December

We kicked off December with Josiah's birthday!  We celebrated at home on the 4th.  He's been asking for footie pajamas (jealous of his brother I guess), so of course he needed the Batman ones!

12/5 - our neighborly bald eagle, who thankfully didn't eat any of our chickens.  

That evening, we left for Christmas with the Bonvillians.  This is the kids acting out the Christmas story.  Ella is on the floor being a donkey.

Now Mary (Ava) is riding the donkey.

An angel appeared to them:

12/6 - Josiah's actual birthday.  He got to open presents and then we all went to a friend's house for some indoor swimming fun.

The cousins had to leave, but we got to stay and do gingerbread men that evening.

12/11 - 12/13 - one of Josiah's birthday presents from us was a rocket.  Yes, we're crazy.  So they spent these couple of days assembling the rocket and preparing for launch on the 13th.

Getting ready to launch...

Blast off!

And, despite the wind blowing in the opposite direction, here's where our rocket ended up.  We thought maybe the wind would knock it down, but it is still (as of this post) stuck in the tree!

12/18 - Josiah was in his annual school Christmas program.  I didn't get a very good picture, but he's Joseph, kneeling down by the manger, with his back to the camera.  The next day he came down with a cough so he missed his half day of school on Friday (and the class Christmas party), but we're glad he was healthy enough for the program!

12/20 - goofing off with the Jenga blocks.  :)

12/22 - I made an insane decision to try to take the boys to see Santa 3 days before Christmas.  We had either been sick or had other stuff come up when we planned to go earlier in the season.  So we show up at 11 am hoping to get a ticket to see Santa and come back later.  They were all out of tickets for the rest of the day.  We checked the line but it was wrapped halfway around the store, so we opted for some other pictures!  The carousel is always fun...

And we got a picture with the snowman, which is almost as good as Santa, right?  He's fat and also doesn't really bring you toys.  So pretty much the same.

Josiah did a great job at the shooting game!  He only missed one of the targets.

Goofy Christmas pictures:

12/23 - on our way to take the boys to get haircuts, Levi threw up.  In the car.  Right after I'd given him orange ibuprofen.  Do you know how hard car seats are to clean??  Thankful that he only threw up once, slept most of the day, and was feeling better before Christmas day!

12/25 - finally Christmas day!

Opening stockings...

Josiah reading Christmas story to Levi while he plays with his new light saber/chap stick.

The boys both got different types of zombie hunter nerf guns.  So you know where to come if there's ever a zombie apocalypse!

12/27 - Regehr family Christmas!  We played several fun games throughout the day.

Even Levi got in on the action.

Our niece Samantha and I doing a tie-breaker.

This is some serious concentration!

Always fun hanging out with cousins.

We did some pull-apart poppers, and a lot of us got these fun paper crowns!

Family pics by the tree (Jason's favorite).

12/28 - my aunt & uncle brought their grandsons to Springfield for a fun getaway, so we got to meet up with them for swimming and dinner.  They all got to ride the mechanical bucking pig so everyone was happy (and no injuries to report).

2014 has been a great year!  Happy New Year's Eve!

Halloween and Thanksgiving fun!

10/11 - Probably the biggest tourist draw to Mt. Vernon, MO is the annual Apple Butter Makin' Days festival.  That name makes me cringe every time so I refuse to say it properly.  I either add the missing G, or I just call it Apple Butter Days.  Just call me a grammar snob!

Josiah got to be in the parade this year, on his school's float (which won first place in the float judging!).  He had a great time!  He got a little overzealous with his candy throwing.  I think he may have injured a few spectators.

Levi loved picking up all the candy thrown from the floats!  Here he is with his 2nd cousin (or first cousin once removed, I can never remember the difference) Amelia.

 And letting his Paw Paw carry him to the square after the parade for all the yummy food!

 10/19 - we got a new bull!  He's a full-bred red poll.  He looks so little but he was actually over 500 lbs when we bought him.  He has an official registered name, but we call him Royal (we were really excited about the Kansas City Royals' great season!).

 Levi has no natural fear of giant animals.

 10/25 - Josiah had the day off of school Friday, so I took the boys to see my parents.  This is them with my Grandma Lucy in her new assisted living room (she just sold her house)!

 10/27 - pumpkin carving fun!

 And on the other side of the pumpkin, our Royals tribute!

 10/31 - our church had a harvest festival.  We made the costumes for the boys this year, which was fun, but not something I'll be doing every year!  :)

 11/2 - Levi all dressed up for church!  How can you not smile at a 3 year old in a tie?!

 11/3 - sausage making!  This is the pork that we raised on our farm.

 11/6 - my best friend Genevieve and her son Roen were in Columbia, so Levi and I took a quick trip to visit her!

 11/7 - hanging out with the cousins!  A bonus that we got to see them while we were at my parent's house.

 Levi is such a manly farmer.

 11/9 - goofing off!

 11/16 - snow!!  It was a COLD November.

 11/23 - an early birthday present for Josiah - a big kid bike with brakes on the handlebars!

 11/26-28 - we went to the Dallas area for Thanksgiving with Jason's sister.  Instead of Texas, Levi kept calling it Tes-kiss, so we had to kiss him a lot.  It was a fun trip and we had a great time!

 Levi is "helping" play the piano.

 They got to sleep in Aunt Ericka's bed one night!

 Josiah doing some Christmas shopping on Amazon.  I think he got his Mi Mi's cart up to $200 before I cut him off.  :)

 We went to a street fair while we were there in McKinney.  Carousel, ferris wheel, petting zoo, a constructed sledding hill - the kids of course loved it!

It was a great trip and we enjoyed a break from the freezing MO temperatures!