Winter is FINALLY Here!!!!

Now I know Christmas is coming because...

*as of 55 minutes ago I picked up Ainsley from her last day of school until next year

*the weather has finally snapped from the mid 60's to a nice 35 degrees!

*school was on a two-hour delay this morning...don't laugh those of you who live in places where it actually snows in the feet instead of dusting the land=)

*my Christmas card wall is not so bare anymore (keep them coming guys!)

*when I walk outside it always smells like a big, wonderful, roaring fire

*there seems to be a never-ending supply of Christmas treats, candies, cookies etc. in my kitchen

I love this time of year! Pretty soon Mike will have time off of work and we can all hang out and enjoy time together. We are very blessed with so much and we are praying that you and your family remember what Christmas is truly about...the greatest gift of all...

Jesus Christ

Our LORD and Savior!

Leopard Print Shoes

Every girl has a thing for shoes and Jessica is no exception!! Terry bought her a pair of leopard print shoes a couple of weeks ago that she absolutely adores. The first time I had her try them on, she threw a fit but once they had been freed of all the tags and plastic ties, she was in shoe heaven=)

Yesterday I put her down for a nap and told her she had to take them off but that she could wear them again when she woke up. She was a little miffed but got over it quickly. I tucked her in and she was off to dreamland. Sometime later I went to check on her (lots of coughing lately) and she was sleeping on the floor with her beloved blanket and wearing the shoes!

This morning she came out to breakfast wearing them as well.

Guess it just goes to show that at age 2 you can have great taste in shoes=)

and yes, they are the same ones she's wearing while rocking out on the guitar!

Christmas Cookies!

Mike and the kids made some Christmas cookies Sunday night. Next to Thanksgiving, Christmas is my 2nd favorite holiday mostly because of all the traditions we have...like making cookies (that I could eat all by myself)!

Our tree after the kids decorated it.

And finally, a mantle to hang all of the stockings from!!!

Dylan's First Thanksgiving

These pics are a little backwards but they're a few cute ones from Thanksgiving. This year we hung out at Liz and Caleb's house and had a wonderful evening!

Z, Ains and Ethan "helping" Terry with the dishes

Dylan prefers his Cool Whip sans pumpking pie! Although, he did manage to eat almost an entire sliver=)
The kids table

The adults table!

Kind of strange to think that it was Dylan's first Thanksgiving?! All the other kids were 3 months (or less) at Thanksgiving so the fact that he is 10 and a half months makes it seem like he should have already had his first turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I know it isn't the snow that everyone else has been getting but we did wake up to snow this morning!! The kids were so excited because they have been asking when it would snow this year. They begged to go out at 7:30 this morning and Z was convinced he just needed to keep his feet dry! He grabbed his new boots (thanks Gib!) and ran outside. He ran around for a few minutes and then decided he needed a few more items of clothing! We bundled Ains, Z and J up and out they went!

Then they came in for some hot chocolate=)

May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy your time with friends and family!

And a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend Amber=)

Our Visitor

Meet our little visitor. When Z was leaving for school this morning, this little guy walked right in the house and has been here ever since! That was at 9 a.m. and it is now 3:31!

I am positive that he is from around here and hasn't been missing from his owners for much more than today based on his behavior and the fact that he is not skinny scrawny. He is super great with the kids and loves to have his belly rubbed. I have checked the paper and taken him to our vet to see if he had a microchip but he doesn't. We're getting a crate to keep him in tonight since Bailey doesn't care much for him. Since we kennel them in the kitchen at night, we'll be crating this little guy in our bedroom so that we don't create too much of a problem. Kind of feel like I'm cheating on my dogs though! Hopefully we can find his owner(s) soon. We're going on a walk later after Mike gets home because I'm betting he can tell us which house is his...I hope=) About 15 minutes after I posted, I got a phone call from the sign I hung on our mailbox. Spot has gone home and everything is back to normal...or as normal as it can be with 4 kids=)

Cereal Heads

J is a huge cereal eater and loves to snack on it as well as have it for breakfast (x 2 bowls!) so it was no surprise when she got some out the other night after dinner. Don't worry, I swapped out the fruit loops and peanut butter crunch for the kashi!

Later this is how everyone decided to wear the boxes

What better way to chow on some cereal?! Tasty and trendy!

Tink, Pan and Hook

Pan, Hook and Tink before Hook walked the plank in exchange for a Wendy outfit=)

Tinkerbell and Peter Pan

Tiny Tink

Decorating/Carving Pumpkins

Dylan chewing on a marker that J kept "giving" him...more like flinging it off the table in his general direction!

Crazy kids getting all the "guts" out of the pumpkins. J decorating her pumpkin and her nose!

All three with the finished carved pumpkins. Guess you can't guess whose pumpkin has the heart for a mouth!?

The Reunion

Like I have mentioned before, I am REALLY behind in my posts so I'm going back about a month ago. Our good friends Tim and Amber came back here for a visit and it was so wonderful to see them and get all the kids together...some of which had never met before. I dug up some old pics of them from about 3 years ago...probably one of the last times they saw each other. I cannot believe the changes in them!!!

Z, Kaitlyn, Ains and Jacob

Kaitlyn and Ains
Ains and Kaitlyn 3 years ago=)

Jacob, Ains, Kaitlyn and our friend Grace

The three girls can all remember playing together a long time ago. It took Ains quite awhile to understand that Kaitlyn and Grace had moved away and that we couldn't just hop in the car to visit anymore!

November...Can You Believe It?!

Uggh! I hate computers. I love what you're able to do with them but I hate the complete reliance on them. And how disconnected I feel when I can't do things like my e-mail, my blog or my facebook page! Then I feel totally stupid for missing those things because I also know what a timesucker they can be=)

Our computer has been in the shop so I'm using the old one right now. Nothing seems to be "updated" enough on it so I get booted off all the time. And I have none of the new pictures on here so I haven't been able to post some pics from my brother and new SIL's wedding or some cute pics of the kids dressed up for halloween.

I half-convinced Ains to wear the Captain Hook costume we have (she fits in it perfectly) while Z wore our Peter Pan costume and J the Tink ensemble (all came from the dress-up bin in the playroom!) but then she decided she didn't like wearing a "boy outfit". She opted to be Wendy instead but not before I got a couple of pictures of the 3 of them. Unfortunately I didn't get any of her as Wendy or of Dylan as a Lost Boy!

I had my excisional biopsy on Monday and got the results this afternoon. They got all the abnormal cells so everything is good now. Just need to get back to normal and heal. Such a rotten spot to have stitches...right in the middle of my lower back where my pants go. Not supposed to lift the kids (yeah right) or exercise for 2 weeks at least so that I don't rip the stitches, which will be removed on the 29th.

All the kiddos are healthy (right now) and seem to be growing like crazy. Dylan rolls everywhere and scoots backwards on his belly but doesn't seem to want to crawl any time soon. J will be meeting with a speech and language pathologist twice a month. They have determined that she needs to work on more oral motor skills...things that will help her build muscles in her mouth that seem to be asleep and not aware of their full potential. Everyday she says more words and is getting very good at "acting out" what she is trying to say almost like she's playing charades! I just realized that this is sounding more and more like one of those letters you get from someone at Christmas! Ha! I better stop for now. I'll be posting some pictures as soon as we get our computer back home=)

And just as a side note...Ains and Z are doing really well and Mike is ready to be done with his current class!

Updates

Ainsley got a baby Beta (belated birthday gift!) when we got back from our trip. Her name is Pocahontas. Ains enjoys feeding her and everyone loves watching her swim around. Hopefully she has a long, enjoyable life=)

Jessica has been evaluated through the early childhood program and has qualified for speech and language therapy. She is progressing so much in her language everyday but it is difficult to understand her when it comes to what she needs or wants. Often times she ends up on the floor in a massive tantrum because we don't understand her. She knows exactly what she's saying and will repeat the same phrases over and over when she's asking for something or telling you something, but we just don't know what she is saying.

Yesterday I went to see a dermatologist and had a mole removed from my back that he didn't like the look of. In about a week we should have the results.

Balloon Fiesta is here!!! Ains has Fall Break tomorrow so we're taking the kids to the special shapes mass ascension in the morning. Can't wait=)

WDW 2010

Dylan's first set of ears!!!

Here are just a few of the 400ish pictures we took on our trip!

Z outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride the night of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. (We highly recommend this because you get to go at night when it is not so hot and only a limited number of people can go so there are not lines for the rides! It runs from September to November!)

Ainsley and Gibby at the Princess Tea Party in the Grand Floridian Resort. This was very fun because the story of Aurora is acted out by Briar Rose and all of us guests and then Aurora surprises everyone! We had tea, sandwiches, fruit and cake! Ainsley got an Aurora doll (in the pic) a friendship letter and bracelet, a crown and a rose...too much fun!
Mike and J at Ohana's (in the Polynesian Resort)...best restaurant at Disney!

Ains and Z completely soaked after playing around Donald Ducks boat right outside Goofy's Barnstormer (roller coaster) in Toon Town.

The fam with Mickey at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort

More to Come

Hello All,

We've been away for the past week visiting Mickey and his family in Florida. The weather was great...no hurricanes and it only rained a little the last afternoon we were there! It was pretty hot and we were all sweaty the minute we stepped out of the hotel but it was a lot of fun. I will post some pictures soon=)

Happy Birthday, Ainsley Bear!

Ainsley is celebrating by going on her first field trip...to Dion's!!! She was so excited when she brought the permission slip home the other day and couldn't believe that's how she'd spend her birthday at school, checking out the kitchen and how they make pizza. And its a short day too! So jealous because I've always wanted to go behind the scenes at Dion's...I know, I'm a dork but they have the best pizza!

So, here's to another exciting year with many adventures ahead. I pray that God will always give her joy and a heart for Him=)

Zech-in-a-Box

Since we're still not fully unpacked and have plenty of empty boxes lying around, the kids like to play with them. Mike found Z in the playroom last night playing in this particular box. I think he was using it as his spaceship. It was on its side and he crawled in with his play keys and then flipped it up upright and was "blasting off" when Mike called me over. I grabbed the camera and clicked the first picture and then he popped up as soon as he heard the camera go off. Totally reminded me of a Jack-in-the-box=)

SOLD!!!!

Hurray! We have sold the house! We closed and handed over the keys as of 2 this afternoon! So excited to be done and not have to worry about trying to sell the house or getting to the closing end of things.

I wasn't sure we'd make it as you can see from the pictures. I was having flashbacks from 2 years ago when we were 2 days away from closing and everything went south. I went over to the house on Tuesday and found a great deal of standing water in the front yard because the water main burst!!! Thankfully everything worked out and we got to closing anyway=)

We went and mowed the lawn (ok, Mike did!) for the last time on Sunday and I took some pictures of the kids' hand prints in the shed that Mike and his dad put up and I got a little teary. I am very happy and thankful to be in the new house but it is kind of weird selling our first home.

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts....they helped tremendously!

Z and J's Party

We had Z and J's party at Chuck E. Cheese's this past weekend...a favorite family hang out of ours=)

Blowing out candles are a HUGE thing in our family so we like to make cupcakes that way everyone gets their own candle to blow out when we're done singing "Happy Birthday". Here are all the cousins (and Aunt Liz) blowing out candles!

Dawson and Z driving in the monster truck

Marissa, Ainsley, Dawson and Z playing a safari game

J riding a horse. She was funny because she wouldn't let go of her drink and seemed to carry it around everywhere she went for like the first hour!

Toy Story was the theme of the birthdays this year so Mike made some Little Green Men cupcakes that I found in a Family Fun Magazine. They looked super cute until the Mentos had a reaction with the icing and started melting! Mentos for the eyes (with black gel icing pupils and mouth) sour apple straw antennae and spearmint leaf ears. Not a huge fan of mint unless its my gum or my toothpaste but they tasted awesome once I picked off the eyes and ears=)

On Z's actually birthday we surprised him with a bike so he didn't have to ride the pink one (next to him in the picture) anymore.