Just the Girls!

It was lots of fun to get to spend some time with my friend Rachelle and her newest addition (and only girl) Lauren! We (at the last minute) decided to leave all of our boys at home (and Ava) and go spend the night in Bellevue! We had lots of fun hanging out, shopping, and of course eating at the Cheesecake Factory! We took a few pics of Ava and Cameron holding baby Lauren when we got home. Thanks for a fun time Rachelle...sometimes it is so nice to get away, even if its just for a night!

Merry Christmas 2008!

Here are a few shots of Christmas morning....every year we seem to go a little overboard on gifts, but the kids sure had fun! What a great time to keep the real meaning of Christmas in check though...we had to explain it to our children several times and hopefully it stuck!

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...

We finally made it to the tree farm!

Daddy and Jake in search of the perfect tree

Jake and Ava having lots of fun!

This is the one!

Jake, Mommy, & Ava

On the train ride back!

The caboose with all the trees!

All ready for the car ride home!

This year we had very good intentions to go as a family up into the mountains (like the good 'ol days) and pick out a perfect Christmas tree. Our crazy schedules didn't really allow for that this year however, so we just went to one of the tree farms in the area and picked one out. It started off kind of rocky though....we drove 20 minutes and got there only to look back and see Ava sleeping and that is also when we realized we forgot to bring a coat for Jake. What?? We drove all the way home (allowing Ava to sleep a little longer), grabbed Jake's coat, and headed back to the tree farm. It actually ended up being a great day because we found this fantastic tree farm that lets you pick out your tree, then you take it to the "train stop" and they haul it (and your family) back to the entrance. The kids LOVED the train ride and were so excited to pick out their tree.

Hunting with Daddy

Jake has been so excited to go hunting with Daddy this year. They had a great time at the "Farm" with Uncle Josh, Ty, U. Ed, Justin, & Bryce. They (meaning Josh/Eric/Justin) shot several ducks and pheasants and we had a little feast when they all got home. The boys were real troopers and surprisingly kept up with all the dads, but were really exhausted by the time they left. Here are a couple of photos they took.

Happy Harvest!

All ready to go!

Ava & her buddy Ellee at their big brothers' costume parade at school.

Trick or Treating at Grandma Barbara's with cousins

Jake at the party at church...completely pumped about all the candy they gave him!


Funny Face Smile from little miss Tinkerbe11!

This October was lots of fun with Jake & Ava since Ava was a little bit older and really was excited to dress up (of course, taking after her big brother)! She really wanted to be Cindere11a, but T1nkerbell was what she ended up being after a long quest for a cute costume. She played the part well and loved her wings! Jake had 3 costumes to choose from: A police officer, Darth Vader, and an Army guy. He ended up choosing to be the Army guy so he could match his cousin Ty. He will get lots of use out of all three of them.

I think a bird landed on my head...

Happy 30th Melly...hope you had a great birthday!

I must say, you take the cake for the best mask!

Ryan, Eric, & Josh...I think this is one of my all time favorites!
Eric, Kelsy, Josh, Mom, & Dad (a little blurry, but my best attempt at a group photo)

Um....wow....who is that?

This was actually my first photo of the night...where were all the girls from bunco? I thought I'd for sure run into Kathy out there!

The Jacobs' girls and their bird friends

Nice!

Josh...is that you?

Mom & Becca

Kelsy...finally wore her mask! Cute pic!

We had a blast this past weekend celebrating Mel's 30th at her Masquerade Party. It was quite the party with a fantastic DJ (um...ok...there were many moments in the evening when I was the only one on the dance floor), as well as lots of yummy food and fun! We all had a great time...happy 30th Melly!

Girls Only! Paradise in Palm Springs...

Shan, Beck, Sara, Miss, & Linds at Tommy Bahama

Love those self portraits!

Relaxing in the pool...our favorite!

These girls were troopers riding in the back of the rental car for two hours in 133 degree weather....wait...was it really that hot?

Can't wait to go again soon girls! Let's get it on the calendar!

Gone are the days of training wheels!!

Jake riding his bike all by himself!
He can even self start! (which happens to be a big deal around here!!)
He still uses his feet from time to time.

Eric & I were talking about a month ago and thought Jake really needed to learn to ride his bike without the training wheels. He recently graduated to a "bigger" bike with training wheels but hasn't really been confident enough to ride it. We thought we would let him try it out on his "little" bike (which is now supposed to belong to his little sis). Eric has worked many evenings and weekends with him and he can finally do it. He's SO excited about it, especially since neither of us have to help him get started. Great job Jakey boy! We can't wait to go on long family bike rides together!

We love fair days....

Daddy and Miss Ava
Jake and his buddy Hayden
Ty and Jake on the roller coaster!
Of course, we couldn't miss the boats!
Ava in her little hot rod!

We are taking a break from the fair this weekend as we've already gone two..well three times! I nearly killed myself getting there for the opening day parade last Friday and almost fought a couple of other ladies for my "free" parking space. For some reason, I just refused to pay for parking in P-town that day....so consequently we (me & the kids) walked at least 10-12 blocks. It was far...even in comfy shoes. That day we met a bunch of our friends and their mommies. We saw lots of animals and were able to ride some of the rides until we got too hot. We came back later with Eric for the Rodeo and the kids really enjoyed that. Oh, and we did get free parking again (very important to me). We couldn't leave though without doing more rides and getting a big bag of scones!

On Monday we graced the fair with our presence again for Monday madness or whatever it is they call the $1 ride day. We couldn't miss that because usually it is around $4 a ride! We went with the Linkems and Josh, Kelsy, & their kids. We love doing things with all of them especially because the kids all get along really well. We all had a great time and will probably do the fair one more time before it's over...we'll see.