Three??

How is it possible that our baby is THREE??  I can't believe Jonathan turned three last week!  We had a fun friend and family party to celebrate his third birthday.  It's hard to have a birthday so close to Christmas, but it was a great time!

The birthday boy showing that he's THREE!!  (I made his birthday banner from Disney paint samples from Home Depot--love how it turned out!)

Jonathan's Mickey theme was easy to work with and he loved his cupcakes!

Being cheesy with Grandma and Grandpa!

The cookies are usually the first thing to go at our parties!  YUMMY!!

The last Santa hat cookie---had to get a picture before someone snatched it up!

Happy Birthday to you, sweet boy!!!

That present is for you!  "For me?!" 

Having pancakes on  his actual birthday. 

We are so blessed by Jonathan!  He has such a funny and sweet personality.  We love you to the moon and back, J3!  XOXO

First Snow!

We had a small dusting of snow yesterday and our boys loved it!!  We got ready for school and went outside for about 15 minutes before Jackson's bus came.  It's going to be really fun when the big snow comes!!  I think our boys are finally at an age where they can really play and enjoy the snow!  Can't wait!!! 


Shovels in hand, ready to work and play!  Such a fun morning!!

I wanted to write this down so I won't forget...We have never really used Advent calendars, but this year we are doing a prayer chain as a way to count the days until Christmas.  Each night we take off a link and pray for the person or thing.  We ask the boys what they want to pray for and then we pray together as a family.  It's been a really great way to end our day (we do this at bedtime) and I think it's way more meaningful than getting a piece of chocolate.  It works for our family!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We have always gone and cut down our Christmas tree, but this year we got a pre-cut one from Home Depot.  The fields were rainy and muddy after raining all weekend, so we settled on a pre-cut this year.  We got a beautiful Frasier Fir, which I love!  (I think I'll eventually lose the tree battle and we'll end up with a fake tree, but hopefully not for a long time!) Our boys really had fun decorating this year--they were excited and put up ornaments and had fun rummaging in the big Christmas tub for fun things!  There was Christmas music playing, AW was making homemade pasta, and the tree went up in no time!  It was a great afternoon!

Reach!!  Looking good, J-Man!!

Joshua put up some ornaments, in between running around!

Making pasta is fun!

Jonathan's turn to help

We are so blessed!!  Hoping you have a wonderful Christmas season with your family!  We are looking forward to all the festivities!! 

Christmas Concert

Joshua and Jonathan had their school Christmas concert last week and it was so cute!  They both did a really nice job singing and doing the motions.  I love that their school can truly celebrate the real meaning of Christmas!  This year, after being in the concert for the past few years, Jackson was in the audience with us and I think he enjoyed that!

Joshua was all smiles for his concert!  He knew all the words and did such a great job!!

Love this little guy!!

The Pre-School class did a good job!  They are such a young group, and pretty entertaining to watch! 

My Jonathan, who was so proud to be on the big stage!!  He was so sweet up there!

All the classes and their teachers, and lots of parents taking pictures!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving, from our family to yours!  Our family hosted Thanksgiving again this year and I loved creating the menu, planning the decorations, sprucing up the house...love all the planning and prep that goes with holidays!  I'm strange like that, I guess!  Our entire family was able to be together this year, which was a real blessing, but with every family, there are ups and downs to every get-together. 

All 18 of us

The kids table, which had placemets to color on, crayons all over to draw on the table runner, pumpkin cookies as place cards, and paper plates.

The adult table, with silver chargers, our wedding china plates, burlap runner and pumpkin place cards, and lots and lots of yummy food!!

Our night ended with the boys building a spaceship on my treadmill and watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in our jammies!  Good times! 
I am so thankful for my family! 

"Big and Brave!"

Jackson's kindergarten class put on a Thanksgiving play last Thursday!  It was so cute!!  He was a Native American and his line was "Big and Brave!"  He did a great job!!  I took the day off to see the play and it was so nice to have him all to myself and hang out with him.  He's really growing up to be a very sweet and wonderful little guy!

The most handsome Native American ever!!

There were Pilgrim ministers, Pilgrim men and women, Native American men and women and turkeys!  Such a cute play!

In the classroom where the kids had gifts for the parents---candle and a "How to Cook Thanksgiving Turkey" book. 

Beautiful tree!

Our neighbors have a beautiful tree in their backyard, not sure what kind it is...but it has the most gorgeous red leaves.  This was a few weeks ago...

And the kids standing under the tree aren't so bad either!  :)

Halloween 2011

Trick-or-treat? Would you give candy to these adorable little boys?! We had a fun afternoon trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We avoided the scary houses, at the boys' request. By the end of the hour, we had buckets full and boys ready to head back for dinner. Good times!

Heading out, buckets ready!

Iron Man (War Machine), Captain Rex, and R2-D2

Heading back home

All smiles

Candy, costumes, and a fun afternoon=happy boys!!

First Day of Soccer Practice

Soccer!!! YAY! I played soccer all through high school and loved it. I am so happy that Jackson and Joshua wanted to play this fall. This is their first time and they both really had a good time!! 


Kick!

He looks so happy!

Following in mom's footsteps?! 

Joshua doing drills on the first day

Looking good! 

Jackson running to get the ball

Fall Fun

It's been a very busy fall!  School, soccer, family stuff, church, etc.  Fall is my favorite season and it's been beautiful this year.  Our backyard has a really big tree, which made for a huge leaf pile when the leaves started falling.  The boys loved playing in the leaves!

I'm a blessed girl to be living with four such handsome guys!!