT IT WAS AWESOME! I'm not usually one for carrot (that's what he wanted) but this one was great! I had to make the Texas bluebell wildflowers by hand and it was a challenge let me tell you but it turned out pretty well!

Here is Grandpa Krebs (great-grandpa to the kids) giving a little speech!

Grandma Krebs doing the chicken dance with all the kids!

Cousins being silly (Katie in the hat, Devin, and Abby with Lucas and Garret in the background)

This is Thanksgiving day at Tommy's cousin, Roxanne's, house where Aiselyn is of course reading to Grandma. If some of you out there don't know much about Aiselyn, she loves to read! This is an understatement. She is only in Kindergarten but she probably reads at a 2nd grade level at least. She astonishes me quite frequently with what she reads. I hope my other kids will follow suite but I doubt it!

The after dinner snooze. This is classic of Tommy and Abby. Like father like daughter!

Here is Gabe and Lucas with a unique picture of two 1 year olds...barely one year olds...laying together still on the floor. Who does that? It was pretty fun. They actually camped out there for a while especially Gabe--he's such a laid back boy. He is truly awesome I must say!

So we were in the car going on a drive or something and Gabe insisted on holding both the girls hands. It was the sweetest thing ever! It may look like he's trying to get free, but it's only my poor picture taking skills at work. He and they were loving it. The girls would say things like, "awe, he's so cute!" or something to that effect. They're all silly!

So being in Maryland we had to catch up with our friends the Gish family. we met them to eat at a restaurant for dinner. we caught up on each other's lives and had fun hanging out for awhile. Here Gabe is sucking on lemon slices that come in your water! For some reason he thought they were pretty fine!

here we all are minus me of course..I'm taking the picture!

Here are the girls. They wanted their own picture taken and they are all so adorable. there's Lillian, Abby, Eleanor, and Aiselyn. The baby Camilla (well, she's like 2 or something but still she's their baby) isn't sitting with them.

thank you all so much for a wonderful time in Maryland. I know this is late and already January but it's better late than not at all...at least I like to think so! More to come soon on our latest exploits!

Trip to Dahlanega, Georgia

We took a trip Friday night up to North Georgia in Dahlanega where Tommy is doing some restoration work on some streams and rivers and ponds and things on this huge piece of property. we stayed up there for the night and tromped around on saturday and had a lot of fun on the mule and traipsing around.

Here we are getting ready to go.

Gabe's ready to drive this big thing already!

the girls with our dog, Chloe around one of the ponds. Right after this, we let chloe off the leash and she had sooooooo much fun running around and playing in the river that is coming up!

Here we are having a little walk around the pond.

this is the Chestetee River. The girls had a ton of fun getting all wet...while it lasted. Right when they were done, they were super cold. We were in the mountains after all!

they had a whole heap of fun running through the water. Chloe was super excited and kept running up and down and back again!

Here is Aiselyn finding some warmth in the warm sand after soaking herself in the river. she and abby were soooooo dirty and covered in sand. there was a little beach of sorts on the bank of the river. It was really neat. On the property, right next to this river there used to be an old Indian resevation or whatever and you can still find broken pottery and arrow heads in the ground. It was fun trying to spot some on our little walk to the river. Chloe had so much fun running around she didn't even want to get back into the mule to ride home, she insisted on running behind us all the way back. I was impressed with our little puppy for never even wanting to run away and for getting so much excercise! We had a fun trip and came home in time to get clean for Church today where the kids had their primary program. It was awesome. the kids yelled..I mean sang their little hearts out especially Aiselyn! All in all, it was a GREAT weekend!

Aiselyn's birthday and Halloween!!!!!

These pictures are all out of order. My computer won't let me drag and change the order. That or I'm just retarded, take your pick!

Here are all of us in our halloween outfits. Abby is an alligator/dragon (it depended on the day you asked her which one she was, but I think she did say she was the alligator on halloween day!), Gabe is a little lion, and Aiselyn is Cinderella! Aren't they just so cute?!

Tommy and I are ceiling fans!

Here is Gabe eating a sucker and making a royal drooling mess but looking incredibly adorable!

Aiselyn turned six just before halloween and we had a huge turn out for her party. we invited almost the whole branch worth of kids and they all pretty much came. It was awesome, but very loud! Aiselyn chose these colors on her polar bear cake and I made an extra cake since there was going to be so many people. it was really cool. she had a blast. thank you all for coming and sharing this day with her!

We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening one night. That was a lot of fun! The kids enjoyed themselves and chose the patterns with help of course!

we got a puppy!!!!

Some friends of ours were trying to down size their animals---they had quite a few---so we offered to help them out. This is 5 month old Chloe. She is a mutt---beagle and boxer at least---and is a lot of fun and really good with the kids and of course house broken or she wouldn't have come home with us. These were taken on her first day with us. I'm glad she likes us and our kitty although Chloe likes to try and get the kitty to play with her and Tommy cat doesn't like that too much. He is still miffed at us most of the time for bringing in another animal especially that is so much bigger than he is. Welcome home Chloe!!!

My Cute Kids!!!

We went to Tanger Outlet Mall the other day to look around and I found these hats in the clearance bin. How cute are they? The girls are just adorable in them. Here are some fun pictures of them! We took a bunch more of course but I don't want to wait for the uploading of course so here are a couple of good ones of both of them together!

Gabe likes to play the piano. He's starting early! If he keeps it up, when he gets a little older, he will be a real heart throb. Every girl likes a boy who can play the piano to them. Watch out!!!!

He especially loves to play while I am playing. I always need to keep the piano open so that he can crawl...yes, he is still crawling at 14 months...up to the piano and plunk around. It is so precious!

Here is Gabe and me!

Don't you look dapper?

I got this little outfit from a friend of mine, and I scheduled for Gabe to get his picture taken at Target for turning 1. I tried it on Gabe to see how it fit and just knew that he needed his pictures taken in this outfit. I went cheap and just picked one pose at the store but couldn't get enough of how cute Gabe is so I took a bunch more of him at home. I love this little man. He is so fun to have around and he is now starting to give actual hugs and loves and it is so PRECIOUS! He came down with a cold today that he must have caught from his sisters so he has a fountain instead of a nose--poor guy! The girls love school, to say the least, and it is so fun to have one-on-one time homeschooling Abby. I need to take more pictures of them, but they are always so busy playing and whatnot that I just forget. oh well! enjoy these fun pictures of Gabe!