cookies

We love making cookies every year. Nothing special, just for the kids to eat. It brings back great memories of my childhood. Every kid gets a paper plate to catch all the spill of sprinkles. It's always fun to see what they come up with. This is the first year we didn't have the mile high icing with all the sprinkles cookie. Makes me a little sad. Those always reminded me of Joel and Brad.

Jared is really into yin and yang, and so he made this creation

snow and ice

We enjoyed some snow and ice last week. It messed up Allen's last week of work. The kids were out three days the week before Christmas break. We got to try out snow at our new place....

they loved playing on the frozen pond

Claire found the perfect hill

they didn't go out to play on the ice day

cuddle wrestling

Something happened this weekend, that happens often in our house, that I want to remember, because it won't always happen.

It is Saturday morning, Allen is still in bed, it is creeping closer to afternoon, so I say to the kids, "will some one go cuddle with dad?". And, every time, three kids go tearing into dad and jump in bed with him. Why do they do this? Do they love cuddling with him that much? Maybe, because they do actually cuddle for awhile. But about 10 minutes later I will hear screams and screeching mixed in with laughter. The cuddling always turns into wrestling. Well, they call it that, but really it is "try to get out of Dad's death grip". He will hold all three tight to him as they struggle to get away(well sometimes Carter just lays there saying he enjoys it). If one happens to escape, the others will beg for help and the escapee will try to help but usually gets sucked back into the struggle. All four of them love this game. Allen admits it is getting harder to hold all three. When will this ritual end? When will we just reminisce about it? Hopefully not too soon.

a room with a view

wanted to share the best part of our house with you:

notice the moon in this one

the lake becomes a mirror
a foggy morning
sunset

after

beautiful

sunset

the dress

Claire finally got the dress she has been dreaming about. She had explained it in great detail: "touching the floor so you can't see my feet, puffy so it always looks like I am spinning." It was at the top of her birthday list. Well, Grammy and Mimi did not disappoint. And now Claire is in heaven and doesn't mind having to pick up her dresses a little as she walks up stairs and loves to sit in a muffin and tell everyone to come look how big it is, so big she can rest her head on it.

Can you say future beauty queen? Scary, I know.

Her second favorite gift came from mom and dad. She enjoys giving her brothers a ride down to the lake. Unfortunately, her dresses are too puffy to fit in the car.

busy

It was a busy weekend

halloween cross dressing

Halloween weekend was an odd one this year...and the costumes seemed to fall right in line. Carter's last minute "dirty laundry" was a hit. Claire was a "bat queen" (obviously), and Jared went through old costumes and came up with his.

For the school spook parade Claire was again the bat queen (do you notice her pose? I swear I've seen that exact pose in some magazine add. I should do a post on just her poses, the girl has some moves). And what is Jared you ask.....

He is a Justin Bieber fan of course. (Yes, he is wearing my skirt and my flip flops-which are too small) His friend at school came up with the great idea of mocking the singing sensation and surprisingly Jared was actually game. Allen just shook his head, but hey, they came in 3rd place.

discovery cove

We headed down to Orlando for fall break. We enjoyed the Disney parks as always, but our main reason for going was to go to Discovery Cove (by Sea World). It had snorkeling (those pictures are on the waterproof camera, but trust me, it was great), pet and feed stingrays and feed, pet and ride dolphins, also a lazy river and unlimited food. Oh yeah and an aviary...

still shot of Carter and his arch nemesis

second time there Jared loved it

Claire riding Izzy

The family photo

we all warmed up to the stingrays eventually and fed them their lunch

taking a break at the lazy river

so much fun

happy fall y'all

best part of these pictures is that I took them in our yard

hot tub time machine

We are finally having cool weather, so we fired up the hot tub for the first time this past weekend. HEAVENLY. It was a crisp 54 degrees outside and a warm 101 degrees in the hot tub. OK, for the "time machine part"(I didn't just use the movie title for no reason, that would be silly)...all three kids (the boys finally talked Claire into it) jumped into the pool several times and swam around and then hurried back to the hot tub. This brought back memories of my family staying at various hotels through out the years and the fun we would have doing the same thing. I am not as adventurous anymore. I stayed in the warm water and enjoyed watching my brave kids and enjoyed my memories of when I was so brave.

Hamlet and Carter

I am trying to write a paper on Hamlet, but I keep looking at this.

Funny thing Carter said after studying for a Health test..."mom, I got it, I know how I can gain weight...I will eat two baconators and sit on the couch all day". He makes me laugh everyday.

gotcha

Six years ago this princess came into our lives. We spent the weekend celebrating her and remembering when she joined our family. We looked back at journal entries and laughed at some memories we forgot. Like when she was almost two and would cry when the doorbell rang because she thought it was a babysitter. I would have to explain to the FedEx guy that she wasn't scared of him, she just didn't want him to babysit her. And how she would say things like "I don't want it....nite nite", "I don't want it...doctor". And how when she was stressed, like there was too much noise, she would scratch all over her little bald head, and it would seem to help.

We love you Claire, our little princess.

soccer anyone?

This is the first organized sport Claire has played in. She was so excited and was thrilled to wear cleats and shin pads. But she did ask me why she had to wear the brown jersey? I tried to convince her it was gold. But she still looked at the green, red and purple ones with envy. At least there wasn't any pink ones or we would have had a problem on our hands. Her first game was today and she surprised us all with her playing. She was always in the middle of the action. She was smiling the whole time and we even heard a few giggles. And yes, there were a few whiffs, but she is just so cute we barely noticed. Her great big brother, Jared, gave her some tips before the game.

carter's suit

Yes, that's Carter looking all too grown up. When Carter turned 12 he also became a deacon at our church. One of his new responsibilities is to help pass the sacrament to our congregation on Sundays. Most boys make this the time to start wearing suits and ties to show respect to this responsibility. And most moms beam with pride and gush at how cute their 12 year old looks. I was no exception. I also had a tear in my eye seeing my baby grow up. I wanted to take pictures of him in his new suit, but also with his dad, in his suit. Don't they look great? I wanted to capture this moment. Father and son. I want to take another photograph when Carter is graduating from high school and see how they look then. Carter looks so small right now, leaning on Allen's chest. How will he measure up in a few years?

on the lake

A good day on the lake

happy birthday boys

I finally got to use Lori's gift to decorate for the big days

there was a D&D theme this year

One of our gifts to the boys is that we are taking them to Nashville to see our new favorite band, The Avett Brothers, in concert

Jared had a swim party

Carter did the boat party again

Carter doesn't like cake and chose to have cookies and swedish fish instead

Carter and his friends still love all things monkey, so he was thrill with this gift