Merry Christmas!

We're busy with Christmas preparations, dressing up like ponies, recovering from colds, getting work projects done, teaching at church, singing at church, and enjoying the treats & lights & warmth of this season.

Cora and Oliver visited Santa with me at Bass Pro Shops last week

The kids had a great time at their classroom holiday parties......

all except Aaron who spent most of his in the nurses office because he hurt his finger. :(

We spend a lot of our time following in the wake of this little Destruction.  

He loves to get into anything he can find!

Timmy and Aaron are grateful for some fun school friends who they can be silly with!

Scott has been working all year on finishing this basement room.  It's amazing!  We're so grateful that it's almost done and to have a rec room/playroom now.

I'm happy anytime I can get out in the woods behind our house and hike.  

Oliver and Cora are great hiking buddies.

A notable year:

Aaron had the first broken bone of all the kids (finger)

Cora had her first visit to Disney World!

Oliver had his first words

Scott did his first home finishing project

Timmy won a prize for Reflections for his first time! (videography - 3rd place in state)

Katie - took all 4 kids to a ski resort alone for the first (and maybe last) time! :)

We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Winter Solstice, and any other holiday you and yours might be celebrating this Season.

Love, 

The Stapletons

Family Day

We had a nice family hike last week with our friend Luke

The boys had a great time smashing ice!

We enjoy seeing the machines and building progress up the road.

Oliver at 21 months

We love having Oliver around!   He always has something new and cute to say these days!

The past few weeks, he's been big on the toy helicopter that Scott has.  

He's been saying "Heh-cah-cah!"  His first 3 syllable word.

He also surprised me today by saying (without any prompting)

"Macha!" and a moment later "Papa!"

He must have been thinking about them and their visit a few weeks ago.

At that time he couldn't pronounce Macha yet.

His first word that I would count (besides Mama and Dada) was "BYE!"  And he said it so clearly right away.  Bah-eee!   Then, a big one was BUS.  Then Air-pane. (airplane) Then TIMMY.  Now Heh-cah-cah (helicopter) is his favorite.  

 He said "mow" pretty early on for more, but it has morphed to "my" now.   He's very good at saying "Ah done!"

He made us laugh at dinner by saying "Dous-dee!" (thirsty) and "Goo-bee!" (milk), which is now a much more clear "Miwk"

I thought this picture of him looked so much like Kent as a baby with the
100 photos of him in a cowboy hat. 

 He loves it when his siblings play with him....

....and make him do silly things

He's growing up so fast!

Happy Birthday Timmy!

Happy 11th birthday Timmy!

For Timmy's 11th birthday, his birthday wish was to see Ralph Breaks the Internet in the theater with a few of his friends.   Every theater in the area was booked for holiday parties or something, because they were only playing specials of Polar Express or such things on his party date.  

We compromised and went to the movie with just mom and the kids on Timmy's actual birthday, and then had a party at home with Timmy's friends on the party date. They had a great time!   

We had a short "Treasure Hunt" for Timmy's gift on our trail out back.   The kids played Ping Pong, Air Hockey and Magic the Gathering in the basement.   We had pizza, fruit and lemonade, and then homemade Butterbeer (Harry Potter recipe), lemon chiffon cake and vanilla ice cream.

Timmy got Magic cards and a Laser Tag Game from his friends, and they enjoyed playing some rowdy games of Nerf and Laser Tag for the last hour.  We sure enjoyed having the basement area for this party!  It was our first time using it, and it was amazing to be able to have the kids down there to play and be loud & proud. :)

Thank you to the family for your emails, cards, and gifts to Timmy!  He really appreciated your thoughtfulness! 

Happy Birthday dear Timmy!  We sure love you!