Caroling....

Last Saturday.... this crew went and sang some pretty songs together at a couple of nursing homes. It always warms my heart to see the kiddos get so excited about it. Love to watch them bless the nursing home folks.

After singing, we enjoyed a wonderful meal together and some great fellowship.

Thanks crew for an enjoyable evening!

christmas candy....

Taryn and I had a couple of hours on our hands with no little fingers and no significant others around and this is what we decided to do with our spare time!

Let me rewind, before we took on the candy makin we enjoyed a meal at Mi Pueblo (filling our tummys with good food, so we did not eat only bad food) and some girl chat time...

Taryn's choice was puppy chow and my choice was white trash!

It was a "sweet" success!
























Yep, we did use a trash bag to mix them up.

Silly girls...

p.s.... do you not love their choice of color for the kitchen??? newly painted...

passing on traditions....

Through the years, while living at home..... my brothers and I always decorated gingerbread houses this time of the year.

Thursday evening we had no plans and a night at home so we broke out the gingerbread houses. I was really impressed with how long this held the attention of a one and three year old. The kids had a blast and they are so proud to show everyone that enters the house.

My heart delights in these family activities.... hopefully this will be a fun tradition that is past on and one the sticks around.

At first Ella had a hard time thinking about candy being in

front of her and her not eating it all!

Gabes finished house....

Ellas finished house.....

Here are some pics of miss Ella cooking and talking on the phone...

I love this little girl.... she makes me smile!

p.s.....I bought the gingerbread house kits at Wal-Mart for $9. I thought that was an amazing deal. It had the icing, candy, house, everything you need. I just know that you can rack up money pretty quickly in candy for the decorating part.... so go get yourself a kit and have yourself some fun!

My sweethearts.....

....are trying to let you in on a little secret!!!!!!!
































p.s. they are showin ya just what their mommy
is going to look like in eight short months!!!


hee hee... we are blessed and thrilled!

Northern Christmas

We headed to Northern Indiana last Thursday afternoon to enjoy some good extended family time. My mom has two brothers that live in Goshen and they are always making the trip to Southern Indiana for the Holidays and so we decided to give them a break this year and we all headed up North.

This time of the year is always so special yet we all hate to see it come... the reason I say this is bc my Grandma Zetta and her husband Joe head to Florida after our celebrations. We are never ready to see them go. So we celebrate thanksgiving and christmas all together. You ask how... we have our big ol turkey dinner and then after stuffing ourselves we exchange gifts.

My cousin Jonique and I always lived five hours apart and when we got together over weekends we were two peas in a pod. Our favorite thing to do was playing barbies together.
So its so fun to grow our families together. They have Jack who will be three in January and Brynlee who will turn one in February.

Here are our kiddos lovin on eachother..
Oh, and they were loving the ring pops the mammas
brought home from some black friday shopping!

Uncle Terry showing Gabe and Braxton some good stuff on his phone.

Grandma cooking away.... what would I do without her noodles!

This is grandma Zetta with three of the four great grand daughters....

This is the couch full of great grand sons.... and there were some missing....

poor girls are definately out numbered!

Ella showing off her AWESOME turkey shirt that my friend

Lauren made for her.... you can find her craftyness at

www.naptimedesign.etsy.com

The boys ready for their yummy pancakes!

Miss Brynlee being her cute smiley self.

My little princess trying to be a little worker!

This is the crew that shared a house for the weekend.

We love this family and have so much fun with them.

Thanks guys for your hospitality!

Looking forward to your visit in February.

I can not believe this is already a week later.

Grandma is half way to Florida... boo!

Its nice to know that she will be making her way home in

February for the wedding... it will make it not seem as long!

Christmas is in the air...

Christmas has begun... Yipee!
Before we headed up north for the Holiday weekend we decorated our house... It was so nice to come home to a cozy house with trees and lights!

We started with the kids trees.. each has a tree for thier room.
And I am so proud of them. They decorated them all by themselves, until they got tired and I did the finishing touches. But I am also proud of myself bc I usually "fix" their trees when they are sleeping and this year I did not. They are as they put them. I love it.

Gabe's final product.

Ella's final product....

Moving on... to the tree in the living room.

Ella was all about it this year.... daddy and Gabe took some time for boy stuff.

Like playing motorcycles and watching you tube videos.

Another night we tackled the tree in the dining room...

Man how I love this time of the year.

Its been so much fun to have two little helpers this year too!

These two have been beggin (mostly Gabe, but whatever big bro has... little sis wants)

for footed pjs and so we purchased some!

They love them and want to wear them every night.

Silly sugars....

Northern Thanksgiving/Christmas coming soon....

Serious Business....

I had some serious business to take care of before time got aways from me!

And that business is all about CATCHING UP!

SO.....

October 18th, my wonderful hubbs turned the BIG 30!

When you ask him how he feels about it... his response is.....

" I just entered my prime!" I guess thats a great way to look at it.

So the story goes....

I asked some of our closest friends if they would pretend to come watch our

kids while Andre and I went on a date. And so they did...

So poor Andre thought he was getting a quiet evening for just the two of us, but litttle did he know I had other plans.

As soon as Andre and I drove off.... The mad rush came in.

Everyone prepared our house for an amazing surprise party!

(thanks for everyone who had a hand in it... it was awesome)

The ploy to get Andre home....

Our dearest friends called to say Ella was not feeling well and was very whinny.

Andre's response was... she will be fine. Tell them to just find something to entertain. Can you tell that Andre was excited to be with me! We do not get out much by ourselves... hint as to why he did not rush home to our sweetie.

so I text... "its not working"

We then recieved a phone call.

Did not convince daddy.

We then recieved another phone call. That stated that Ella was throwing up!

Daddy finally gave in and we headed home to check out the situation.

SURPRISE DADDY!

Completely Shocked!

This was on a random walk with daddy.

The kidos enjoyed the leaves!

These next pics are from a walk with mommy.

We love our walks....

Silly girl...

Ella pushed her babies.....

Gabe took his battery powered four-wheelers.....

Cheering them on as they race!

This little girl stepped in every water puddle she could find!

These pics are from a wonderfully relaxing evening we had out at glendale.

Gabe's FIRST hunt.

Andre and Gabe went out in the woods looking for deer.

They walked a bit. Stood a bit. Listened a bit.

Gabe had a BLAST.

Andre and I actually did get a REAL date night.

Tera and Alex watched our babies for us while we completely enjoyed eachother!
These are our pics before we left.

My dad got himself a buck!

Gabe was determined to get his pic with Nanno and the deer.

The morning we woke up to go take this pic Gabe's first words were...

"mom, where are my camo clothes?"

Please notice... the camo attire!

One day last week the kids and I headed over to the Rainey's for lunch and crafts.

The kids had a blast together!

Working hard...

The end result.... rings to count down the days until Jesus' birthday!

This is a bush that gets amazingly red in the fall.

Its in our back yard....

Hubs did a good job capturing it with these cute pics.

These boys had SO much fun together at the park!

These last pics are of last Friday evening.

It was GOOD.

We women decided it was high time for a ladies night out.

Grandma leaves for Florida next week so we decided to dine in style.

French Lick Resort...BABY!

After supper things got a little CRAZY!!!!

Yes that is my grandma!!!!!

I love this about her... she still has a wild side! hee hee

Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel much better....

This post was a long time coming... so glad its over.

Sorry its so long...

I am making a vow to do way better at posting!