Some Christmas Photos

This is the best expression I could get with her bride Barbie...

The kids visiting with Santa at their schools last week.

Emily is 5!

Our girl turned 5 years old today. The celebration started Friday with parties in each of her preschool classes. Mommy and Daddy went took cupcakes to her morning class and helped her celebrate. She got a crown from one of her teachers and you'll see it in several of these photos. She wore it most of the day on Saturday and even had it on at church Sunday!

Saturday morning her Aunt BB and cousins Haileigh and Eric came to help celebrate. Em had told me she didn't want any friends, just family, at her birthday party so that's what she had. It was small and quiet and guess what? She told me several times that this was the best birthday ever! It doesn't take tons of presents and a huge party to make this girl happy.

Saturday after a lunch of tacos (her choice) and cake (I made it myself), me, Emily and our three out of town guests went to the mall and looked around. Emily had some birthday money she was dying to spend at the "pink store" (aka Claire's) so after 15 minutes she finally settled on some Disney Princess press on nails. :-) After such a big day we had a quiet evening at home and all had an early night.

Sunday morning we all got up and went to church, then we had to say goodbye to BB, Haileigh and Eric :-(. After an afternoon rest, we went to the park to play (did I mention the weather was beautiful ALL weekend) and stopped for an ice cream on the way home.

The big purchase for her birthday was a new big girl bed. She was still in a toddler bed and was beginning to outgrow it so she now has a beautiful new twin bed all to her own, complete with Disney Princess bedding! It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad she enjoyed it!

Halloween Pics

Benjamin is Two!

Yes, I still have snowmen as my background. Yes, it's been four months since I last posted. Going back to work has put a definite cramp in my internet time! A quick recap since my last post...

Traveled to New Zealand in July to visit Jeff's family and to celebrate his 50th birthday. It was at Jeff's birthday party there that I realized there are several family and friends in NZ who actually do read our blog so I promised I would do a better job keeping it updated (sorry it's taken me so long to get to it, though)!

One week after getting back from NZ, I started back to work full time. I'm working at the office in an 8th grade building and I love it! It's taken a bit of getting used to our new routine and schedule but we are all settling into it now.

This past weekend we celebrated our baby boy's second birthday. My dad and his wife came and spent a few days with us and my sister, Brenda, and her kids joined us on Sunday for Benjamin's party. Friday, Benji's daycare had a little celebration for him during afternoon snack time. Then Sunday afternoon we had lunch and cake at a local park where the weather was summer like. I think Benjamin had a great time and one of his favorite presents was his Thomas the Train engine and some train track from Papa and Billie. Above are some highlights...

Our Swimming Pool Is Open!!!

Our Weekend

This past weekend our family experienced a few milestones. First, Jeff and I had a weekend away (without children) for the first time in 2 1/2 years. And it was also the first time Benjamin had been away from us. The kids stayed with my sister, Brenda, and she said she hated to disappoint me, but Benjamin did just fine without us. And Emily always has a great time at her BB's so she wasn't phased by us being gone.

The other milestone was my niece, Haileigh, graduating from 8th grade. They had a nice banquet and awards ceremony Friday evening. Isn't she just beautiful?? I feel like I should explain my appearance. We had Emily's school field trip to the zoo last Friday...it was 55 degrees, windy and pouring rain when we got there so I was sporting ball cap hair.

Here are a few photos of my little guy helping me weed a pathway last week. I swear he worked for a good 15-20 minutes, pulling weeds and putting them in the bucket. The only negative result...now he wants to pull up some of our ground cover that are NOT weeds.

Odds and Ends

Here are just a few shots of the kids from the past week or so. Last week we had a few days in the mid 80's. It was great! This morning it was in the mid forties when we went to the store, so it's back to jackets and pants, but hopefully just temporarily. We also had quite a bit of rain yesterday and our little water lover had to play in it.

I hate this dress. Let me explain. I bought it at a consignment shop last spring for Emily to wear at Easter (which she did). Back in January or February she started this thing where she insists on wearing a dress every day with her high heels. It didn't matter if it was 20 degrees outside. She wore the dress. Time to get ready for bed? She chose this instead of pj's. If we did go somewhere where she needed to wear different clothes (like to school) she would immediately go to her room and change as soon as we got home. She plays on the swingset in this dress. She rides her bike in this dress. This is how much she wears it...my neighbor told me a few weeks ago, "I don't know how much you paid for this dress, but you're sure getting your moneys worth out of it." I guess it was the best (or worse) $12 I have ever spent. She still wears dresses every day and she has others she can wear. But this is her favorite.

Here she is playing with her Don't Spill the Beans game. She has no interest in playing it like it's supposed to be played (believe me, I've tried). She just prefers to spoon the beans in and out of containers, etc. Whatever keeps her occupied!

My little man. Is he cute or what?

Benjamin with Zack. I'm not sure who was trying to kiss whom!

We think he looks a bit like Linus, the Peanuts character. This is one of several "lovies." I'm lucky he did not attach himself to one specific blanket. This is a white cloth diaper...we have lots of them so when one is dirty, it gets thrown in the wash and a clean one taken out of the drawer. Oh, and his thumb is always in his mouth when he has his lovey.

Playing in a puddle in the driveway after last evening's rain.

Of Daddy couldn't miss this opportunity to be a kid, either!

Benjamin then decided to sit right down in the water. Brrr...

Okay, it wasn't so fun anymore after he realized his pants were soaking wet and stuck to him. He went right in and had a nice warm bath.

Lastly, we took our little guy for a haircut yesterday. It was just his third one and he still hates it, although seemed to cry a bit less this time. After his bath, I decided to put use a little gel in his hair. I think it looks cute.