Happy New Years!

I know I keep promising to update, but still haven't uploaded my pictures yet and what good would a story be without any pictures? I am going to get on it soon. It might take me awhile as we are getting ready for New Year's and then I will be spending the next week and a half getting ready to have JT's birthday party. We are having it here at the house and I have lots of cleaning to do before then, but after that I promise to get on this and share. Hope you will stick around for it!

Also I want to wish everyone a safe, happy and blessed New Years! Made God grant you health, peace and wisdom for 2009. We love you all very much and thanks for being a part of our lives!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry I have been MIA lately, just busy getting ready for Christmas and then I was sick for awhile. I have lots to share from the snow we had a while back to Christmas fun. Hope all is well with everyone and that yall have a wonderful Christmas!!!!

Alot

I have finally got caught up on getting my pictures downloaded and then updating the blog. You might have to read awhile if you want to catch up on what all we have been doing. Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Teacher Miss Emily

Emily has always liked to play school, but recently she wants to be the teacher. Since she started kindergarten this year I will catch her lining her babies up in chairs to "teach" them. It is so cute. Here she is the other night after getting out of the bath at her chalkboard "teaching".

It is so funny to listen to her talk and explain what she is teaching and then calls the names to see if they know the answer. They happen to be the names of some of the kids in her class. I guess we have future teacher in the works.

Christmas Ornaments

Every year my mom buys all the grand kids a new ornament for them to hang on their tree. She trys to find one with their hobby or interest at the time. This year she gave the kids their ornaments while we were gathered for her birthday.

Here is Lucy with her crown:

Linus with his train:

Hank with his fishing:

Justin with his basketball hoop:

Joey with his skateboarder:

JT with his fishing lures:

Cassie with her car remote picture:

Dylan with soccer:

Tori with her cheerleader:

Emily with her tree with shoes:

Thanks mom, all our trees will be more beautiful!

Mom's birthday

My mom's birthday was Sunday so we all met for dinner. Here are some pictures from the evening:

Hope you had a wonderful birthday mom, we love you!!!!

Soccer

I know I said we were through for the year, but I was wrong. JT and two other kids from his fall team were asked to play with another team for an after Thanksgiving tournament. We said sure. They did alright for a team who hadn't really played together yet. They lost 2 and won 1. They were also asked to play again with this team in another tournament and in indoor soccer league which works out seeings as I don't think Todd or Don was going to be able to coach them this year in indoor soccer and JT loves it. Here are a few pictures from the tournament:

JT passing the ball forward:

Both Saturday and Sundays game we had to be there at 9:45 and it was in Spring so we had to get up and get going early which didn't make Emily too happy:



This is Dylan just hiding out:

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope you did too. We have so many blessings to be thankful for and should be thankful year round, but it is nice to have a day to stop and remember those blessings. On Thursday we went to my in laws. My father in law was working out of town and we missed him very much, but my mother in law put on a great feast as always. For some reason I didn't take that many pictures. I must have still been tired from our trip. Here is Todd's Aunt Tina (on left) and his mother (on right):

Here is Todd and I, he was carving the turkey:

Emily helped out by making the relish tray:

Here is some of the yummy food :

Here is the kids table: (I never did get one of the adults)

Then on Friday we had it again with the ones who didn't make it Friday and those who did at our house. Here is my nieces Lucy and Saliah playing in Emily's room:

Mom and dad sitting down to eat: (yes it is sad but true, I still have not decorated my dinning room after living in this house over 9 years)

The kids in the living room:

My nephews Justin and Hank and my brother Michael in the kitchen:

My nephew Linus being a pirate:

We are truly blessed with all our family and loved one.

San Antonio and Sea World

Well it just happened that this month that Todd's week off for November fell the same week as the kids Thanksgiving break. So we decided it would be fun to take the first of the week and go to San Antonio with some friends. It sounded like a good idea, until the head gaskets started to leak on the Expedition. We did make it there (it only took us 7 hours) and were able to drive it once we got there and even made it home so all in all we made the best of it. Now I am without my car until it is fixed, but at least our trip wasn't ruined. When we got there Monday night we went to the riverwalk and had dinner at Casa Rio and then took the boat tour on the river. Some of the lights for Christmas were on, but not many as Friday was the official lighting. Here is Todd and the boys:


Me and the kids:


Emily and her friend:

Julie and Mike and their kids:

On Tuesday we went to Seaworld. There weather was a little cool, but the sun was out and it wasn't crowded. Here are the kids with Santa Shamu:

The park was already decorated for the holidays. Here are the kids at the front entrance that usually has a fountain, but now has a beautiful tree:

Todd and I and the kids:

The 4D movie for the holidays is Polar Express, they shoot out snow during the movie and again at the end of the movie here is Todd and JT:

You can see Emily in the green shirt trying to catch the snow:

This is Emily and I after she rode the Rio Loco, the other kids wanted to go again, but she didn't want to get wet again:

Our friends had just been back close to Halloween and when they went Julie rode the Rio Loco with the kids and her husband Mike squirted them as they went by to make sure they got wet. Well this time it was pay back time as Todd and Mike took the kids to ride, Julie and I waited to squirt them:

Of course we went and saw Shamu. It was a nice Christmas one and had live singing:

We also went to watch the Clyde and Seamore (sealions) Christmas show too. The kids sat up front as they wanted to get wet. They got squirted one time:

We went and looked at the shark and the kids actually stopped long enough in front of the jellyfish that I got a picture:




We had a great time and Emily's friend found them some dolphin best friend necklaces, here they are showing them:

We got up Wednesday morning and came home. We actually made good time, but before we left we took these pictures outside the hotel. It was very nice and had a gazebo and mini soccer field with picnic tables out by it.

We had a great time. Thanks Mike and Julie and kids for going with us.