Thanksgiving 2012

 

 

We visited Grammy and Papa's house for the first time with our big family for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was great to see all those faces around the table enjoying the food and the day.

 

We have SO MUCH to be thankful for this year!

Halloween

Introducing our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

Costumes made by Mommy

Brooke dressed up with some of her friends as crayons :)

We knew this year Halloween would be a little bit chaotic.  There were 51 goodie bags to make, juice drinks to buy for "A's" class and muffin brownies to make for Lexy's class.  And we had three class parties to go to so Daddy took off work to go to Lexy's and I split my time between "A's" and Gage's classes.  After school we headed up to our town's Boo Bash and Spook Parade.  There were games to play and then we participated in the parade before going trick or treating at the businesses uptown.

The little ones were crashing from so much sugar so we got dinner and took them home for the night.  Brooke had to work at the Boo Bash but afterwards went straight home because she was not feeling well.  Lexy and I went back out trick or treating for a little while longer after dinner.  We ended up with a TON of candy in this house!!

Pumpkin Patch

Well we can say we ATTEMPTED the pumpkin patch :) 

 

 

 

We had some grumpy attitudes, a playground that wasn't made for little people and some sticker bushes but we got to experience the pumpkin patch for the first time as a family and I'm thankful for that!

 

The kids did enjoy decorating their finds (Timmy picked a green pumpkin, Gage and Lexy both got orange pumpkins and Aydianna chose a squash) with markers and setting them out in the garden to display.  Maybe next year we'll be brave enough to try carving :)

Summer- Week 7

This week we...

Made smoothies (we've been making lots of these)...

Went swimming, Lexy's friend Jaidyn came with us, no pictures :(

Celebrated the 4th of July...

Lexy and Mommy made oreo balls and red white and blue strawberries and jello.
We made fire works art.
We had a hamburger/hot dog cookout
We shoot a few fireworks and watched our neighbors displays.
It was well over 100 degrees so we didn't get to do much playing outside this year.

Lexy had her friend Avree over for an afternoon of fun...

We had snowcones...lots of them :)
Lexy and Avree made rock art. 
I put the rocks in the oven 350 for about 10 min. and then they colored on them with crayons...these turned out GREAT!

Father's Day

For Father's Day this year we went out to C.J. and Jessi's for a cookout since we couldn't go up to Papa & Grammy's house like usual (Mike was on call this year).  C.J. surprised everyone with a limo ride around town before dinner and we stopped and took some pictures in a couple of different spots. 

Ashley, Brooke, Johnny, Toby & Lexy

Memorial Weekend

On Saturday Brooke and I got to spend several hours at the walk in clinic after she woke me up at 5:45am because her ear hurt her.  She ended up with swimmer's ear and a possible inner ear infection.  After we got home, Lexy had a birthday slumber party to go to for the afternoon/night at her friend Ria's house (her first one).  Mike and I spent all evening in the basement gathering and pricing for a garage sale.

Sunday we spent most of the afternoon outside after Mike put up the tetherball and the volleyball net in the back yard.  We had hamburgers on the grill for dinner.  Then we went on a walk before roasting marshmallows in the firepit and playing with our new light up frisbee.

We had a "be lazy around the house" day on Monday for the holiday.

Mother's Day

Mike was such a good hubby this year for Mother's Day. :) I had confided to him that I had never really fully enjoyed Mother's Day because I am too worried about making plans, etc. for the day.  He stepped up to the plate this year and made all the plans for the day, picked out wonderful gifts for me, did some of the honey do projects around the house that I've mentioned and then took Lexy on a long walk while I just relaxed at home by myself (Brooke was at the HS graduation ceremony).

We met Mammaw & Grandpa Tom, Papa & Grammy and CJ & Jessie and Ashley, Tori, Sheila, Toby and Johnny at Golden Corral for breakfast this year.  It was fun but way crowded and we really didn't get to sit around and talk much.  I'm thinking that maybe the picnic lunch we had at our house last year was better for us since there was more time to talk and the kids had a place to play plus hopefully next year we'll have more kiddos too. :)  We'll see,  I am just thankful that crowded or not I got to spend time with the most important people in my life.

Some pics from the day...

Toby - Brooke - Johnny - Ashley - Sheila - Tori - Lexy

CJ & Jessie with Toby, Tori, Ashley, Johnny and Sheila

Mammaw & Grandpa Tom

Papa & Grammy

My gifts included a family birthstone necklace from Brooke and a handmade ring and bracelet (made with beads and dried potatoes!) and a sweet card from Lexy also a saphire necklace and earrings and some flowers! I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Easter

We had a wonderful holiday this year.  On Saturday we took Lexy (Brooke was with a friend) to see the Easter Bunny she also got to enjoy two egg hunts and an Easter festival with games, face painting, balloons, etc at the mall.  We colored eggs TWICE this year too because that's what Lexy wanted to do!  Before bed Lexy made a card for the Easter Bunny and set that out with a carrot and water.

On Easter, Lexy was so excited that she woke Brooke up at 5am (Brooke made her lay down with her) then she woke me up at 6am (I made her lay down with me) then she finally got us all to get up about 7:15am.  The Easter Bunny had left a note and made a story scavenger hunt for the girls to find their baskets.

Then we headed up to Papa & Grammy's house for the day.  We had lots of yummy treats, dinner and it was so nice out that we played outside and even walked up to the nearby park to play.  It was a great family day and I got lots of great pictures outside!  We also celebrated Papa's 70th birthday while we were there!!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started out with pink heart chocolate chip pancakes before school.  For dinner I made heart shape mini pizzas and for dessert we had oreo poke cake (yum!).  I got roses from Mike (he gave them to me early) and I gave him a card and candy.  We gave Brooke an I tunes card and a reeses heart and Lexy a build a bear small fry koala and russell stover candy.

In the evening, we all went to watch Brooke cheer and dance at the game.

New Years Eve

As per tradition, we stayed home for New Year's Eve and Papa & Grammy came to spend the evening with us.  Sadly there was a change this year...for the first time ever Brooke had her own party to attend (at Taryn's).  Makes me sad to see her growing up!

We had lots of snack food for the evening.
I made sacks for Lexy and Avree to open each hour with hats, horns, etc. in them.
We put money and glow bracelets in balloons and blew them up for popping later.
Lexy and Avree played the Wii, did crafts and played all evening (easily staying up until midnight!).
The adults played penny poker.
We toasted in the new year with sparkling apple juice.
Lexy and Avree went outside to pop their poppers.
Before going to bed, Lexy and Avree performed a routine (w/the glow sticks) that they had made up.

Christmas 2011 :)

Christmas Eve 2011

Merry Christmas to all!!

As we are waking up early, opening our gifts, eating our blueberry muffins and bacon and enjoying our family, we want to take time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Lexy & Brooke's Christmas jammies 2011

Christmas Family Fun Day

We had a great family fun day - Christmas Style over the weekend.  We did a little shopping, had dinner, went to see a movie...

Alvin & The Chipmunks - Chipwrecked

 and then we headed out to look at some lights...

Mrs. Claus' visit

It is tradition in our house for Mrs. Claus to leave a note and new ornaments for each child in our home on December 1st of each year.  She must have been busy yesterday because she visited a day late this year!  This year along with the note and ornaments, Mrs. Claus left a snowman countdown and an Elf on the Shelf book and elf!! 

Lexy was so excited when I read the book to her.  She couldn't wait to name the elf (our elf had left a note saying that she was a girl and gave some name suggestions).  Our new elf's name is Jingle and we can't wait to see what funny, sneaky and naughty antics she will be up to while she is visiting!

Thanksgiving 2011

As per tradition we spent Thanksgiving at Grammy & Papa's house!

This year I am very thankful for the wonderful family that I have been blessed with!

Halloween 2011

As per tradition, we celebrated Halloween this year with the local Spook Parade, school parties and trick or treating.

Brooke really didn't dress up this year.  She wore her "Thriller" outfit while she worked at the Spook Parade Bash and on Halloween night she put a headband around her head and called herself an Indian/Hippie while she hung out with a group of friends.

Lexy decided she wanted to be a Werewolf this year.  Her other choice was a flamingo but she decided she wanted to be scary...and boy was she!  With her glasses Lexy has a hard time wearing masks so we decided to paint her face to go with her costume and I think it turned out great.  I love that that girl never goes with the "normal" she's always thinking outside of the box!

Last Week

Last week was spent "babysitting" my mom after her neck surgery.  It wasn't too bad though, kinda like watching a newborn baby, she pretty much slept anytime she sat down. :) 

Mike was on call for work all week so on Saturday Brooke, Lexy and I headed up to the city for some shopping and a movie, I love spending time with those girls :)  We stopped by McDonald's for lunch first because Lexy had seen a flyer that Ronald McDonald would be there...

Then we headed up to the mall for some shopping, Brooke got soaked looking at movie times at another theater, we ate dinner and then went back and watched the movie Spy Kids, All the Time in the World at the mall.  We had so much fun the whole day and laughed so hard!

For Labor Day we didn't do much.  Lexy and I made blueberry muffins and sausage for breakfast and Mike cooked steak on the grill for dinner...and we all lazed around the house in between.

4th of July Family Reunion

Mike's family hasn't had a family reunion in 7 years.  The pictures of us from the last one include an 8 yr. old Brooke and Isaiah (our 1 yr. old foster son).  Lexy came to us soon after that reunion.  We had a good time catching up with everyone!

 



4th Photos