HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Easter Weekend 10

• Family arrived at our house on Saturday around lunch...spent the afternoon together...then went to Saturday night Easter service at HCC.  The church has a really pretty courtyard and we stayed and took family pics afterwards.

• All the girls colored, decorated, glittered...you name it...some eggs.  

• Uncle Cody thought it was a good idea to bring a baby chick to each of the little girls.  YES, A REAL ONE! SIX OF THEM!

• The Easter bunny stopped by our casa to decorate our front yard with lots and lots of eggs.

• The girls were so excited and had a blast hunting eggs together!  It is so much fun when we can all be together for Easter! Such a blessing to watch them together.

• Gram bought some fun bunny masks that everyone, even Chloe, enjoyed.

• The table was decorated with candy, bunnies, colored eggs, and goodies for each little girl!  

• I finally got to watch the movie, The Blindside.  It was so good!

• We played a game of Phase 10 amongst all the craziness with 6 little girls, 9 adults, 3 dogs, and a small house!  We love to play games when we are together...nothing will stop us!  

• And finally, after everyone left on Sunday afternoon...we are left with a sweet...little...fury...stinky...chirping chick in our garage!  And Adi adores it!

Hope your Easter was as exciting as ours!

Three Generations

I love this picture!

My mom is so proud of her girls.  I just wished we lived closer so they could grow up 

spending quality time with their Nana more than once a month. 

Adi resembles my mom some, especially her facial expressions when she says certain things.  

Thanks mom for all that you do for us.  I love you and the girls adore their Nana!

Thanksgiving Extravaganza

Since I couldn't travel this year for the Thanksgiving Holiday, Bradey's family came to us! If you have ever been to our house, you know it isn't very big and not a lot of space to sleep 7 adults and 5 children. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out and how my patience would be tested. I have to say it went extremely well and everyone had a great time!

Sheila, Bradey's mom, came on Monday to help me shop for groceries and start cooking early. We were very successful and pretty organized which cut a lot of the stress. We did a little at a time so when the rest of the family arrived we wouldn't have everything to do. Everyone else arrived on Wednesday afternoon and there was no longer a quiet inch in the house.

We cooked all day Wednesday and left the turkey, ham, and some casseroles to cook on Thursday morning. As we were cooking the cornbread for the dressing on Wednesday night, our oven decided to have a mind of it's own and started broiling instead of baking. Outcome - burnt cornbread. From that point on, the oven kept flashing "F10" code. We had no idea what that meant and really thought nothing of it!! So, we turned it off and later tried setting the timer to cook the turkey for a certain amount of time overnight only to find out the oven was no longer working properly. Let me remind you this is almost midnight before Thanksgiving with all the important things left to cook!! Not to panic right?!? We decided to go to bed and set our alarm for 5am to try again. Maybe the oven just needed to rest after cooking all day long.

Bradey got up at 5am and tried once again. Nope!!! Nothing!!! Not happening!! I immediately texted a few friends to ask if we could use their ovens. We took the turkey and ham over to a friends house and cooked it in her oven. Thank goodness we have friends! Not only that but friends that would allow us to use their oven all day at the last minute. Later that morning Randy, Bradey's dad, and Bradey decided to bang on it a little and then proceeded to unplug it. Apparently, it was the circuit breaker which reset when they unplugged it. IT STARTED WORKING NORMAL AGAIN!!!

Eventually, we all sat down and had our Thanksgiving meal together, TURKEY AND ALL!!!

Other than that, we had a great time cooking together, playing games together, listening to the kids laugh and play, and spending time together in a little space! I am very thankful for my family and I consider myself very blessed!!

Here a few pics from the week:

Thankful it was pretty weather. The girls played ball, drew with sidewalk chalk, and went on walks.

Lots of laughter!

All 5 girls sleeping in Adi's room together!

Before Papa left, he gave all the girls a prize, a snow globe.

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed every minute with your families! I was definitely reminded of many things I should be thankful for, not only at Thanksgiving, but everyday!

TrIcK oR tReAt, SmElL mY fEeT...

GIVE ME SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT!

Another Halloween has come and gone and I absolutely can't believe this was Adi's 3rd year to experience Halloween festivities. Time goes by so fast!

Her first Halloween (2007) she was Nemo the fish! I know Nemo is a boy, but when I saw this costume, I just couldn't pass it up. We took her to St. Stephen UMC Fall Festival. Of course she couldn't do much at this point and had no idea what was going on around her. However, it was a fun beginning of a family tradition.

Her second Halloween (2008) she was a Squiggly Pig. For some odd reason people kept saying, "Oh look at that cute lamb!" Really??? Are lambs pink? Do they have a snout and curly tail? NO!!!!! Anyways, it was a cute costume and she looked adorable! We took her to SSUMC again and also to our church for their "Trunk-or-Treat" event. Nana and Granddad came up to Amarillo to join us and Adi had a blast with them while she got lots and lots of goodies.

And finally, her 3rd Halloween (2009) she was the prettiest princess of all! She got this 'Belle' princess dress at Disney World when we went last Christmas. Funny thing is, she has never seen the movie 'Beauty and the Beast' but she loves to dress up as a princess. The wig was my favorite part and I'm really not sure how I got her to keep it on.

This year was different because she had more knowledge of what Halloween was about and actually got to go 'Trick-or-Treating" with some of her friends. We still went to SSUMC and a couple of other festivals, but I think she had the most fun going door to door with her friends. I wasn't sure if she would actually say, "Trick-or-Treat" when strangers would open the door, but she did. Actually, she tried to go in a few of the houses to see their pets. She is a animal fanatic and when she saw that some had dogs or cats, she thought she should go and see them. So, we had to have a little chat about walking into strangers' homes.

When we returned home, we turned on our porch lights so she could hand out candy to some of the other trick-or-treaters. She had just as much fun handing out candy as she did getting it!

I love Halloween for some reason as a Mom. I enjoy finding her a cute costume and allowing her to experience the festivities that come along with Halloween. When I was little, I don't remember Halloween activities being a fun family tradition. I don't remember ever dressing up, carving pumpkins, or going to festivals. I'm sure I did, but it just wasn't a big deal to my family. So, I like creating family traditions that we can take part in each year. Hopefully, when Adi is older, she will remember these times of us as a family and also the memories she creates with friends.

I'm not sure who had more fun, me or her?!?!

Next year, we will have two little ones to dress up and experience all the fun!! Can't wait!