Family Outing

The Neild clan went bowling on Tuesday afternoon. It was tough to get spots for 15 people to bowl on a day when school is out, but we managed to get a couple of games in:

Essie

Chloe

AJ, Mickey, and their friend Tariku (also from Kamashi) who spent the day with us

Chloe & Essie

Mickey

Amy, Essie, and Aunt Caroline

Chloe & Uncle Andy

Amy

The fam

Christmas in Indiana

This year was our year to spend Christmas with Amy's family in Indiana. Here are some pictures from Christmas with the Neilds:

The tree on Christmas morning

Essie modeling a BatGirl costume (her most wished-for gift) made by Ababa and Meemaw

Mickey and his new hoodie

Chloe tries her BatGirl costume

Everyone checks out the boys' MP3 players - complete with an audio New Testament in the Gumuz language

The "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake - our girls can't celebrate anyone's birthday without cake.

Essie, Chloe, and cousin Hunter

Chloe and Grandpa

Wrestling with Uncle Andy

Playing remote control cars with Aunt Caroline

Dueling Piano

Grandma Neild's piano has been a source of great entertainment for the kids (& irritation for the grown-ups). Matt decided to show Essie how it was done.

A couple of outtakes

Christmas Eve

I decided to start a new tradition in our family that I've seen many other families do...new pjs on Christmas Eve. The main reason this year is all our kids are growing like crazy and needed new and warmer pajamas.

silly poses

Just a note that Mickey is not flipping you off, its his pointer finger.

This is supposed to be our sleeping pose, but obviously a few were laughing too hard to pose

2-for-1 special

Not sure when I'll get back on the blog, so you get a 2-for-1 today. Here's some pics we took of the kids at church on Sunday.

Had to have some of the other kids jump in a shot

Christmas Preparations

We have been busy getting ready for Christmas. Essie and Chloe made gingerbread houses at school couple of weeks ago (thanks Mrs. Johnson b/c I do NOT have the patience for this project).

Chloe above; Essie below

btw: you may notice Essie is missing 1 front tooth. It came out a few weeks ago after she was dancing for Grandma K. via Skype and did a face plant on the hard wood floor. Monday, I got a call from Chloe while I was driving to a clients' house to inform me she had been horsing around with the boys and Amsalu's shoulder knocked out her front tooth. So now they match again and we can't cheat by looking at the girls smile to tell who is who.

Today, the kids made Christmas pictures using glitter glue...what a mess, but they had fun. Photos below by Amsalu.

yes that's me, trying to clean while the kids are occupied

photos obviously not by Amsalu, but by mommy

Kinnell Christmas Letter

Christmas Letter 2010