~Babysitting...and Christmas family time at Daddy and Moma's~

~At the end of November my friend Deanna had twin boys. On the Monday after the church Christmas program and our fun evening of company, I called Deanna and asked her if we could swing by and get her 3 oldest children. I wanted to give Deanna a few hours of "Me time"...although I don't know how much "me time" she got since she still had her 2 sweet babies with her. =)~
~We took Deanna's kids and our kids to McDonalds for lunch. Joan joined us and she, Kimberly, and I had a nice time visiting while the kids played.~
~As I was leaving McDonalds a lady was staring at me with her JAW WIDE OPEN! I happened to see her and told her that I was babysitting some one else's kids and that these were not all my kids. She said, "I was going to say..." Then she said, "No, I wasn't going to say anything...my jaw was dropped too far down to say anything."
After that comment, I didn't have the nerve to tell her that 5 of these kids ARE mine. =) ~
~My kids and their matching shirts. (except poor little Mary didn't have one.=)
~After we left McDonalds we went back to Mrs. Phyllis' house where we were staying. We had a lot of fun having Rob and Deanna's kids, and while the kids played at our home, I began to pack to go to Indiana for Christmas.
The next morning our kids and I left as early as we could to head over to my parents house for Christmas. My Dear Phillip was working on our home in Cinci and stayed there until Christmas afternoon. He and the dry walling crew got lots done the week of Christmas. He came over to Indiana on Christmas evening and we were soooo HAPPY to have him with us again. On our first night at my parents house, Moma gave Elijah a tray of snacks to bring up the stairs for the kids and I to share.~
~On Wednesday evening we went caroling with Daddy and Moma and their church people.~
~Noah and Elijah had bells that they carried and rang while we caroled.~
~After caroling we all went to the fellowship hall for snacks. Kimberly made the pine cone cheese ball and we made another last minute snack idea....~
~Due to doing some shopping that day we were running out of time to make lots of time consuming treats for the after-caroling snack. So, the Lord gave me the idea to make rice Krispy treats and sprinkle crushed candy canes on them. They were DELICIOUS! Loved the flavor!~
~Little Mary and Little Elijah~
~On Christmas eve my Daddy picked up my brother Andrew and his wife Vonnie and kids from the airport and they stopped by for a quick visit and snack before they went to the Sankeys for Christmas. I've been wanting to make these Oreo cookie truffles for a long time. So, Kimberly and I made these for our snack that night. They are soooooo yummy!!! (I'm sure that you know the recipe. Just take a package of oreo cookies and crush them in the food processor. Then put them in the mixing bowl and mix them with one package of softened cream cheese. Form into balls, and dip into melted white choc. (or chocolate) and decorate as you wish. (You can look it up on the internet to make sure that I didn't forget any good tips for the recipe.) The treats in the center are ritz cracker peanut butter sandwiches dipped into white choc. too.~

~Katie and Vonnie seeing our Mary for the first time.~
~Kimberly and Katie...having some fun cousin time. We hadn't seen Vonnie and the kids since June 2006! (We did get to see Vonnie this past Aug. for a couple hours.) It was soooo good to get to be together again.~
~L to R: Taylor, Noah, Tyler, Sarah and Grant enjoying the snack.~
~My 103 Grandma reading a story to little Eljah.~
Pictures of our Christmas day coming up soon!!