Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Happy 8th Birthday Twinsies!

This is a very BIG birthday for the twins - as well as the Hart family!  This year, the twins turned 8.  This means the end of car seats for the Hart Family!!!  Here are the 4 kids - ALL of them enjoying a small taste of freedom (Maddie & Will for the first time).  Of course, even though excited, they both said they don't like sitting on cold seats!
Both Maddie & Will decided that they wanted to celebrate their birthday at Happy Joes.  They love seeing their names on the marquee...
A fun tradition of Happy Joe's birthdays - singing Happy Birthday with the horn and siren!  We added Ashten to the song since his birthday is the same week.
Part of the family - Fran & John (with Ashten), Grammy & Barb.
 Second round of singing - this time with the cakes from Grammy & Grandad.  This year was Frozen and Despicable Me 2!
 Time to open presents!  Will got a Darth Vader Light Saber.  He had some money and he purchased the Darth Vader talking mask at Target on the way home!
 Maddie - reading the card from Grammy & Grandad (and hoarding the check!)
 Maddie was so excited to pick this present out when we were at the Mall of America in October.  It is a feeding chair for her baby dolls.
 More Star Wars Legos for Will
 Will telling Barb & Willy thank you for the Star Wars Legos
 Loving their musical birthday cards from Stephanie.
 Will's big gift was the Rancor Pit (Star Wars Legos).  He was so excited to get it and had it put together within an hour. 
I love having so much of our family so close!  What special memories my kids will have - memories of fun times, laughs, hugs, kisses and many, many hours spent together.  All special!

We stopped at Target on the way home to pick up some things.  After dinner, the girls asked if they could share a bed.  Not an easy thing to do with 3 girls in one twin bed!  We gave the okay and this is what we found a few hours later!  Take note that Alex (blue) is not even on the bed but wedged between the bed and the wall!

Celebrating Christmas 2013

We started our Christmas celebration at church on Christmas Eve.  This is the first time that we have attended a Christmas Eve service as a family!  It was a wonderful service with candlelight worship at the end.  Awe-Inspiring!  We headed out for dinner and went to look at some Christmas lights around the area.  We ended our night back at home, ready for bed!

The next morning, we all slept in until 8!  Here is Maddie helping pass out presents.
As the kids have said, this was the year of the Lego...Alex received 2 smaller sets of Friends Legos as well as this cute dog from Maddie.  All of the kids were able to purchase a present for everyone else with their Awana points.  They always have fun shopping and spending their hard earned points!
Katie asked for the Lego Friends High School
Will LOVES Lego Chima and Star Wars!
Maddie - I am not sure if she loved the boat or dolphins more!
After presents and breakfast, we headed to Becki's parents for the afternoon and evening.  We started our time together by watching the Christmas pageant put together by Becki's mom. 
Willy, Grandad & Barb
Brad and Debbie - sporting the new jerseys
Fran, Tammy & John
The TreeSkirt Singers!
After all of the kids sang their songs, the Christmas story was retold by the kids.
Time to open presents!  More Legos and some American Girl items!
One of her missing books!

The Coke & Pepsi Rivalry continues!

Brad's gift from Matt was a soft side cooler/lunch bag.  He was nice and hid a Culver's gift card in their also!

Matt's gift from Brad was a Pepsi bumper sticker and a nice, heavy-duty Pepsi goblet.
As always, we were & are extremely blessed!  after opening our presents, we had a wonderful, warm dinner.  We enjoyed our time together for the rest of the evening - eating, laughing and playing.