A Busy Weekend

We had a busy weekend. This was the weekend of our big Christmas outing with the family. We took a new family portrait that included Tyler who was not around for the last one. That was fun. A ten person portrait with 4 of them being 5 and under in a tiny room with people who barely know what they are doing trying to meet their quota. Oh the joy. But, then we got to go see Santa and that is always fun. My girls wrote their first Santa letters this year. Very exciting. After that we went to Nana and Papa's to set up their Christmas tree. I helped get stuff out of the crawl space and it was so cool because Tyler could stand up and not bump his head. He was still no help, but cool that he was that small. Nathan could wack his head if he tried hard enough.


After that fun we had dinner at Delmonico's and boy was it yummy! I just love that place and we haven't been there in a while. The girls made Christmas cards for our server, Bonnie, but she wasn't there for some reason. I am hoping she is not sick. We missed her.

THEN!
On Sunday I helped out with Kid's Cruise for the first time at church. It snowed, so there were only a few kids there and I was grateful. But, it was fun. Then the girls had a birthday party to go to for their friend Anna. It was a crazy party, with puppets and everything. Now, I am not crazy enough to have a party like that for my girls.........sorry girls................but Anna has a fabulous grandma who put everything together and it was fun. Here are some picts.




Anna at her 3rd birthday party!! What a cutie pie.













Christopher drinking from a straw for the first time. What a big guy. His cheeks are the best!













Our friend Emily and her daughter Kelly who also joined in the party crowd. Kelly has 3 sisters that are older and was very excited to be invited to her own friend's party and be able to go with Mommy all by herself.








Cake Time! Each person was giving a bear cupcake, chex mix and some fruit snacks. Each kid was giving a stuffed snowman as a "thank you" and had a not written on the bottom of each one. I tell you, that grandma is pretty crafty!




So, that was our weekend. It was busy, but so fun. I can't wait for the next big fun........getting the Christmas tree!!!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in PA this year. While we were there we got to go to church with Stevan and his family. I got to meet his wife, who is fabulous......I loved her and his daughter Ella who is in the picture with us. She is so pretty and was just so fun to watch with my girls. It was nice to have a church to go to while we were there. We usually spend Easter in PA also because the in-laws are just back from the beach then, so now we won't have to miss church and I will feel a lot better about the whole trip. I hated missing church on Easter. Easter is THE HOLIDAY!
Anyway, enough about that.
It was great to see Stevan again. We got to talk a bit about Stacia, though not too much since we were in a Subway. It is nice to connect with the Sheets family and be able to talk about Stacia because besides my parents no one around here really knew her or remembers her, but her life and her experience as well as my part in it defined so much of my life. I don't feel so alone anymore now that I am reconnected with them.

Robb and Nick went off to the cabin to do their bear hunting, so the girls and I got to hang out with Karen. She had lots of fun stuff prepared for us to do and the first was making cookies. They made sugar cookies with sprinkles, peanut butter cookies and chocolate chunk cookies as well. It was a crazy cookie making day and I took advantage of eating as much dough as I could sneak!! Yummy in my Tummy!



After dinner on Thanksgiving we took the girls to Overly's to see the Christmas lights. It was a great
night for it. We did everything, including riding the kiddie train, eating treats around the huge fire and seeing the live nativity. We also found cows to pet and to our delight they were in the festive Christmas spirit by wearing Santa hat's! Robb wanted to take one home, but I am still drawing the line at chickens for our barn yard animals. They can pet all the goats they want here at Overly's!!






When we got home from Overly's, Karen had Taryn's "practice" birthday cake ready. She was so surprised. We did it now because they won't see her again until after Christmas. I had birthday pumpkin pie because I am not a fan of cake, unless it is still in batter form! I am the same way with cookies. I love the dough, but if you cook them it just wrecks it! Anyway, a good time was had by all in PA, but I am glad to be home. My favorite parts were having lunch with Stevan and the family and watching the Macy's parade with my girls. I love that tradition and they are really getting into it now.