Love this girl!

Bucket rides!

Happy Sunday!

Thanks for the sweaters, Emma!

Merry Christmas 2009!

I made Haley an apron!

Heather made the kids tool belts!

We have been so blessed this year and look forward to another one full of joy!

Twas the night before Christmas,

and all through the town lots of snow was falling onto the ground! What makes this snow CRAZY is that the day before was 75 degrees!

The children were excited as excited could be all dressed in their jammies from papa & mimi!

Santa's snack and notes were neatly placed, time for bed sleepy little heads!

Here's to you, DAD!

Here's the story: The house in the back is condemned and Todd and Andy were contracted to tear it down. They called Pedro (who owns the bulldozer) to tear it down. The boys cut down a tree to use for firewood and as Andy is leaving in his truck, he gets stuck (pick on another camera...sorry.) So Justin is called to come and save the day and pull Andy out. No luck...Justin's stuck! So a call is made to Pedro..."can we cut the lock off your bulldozer and use it to pull our truckS out?" So here are the excited kids riding in the machine we only see working on the side of the road or read about in books. The bulldozer easily pulls out both trucks! Hooray, let's go home and eat dinner...not so fast, friends, now it's stuck,

and we're getting deeper now,

and we're done for! Time to call the wrecker to pull us out! Thanks to the wrecker service who saved the night (what was left of it) and got the bulldozer out so we could eat our dinner!

p.s. Pedro got the bulldozer stuck the next day and the job is abandoned due to $400 in wrecker fees to get big machines out of the mud. Moral of the story: THE WISE MAN BUILT HIS HOUSE UPON THE ROCKS!

Gingerbread Houses!

What says Happy Holidays more than decorating gingerbread houses!

Big Sister!

Gavin doesn't know how lucky he is to have such a great big sister! Haley is the best at helping keep Gavin occupied! She really likes to hold him but he is humongous for her to hold, and yet she tries to get him to sit in her lap so she can snuggle him!

Laundry!

My friend, Shannon, gave me this laundry basket when I was getting married. It's held a lot of laundry and doubles as a good kid holder when Curious George or Imagination Movers comes on tv.

Bath time!

Bath time in the sink is the best! And Gavin loves it!

Reindeer Root Beer!

My little elves helping to make reindeer root beer for our neighbors!

Sugar Cookie Season!

Get that hand out of the chocolate chip bag!

What a beautiful tree decorated by a beautiful girl!

Office Work!

Andy and his darling office assistant! She is very busy!

This boy gets around!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Thy leaves don't stand a chance this year!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Thy leaves are spread throughout my house!

Not only are the leaves around,

but all the twinkling lights are down

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Please make it through this Christmas season!

More Nutcracker!

Haley was more excited about getting flowers than performing and thanks to Mimi and Papa her dream came true! She had huge support at her Saturday night performance! Thanks for coming and making her feel like a real star!

Andy is already being recruited by the ballet company for next year's Nutcracker performance!

Nutcracker, 2009!

Haley is a cherub in the Nutcracker! She has been taking ballet for the last couple months and now it's paying off! She is the most adorable little cherub (don't worry every other mom thinks that same thing of their cherub!) Way to go Haley!

SNOW!

I love snow! We are so lucky that it snowed here! It only lasted half of the day and there wasn't even enough to build a snowman...but we were out in it until it melted! Love, love it! Can you tell it doesn't snow here much? My kids don't own snow boots so the rain boots worked until all the toes were frozen and we had to go in by the fire!