Christmas Memories

Twas the night before Christmas and the excitement could barely be contained ! The kids opened their gifts from one another before going to bed, the only night of the year that they can't wait to go up to bed. Ellie said she wanted to sleep up in Sam's room with him so that she could hear when Santa and Rudolph landed on the roof. All 4 of them slept up in Sam's room together.When they woke up Christmas morning, they all found that Santa had brought exactly what they wanted the most.....

The thing Ellie wanted the most for Christmas was a Unicorn Pillow Pet. How priceless was the look on her face when she opened her wish.
Bethany got a new digital camera that she had wanted for a long time, a Nikon Coolpix in the color purple !
Sam received an XBOX360 with games !
A new texter in the family -- Felicia with her new phone.
This was the kids reaction to finding out they received a trampoline from their grandparents for Christmas !!!

Steve got a new coffee maker! And, yes, Santa visited me as well, but I was the one who took all the pictures, so....

Baking Cookies

Ellie was the only one this year who wanted to help me with the cut out cookies. She donned her apron and hat and set to work rolling and cutting like a pro.
Choosing just the right shapes....

The decorating took the longest time, but her finished products were a masterpiece !

Snow Day !!

Our first snow day of the year brought us only a little snow, but it gave us our holiday break from school 2 days early and the kids spent the whole day outdoors ! Except for cute Ellie, who was out for less than an hour, then came inside with her friend Katherine for hot chocloate and cookies and an indoor playdate.
The neighborhood gals all squealed when I brought out the camera, but then kept wanting me to take more and more photos !
Bethany and Felicia pose on their way down the hill.

Oh what fun it is to ride... !

Hollister has a Birthday !

Last weekend we celebrated Hollister's 2nd birthday. So, in dog years, he's now as old as Bethany. Great, another teeenager in the house, lol ! We sang happy Birthday and had treats and presents for him. The kids had a lot of fun doing this for our lovable pet.
One of Hollister's birthday gifts was a jacket, as my little doggie shivers in the cold in the winter.
I baked Hollister his own batch of Doggie cookies. (and in case you are wondering, yes, Sam actually tried one just to see how they would taste.)Better tasting for dogs, I gather.

We celebrated with cake !

Reindeer Shop

Breakfast with Santa and Reindeer Shop at Ellie's school were the fun things we did last Saturday. She was so excited to see Santa that she forgot what she wanted for Christmas. After a little prompting, she remembered to ask Santa for that Unicorn Pillow Pet she's been wanting ! After a yummy sugar-laden breakfast (donuts, muffins and pastries, oh my !), we headed to the gym where the Reindeer Shop was set up for the kids to buy their Christmas presents.
Ellie takes in her envelope of spending money and list of who to buy for and is paired up with a personal shopper. I left the gym to go peruse the vendor tables out in the hall.
Here are Santa's little helpers, Felicia and her friend Val, who volunteered to help the kids do their shopping .

Gardenfest of Lights

Lewis Ginter's Gardenfest of Lights was a perfect way to end our Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. We are excited about preparing for Christmas and after getting all of our decorations out, we were well in the Christmas spirit, so we were able to spend a fun evening as a family enjoying the light displays that the botanical gardens puts on every year.
Bethany carrying "her Mouse", which is what she affectionately calls her youngest sister.
Ellie was so excited by all of the lights she saw. I always remember how magical the holidays are for children when I see her reactions to things.
We had to really bundle up last night. Here are the 4 kids on one of the bridges
Felicia in front of the massive tree

The train display was neat with 3 different sets to see, instead of just one.

The huge Christmas tree in the Conservatory is my favorite part of the display. It is decorated beautifully and is sooo tall I can't fit the whole tree in my camera lens.The conservatory is also the place to go to warm up ! My camera lens was actually fogging over after coming in from the cold outdoors. It was definitely a hot chocloate night !

Our Thanksgiving

You may think my 5'7" , 125 lb kid is too big to get tossed into a pile of leaves by his father, but you'd be wrong ! Here is how we spent the earlier part of our Thanksgiving Day. The weather was so warm, we headed outdoors while the turkey cooked to rake and build some leaf piles.

Ellie loved this !!
My leaf jumpers !
When not doing our family things --playing games and watching Elf, raking the leaves, Bethany spent a lot of her holiday on facebook and her phone !! LOL
Felicia and her friend Val playing pool.

And, the star of the show, our 21 lb. turkey !! Mmmm.... First time I ever basted in butter and it was delicious !!

Time for Lunch !

Does this look appetizing to you? No, not me either, but this is the sandwich Sam made himself for lunch the other day --- it has ham, cheese and mustard, with tater tots and chicken fingers on it !! I don't think you'll see that on the Panera menu anytime soon, but he happily wolfed it down.

Felicia's First 5K

I found out about a local 5K race that is just 5 minutes away from where we live the night before the event. I mentioned to Felicia as something she and her cross country girlfriends might want to do for fun. They were all interested and in the end, my friend and I also joined in as well. The weather was absolutely perfect for a run, sunny, but not too warm.The girls had never run more than 2.2 miles in the season, so a 3 mile run was a good challenge and they did really great, all finishing in about 27 minutes. Felicia loved the snacks at the end of the finish line !!!

BFF's

Last weekend was almost as exciting as Christmas for Ellie. Her best friend, Sterling, whom she had not seen in over a year, came to spend the weekend at our house !! Ellie had her own calendar she was counting down the days on and nearly burst from the excitement of anticipation.Sterling arrived just a few minutes before the schoolbus brought Ellie home from school.
Two Peas in a Pod

They built this great fort to sleep in with help from older sister Felicia.They had so much fun, but they were sad to see their weekend end on Sunday. Hopefully they will see each other again soon!

Autumn's Beauty

Last week, the kids had a few days off from school and we took advantage of the time and great weather to visit a park in our area that we had never been to before. Point of Rocks Park has so many great vantage points to view the river, fields, marsh, and woods. You can see it all through your changing landscape as you walk further on the same trail.

Ellie finds colorful leaves as we start our hike


It just looks like we're in the middle of nowhere, so calm and serene. This park had great trails, but it also had two brand new playgrounds to play on once we came out of the trails.
Sam took over the photo taking for a while and snapped a shot of me by the marsh.


We love going new places and this park is only a 30 minute drive away. A perfect fall day to spend outdoors.