Bowling

The family decided to spend an afternoon at the bowling alley which was so much fun! It was Owens first time bowling, and he really liked it and did a great job! He wanted to bowl one handed, just like everyone else and refused to use both hands and push the ball down the alley. 

Uncle Brad helped Owen with his technique

I loved Owen's little tiny bowling shoes :)

Family + Pictures

Christmas is always the best time to get pictures with all of the family members. Having everyone together, usually dressed nicely and in similar Christmas-y colors makes for great photo ops. Here are some of the pics with family we took for Christmas 2011-

 Love these photos of Peyton & Owen with Great Grandma & Grandpa Moses

 Siblings...how blessed are we to have eachother?

 Siebert Family photo time

 And of course, a funny face shot. I love how Owen has now made these a part of our traditional Christmas family photos. (I also love that he is checking to be sure everyone is participating and that even Peyton got in on the action!)

 Kids...all grown up :-)

Since the Fall Donna had been planning for a family photo session with all of us wearing black shirts, jeans and red scarves. Everyone was onboard and excited but when our photographer plans didn't work out, no one was really sure how the pictures were going to go. I must say, I love this series of photos so much...I love how everyone was onboard, I love how they are posed yet causal, and most of all, I love the memories we made while taking them!

 Cute, but Peytons eyes are closed...

 Cute, but Peyton is yawning (no doubt bored with us already)

 Cute again, but Peyton's mouth is covered with her scarf (perhaps to hide the yawning?)

 Oh we give up!

 Just the girls

 And just the boys

 Yep, thats about a typical scene!

 More funny faces

 And finally, our sweet family of 4, Christmas 2011

Traveling Four

Our trip to IL for Christmas was the first time we flew together as a family of 4, and it was Peyton's first time on an airplane too. The kids did amazing, and we just made sure to give ourselves plenty of extra time so we never felt any need to rush.

We took a taxi to Reagan Airport (see photo above) which is one of Owens favorite things to do. I'm not sure what he likes more, the fact that he can ride in a cab with no carseat or that they have little tvs in the backseat. Either way, he loves it, and he was quick to point out that Baby P had never been in a taxi before.

 Here are are, chillin' at the gate 

 Owen took these pictures while playing with my phone :) (BTW, thank you Lord for all iDevices) 

Peyton on her first airplane

Owen, Mommy and Peyton wait for Daddy to get the rental car in Milwaukee after our first successful flight! Phew, one down, countless more to go!

Christmas Time

We have had tons of excitement around here getting ready for Christmas to arrive! We've had many parties to attend, white elephant gift exchanges to partake in and children's Christmas Programs to enjoy. We kicked off the fun of the season with our small group Christmas party at the McShanes house. It is always so wonderful to be together and to enjoy dinner and a gift exchange, and this year playing with 6 of the most adorable children around.

 A few of the girls playing on the floor

 Owen, Peyton, Emerson, Jovie, Ruth & Madeline

Each December in church the children go in front of the congregation and sing a few Christmas songs. This year I was so excited for Owen to sing because he actually knew the songs and the motions. Unfortunately, mother nature got the best of him and we had to leave in the middle of the performance to go to the bathroom! But I suppose that was much better then the alternative :)

Pictures in front of the tree at home after church

And the final big event before we travelled to IL was Owen's Christmas Program at school. He was assigned the role of "Maraca Player" during the song "Feliz Navidad" and he even got to wear a sombrero during the performance! The Program was very nice, the kids sang 4 different songs and at the end we all joined in with the teachers and sang from the hymn books "Angels We Have Heard on High"

"Jingle Bells"

"Mary & Joseph"

"Feliz Navidad"

"We Wish You A Merry Christmas"

Photography by Owen

Its been awhile since I've posted pictures taken by our littlest photographer. He loves to walk around with the camera and gets very proud of the photos he snaps. Here are some that he's taken over the past few months-

 "Train"

 "Remote"

"Balloon"

"Mary & Joseph"

"Christmas Train"

"Engine"

"Gingerbread House"

 I taught him how to work the self timer on the camera...

 And Robert taught him how to take pictures in Instagram on my phone...

And here  I was taking pictures of Peyton with my phone and he decided to snap a few...

The night we went to my work Christmas party we asked Owen to take a few pictures of us before leaving...it was our first night leaving both kids behind!

(the picture at the top of this post is of Owen on the other side of these photos)