Christmas 2011

I love Christmas, and this year was especially fun with Brady being here, even though he was little!

The Tree after Santa Came, before the kids got to it!

A little small!

Christmas was fun this year. I think the kids got most everything they wanted except iphones and trampolines! Ali got the super cute Miss Me jeans from grandma that she wanted, Mitch finally got the xbox 360 that he has been asking for, for years!!! Brady, well, he got a Johnny jump up from Santa and the bug exersaucer from grandma and one little toy from B and I but he sure got spoiled from the rest of the family!

It's always hard to be away from family during the holidays but its great to spend they day with just our little family! We don't get many day's where we are all home, all day together and dad is actually in town so it was a nice time to be together!

Christmas Eve 2011~

Better late than never! Yummy, we make cream rolls every year to give out to our friend and neighbors although I think next year I may be cutting down my list! And of course I had to make more for Christmas Morning!!!

We didn't have Heidi for Christmas but we did get to see her on Christmas Eve. We had a few gifts for her. She was super excited to get her princess dress ups, sit and spin and puzzles.

Shes a cutie. Just like one of our own. We've almost had her for 2 years now, she's just another one of the family!

We had fun spending the night with some of our friends at the Phillips. They invited us over for Fondue which is always a big hit. Of course because we love cheese and chocolate!!! Its always fun being away from home to have good friends to spend the holidays with.

Brandon and Brady listening to the rest of us sing Christmas Carols!

And the traditional jammies that they get to open on Christmas Eve. Its the only night we will ever get Mitch to wear actual pajamas!

Brady's Blessing Weekend!

Well, I guess i'm not doing very well with the blogging, oops!

Brady was blessed on November 20th out here in Ohio. We were excited to have a bunch of family come to spend that day with us well, actually the weekend with us! My mom, dad, 2 sisters, 1 nephew and 2 nieces came.

Ali happened to have a gymnastics meet that weekend and was so happy that she finally had people (besides us) here to watch her compete, she did well like always!

We spent most of our time just hanging out, eating, shopping and playing.

(sorry about all the pictures, i couldn't get the collage to work)

Sawyer and Heidi watching the competition

Aunt Kimmy and Brady

Kennedy finally gets to hold her new cousin

Waiting for her turn on the vault

Silly girls

Daddy and Brady before the blessing

The boys

Cousins with grandma

after the blessing

uggggly!

tired but happy baby!

sisters

Mitch,Ali, Brady with Grandpa Brent

What a fun weekend we had and a special time for us to have family visit!

Holy cow!

(That is my new favorite phrase!)

Time flies when your not blogging! In the past four months since Brady was born, I haven't spent much time on the computer unless im paying bills, checking the kids grades, working on primary or scentsy or checking email and an occasional glance at facebook.

So, this is my attempt at trying to get on top of the blog and catching up on what is happening out here in Ohio.

At the moment, I am enjoying my snowberry scentsy bar, feeding Brady and listening to Christmas music while trying to do this post.

It doesn't feel like much has happened in the last 4 months but at the same time things have been quite crazy around here. Brandon's mostly been traveling, kids have mostly been fighting, Brady has mostly been crying, and i have mostly been going crazy! Luckily, Brady is growing out of the crying but i can't say much about the other things.

Its funny how being older and having wanted a baby for so long, the crying doesn't bother me much like it did when Ali was a baby. I don't mind being barfed on or pooped on, pee'd on or sucked on. I am loving every smile, giggle, tear, noise, and every minute that I have to spend with my baby boy! He makes me smile and so happy every day!!! Truthfully, i don't know how we lived without him for so long! At the same time, I don't know what I would do without Mitch and Ali. They help out so much with Brady and love him to pieces!!! They are pretty much always willing to feed, bathe, dress or play with him and occasionally Ali will change a diaper.

I can't imagine how hard it is for Brandon to be traveling so much but we appreciate all his hard work and the sacrifices he makes for his family!

Hopefully we will be catching up on what the big kids have been up to.

Brady's blessing

A weekend with family

more gymnastics meets

a little photography teaser

and soon to come Christmas!!!!

Keep checking in, we are still alive out here!!!

Brady and I right now!

Comfort and Joy = December Scent of the month!

2nd Meet

Ali had another awesome gymnastics meet!

Its so much fun to watch her compete even though the meets can be sooooo long!

We feel so proud of her every time, she does such a great job!

She placed in every event at this meet.

4th place on bars with an 8.85

5th place on beam with an 8.45

4th place on floor 8.3

2nd place on vault 9.1

and 5th place all around!

Great job Ali, we are so proud of you!

Halloween

For Halloween this year the kids invited some of their friend over for dinner and trick or treating! Every year since B and I got married we have made chili on Halloween. Some years we have had parties and since are kids are getting older, for the last few years we have had their friends over.

This year we added to our menu by having homeade chicken noodle soup along with the chili and added biscuts, bread, chips and dessert. Usually, we just do chili and breadsticks!

We fed the kids and sent them on their way well, not before getting picture of course.

VOTE FOR BRADY!

I signed Brady up for a contest. Click on his picture to vote for him. You can vote once a day until the contest is over!!!!

Binky Games~ might want to turn off the music

Join

If anyone is thinking about getting a part time job for the holiday's or just wants to make a bit of extra money, I would love to have you join my Scentsy team!! Its only $99 to join and there really isn't that much of a commitment. Its such a fun product and people love it so once they buy, they keep coming back! Now is the perfect time to join.

Have some parties and earn some money its as simple as that! There really is not much to do,its super fun and its gets you out of the house (ie. a break from kids, unless they are like Ali and want to help)!

I want you all, if you are even a little bit interested you have nothing to lose. Even if you only stick with it for a month you get to keep all the product that comes with your kit and I can assure you its worth more than $99. I made back my $99 plus a lot more my first month!!!

I want to hear from you!

More sports for Mitch!

Mitch has been trying out for the 8th grade basketball team for the last 3 days and guess what? He made it!!!

Trunk or Treat

I love Halloween, always have and I don't think I have ever missed a trunk or treat when there has been one available to go to!

Ali, Heidi, Brady and I went to Trunk or Treat at our church tonight. Poor Ali hasn't found a costume yet so she wouldn't dress up tonight but we still had a good time!

Me and my babies! Mitch didn't get to come with us!

Our friend Whitney and Heidi

my little chili pepper~(thanks to Jodi for loaning us the costume)

the little "punkin" ~ she can't say pumpkin!

Friends

I have to say, if it weren't for good friends, i'm not sure I would have made it out here in Ohio especially during my pregnancy, birth and since with no family around and Brandon traveling so much!

One friend in-particular( <- is this right), has brought me many meals, loaned me maternity clothes, given me baby clothes, held the crying baby so I could clean my house, dropped Ali off or picked her up at b-day parties and activity days, watched the baby so B and I could go out to dinner, made many phone calls to see how we are doing, had us over for dinner and lunch, changed poopy diapers...........should I keep going!

You know who you are~~~ THANK YOU! :)

To all of my friends, thanks for taking care of us!

Mitch's 8th grade trip

So we never did stuff like this when I was a kid but here in Ohio, the 8th graders get to take a 3 day trip to Washington DC. Mitch's school got to go last week! They saw everything they could possibly see and without a minute to spare. Not even to call home. I think other then texting when he was on the bus going from place to place I only actually talked to him maybe twice. They did not stop from 6am to 11pm but he had a great time!

We learned that when you send a 13 year old with a camera and 2 memory cards and tell him to take pictures, you better be more specific, and should also probably teach him how to use the camera before he goes. He got a few good ones and quite a few blurry one not to mention the flash didn't work so everything they say at night he wasn't able to take pictures of. And tell him what he should use the money you send for so he doesn't come home from DC with a TEXAS flat cap that is too big for even his dad to wear!

I have to say I was really proud of him for going out of his comfort zone and going on this trip without any of his family and not being able to have much contact with us. My boy is growing up!!!!

(for some reason the rest of the pictures won't transfer to my computer so look for more to come)

Brady at 6 weeks!

I can't believe how fast time flies and the Brady is already (well, almost 8 weeks at the time I am posting this)! He is such a sweet baby!

He's starting to smile a lot and make cute little noises. He loves his big brother and sister. He is definitely starting to see us and follow us with his eyes and he likes to play Binky games with Ali! On the downside, he is a little bit of a crier. He cries most of the daytime when he is awake and I can never tell if its because he is always hungry or if he is in pain and then once it hits about 8:30 pm he cries until he decides to go to sleep for the night. It used to be that he would cry till midnight but for about the last week he has been pretty consistently going to bed at 9:30 and sleeping until 6 or even 7 some days, so I am ok with they daytime crying if he is going to keep sleeping through the night!

My babies!

I cannot tell you how much love and joy this little guy has already brought to our family and I don't know what we would do without him.

Fall Ball

Mitch on 1st base!

Brady's first time watching big brother play ball!

I missed most of Mitch's fall ball games due to having a baby but as always Mitch loves baseball and has a great time playing and pitching!