Christmas y'all

Merry belated Christmas everyone!  We had a busy December and didn't get around to sending out a card and family update, so I'll attempt to do a little one here.  

Jackson -9-

Jackson has had a lot going on in his little life.  He has moved onto fourth grade at Basswood, and continues to excel at math and science.....and is still on the path to becoming the first man on Mars.  He also continues to excel at yelling and trying to parent his younger siblings!  He was swimming up to four nights a week with NHCP (swim club) up through November.  Once he finished his session, he decided to take a break and try his hand at rock climbing.  So far, so good!  The biggest change for Jackson is the braces he got on just 4 days before Christmas.  He's looking forward to a straight smile in the near future.  

Max -7-

Our little Maxers is not so little anymore.  He came home from the gym just a couple weeks ago happy to announce that he now weighs more than his older brother!  This year brought big changes for Max.  For kindergarten and first grade, Max was attending school at Fernbrook Elementary where they have a program for the deaf and hard of hearing.  He has done so well and caught up that we decided to send him to his home school at Basswood.  It has taken a while for him to adjust, but will be good for him in the end.  Some of Max's favorite things right now are beyblades and his new hamster Spark. Max is currently taking swimming lessons and getting better every week!

Sadie -2-

Our little Sadie lady brings joy, girl drama, giggles, sweetness, shrieking, messes, and rounds out our family perfectly.  She is the Cherry on our sundae. Just ask her to sing twinkle twinkle little star and you will see why.  Sadie turned 2 in May and continues to learn and grow every day.   She loves pouting, Dora, Diego, jewelry and baby dolls.   We love her, screams and all. 

John has had a big year himself.  After two long years of full time work and school, he earned his MBA from the UoM.  He's had the opportunity this year to travel to many notable places like Germany, Finland, and Costa Rica.  After graduating in May, he's had a lot more quality time to spend with us.  He even took the boys on a trip up to the boundary waters this fall.  As a graduation present, John and I spent a week in Costa Rica.  It was beautiful  !!THANKS LOIS!! for holding down the fort.   

 As for me, well I fell like I've done a lot of this. (see below picture!)  Sometimes it feels like all I do is discipline and give disapproving looks to my wild and crazy bunch all day, but I know that's not really the case.  Or is it?  Maybe you should ask them....  When I look back, the highlights of 2011 revolve around my family and their many accomplishments.  We have been so blessed this year.  Here's to wishing for a happy and healthy 2012! 

Merry Christmas! Love, 

The Parrish Family 

John, Jamie, Jackson, Maxwell and Sadie 

Christmas Eve 2011

Saturday we took our fourth annual tubing trip to Elm Creek Park.  What made this one special was a surprise visit from John's brother  David.  

We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It's been so nice, they actually only had artificial snow.  It was close to 50 degrees and sunny.  Last year it was below freezing with a ton of wind.  We'd go down a couple times and then go to the lodge to warm up.  Not this year!  Sadie even took part in the tubing fun.  

Here she is enjoying the slopes.

The boys were too fast for me to get any pictures.  They were off any running the entire time.  I think I only went down with Max once.  We did manage to pull all of us together at the end to snap a little family tubing photo.  

Sadie's Christmas/ thanks ana-white.com

The website I used to build Sadie's bed had the same plans for a doll bed.  I decided to make one for Sadie for Christmas, so I broke out my manly power tools and got to work.  

I wanted it to look like Sadie's, so after it was built, I stained it and then painted it white.

Once the paint dried, I sanded it down to give it a distressed look.  I also made a little quilt and some pillows from the scraps of Sadie's quilt.

Sadie loves to de-pants her dolls, so I had to pose her with the pillow covering up her unmentionables.  

I hope Sadie likes it as much as I do!  

Train Tracks

Without further ado, here are the before and afters of my boy with tinsel teeth:

You can't tell, but Jack decided on yellow and green bands.  If you don't know why, then you have no business reading this blog.  

He's pretty excited about this whole thing.  Here's to hoping he'll keep up the flossing for more than a week.  

Brace Face Party

My little Jack will be getting braces this coming Wednesday. He is over the moon excited and was looking for a chance to celebrate.  I'm always on the lookout for an excuse to throw a party, so I got right on it.  We decided that we should host a shindig and binge on all the yummy things he'll be missing out on for the next year or so.  Here are a few:

We also put together a few minute to win it games for the boys to get rid of their sugar high.  

I love this one.  Look at Jackson's crossed eyes. :0)

This one was the boys favorite.  The one handed tissue pulling contest got out of hand quick.  It started out like this:

And ended like this:

I'll post pics of brace face on Wednesday....I know y'all can't wait.