Here are the pictures

Makenzi's school Christmas party:
Kenzi eating pizza with her friends (it was also her birthday)

Santa came to Kenzi's party



Braxton's School Christmas Party
Making a bird feeder

Made a Santa hat

Santa came to his party too


The kids are getting these two lovely gifts in Christmas Eve morning
Ruff (the striped one) and Tumble (the black one)

Busy 2 weeks coming

Christmas is coming and with Christmas comes a busy time. It started Last Thursday for us and won't end until January. Last Thursday was Makenzi's 6th Birthday. I have pictures to add...I am only a week late. I am not sure how the last 6 years have gone so fast but they have. Thursday morning I took cupcakes into her classroom for her to share with her friends. The cupcakes were a huge hit. I then ran to pick the boy and his cousins up from school, quickly dropped them at grandparents houses and then ran back to Kenzi's school for her Christmas party. I need to upload those pics too.

Friday we headed to my inlaws so we could celebrate Makenzi's birthday with them. They got her a cute outfit and a stationary set. She loved both.

Saturday we went and bought our new washing machine since ours died. Then we had friends over. They brought the kids Christmas presents over which was really nice of them to do. They got Makenzi and Braxton an Uno Moo game which they totally love. They got Ahna a nice warm pair of pajamas which she desperately needed. Thank you! Then they helped us work on a Christmas project...which was great otherwise it might not be ready for Christmas.

Sunday I spent the afternoon at Urgent Care with Kenzi. That was a bad trip that got us no where.

Monday I spent the morning at the doctors with Makenzi which didn't get me much farther. Strep test ran, urine sample done...waiting on results.

Today I spent the morning with Braxton at his Christmas party (thank you mom for watching sickie Makenzi). His party was great! I then had a meeting in Saginaw at 2. I got a call from the peds office saying Makenzi's 24 hour strep culture was negative we will see what the urine and 48 hour strep say tomorrow.

Tomorrow I have to go pick up one last present! The kids will be excited.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day are always busy.

Saturday and Sunday will settle down. Monday we are going to meet friends and let the kids play.

Next weekend is busy as well. Thursday is my husband's 28th birthday! Friday we have invited friends and his family out for a game night.

Saturday our children will be getting Baptized at St. Michael's here in Maple Grove. We are doing the ceremony after mass and just keeping it small. We are very excited. The oldest two children are extremely involved in St. Michaels. They are in the Atrium classes (a class that teaches the children all about the things that happen in the church, all about Jesus and lots of other stuff). They are both going to Vacation Bible School in the summer (Kenzi went this past summer and B gets to go this year).

After that I think things slow down until I start classes again on January 11th.

I will have to add photos later..ran out of time.

Christmas 2009

We had our first Christmas party last night. It was my mom's year to put it on. This party is the easiest on of the two parties that we do a year. We went into the gym yesterday morning and set up at 10 and were out by 11am. Everybody headed home to eat lunch and get the kids naps. Thankfully Braxton and Ahna both napped well. Makenzi didn't nap and it definitely showed late last night. We didn't make it home until 1130 and the kids were exhausted and so were we. Nobody moved until 930 this morning. I have lots of photos to add from last night.

Our 2009 Family Christmas Photo (what a job this is...I am surprised we got a decent one)


The 8 grandchildren on my side of the family
Back Row: Hope, Leo, Braxton, Aaron, Makenzi
Front Row: Josie, Alex, Arianna


Braxton with Santa


Makenzi with Santa


Arianna with Santa



My nephew Aaron who is 14 with Santa...he wasn't very impressed


My mom with Santa

Christmas Fun is beginning

Well I am sure we all know that this time of year is super busy. I have finished almost all of my Christmas shopping...only need some stocking stuffers for the kids and Scott. I think it is going to be a great Christmas in this house this year. The kids are going to be so excited on Christmas morning and I did it fairly cheap as well. Makenzi is getting two of the big things she asked for (a Nintendo DS-used, and a doll house- homemade by daddy and mommy). Braxton is getting an awesome ride on vehicle and he has no idea (it is a huge firetruck- orignal cost 649.00 or something crazy like that- I got it used for 20.00 and in brand new condition). Arianna is getting a couple small toys but she will love them (twin babies, ball popper). I can't wait to see their faces when they come down the stairs to a Merry Christmas.

Our December run down:

The Wendling Family Christmas party (Santa comes and brings a gift for each child) we have over 130 people attend...it is lots of fun.
On the 17th we will have a 6 year old in the house...man time sure flies by. Makenzi has requested to see her Grandma Sharon and Big Papa (Scott's parents) so we are heading out there for an evening of fun. Sharon is making dinner for us and we are taking cupcakes. Makenzi has requested a garden theme.
On the 17th Makenzi has her school party. She is very excited since she missed her Halloween party this year. Praying everybody stays healthy this month.
On Christmas Eve we will go to church all together and pray the kids don't get us banned (they aren't very good in church).
On Christmas day we will open presents at home! Then we will go to my parents house and have brunch and then open presents (we do this the same every year), then we will head to Scott's family Christmas. We are all gathering at his parent's house. Sharon is making dinner for us.
Then on New Year's Eve we will celebrate Scott's 28th birthday.
Maybe on New Years Day we will do a Poker party at our house for his birthday...who knows. Sounds like fun.

That is a pretty easy Holiday month for us. It will be nice. Usually it is crazy.

Winter Wonderland

Well the first snow has fallen and the children are extremely excited. We got about 2 inches yesterday and you would have thought we had 2 feet the way they acted. Braxton wasn't even out of bed yet and he was screaming about the snow. He was ready to go outside at 730 and couldn't understand why we were saying no. We ended up going to my parents house so Scott could pull all the triplets (Braxton, my niece Josie, and nephew Leo) on the sled. Braxton forgot that we did this last year and we when said sledding he thought we were going to the big hill to go sledding...oops. They had a blast though once they got going. They played outside for the longest time...Scott taught them how to make snowballs and throw them.

Yesterday afternoon when Kenzi got home from school the kids went outside here. Even little miss Ahna got to go outside for awhile. She loved it as well.

This morning we had hot chocolate and put up our Christmas tree. It is never as much fun as it should be. The tree has seen its last year. It has broken branches and just has been squished back into a box too many times. Of course we had a couple broken bulbs since we have children who forget what the word gentle and breakable mean until it is too late. Thankfully they weren't the special ornamanets. This year each child got a bulb with their name on it. That was an adventure in itself thanks to certain staff members at Bronner's.

After that the oldest two went outside to play in the snow again. They spent a lot of time out there. Kenzi has an issue when it is cold outside with her cheeks. When she comes in her cheeks are red except for a big white raised spot on each cheek. We have done lots of research and it is actually the cheek freezing and blood flow stops to those parts. We need to go buy her a couple face masks but they are hard to find. I hate to have the cold do serious damage to her cheeks or any other part of her body. We were hoping that since we were extra careful last year and healing all over the summer as well she would be okay but I guess not. I need to take pictures and take it into her pediatrician to show them and see what they say.

Lets fast forward

Well December is not starting off any better than November did. We are only 2 days in and I am already dreading the rest of the month. When will winter be over? My pediatrician sure hit the nail on the head when she told us to brace for a rough/hard winter. One of us has been sick every week since the Sunday before Halloween. That is just crazy. The children are on multivitamins but it must not be enough.

2 weeks ago my nephew came down with the stomach flu, but by the time he showed signs he had already infected everybody else. 4 days later my dad and Braxton came down with the bug...yuck. It lasted a few hours of Braxton and the next day he was drinking and eating. 5 days after Braxton and dad got sick, my mom got sick. Which was really weird to us because she is the one that took care of my nephew the day he came down with it along with myself. My mom got it Thanksgiving night after we were all together...not a huge deal since we had already been exposed and she had no idea she was getting it. Monday night of this week, Scott got sick while in the semi. I was actually glad that he wasn't home. I was hopefully we wouldn't get it. Well last night Makenzi came home from school was all excited because she had girl scouts and church class. We ate dinner (she didn't eat much but said she was excited). We got to girl scouts and within a few minutes Kenzi complained her belly hurt. We quickly left and on the way home the vomit struck. I hate vomit and I usually don't do so well cleaning it up but I guess my stomach has gotten tougher over the years thankfully. Thankfully she is already feeling better. She has been drinking this morning and acting fine. Definitely hoping and praying nobody else gets it in the next five days.

The next major thing is Scott has had a job change. He is still with Werner but he is no longer training unfortunately. They have changed the runs and the truck he has for this run is only equipped for 1 driver. This is a bummer for us because Scott really enjoyed training. He is looking into his options of different accounts to drive for that he can train on but we are just thankful he has a steady job. In this economy we can't be too picky. We are just thankful for a paycheck.