Wrapping Up 2014

Fricke Family Christmas 2014

Olivia informed me that she would be arriving at Grandma's as Elsa. And so she did. This girl loves to be in the spotlight!

Skinny little Grant showing us his HUGE muscles. 

And there's this lil stinker

Levi needed to show us his muscles too

These two get together and it's giggles galore- love Grant's expression...I am sure he was most impressed playing dolls with Livvy. LOL

More from the "Muscle Man" himself

I just love this one because Uncle Jacob looks so HUGE compared to the kids.

Why does it have to be so difficult to take pictures of kids? To get all of them to stand still and look in the same direction is a mission I will conquer! Granted by the time I figure it out they will most likely not be kids anymore.

Grandma is so organized...she numbered the kids packages and had them each open that number at the same time. It was a brilliant way for all of the kids to feel included and drag out the gift opening event.

As always...they got spoiled rotten. Too many toys- we now currently have toys up to our eyeballs because of both sets of Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, and Santa gifts. YIKES!

Grant is really into Minecraft....now he can pretend to be "Steve" at home.

All things FROZEN for this girl. 

Cutie cousins all cuddled in their new jammies and blankets

Uncle Jacob and (soon to be) Aunt Jessica know how to make little boys happy.

All the new toys in the world and my little guy still would rather just read his old books. Figures. It's precious all the same.

Again, impossible to take a picture of a group of kids...lol. They are all ready to stay the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Roger and Sandy are brave brave brave souls.

I couldn't figure how to add a title or page break so we go from sweet lil Levi right to this crazy ole man. The Cottingham family Christmas took place this year on New Years Day. And it was the first time I got to see my parents remodeled house. New floors, new carpet, new doors, new paint on the walls. Looks great!

Mom wanted a new bike for Christmas so us kids got her one. This picture was taken seconds before I nearly lost my left leg due to Mom attempting to ride her new bike in the house. YIKES! It was seriously scary and crazy but oh so funny. We should have bought her a helmet and knee pads to go with it.

Mallory Jo got new skates for Christmas!

This was Mom opening her surprise gift from Dad. A super beautiful diamond necklace. This was my most favorite part of our family Christmas....I loved the shock on my Mom's face and the joy in my Dad's eyes watching her open it.

Mallory waiting so patiently for a gift to open. Seriously, she is the sweetest lil thing.

Lane was given a gift but said, "I'm going to wait til later to open it." He is just a different kind of kid. Does his own thing. I mean really???? What 3 year old doesn't want to open a present?

He finally decided it was time to open it.

On Grant's Christmas list to Mama and Papa this year was "antiques." I know, again, my kids are unique...what 6 year old wishes for antiques....well, Grant does. This is Papa Ham explaining what his antique gift is. It is an old Army mess kit. Grant thinks its really cool. He put it in his "special corner" in the playroom. His "special corner" is where he puts the things he loves and doesn't want anyone else to mess with.

Poor Vicki didn't feel well but she still offered to play the role of "Santa" and pass out gifts.  What a trooper- I'm disappointed she didn't rock the Elf costume again.

Casandra was ready -she had her Santa hat on and was ready to OPEN GIFTS!

Grant got a mini pocket watch on a chain from Aunt Vicki. He loves it.

My Mom gave Grant some gag gifts this year....this is a clay sculpted brain I made my sophomore year of high school. It's all crumbling and falling apart. I'm not sure Grant knew what to make of it. Funny stuff.

Collin was so quiet you wouldn't have known he was even there if you didn't look for him.

I just love this picture.

Lane- determined to open the packaging by himself.

This is another precious picture of Mallory. Love her expression.

The little ones played so nicely together.

The Frickes were hit with sickness most of December. It started in early December with the upper respiratory flu for all four of us. Then Grant got hit with the stomach bug on Christmas eve and I had it too but not to the point of vomiting like poor Grant.

The boys were just too sweet to each other. Each one knew the other didn't feel well either and they just snuggled up together.

Annual bell ringing was less fun this year because we all were still recovering from illness but we had a good time anyway.

Lane loves loves loves putting puzzles together. He also likes to put them together and leave them assembled for a while.

This was Lane's very first year in Sunday School and therefore this was his first church Christmas program. I was a bit nervous about how he would do but he did fantastic. He didn't sing during the program but he knew all the songs and would sing them all the time at home...especially "Christmas is God's Plan" and "God Loves Me Dearly" it was so precious to hear his little three-year old voice sing those lyrics. Grant, as always did suburb. He would lay in bed at night and whisper his lines until he got them memorized.

Group picture after the Christmas program.

Christmas break!!! No school for two weeks! This air hockey table was a gift Grant got from Santa last Christmas...they haven't played with it much at all but we busted it out and the daycare kids enjoyed challenging each other to matches. Funny how an old forgotten toy can become so fun.

SANTA CAME!!!!!

Most of my pictures on Christmas morning are only of Lane as Grant was still not feeling well beings that the day before he had the stomach flu. He opened his gifts but did so slowly and with less enthusiasm than most years. Understandably so, poor kid to be fighting the flu on Christmas was such a bummer. I hated seeing him so sick. He looked at me after each time he vomited (which was a lot) and said, "Mom, please help me. Please make it stop." Ugh...heartbreaking.

Enthusiasm was definitely present with Lane though. He was loving it! After each gift he would unwrap he would would announce, "Ah, I wanted that!"

happy to have gotten a new puzzle

He loves watching Peppa Pig...and was excited to see that Santa brought him some Peppa stuff.

Got a little bit of goofiness from Grant. He bought these glasses for Lane as a Christmas gift but I think he ended up wearing them more than Lane did.

He must have been a good boy because he got everything on his list...plus some.

His favorite gift....a KINDLE FIRE

With Joe-Bot the Robot as a close second

Lane enjoyed his new doctors kit

Poor Frick had a lot of assembling to do Christmas morning. And he was forced to watch A Christmas Story -even though that may very well be his least favorite movie ever.

Figuring out the Kindle together.

Grant enjoys helping his little brother

Jason and I bought Grant 10 or 11 Mo Williams books (Grant's favorite), some clothes, a magic kit, and this sign to hang in his room. He loved the sign the most I think. I love it too. It suits Grant to a T.

The month of December is full of birthdays. Unfortunately, due to us having the flu we weren't able to attend Miss Mallory's party but we made it to Collin's birthday! The boys loved seeing Klutzy the clown again.

Grant enjoyed being a "helper" with Cassie.

I was more entertained watching the kids reactions than the clown herself. Mallory was a hoot.

So was Lane

He had the loudest -weirdest laugh ever....he enjoyed the show more than most of the others I think.

Time to take it all down. Bitter sweet day

I always buy things for us to ring the new year in with. Unfortunately, Lane found the horns at 5pm and so it began.... ugh, note to self: next year wait til at least 9 to bring the horns out

Grant was PUMPED to ring in the new year. He was extra concerned that I had not bought confetti like I had last year.

So with a hole puncher and scissors he made his own confetti

I tried to encourage him to just call it a night at 11 when New York rang in the new year ( and in years past this worked) but he knows how to tell time and he knew it wasn't midnight yet so he refused to settle for 11:00 and he was determined to stay up until "OUR TIME MIDNIGHT" and he made it!

We enjoyed throwing confetti at each other and he even stuffed some down my shirt- stinker.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Grant's Aunt Vicki gave him a SPY KIT for Christmas...this is a motion detector that sounds a very high pitched alarm when set off. Grant set this by the doorway for when his Dad came home from work. He had a blast fooling with these things.

He looks absolutely crazy in these glasses but these are his Spy Glasses. He has been army crawling and tiptoeing through the house trying to "spy" on me. This gift was right up Grant's alley...he loves stuff like that.