Thanksgiving Weekend '10

Matt and I were fortunate enough to get a 4-day weekend out of this Thanksgiving! Usually one of us is due to work the Friday after, but we both got to stay home this year. As per our little tradition... we went down to Smithville on Thanksgiving Day to spend it with Matt's family. "Baby" Zach is growing soooo much! Lexi also got to open her birthday gifts from Matt's family. Then we put up our Christmas trees on Friday and headed out Saturday morning for Paulding county. Nola and Gary hosted this year and it was a full house! After lunch, Lexi opened even more birthday presents and later that evening all the girls (minus Jill) plus Papa Gary went to Van Wert to see Tangled! It was Kaitlyn's very 1st movie in the theater!!! They loved it! Anyway... enjoy the pictures!

Lexi is 4!

Last Saturday we had a birthday party for our big 4-year-old! She wanted to go with a Toy Story theme... wow! There are a lot of great ideas online right now for a Toy Story party. She had 10 friends/family members come and every child made a Buzz Lightyear rocket ship and a blue or green "egg" alien. We then moved downstairs and had a potato head contest (to see who could build the best-looking potato head) and then finished with pin-the-tail-on-Bullseye! Of course we had to have cupcakes and ice cream after the kids were done playing. All the kids had a great time and Lexi opened some great gifts. Thanks to everyone who came and we'll see what theme she comes up with for next year.

Elf Yourself Returns!

Yes folks, it is that time of year again. I know it's silly, but I just can't help myself. It is so stinkin' adorable! Enjoy this year's Elf Yourself!
First... our family!

And next... cousins!

Fire Station!

Today Lexi didn't have school. Instead, her whole preschool took a field trip to the Bath Fire Station. First, Fireman George told us all about the station and how many trucks and ambulances they have. They get called out on average 4 times every single day! After the short talk, we moved on the the garage to see the EMS vehicle. He opened up the back and showed all the kids the equiptment that was inside to help the first responders take care of injured people. He also showed them some of the tools they use to help them get to people in a burning building. Then we moved on to the bright, shiny, red fire engine that was parked outside. The firemen even rolled out the water hose and helped the kids (one-by-one) spray the water out! Then some kids even got to pull the string and sound the horn on the fire truck! Lexi chose not to do that. To top off our trip, each child received a red fireman's hat to take home with them and got to wear the hats in the group picture taken with Sparky the dog. All in all it was a great little field trip - and even Jill (who got to tag along) enjoyed herself. Thanks to fireman George and his crew for all you do!

Preschool Pictures!

Ah, my child... our first Preschool picture will definitely be a memorable one - notice the tissue in hand! Don't know what I am gonna do with my emotional child. Anybody want to take her in when she enters her teen years??!! Just kidding! At least she wasn't crying in the group shot.

Jill is 1½!

I took the girls to Portrait Innovations today for a photo shoot. I thought I could combine Christmas pics, Jill's 1½ year pics and Lexi's 4 year pics into one trip! We survived... with tears from Lexi of course. Even bribery doesn't work anymore. Oh well, at least we got a few good ones. Here are a few of my favorites (see the rest on facebook).

They Got Me Good!

This past weekend, we went to mom and dad's for what I thought was a family picture session with my good friend from high school, Kim. Little did I know that she was just helping my family out with a huge surprise early birthday party for me! It was great! My dad rented a karaoke machine and many family members and friends were waiting at mom and dad's house for us when we returned from our photo shoot. I had absolutely NO IDEA! It was a great time and we had a lot of fun. My girls really like to ham it up with a microphone. Then, to close the weekend, my brother Ben gave the sermon at dad's church on Sunday morning. Great message and good job for your first ever sermon, Benny! So proud of you! Enjoy the pictures.