Grandma & Grandpa James' Visit

Nathan and Carson love to help Grandpa shave.
Grandpa's little sidekick.

Just the girls!

Grandma made some of the most darling Christmas ornaments with the kids.

Since Nathan cut a huge hole in our other trampoline, Grandma & Grandpa got them a new one for Christmas. Here they are helping set it up. Thank heavens! I have my babysitter back. They love their trampoline!

It was so sad to say goodbye. I am watching you two! I know you want to take this cutie home! Have a safe trip home. Thanks for coming, love you guys!

Brooklyn's Baby Blessing

Today was Brooklyn's baby blessing. What a special day! Everything was perfect! Except not having all of our family and friends from afar here of course.

Many things made this so special. Rich's parents coming was so nice. My mom gave us the blessing dress, which was so beautiful! It felt like she was here even though my parents weren't able to come. I found the shoes and the headband and my dear friend Heather made Brooklyn her bracelet.

After the blessing we invited church members and friends and neighbors over for a Mexican food fiesta! Rich cooked fresh tortillas on demand and I made some Cafe Rio pork with green sauce and some homemade salsa. Afterward we were truly exhausted, but the day was perfect for our little Brooklyn.

Happy Birthday Uncle Trevor

We just love uncle Trevor. Here are a few reasons why..... Fearless

Mischievous

Hard Worker Kids and women adore him

Looks Good even when covered in hard work and bustin a move!
Happy Birthday Trevor!!!

Little Brooklyn learns to Blow Bubbles

This is her newest and cutest thing that she has learned.

Trimming the tree

Every year I have this glorious vision of me and my children decorating the tree with classic Christmas carols being sung in the backround with cups of steaming hot choclate to end our evening. What I actually get are fighting children, a cranky husband and a crying baby, and no hot choclate. Every year it seems to end this way. Let me know what I need to do differently next year, would you?

Happy Thanksgiving

Someone had too much to eat

What a wonderful time of year. This year we are so thankful for our health and all of our blessings. This year we decided to keep Thanksgiving low key. Rich is still recovering from his surgery and I am sleep deprived. We just wanted to have thanksgiving with our own family and have a relaxing day.

We did just that. The night before, we did most of the baking and prep work. As you can see we had a little sweat shop going on. Rylee peeled all of the potatoes and Carson picked up all the peels. I was dead set on having a banana cream pie and the bakery was not taking any more orders. So, my dear husband made me one. He actually did most of the cooking. We have reversed roles in my home. Rich enjoys doing the cooking, and I do the other work that needs to be done. He is a mean cook by the way!

After we stuffed ourselves with yummy food, Rich took a rest and I took the kids outside to play. Someone came up with the bright idea of swing surfing. Yes, boys are boys and there is nothing I can do to stop them. Yes, this was wild, crazy and dangerous. They sure did have fun!

After the backyard olympics, we took a walk to our favorite spot, a nature preserve. We pretended we were pilgrims exploring America. The best part of the walk was that our cat thinks she is a dog and followed us the whole entire way.

We worked up an appetite and had some pie when we got back. Kudos to Rich on the filling, It was delicious! Next time just make sure the bananas are ripe : ) The bananas turned into hard little gummy saucers, not so tasty. We will know for next year. When the pie was finished, the kids got to make Christmas ornaments. At this point in time, It was time for bed. Rich and I had a huge mess to clean.

Little Peanut

This baby is so adorable I can't get enough of her! She is growing too big too fast.