Merry Christmas

Our family hopes yours has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love,

Curt, Julie, Jordan, Zach, Riley, Gavin

Cool Dude!

Here is a layout of Gavin's first time in a pool. The journaling reads: Wow! Your first time in a pool. These pitures were taken at the YMCA in Aberdeen, SD on Easter weekend 2007. At first you were quite afraid, but the fear eventually went away and you made the most of your pool time. What fun!

Blue and You

Here is a layout of Gavin's favorite toy, or at least it was his favorite toy. The journaling reads: You loved this Blue's Clue toy so much we could barely pry it from your hands. Too bad you dunked it in the toilet one day and broke it. We sure will miss that toy.

Best Buddies

OK, I know I said no more Riley layouts for now, but this is going in Gavin's book so technically it is his layout, Riley just happens to be in the pictures. Gavin looks up to his sister so much, so I wanted to do a layout representing that. I wish I had better pictures of the two together, but I think you get the point with these.

Christmas Concerts

It has been two weeks since Zach's concert the one week since Jordan's and I'm not sure why I haven't posted any pictures of their concerts yet. Zach's concert was fun, but I wish they would do more Christmas songs that we all know and love. That is the same for Jordan's too. Oh well, I'm not the teacher and I'm sure it would be hard doing all Christmas songs year in and year out. Zach's was cool though because they did sign language with all the songs and he did really good with that. He was soooo into the singing and had a fun time at his concert. Jordan had a solo this year and did great. Not to be biased, but I think he did the best of everyone. :) His class did such a good job on their songs compared to the rest of the Jr. High. Maybe they are not just as embarrassed yet with singing in front of everyone. I just hope Jordan continues with singing because he has a really good voice, very proud, a boy after my own heart.

Gavin's Party

Fun, Fun, Fun!!! Gavin sure enjoyed himself at his party yesterday. He was loving all of his gifts and had tons of help opening them. He didn't necessarily need the help, but he wasn't complaining about it. As you can tell it was a Thomas themed party. There is nothing more he likes right now besides Thomas the Tank Engine. I think all my kids went through the Thomas stage. Thanks everyone for a Happy Birthday for Gavin.

What Makes You Happy Layout

Yet another Riley layout. This is also of her first day of school. I just wanted to convey her total happiness in going to school. She was all smiles that day. I will finally move on to other layouts of the other kids so you know that I actually scrap for them as well. Sometimes it is just easier for me to do one kid at a time if I have a lot of pictures to scrap. Gavin is next, so hopefully I can get some layouts of him posted soon.

Happy Birthday, Gavin!!

Happy Birthday, Bubba! You are two years old today. Too bad you have to wait until your birthday party on Sunday to open your presents. Oh well, what you don't realize won't hurt ya. We love you very much and are blessed to have you in our lives.

Making Christmas Cookies

We finally started making some Christmas cookies yesterday and it was a batch that I let all the kids make themselves. I actually had the mix done up already but they did the rest. They had so much fun frosting the cookies and putting decorations on them. Riley would go a little overboard with the frosting and sugar, but I guess it was their batch to do anything they want with them. Needless to say, they ate about as many cookies as they decorated. It looks like we are going to have to bake some more.

New Pictures of Noah

How cute are these pictures. What a handsome little boy Noah is turning into. He looks a little bigger now than he did in the hospital. I haven't even got to hold him yet but hopefully soon. I have been battling a sore throat and cold so I am just patiently waiting for that to be gone so I can go and see him. These pictures are from my brother's camera. My favorite picture is the third one, he just looks so innocent in that one.

Preschool Layout

Here is a layout of Riley's first day of preschool. She was so excited and you can just see that in her face. I just completed the layout but the pictures were taken at the end of August.

What nice boys I have!!!

Curt is gone this morning working overtime and Jordan and Zach thought they would help out a little and go outside and scoop. I thought that was so sweet of them but also a good excuse to go outside. Jordan did the scooping for the most part and Zach cleaned all the snow off the trampoline so it doesn't weigh it down. Unfortunately we haven't gotten around to taking it down yet, so Zach was nice to help out there. This is our first winter storm of the season. It started out snowing and now it is changing over to ice and then I think slush later, then rain possibly. On top of all of that, the wind is making everything worse. The kids sure do love it though, and I do too. It is a good reason to sit around and scrapbook or read.

Scrapbook Layout

I figured since a lot of you don't get to see my numerous scrapbooks, I thought I would start posting some of my layouts on this blog. I, of course, won't post them all but I will post some of each kid every so often. This is a layout of Riley and the picture was taken back in May. I just love this picture of her for some reason and I caught her just right in mid twirl. And I love the blank space in the picture for my journaling. I hope you like.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Hello all. I thought it has been quite some time since I have blogged that I thought I would share a few thanksgiving pictures with you. It was a busy weekend as holidays usually go. Curt's sisters were home for the weekend as was my brother. Needless to say, Curt and I and the kids were doubly stuffed on Thursday. I actually did the black Friday shopping experience this last weekend. I have never done it before and not quite sure I will do it again if it is that cold out next year. It is pure misery standing out in the cold waiting for a store to open that you are only going to be at for 10 minutes or less. Crazy!! But I can say I got some great deals and had a pretty fun time. I hope you all had a Happy Thankgiving and counted your many blessings.

Riley's First Haircut

I finally broke down and did it. I gave Riley her first haircut. She was so good for me and did such an awesome job. I don't think she wanted me to finish and just keep cutting. I have been wanting to do this for such a long time and it got done today. He hair is so thin that it looked stringy when it was long. I was tired of it looking like that and thought short hair might be cute on her for the time being. I'm sure I will grow it back out again, but hopefully it will start to thicken up or fill in better or something. I hope you all like it.

Happy Halloween

Last night was our trick or treat night so I took three of the kids out on the town. Jordan stayed home with Curt to help hand out candy. He wanted to scare the kids that came to our house. That didn't last long though once his friend stopped by and asked him to go around with him so Jordan took off and did his own trick or treating. This was Gavin's first year for it and I think he had fun. It tuckered him out though and he was sleeping by the time we were half way through so I ended up taking him home and he helped Curt. He was so cute in his outfit and he really liked it, I thought he would hate having his hood up by he proved me wrong. Riley was a witch and absolutely loved trick or treating. She went the whole two hours and didn't want to stop. She even got to dress up for school today so that was cool for her. Zach costume was pretty neat too because where his ribs are showing he could pump fake blood through them with a hand pump. He liked grossing everyone out with that. It was a fun night but there is way too much candy when you have four kids out collecting.

Read with Me

A couple of days ago, Riley found these Scooby Doo hats in the boys' room and thought she would be cute to put one on. And so she figured if she looked cute and cool in one of these hats Gavin would too, so she woke him up and put a hat on him before he was even out of his crib. Of course Gavin loved it and wanted out to parade around with Riley. Boy were they cute but the cutest thing was when Riley went and got a book and asked Gavin if she could read to him. He loved the idea of it and went right to the recliner and waited for Riley to join him. Riley started to read to him and for some reason she speaks another language when she reads but Gavin seems to understand her and is totally engrossed. It was just so precious I had to capture it on camera. I hope they always keep this close bond between them, it sure makes some great photo ops.

Happy Birthday, Zach!!

We celebrated Zach's birthday this last Sunday. His actual birthday was Friday the 19th. He had a fun, full weekend. First he got to celebrate his birthday at school with his classmates and they all made him a birthday card so he got totally 24 birthday cards on his birthday, not too bad. Curt, Gavin, Riley and I ate with him at school that day also. I think he enjoyed that as well. Then on Saturday, he got to have two friends over to spend the night and had his favorite supper, Pizza Ranch Pizza. Finally on Sunday we had his birthday party and he finally got to open his presents then. He wanted Herky the Hawk on his birthday cake and it turned out really cool. I think his Dad liked it more though. He was pretty bummed when I cut into him. I may have to get one of those for Curt's birthday coming up. All in all it was a busy but fun weekend that we all enjoyed.