CHRISTMAS FUN!

things were done a little differently this year. Rob is the oldest of six kids and his youngest sibling just got back from his mission, so the entire family came in for the holidays. it has been so much fun so far. on christmas eve we decided to take advantage of our land and take everyone out to go 4 wheeling and shooting. it was a lot of fun!!!! a little wet towards the end, but still a lot of fun. we ended up having to pull Rob's truck out of the mud. 

Christmas eve night was spent baking cookies, opening pajamas, spreading out reindeer food, reading little drummer boy and tucking in 5 very excited children. On christmas morning, Jakob is always the first one to wake up. i listened to him tiptoe downstairs while i stayed in bed. he is very expressive and dramatic and i could hear his surprise as soon as he saw the tree with all the presents and stockings. i then heard his foot steps coming back toward the front stairs only to realize he was unlocking the front door and opening it. he then says as loud as he can and at 7:30 in the morning, "THANK YOU SANTA!". how cute.

once all the kids get Rob out of bed and after they open their stockings and take the traditional picture on the stairs, the kids got to see what santa brought them. everyone was satisfied except Jakob. the only thing he wanted was the power rangers jungle fury movie and it was not there. (his grandparents had gotten it for him). we then cleaned up a bit, relaxed and got ready to do our traditional christmas meal at the Waffle House. we had a very relaxing day and enjoyed all the wonderful toys we got and watched our movies and just rested and recovered from the very busy Christmas we have had! MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BOOTS! 

COOKIE BAKING DAY 2008

Every year at this time my sister, my mom and I have a very special tradition to bake cookies. we usually make our favorites and package them just right for all of the kids teachers, our friends and our neighbors. through the years with the birth of a child, the festivities get a little more entertaining! we always have so much fun and the cookies are ALWAYS so yummy.

PICTURES OF COOKIE BAKING DAY

NICO'S GINGERBREAD MAN

DECORATING COOKIES!

EATING THEIR CREATIONS! YUM.

MY CRAZY SISTER SHOWING OFF HER MAD BAKING SKILLS!

OUR CRAZY KIDS!

GUESS WHAT WE GOT!

LOCKS OF LOVE

Annelies has had long hair since she was born and she has also had the biggest heart. she is such a sweet heart, so when she heard about locks of love and what it was, she didn't want to wait. she was ready to donate and has been waiting patiently for her hair to become long enough. today was the day and she was beaming with excitement. i have to admit i was more nervous than she was, but the end result is beautiful. i am so proud of what a giving little girl she is! 

THANKSGIVING AT SCHOOL

this year i think the kids schools did a good job at preparing them for thanksgiving. annelies and nico's school had a practice meal. annelies discovered that she really liked broccoli and they both found out that pumpkin pie is delicious! jakob's class had a big feast with lots of food and talk about how thanksgiving got started. he still has not stopped talking about INDIANS. i also got to see annelies play a turkey in her class play. she was the cutest turkey ever!!

THANKSGIVING IN GEORGIA

i love the holidays..... i love the smells, the excitement, the family, the food. i love watching my kids get all happy and bounce off the walls (in small doses). this year thanksgiving was at my house and i had so much fun planning it and preparing for it. sofia and i made an "alphabet" sign and had leafs prepared to hang on it with everyone's name on it set at their plate. (the assignment was to write what you are grateful for on the leaf). everyone had fun with this and they didn't have to say it out loud. after thanksgiving, rob and i set off (by ourselves) to tennessee. it was nice to get away for a little while anyways.... it's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

THE HAIR CUT!

BEFORE

well~ after much controversy over this poor little boys hair, we FINALLY got Oliver's hair cut. i have to admit that rob and i were not in agreement over this. i was all for the cutting of his hair and rob was not. I WON!! i at least wanted a good trim, but this is what we got.........

AFTER

so what do you think? comments please! it took a lot of gel and hairspray to get it to look that good, but the end result made me happy.

JAKOB IN A NUTSHELL

ONE YEAR PICTURE

    2 1/2 YEARS OLD WITH HIS WALKER

JUST OUT OF C.I. SURGERY. 2 1/2 YEARS OLD.

     ONE WEEK WITH GRANDMA BOOT

THIS PAST SUMMER LEARNING TO WAKE BOARD!

Jakob- you've come a long way baby!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKOB ANDERSON BOOT. 

some of the things Jakob LOVES:

super heroes                     the bus

cheese hamburgers           movies

coke                                  power rangers jungle fury

birthdays                           cars

bowling                             xbox 360 (he could play all day!)

baseball                             swimming

church                               the lake

his friends                          his family

school                                the list goes on!!!!

his teachers

Jakob is so friendly and always has a smile for everyone he sees. he once walked right up to a stranger at a restaraunt to show the guy how big his muscles are. apparently muscles are important to jakob! he is such a funny kid! 

JAKOB'S EIGHT

     ONE WEEK OLD

             IN THE HOSPITAL (ICU)... my favorite picture ever!

BEST BUDS!!

     JAKOB LOVES THE LAKE

    JAKOB LOVES BASEBALL!

what an amazing eight years we have had with this little miracle baby. i can hardly believe he's been in our family that long. it has really been a roller-coaster ride with this little guy, but i can honestly say that ever minute has been a blessing. we have seen Jakob grow from a scrawny little 5th percentile baby to a 90th percentile 8 year old. he has been through countless CT scans, MRI's, ABR's (measuring his hearing), double hernia surgery as a one month old, cochlear implant surgery as a two year old, tonsillectomy when he was 5, EIGHT teeth removed when he was 7, and countess other procedures that i've lost track of. surprisingly enough he is my easiest one to take to the doctor. he knows what to expect and takes it like a champ. 

Jakob still struggles with his speech, but lets nothing get in his way of doing what he wants to do. He does not let his disabilities prevent him from doing anything. he loves to bare his testimony at church and even though you can't make out most of his words, he always brings the spirit and several church members to tears. Jakob loves to make people laugh and especially loves to entertain his brothers and sisters. Jakob is a joy to have in our family and brings an amazing spirit to our home. i am a better mom  because of him and i know we are a better family because of him. what a blessing he is. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKOB!!!

NICO'S FIRST BUCK

Well~ i guess since Nico is not into blogging anymore, i will tell about his most recent hunting experience. it has been quite the year for my little hunters this year. nico has been hunting with rob since he was about 5 and has yet to really see a lot of action. they got a deer here and there and a hog one year, but nico has never been old enough to be really involved UNTIL NOW! Rob took Nico hunting about two weeks ago and a few hours into their hunting i got a call from rob's phone with a little boy on the other end practically hyperventilating. the poor kid could barely breath. at first i thought something was wrong, but after a few minutes i realized his adrenaline was pumping and his emotions were positive. he was crying and laughing at the same time. Nico shot his first buck with rob's . . . as Nico says . . . THIRTY NOT SIX. it was so cute and i have to admit i was so proud of my son!!

SPECIAL OLYMPICS (field hockey)

Jakob's class at the olympics

Jakob was having so much fun and so proud of himself!

He was so excited for his friends too and cheered everyone on.

          GOOD JOB JAKOB!!

Jakob had another successful experience at special olympics this year!!! with his school they have the opportunity to compete in the special olympics games (not the real ones, but just practice games). Jakob has so much fun and is quite the athlete. Jakob came home from his field hockey games with the 'gold metal' or in his case the blue ribbon!! we are so proud of Jakob and love seeing him do so well! his teacher is a chair person for the real special olympics and when Jakob turns 8, she will help him get involved. we are excited!!

NATURE WALK

   ollie was not too fond of our animal friends.

this is how he stayed for a lot of the mile long hike!

sofia loved feeding the animals

ollie finally got comfortable

my cute little kids in front of the yellow river.

some of the moms from church have put together a play group and today's outing was to the yellow river game ranch. we had so much fun, but ollie took a little while to get used to the animals being so up close and personal. sofia had no problem getting along with the animals and had a great time hanging out with her church buddies!

WEEKEND ROAD TRIP

last weekend we took the kids (not jakob, he stayed home sick with justin) to our land up north. we took the four wheelers, and the guns for a little family time. we had a great time and the kids LOVED being outside all day. the weather couldn't have been better. sofia was rob's helper by pulling the clay pigeons while he shot them. nico drove annelies around on the four wheeler most of the time and me and ollie drove the mule around. we had a great time!