North Carolina

We went to NC in April to see our sweet niece Claire turn a year old. It's been a really fast year!!

John and the boys in thier Easter best!

I think this is one of the cutest pictures of my mom and her only grandaughter.

We went fishing and Bradey caught this fish on the kiddie pole he's holding!!

John caught this one.

Charlie caught this one....

Two guys with suckers. Trouble would be made soon!

Sweet birthday girl!!

Jake and Charlie playing on the swing set that Ember and Bradley got from their neighbors.

Charlie LOVES Papa cat that is now an outside cat!

Charlie turns FOUR!!!!

Charlie turned four on January 18th!! He let us know that he wanted to have his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. He's been very excited knowing that it was coming and could hardly stand it to have to wait!!

He's just so pleased to be at Chuck E. Cheese!!


Chuck E was saying happy birthday to him. He was so proud!!

He was clapping and dancing.....

Here is Charlie's cake. He picked it out all by himself. He wanted cupcakes and a cake. If anyone wants some cake we might have some left over....

Charlie was SUPER excited!!

CAKE!! CAKE!! CAKE!!!

YUM! YUM! YUM!

Skee Ball!!! The best game ever!!

Kelly thinks this kid was stealing Jake's tickets, however instead of reprimanding him for it she took a picture!!! Nice Kel!! :)

Christmas 2009- The Year of the DSi

We had a wonderful Christmas!! I had Christmas Eve off for the first time in years so we went to see Grandma in Stephenville and it snowed the whole way there and the whole way back and the whole day once we were back. We stayed in Aledo to open presents with my parents and then spent a LOT of time trying to get home. Christmas Eve night we had Angelo's BBQ at Don and Sally's (great choice I might add) and opened presents with them. Christmas morning John and I got up REALLY early to start breakfast and shower and all before everyone came over. Fun was had by all!! New Year's was completely uneventful and I was asleep before the kids at 10:30!! Being a mom made me lame (really just tired!!).

Christmas morning at our house

Charlie was trying to blow out the candles. Notice the white snow outside the window.
Jake got a DSi the previous day at the farm.

Charlie with his flashing glasses, pirate hat, raindeer nose, firefighter jacket, and Superman shirt. All new..... he was really excited about all of it

WHAT!! TOY STORY ALARM CLOCK!!!!

(we haven't used it yet)

Buzz Lightyear robe

The kids got camera's from daddy! They were really excited!!

Mommy, the Genius, got each kid a harmonica!!

They love them!

Sally and Grandy joined us for breakfast before we opened presents. It was killing Jake that we were making him wait to open. Notice how excited he looks.

We got a pogo stick for Charlie, who doesn't weigh enough to use it but..... (brace yourselves)

John can use it!! No trip to the ER either!!

JAKE IS EIGHT!!!!!

Saturday we had Jake's birthday party. We had a lady from Zooniversity come and show some animals and had a face painter as well. It was a really good time!!

All Jake's friends came to the farm for cake and fun!!

Grandpa's friend M-ARGH-ty came too. (I totally stole that from Kelly but it was just too good not to steal!!)

Spiderman made an apperance. We know Uncle Bradley was really jealous that he couldn't be here after seeing this shot of John! :)

Here's a shot of all the kids. The boys were too cool to get their faces painted but the girls LOVED it, as did some of the adults!

Here are Gwen, Riley, Lauren, and Emma. Some of the princesses in Jake's class.

Jake was not about to touch the hedgehog. For anyone looking for party ideas check out http://www.zooniversity.com/

They did a great job and the kids and grownups loved it!!

Lauren and Elise as a cat and dog. I thought the tongue really made the puppy!!

My little tiger!!! He kept this paint on from 10am on Saturday morning until about 7pm Sunday night. He loved being a tiger!!!

Horses and such....

We went to Layton and Lauren's birthday party on Sunday. It was at a local stable and Charlie rode a horse for the first time. He was so excited that he HAD to find his boots to wear. We actually had a birthday party directly afterward and Charlie had so much fun at the first one we didn't make it to the second. No energy left!! Also, no, I wasn't avoiding Jake, he was too cool to have his picture taken by his mom. Yes, we are there.

Here's Charlie with the goats. He wasn't too sure but warmed up to them with some prompting.
Charlie and the goats.

Jake on the horse.

Charlie thought he was too cool!!

He had a blast. Poor girl leading him though, he never stopped talking.

Very excited!!

Trying on the helment.
The reason we didn't make it to party number two. :(

Thanksgiving '09

We have had some excitment the last week or so. Auntie Em and Uncle Bradley were here from NC with our most perfect neice/ cousin, Claire. We all had a blast!! We can't wait for our summer vacation with them!!

Charlie

Auntie Em, Claire, and Charlie
She was laughing out loud!! Can you tell?! So cute!!

Smiley Claire

Claire, Charlie, and me

Ember and Bradley having tons of fun

Bradley, John, and mom cooking

Jake and mom (Charlie, Photographer)

Charlie and mom (Jake, Photographer)

Nana and Charlie cooking. Charlie LOVES this apron. It's got John Deer tractors on it.