New Year's Eve Pictures

Happy New Year's Eve! We're becoming boring in our old age, as Mike likes to say. In previous years, we invited our friends over for a party. I wasn't feeling it this year. We stayed home and hung out as a family.

The girls ended up falling asleep, but Ethan stayed awake with Mike and me. We had some champagne and I called it a night. Maybe we'll do more next year.

The girls are really into "selfies" right now. It cracks me up when I look through my phone. We had a fun little photo session.

Earning Money

The kids have started earning money for doing chores around the house. They will vacuum, dust, pick up, clean the bathrooms. I pay them $1-$5, depending on the job and how good they do. Ethan and Mia wanted to spend some of their money so I took them to Target and this is what they picked out.

It's fun teaching them the value of money. They'd grab something and I'd let them know that they would be spending all of their money. They would think about it and usually put it back on the shelf. Riley didn't find anything she wanted to spend her money on. Ethan went for many small things, and Mia went for one large thing.

Happy New Year's Eve, by the way! We don't have much planned. We're going to stay home and try to make it to midnight. It's funny how these types of holidays change when you get older and have kids.

Babysitting Margaret

Jenna and Matt wanted to have a date night, so we offered to babysit Margaret. She kept wanting to get her hands wet in the water and kept signing, "more water, please." I finally just stuck her in the sink and let the water run. Abe saw the action, so he wanted to join in. Margaret is 3 months older than Abe.

For some reason, Margaret bullies Abe. She'll go up to him and take his binky away or hit him in the head. It's interesting because Margaret doesn't go to daycare and isn't around other aggressive kids. Abe sees her coming and runs the opposite way.

Christmas with the Krause's

Merry Christmas! I love this time of year. Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love the decorating, present buying, and spending time with Jesus. We spent Christmas with my family this year.

There are seven kids in our family and four of us are married with kids. This equates to a lot of people. It's fun when we all get together but a bit chaotic. The cousins love playing with each other and get along well, for the most part. We had Christmas Eve over at our house. We ate potato soup (a tradition) and then opened gifts. Our entire downstairs was covered in wrapping paper. We started a fire in the fireplace and burned it all. It kept the house warm!

We usually let the youngest go first and then second oldest etc. It takes awhile to get through everyone and the kids get pretty antsy waiting for their turn.

Ethan is in his underwear. I kind of forgot about that. I'm just so used to it that it doesn't phase me, but it does look a bit silly in pictures.

There was so much going on that I didn't get much for individual pictures. The kids took it upon themselves to help the adults open their gifts.

This is my niece, Margaret. She is a handful!

My mom, brother Nathan, and my dad. Christmas is so much fun. I love seeing all my family.

With five girls, someone always seems to be pregnant, nursing, or have a baby. Jenna is pregnant now with her second baby.

 We tried getting a picture of all of the cousins. Jude was having a fit over something, so she cried the entire time. These two were the most decent. They turned out fairly well for having 11 little kids!