The Big Bro', Lil' Sis Cookie Shop

Sunday was an afternoon of Christams festivities. Tree decorating and cookie baking. Too much to tell on this one, folks. I'll let the pictures be your guide. Enjoy!










Daddy checking out the final product.



Uncle Brian was jealous of the raw talent.


Taya eatin' her loot.


Sadly, the boys loot looked better than my loot.




The rest of the loot.



Pepa lovin' on 1 of his 2 princesses(the other is in CT).




What a fun day...I LOVE Christmas:-)

Breakfast With Santa

The Christmas season is upon us! Yahoo! This morning we had the treat of having breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Pretty cool. We had a simple breakfast of fruit, cheese sticks, sausage links, blueberry muffins, apple juice and milk. Yuuummy!




They all jumped in the bounce house and Taya got her face painted.


What a beautiful unicorn!


We shopped and Ethan and Taya danced...



Great experience. We'll do it all over again next year:-)

Report Card Day

We've reached that time again. Seems like just yesterday was report card day. Well, this time Ethan had all A's with the exception of a 87 in MATH and Corbin got the STRAIGHT A's with a 99 in math!!! Matt wondered why he got a 99 and they couldn't just bump it to 100. Who knows...protocol, I suppose. Anyway, I'm so proud of the both of them. They amaze me more and more each day/month/year.

To this I must add, if you have children and they don't watch the Fresh Beat Band, they are seriously missing out. Taya knows ever song and pretty much all the dances and shakes her "Bau-yie"(bottom). Precious.

Side note: We are doing Breakfast with the big guy in the red suit(AKA Santa) Saturday. Tales and stories to follow...

Family Game Night

Last weekend we went to my parents for a fun-filled night of games. Accompanied by a delectible rib dinner followed by Chocolate pie...pudding really. We played Uno Attack! Let me tell ya, trying to explain the directions was a chore. The more I explained, the more the boys chimed in. After a about 15 minutes of mass confusion, we all had it down and the game began.

After playing with the big kids for a while and watching some TV, Taya found her a special spot UNDER the table.


She then decided to sing her ABC's and play at the fridge.


Then she felt the need for a workout on the tredmill...Taya style.


She even did her own card tricks.


It was a blast. So many laughs you hurt. Laughing so hard you cry and nearly pee your pants. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...












So after many, many, many.....many hours of game playing we all went to our respected houses/beds and went nighty night.

We're expecting

Well, our family is growing...again. Yes, we are expecting...A PUPPY! Little miss is only 3 weeks right now, so in about a month, she will be coming home with us. What a great Christmas present for the kids...and me. We can't wait.

Meet little miss(her name is still under discussion).


She had 4 brothers and 2 sisters. It was hard to pick. Just new a female was a requirement. The other 2 were whiners...no good. Little miss was just chill. Perfect.



Taya fell in love with them all, of course.


Very excited about our new addition:-)

Green Acres

Green Acres is the place to be, Farm livin' is the life for me...

Last night, while Matt was at school, the kids and I went to the neighbors for some good ole’ outdoor fun. We roasted hot dogs in the fire pit. With all the fixins'. Out of about 20 weenie’s, 6 either fell on the ground on the way to the pit or fell off the apparatus IN the pit. It was pretty funny. Of course, with all this drama it took a bit to get everyone fed. I think Ethan even ate his with a hint of ash on it. Nice. The fire was so hot, I got a nice facial and some scorched brows. No biggie. Apparently, at some point Corbin got tired of loosing his dinner so he then decided there was no need to heat his and ate it FROZEN. You may think these are terrible parenting practices, but in my defense, I didn't know until it was 3/4 the gone and he told me I could eat the rest. Naw, I think I'll pass. I'm good.

After we ate the "main course", we moved on to the "best course". Smores - fireside. Oh so very yummy. What's better than graham crackers, a hershey bar and marshmellows? That's right folks, nothing.

What makes this such an adventure is that while going along with our roasting festivities, a storm was begining to rear it's ugly head. No big deal. We have plenty of time. Enjoy yourself. There, as we carried on the wind was picking up and and it started to sprinkle a bit. We still have time. No need to rush. It began to sprinkle more and more and before we all knew it, we(3 adults), were trying to get 6 kids and 2 dogs under a porch. By this time it was literally raining SIDEWAYS and leaves were moving faster than cars. The wind was incredible. Finally, after about what seemed to be 20 minutes, we managed to get everyone in safe and sound. And just slightly wet.

The craziness of it all, is that even with all the face shaving by the rain, trying to keep the kids and all the food from flying away in the wind and eating unnessacary leaves...it was a relaxing, enjoyable night. One of those nights you wish to have everyday. Good food, good dogs, good friends and good kids...That's my kind of night.