Owen's 8th birthday

It is so hard to believe that we just celebrated our first born son's 8th birthday. We celebrated this year at the Icehouse skating rink. By the end of the party Owen and Makenzie were whipping around on the ice. Despite the snow on the ground and it being Christmas time we had a really good turn out. We were pleased and Owen had a wonderful birthday.

First snow of the season

Ben's favorites

Ben has discovered some fun activities that just bring him so much joy. Loves to play connect 4. He has no clue how the game is played but likes to fill it up with the checkers, dump them all out and start all over. The other love of his life(besides mommy) is markers. He loves to sit at the kitchen table with his sister and color with markers.

Class Party

Owen had his class Christmas party at school this week. I headed to the school and joined in the fun festivities.

Christmas caroling

Friday night I took the older 2 kids and went caroling with friends at a local nursing home. The kids had fun singing and so did the residents. One lady really took a liking to Owen. She asked him for a kiss and he sweetly leaned down and gave her a peck on her forehead. He of course turned 20 shades of red. It was very touching watching my kids spread christmas cheer to others.

Round 2 with santa

Today was our neighborhood Christmas function for the kids complete with santa, goodies, and crafts. John stayed home with baby Ben while he took a nap so it was just me and the older 2. It was a lot of fun.

Visit with santa

Last night we went to the Christmas program at Jessy and Ryan's church. Rylan was in it and did such a great job. Afterwards santa made an appearance. Ben did ok until he was left sitting on santa's lap all by himself.

Tree decorating

Boone 2009

We took our annual trip to Boone, NC today to get our Christmas tree. We made a pit stop at the Daniel Boone Inn Restaurant(our fav) and at some lunch. We all ate until we about made ourselves sick, but soooooo worth it. We went to a choose & cut tree farm and picked out Christmas trees. We all got really beautiful trees and the kids cannot wait to decorate.

Misc stuff

Not a whole lot going on lately but wanted to post some updated pics of the kiddos. Be on the lookout for lots of new updates as we head into the holiday season.

Happy Halloween

Pumpkin carving

Carving the pumpkin is always such a disgusting project but the kids just love to do it. Owen and Makenzie had a ball playing in the pumpkin goop, Ben wasn't too thrilled with it. He touched it with the tip of his finger a few times but didn't have it up to his elbows like the other two. He was more interested in picking up the seeds and throwing them back into the pumpkin. It was very cute. We decided to go with the vampire look this year. Of course he is a nice, happy vampire.