Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a happy new year and hope it's more like this...

NOT this.

This month has been awesome, there are few things better in this world then the month of DECEMBER. Food, parties, friends, family, chocolate, and of course best of all reflecting on the birth of our savior.

Mini vacay...

Day ONE: Excited to try french food, walk into the restaurant that smells so good only to find out they are closed:(
Day TWO: Call to book our dinner Cruise on the Columbia river and they tell us for the next two days they won't be doing the cruise....WHAT? lame.

Pros and cons to just showing up somewhere with no plans. I can not tell you how nice it was to be kidless, friendless, no work, church or other responsibilities for a few days. I really, really like this guy! We had an absolute blast.

Christmas shopping for the kids



We had the pool to ourselves.

Sisters by chance, friends by choice.


We are FAMILY......I've got all my sistas with me. My theme song for this post:)



That's right, we went to "So you think you can dance" live, the whole rest of the night i wanted to show off my amazing dance moves!


STRIKE A POSE





Independent & intelligent women, i tell you what. Oh how i love "my" posse!


Here are some of the up and coming ladies waiting to join the group.




Oh you little chillins, practice up on your shopping skills and maybe we will let you tag along sooner than later!

Locals....

For you locals, this is a MUST. We spent hours exploring each maze, riding the train, trying out the corn rocket and picking pumpkins. It is by far the best one around.


I hope you have a happy halloween! (Isaac even has the pirate face down and Syd will dress up tomorrow as a witch)

Obsessed!

I wanted to write more about Sydney but didn't have time. One measly picture doesn't cut it for this big girl.
Syd weighs 20 lbs, has 7 teeth, is a great eater, happy almost always, loves to dance, and follows Nicholas and Isaac everywhere. She gets into things she shouldn't. . . toilet, plugs etc., eats toilet paper at any chance, and is very affectionate. This girl loves to be snuggled and kissed, I don't think she knows any different! She says dog, cat, grandpa, grandma, dad, momma, buck, bottle, night night, and blabbers ALL the time. More so than the boys did (Must be my daughter). Sydney loves anyone who will give her attention but has her few favorites. Grandma and Grandpa (both), Aunt Patrice and Aunt Angie. She pats us on the back when we pick her up and yells down the stairs to dad even when he is gone. Thats where his office is and she knows it. Sydney loves to explore her surroundings and loves to look at books. We all love her to pieces. I might even be a little obsessed and that's just fine, right?!

My life long BFF!



Nicholas helping her pick out a pumpkin.

Loves daddy time.

She is going to be tough, she already loves to wrestle with her brothers.


She is really into animals right now, especailly dogs.

Is there such thing as picture overload? Oh well i couldn't resist.

Birthday girl!

She scored at the big birthday bash. She no longer has to play with balls and trucks!

Field trip to the airport.


Isaac has talked about this day for a month now, he is in the most amazing preschool (pre kindergarten if you ask Isaac)!

Someone else thought it was pretty fun as well.

11 months old

Sydney was our 10 month old walker, has 4 teeth (sponge BOB teeth teeth that is) and is a very easy going child. She says buck (thanks to her daddy) and dog and of course dadada all day long. We absolutly adore you baby girl!



Since the boys have school pictures today and Sydney is almost ONE i decided to try a little photo shoot with her. Maybe for your first birthday Syd i'll get you professional pictures!

Don't be fooled by her innocence!


I love that this girl is into everything and so curious. She keeps us busy that's for sure!!





The kids and i were excited to watch my friends kids for the night. Our first two are almost exactly the same age. Laura and I were about Nicholas and Braden's age when we started playing. It's awesome having a life long best friend.






Both Britt and I were widows for the week. She came for my birthday and stayed a few days. It was SO much fun. I have a lot of wonderful friends but nothing trumps a sister! All of the 18 cousins on my side get along great which makes it that much more fun.


TRIALS....
This past month has been interesting to say the least. Some of my close friends have been talking to me about their horrible marriages. One in particular is such a SAD and heartbreaking situation. Satan is real, he is targeting the family more than ever. It is the daily habits that are so important. I am human and far from perfect(i know you are all shocked by that) but there is NOTHING or NOBODY that i will let get in the way of the things that are most important to ME! I read an article that if you have not read and have time, you can look it up. It put a lot of things into perspective for me. The article is "How will you measure your life" by Clayton Christensen. Anyway, i usually stick with the fluff and kids on this blog but hey, this can apply to anyone, no matter what the trial is! You ll have to google it, everything is being slow on my computer.


One more fun thing and then I'm done for today:)





Although the five of us girls lead completely different lives and really couldn't be more different, we still have a great time reminiscing and laughing together. These are wonderful women!