Christmas Trip

Here's a few of the pictures from our Christmas trip to Tennessee. It was a short and eventful trip. We arrived Tuesday afternoon, unloaded the van, and spent the evening wrapping gifts. Christmas Eve was spent taking family pictures, visiting Santa at the Bass Pro Shop with Uncle Drew and his crew, our traditional Christmas Eve homemade pizza, and the Christmas Eve candle light service at my parents' church. That night, all the kids got their traditional Christmas Eve gift, a new pair of slippers! Christmas morning was exciting as usual. I think John David was the most excited out of the kids. This year his Christmas was full of Star Wars gifts, from the original trilogy on DVD to a Mr. Potato Head R2-D2 to an Obi Wan Kenobi costume. Kylie and Caitlyn were very excited to get Pixos Studio. Caitlyn got the Mariposa Barbie she's been asking for, and Kylie got two of her beloved Furreal Pets. Jeremy and I were blessed to receive a much needed new set of pots and pans from my parents! On Friday, we drove to Clarksville to visit with my Grandpa and Granny. As you can see from the picture below, John David and Grandpa had fun sword fighting! We headed home Saturday morning, and made it in safely by 8:00 PM. The van had a little trouble on the way home, but it was nothing my hunky husband couldn't conquer. :) Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty for a safe trip.

Christmas Eve Slippers


Christmas Morning


John David as Obi Wan Kenobi




John and Grandpa Dueling

Luke's New Trick

Luke recently discovered his tongue. He is constantly sticking his tongue out at us!

New Family Pictures

We're back! My sister, Andrea, was nice enough to take some updated pictures of the whole bunch of us while we were visiting. She is such an incredible photographer, and always captures the best moments. Enjoy this slide show of my favorites! You can also click on this link (http://photobucket.com/aknutson-familypics2009) to see all the pictures Andrea took full size. After you click on the link, you can click on the "slideshow" button on the upper right hand side of the screen, and see a full size slideshow of the pics. I have some pictures from the trip, and some from our gingerbread train project that I need to get posted, so I'll work on that over the next few days. Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty who has blessed us greatly!

Lukey is Four Months Old

Luke James is four months old today! I know I say it all the time, but I really can't believe it's been that long already. Luke is changing and growing everyday. He is almost sitting up (leaning just a bit still), although he's not rolling over yet. He is trying, but since he refuses to spend much time on his stomach, it hasn't happened yet. He loves his exersaucer, Johnny Jump-Up, and the swing. Luke is cooing and making noises all the time, and as you can see from the video below, he LOVES bathtime. We starting laying him in the bath with a little water and he started splashing like crazy. He smiles all the time! Luke is still nursing, and it doesn't look like he will be weaned anytime soon, but per his pediatrician he is on baby food now and that is giving me a much needed break from constant nursing. The cereal and baby food has also helped get him back to sleeping through the night frequently. If he does wake up anymore, it's usually only once a night. That I can live with!! Luke is also finally on a consistent schedule which is a big help as well. He has his four month checkup tomorrow, so I will post his weight then, but I'm guessing he's at least over 16 pounds and at least 25 inches long. He's wearing 6-9 months clothes, and size 3 diapers already! Enjoy the pictures and the video! Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty for a healthy and beautiful baby boy!

Sleepy Boys

The other night while I was out Christmas shopping, Jeremy was home with the kids and took these pictures of the boys. Apparently they were very tired! Luke fell asleep in the swing (Poor baby!), and John fell asleep with his pirate sword still in his hand, and his pirate shirt still on over his jammies. Even cuter still......John David in one piece pajamas with feet! I love it!

Chewy's Christmas Wardrobe

Here's a couple pics of Chewy in his Christmas outfits. The Santa suit was a gift from Pam, and I found the little T-shirt at Target for really cheap. Too cute! I am almost done with my Christmas shopping, but have to finish up a few projects I'm working on. We are heading to Tennessee for Christmas and will leave the 23rd. This weekend we have two Christmas parties, and the Christmas Cantata at church. Busy, busy, busy! Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty for the real reason for the season!

How Yoda Became an Answer to Prayer

God works in the most amazing ways! John David is obsessed with Star Wars right now, especially Star Wars Legos. He's been asking for some for quite awhile, and we keep telling him to wait till Christmas. All the kids really enjoy playing with Legos, and we were planning on getting some for Christmas, but Legos have gotten quite expensive! We knew we wouldn't be able to get many, so I went on a local website called Freecycle, where you can post items that you are looking for as well as post items that you want to get rid of. Everything is free, and we have gotten rid of several things on this website that have gone to people who needed them, as well as found several things (like a set of bunkbeds!) that we needed. Anyway, I posted early this week that we were looking for any and all Legos, and thought that it was worth a try to see if anyone had any they wanted to get rid of. Sure enough, I got three emails from people who had Legos for us. Today we went to pick up some from one of the people, and the whole way there I was trying to explain to John that they probably didn't have Star Wars ones, but that we would be thankful for any Legos that we got. He was tearful, but understood. When we returned home with the box of Legos, I sat down and started going through them. There were all kinds of Legos, pirate ones, police ones, etc. Then at the bottom of the box, I found a Yoda Lego figurine, a Darth Maul, a Darth Vader, a droid, and a couple more, complete with capes and light sabers! I was overwhelmed at God's answer to my little boy's prayers, and went through the rest of the Legos with tears in my eyes! John David was so excited, and prayed right away thanking God for giving him Star Wars Legos. No matter how long I've been a Christian, I am always still amazed at the things God does for His children. Though it may seem little or trivial to us, I promise you that to John David it was HUGE! What a blessing! Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty for Star Wars Legos!

More Holiday Fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Holiday Fun

Click and Shake!



Snow Globe Toy & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

Meet Chewy

This is Chewbacca aka Chewy, the newest member of the Knutson Klan! Jeremy and I got the kids a new puppy for Christmas, a black lab. With the kids' new obsession with Star Wars, we thought Chewbacca was the perfect name. So far the kids are doing really well taking responsibility for the new puppy, and there have been few "accidents" on the carpet thankfully. Isn't he cute?!

Reunited

My Grandma Thomas passed away on Monday evening. Even though I am rejoicing that she is with her Savior and no longer suffering, I am saddened not to have her here any longer. I'm sure Grandma is joyful to be reunited with her husband, her son (my father), her sister, her parents, and her daughter that have all gone on before and that she has missed greatly. Grandma has always been a great example of faith for me, an incredible prayer warrior. She will be greatly missed! Since we had, only moments before we received the news, just returned from our trip to Tennessee, we were not able to attend her memorial on Thursday in Indiana, but Caitlyn and I were still able to take part thanks to my brother. Andrew made it possible for me to be "present" for the whole service via webcam. I have a webcam on my laptop and Andrew and I are able to talk to each other over the computer, so using his laptop I was able to be there, kind of. He also uploaded a video of Caitlyn playing "Amazing Grace" (video below) that was played at the end of the service on a projector screen. All in all, I was VERY thankful that we were able to utilize these tools and that I was able to have that experience. Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty that Grandma is reunited with her loved ones and alive and well forevermore!

Mission Impossible

As if we didn't have enough going on this week, we decided to try and wean Luke as well. He is a big boy as you all know, and he nurses very frequently which makes it difficult on me. He also has been getting up numerous times a night, and the lack of sleep was taking its toll. Another reason is a trip to Gatlinburg (minus the kids) that Jeremy and I have planned for February. Since Luke has refused to take any bottles or pacifiers, we knew that this was going to be a major undertaking. After speaking to his pediatrician, we decided to go "cold turkey". It did not go well! After 48 hours, LOTS of screaming, and Luke coming to the point of dehydration, the pediatrician and us decided that it was time to give in. The pediatrician even said that he could not believe how stubborn Luke was being! So for now we are back to nursing, but the pediatrician gave us the go ahead to start him on some baby food to try and give me a bit of a break. It was for sure a "mission impossible"!

The Annual Thanksgiving Bowl

Every year my brother and sister attend the Thanksgiving Bowl football game at my parents' church on Thanksgiving morning. Last year Jeremy attended with them, and though he was sore later, he really enjoyed himself. This year however, they decided to start our own Thanksgiving Bowl, kids included, since the church game has grown so large. We figured we have enough people in our family now to do our own. So, Jeremy, Andrew, Crystal, Haley, the kids, Andrea, and Crystal's brother and sister all took off Thanksgiving morning for the park to play some football. Soon all the kiddos will be big enough to pitch in and do some tackling!

TOUCHDOWN!!








Haley

Visits With Grandma

I am happy to report that Granny McKay is doing very well, and although we were unable to bring her home from the nursing home for Thanksgiving, we were able to visit. We had a great time with both Granny and Grandpa McKay. the kids were very excited to see her doing so well. During one of our visits, the kids were treated to rides by Grandma on Granny's walker(video below)! We got some great pictures of my grandparents and the kids. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Holiday

We are back, and , OH LORDY, has it been a crazy week. There is no way to put it all into one post, so over the next few days I will post it in several posts, complete with pictures and videos of course! We had a great visit in Tennessee, and even saw some snow! Thanksgiving day started off with the Annual Turkey Bowl football game, and then was spent preparing for the Thanksgiving dinner which we actually had on Friday so everyone could attend. The food was excellent as usual (Thanks Mom!), and I even made the cranberry jello this year (a new recipe courtesy of Paula Deen and the Food Network). The kids had their annual pie making fun with Grandma, and they too were delicious. The rest of the trip was filled with games of "10,000", and visits to Granny at the nursing home. When we returned home Monday evening we received the news that my Grandma Thomas had passed away. The funeral was yesterday, and we were unable to attend, but I will post more about that later. It has been a very eventful week, but we are recouping slowly but surely. Enjoy these pictures, and I'll post more soon! Love you all, and thank you to God Almighty for a safe trip.