December is here before it's June...

..My goodness how the time has flewn.

How did it get so late so soon?

- Dr. Seuss

Hello friends! We're now moving forward to the busy and blessed month of December. Hopefully I'll be able to turn out posts more quickly, seeing as we're already nearly on top of April! Yikes. :)

Doing school at the park means playtime afterwards

Noooooo!

Sister dates are the best

The Westerner (Twisted Root Burger) is oh so yummy

Us girlies went bowling with volleyball friends!

This is what prayer time looks like with these sweet little boys: red marker on their arms and eyes squeezed shut :)

Hi, sweet Atalie!

It looks like it's time to roll out, cut out and dig in to Christmas cookies!

Mama was working hard...

...I wonder if rolling out the dough took her back down memory lane?

Margarete was as focused as ever...

...with a little help from Vanessa, the lump started to get flattened out

Cheese!

Our sweet Johanna Joy, enjoying herself immensely

Singing happy birthday to Jesus

And blowing out the candles

Lorry approves :)

Dad read a few Arch books for the Grandmas about Christ's birth

Lorry and Bella looking lovely as ever for our Christmas Dinner

Stunning in red

Mama looked pretty as a peach

Margarete was a beauty as well!!

The table is set and ready to celebrate!

Mr. Tony and Ms. Shirley with their Mama

Two cuties, Vanessa and Mrs. Patty :)

Mr. Glen's sweet family, Mrs. Natalia, Sasha and Anna, were able to join us this year!

Conversations abound

Mr. Vic was put to work once again ;)

Mama's side of the family (minus many other children!)

Being silly together :)

Smile! We love taking pictures of you guys!

Everyone together

"...and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds

...encouraging one another..." Hebrews 10:24

Digging in!

Sasha played some beautiful songs

And we ended the night with a game of Scrabble

Just a couple days later we had our volleyball group over for ping pong and dinner

Brian has skills ;)

Ping pong can get pretty crazy with Christa and Kate on a team together!

What a fun (and cold!) night

It was pretty crowded but still fun :)

The younger girls hung out in the hallway and played dolls

As people started to leave we brought the table inside for some serious one-on-one action

Poor Johanna was sick and had to stay in another room the whole night. :( But Brian "Stinger" sweetly visited her regularly

Mama was looking sweet as a poinsettia in her Christmas sweater

Margarete was beaming to receive a delicious package from her family

Johanna had her end of the year piano recital and did an awesome job! Sadly, Vanessa and I had a yellow belt test for Krav Maga at the same time and had to miss it :(

At the very end of December (and into January) us girlies drove up to St. Louis with Lis and her kiddos for a fun getaway!

And yes, Josh was a safe driver ;)

We were so excited to spend time with the Z. ladies on a couple occasions! Love you girls!

Looking over Mr. Z.'s artifacts

On our last day we went to visit the Arch since Johanna had never been there

Hello, from 630 feet up!

That's it for December!