Giving Thanks

I just love Thanksgiving and feel that we have SO much to be thankful for. We celebrated at Nana and Papa's house and actually got some family shots! It gets a little crazy with 8 kids around . . .

Our famOley of Five!

My baby girl and me . . .

The Whisenants . . .

All 8 grandbabies . . .
There were so many cameras flashing and people saying "smile", "say cheese", etc that I wanted them to take a break with a crazy face picture . . . :)

My Precious Blessings . . .

All eight in the gigantic Christmas Stockings that Nana found . . .

(It's finally even with 4 boys and 4 girls!)

Nana playing games with all the boys!

I had found some paintable plates and bought enough for all the grandbabies - Ashlynn and Madelyn got to do two - one for them and one for their baby sisters. :)

My little Christmas present . . .

I don't know how it happend but Ashlynn asked if Madelyn could sleep over at her house. Then Chase was asking if he could sleep at the Whisenants and Marek overheard so he got invited. Tom and I were almost empty nested but it was so nice to just spend time with our baby girl and SLEEP IN!

We went to pick up the kids the next day and hung out with the Posts for a little while. The kids went over to the park and Steph and I joined them with Micah and Ava.

So happy to be hangin' with her buddy. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Farewell to Donn-A

My roommate (yes, I still call her that even though it's been 7 years) is moving back to North Carolina with her husband and two baby girls. It's very sad this whole growing up thing and doing what's best for the family. :( I had a little gathering at my house - just Cindy and Donna - Susie Q couldn't make it. It was right before Thanksgiving. I didn't get one picture with Donna - we talked, ate cheese, reminisced, and drank wine so there wasn't a lot of picture taking going on. We will miss our little Chicken and her chiclets but will keep in touch. Susan and I will travel to NC occasionally for work and will see our little Donn-A then.

I did manage to snap one shot of Cindy holding my baby girl. . .

We miss you already, Mother Clucker. :)

Marek and His Little Sister

My little boy is so sweet and LOVES his baby sister. He gets his pronouns confused - basically everyone is a "he", "him" or "his". He told me the other day regarding Micah: "Mom. We need to get him some hair clips 'cause he's a girl." Yes we do, son. Yes we do. Later that same day I had Micah in her jungle gym mat and I had just scolded Marek for something - making bad choices. I was in the kitchen and he was playing with Micah and I hear "Mom - Look! Micah did that! That's a bad choice, Micah." I came around the corner to find that she had spit up a little on her nap mat. :) Indeed, bad choice, Micah!

Soccer!

My son is the class clown. He's the one with the "sitting spot" on his head below. That's my boy.

Micah can sleep through almost anything . . .

I'm Alive!

It is o helpful having Mimi here - I get to take naps and showers and stuff!

Oh, look. She's in her car seat again . . .

Preview of the Nutcracker

She's a mouse and an angel . . .I can't wait!

Play Dough

Hours of fun packed into this curiously sweet smelling stuff!

1 Month Old!

Jess getting in some snuggles with Micah on her 1 month birthday. One baby waiting for another . . .

Smiles

'nuf said.

Cousins

My sisters and I always talk about how cute it is that the cousins always end up in pairs when we get together: Ashlynn and Madelyn, Chase and Dylan, Landon and Marek. Ava and Micah will naturally be the next set of buddies. :)

Car Seat

This is where my poor angel spends most of her time. She is lugged around from place to place, activity to activity, appointment to appointment, etc. . .I'm so fortunate she is so laid back.

This particular night we were at a birthday party for one of Madelyn's dance friends. It was a HSM birthday party - how fitting!

So fun!!

HALLOWEEN

We finally had time to carve our pumpkins just before getting dressed and heading out to Trick and Treat on Halloween night!

Micah got to hang out and watch the action! She was very excited . . .

The fury of carving! The kids didn't like touching the "guts" so daddy and I got to do that fun part. :)

Marek shouldn't be using that sharp thing . . . especially as a weapon . . .

Check out the concentration on their faces!

My angel - working so hard.
So proud of her masterpiece!

Daddy, too . . .

My work of art (I cheated and used a stencil) . . .

We put the pumpkins on the front porch, got suited up in our costumes and attempted a family photo . . . too dark . . .

TRICK OR TREAT!

Marek LOVED being Scooby Doo. That is by far the kids' favorite show so we all dressed up as Scooby and the gang. . . Marek kept showing random passers by his tail. hehehe

So at a random neighbors house, they were standing outside so we asked if they would take our photo. What nice neighbors. :)

Shaggy, Velma, Pea in a Pod, Scooby, Daphne. :)

So when I was shopping for our costumes, I was pregnant and didn't try on my dress. It was a bit on the short side so needless to say I didn't do any bending and I was constantly pulling down on the dress. Oh well, it served it's purpose!

We got a LOT of candy and had such a blast!

Dance Halloween Party

There are always so many Halloween parties leading up to the big day and this year was no exception! Madelyn had two days of Halloween dress up at dance!

Friday she was wonder woman.

Miss Lisa has been teaching Madelyn dance since she was 2 1/2. She held Marek when he was Micah's age!
On Saturday (Halloween) she wore her Daphne costume. I'm sure it wasn't easy to dance with the huge wig on!