Roses Family

In December Russ's younger sister Angela moved to Paris, TN with her family, 

which made them our closest relatives. 

Earlier this month they were able to make the 10.5 hour drive 

to come visit us for a week! 

Everyone LOVES Uncle Brandon.

 Angela has awesome crafting skills, so she did a bunch of 

fun projects with the girls.

(shamrocks (x2), feather pens, marshmallow launchers) 

What kid doesn't love to watch crazy gymnastics videos?

One night we all went to the grocery store to buy food for a Mystery Meal.

We separated into adult/child teams and received envelopes with cash and a card that said Side Dish, Main Dish, or Dessert. We shopped for our food, then came home, prepped all our food, and feasted!

Side Dish - chips and bread (Anne, Elise & Brenna)

Main Dish - chicken fajitas (Brandon & Ashlyn)

Side Dish - french fries (Angela & Kaylee)

Dessert - cinnamon rolls (Russ & McKell)

 One day we went to our tiny Children's Museum.

  

Cousins!

And here's Julia bringing about the end of the photo shoot with a quick poke to her sister's eye.

 Other activities during our fun week included: family night, babysitting swaps, movie night (Big Hero 6), dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and lots of games (we played our favorite game, Pandemic, FOUR times after the kids went to bed!)

And here are my three favorite pictures from the week. 

Come back again soon, Roses Family!!!

   

Victory!

Nana & Papa

Russ's parents were here for a full week. People keep asking me what we did during their visit. Um . . . yeah. We sort of just carried on with our normal life. Entertained kids. Ate dinners at home. Talked and laughed and played games. But here are some pictures to prove what a WONDERFUL time we all had together.

    

    

    

Brenna, Brenna Birthday Girl

Brenna has been looking forward to her 5th birthday for a VERY long time. 

When it finally arrived, she got to celebrate on like 3 or 4 days, rather than just 1. Lucky!

Saturday the 24th was her party with friends. In the morning she woke to decorations in the front room, and present #1 - an easel (the only reason she got this gift early was that I had planned to use it for one of the party games that afternoon).

This gift has been popular with all 4 girls.

 At 2:00 ten little girls showed up at our house to celebrate with Brenna.

The party, which had an ART theme, consisted of the following:

Photo Guessing Game
Decorating Bags (stickers, markers, etc.)
Making Necklaces
Playing Pictionary
Decorating Cupcakes
Eating Snacks
Opening Presents
and, of course, Playing, Playing & more Playing

Brenna requested this game - guessing which picture matches which age - 1 yr old, 2 yr old, etc.

Brenna got SO MANY arts and crafts items from her friends!

Brenna's birthday was Wednesday, the 28th. Her preschool class loves to celebrate birthdays, but she only goes T/Th, so she got her "birthday" at school on Tuesday. 

McKell and I showed up at lunch time to eat with her and share some Rice Krispy treats with her class.

That evening Nana and Papa arrived from Oregon. She was pretty lucky to have them here for her birthday.

Brenna's actual birthday was filled with non-stop fun:

Donuts with Dad in the morning
A visit to the Children's Museum
Lunch at Los Cucos with everyone (except Kaylee and Ashlyn, who were at school)
Movie in the afternoon while McKell napped
Taco Salad for Dinner at Home
Presents!
and Daniel Tiger Cake

We LOVE this little girl and are so happy to have her in our family!!!

Christmas Day

Here are some pictures from Christmas Day. 

They don't need much explanation . . . presents, family, fun, etc. It was a great day! 

Russ really enjoys following professional soccer, particularly the Eurpoean leagues, and especially the team in Barcelona. So Ashlyn and Brenna gave him a lunch box shaped like an FCB (futbol club of Barcelona) jersey.

We had a bit of a Harry Potter themed holiday - Kaylee got the full set of books,
and the family got the XBox game and the first two movies.

Our main family gift was an upgraded TV.

The girls approved.

(Who's impressed that I'm all caught up on holiday blogging?!)